Page 55 of The Ones We Fight For

“I saw the contact picture on your phone. Same guy.” Walker’s boots shuffled along the ground as he made a wall with his body in front of her, preventing Talia’s progression toward the house. When she met his eyes with arched brows, Walker grimaced and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Do you want me to stay, or—?”

Talia made a hesitant sound, scrunched her eyes shut, and shook her head. “I should probably talk to him on my own, right?”

A protective hand made its way to the small of her back. “I’m walking you up there, just in case.”

The heat of his palm set Talia’s insides ablaze with the desire to tell Clifford to get lost so she could have Walker’s hands all over the rest of her body. “He won’t hurt me,” she assured Walker as they started toward her front door. Walker didn’t move his hand or respond. If anything, his fingers pressed further into her spine as he walked in step beside her.

“Tal?” Sure enough, a nervous version of the voice from her past lofted into the air as her ex-fiance’s head ducked out of the shadows.

“What are you doing here?” Talia gaped at him, half-expecting Cliff to be a hologram.

Cliff looked just as she had left him—at least, from what she could tell in the dim moonlight. The same short, soft brown hair, clean-shaven jawline, and kind blue eyes stared back at her. His family had good genes. Ones Cliff was hoping to pass on to his kids someday. Until that instant, Talia thought Walker might have gotten it wrong and had been mistaken about who was paying her a visit, but there Cliff was, standing in… sweatpants? Well, that was different.

“Nice to see you, too? I tried calling you,” Cliff pointed out, stepping closer to her. Talia felt Walker’s fingers tilt against her back, guiding and pushing her into his side. The lengths Walker was willing to go to keep her safe. The thought made her lips quirk with a hidden smile. She snuck a small glance up at Walker before responding.

“I was busy. Did I leave something important in New York, or something?”

“No. I need to talk to you. Alone.” Cliff’s eyes darted to Walker, who didn’t so much as move a muscle to retreat.

“You flew all the way from New York to talk?” Talia scoffed. It felt like some sort of a weird dream, and she thought briefly about asking Walker to pinch her to confirm it wasn’t.

“Well, you wouldn’t call me back.” Cliff held up his iPhone as proof, the device opened to a screen full of outgoing calls to Talia’s contact. “I didn’t have much choice.”

“Maybe sitting on her porch in the dark wasn’t the best option,” Walker grumbled, turning his whole body to face Talia. He dragged his hand up her spine and rested it on her shoulder. “I can stay if you want me to, Ponytail.”

“No, I’ll be okay. You go home and rest. Twenty-seven is getting up there in age. You must be exhausted.” She playfully poked Walker’s chest to lighten the mood, and his concern transformed into a grin.

“A year wiser than you,” he countered, leaning forward and enveloping her in his arms. “Thank you for everything. For tonight.” Walker didn’t pull away immediately like he usually did. Instead, he pressed a slow kiss into her hairline, his warm lips grazing her forehead. The heat of his breath made her sink into him, her eyelashes fluttering shut.

When Walker dropped his arms from around her and stepped back, Talia’s heart was beating frantically. It wasn’t a romantic kiss in the slightest, but she couldn’t help the spark of excitement that coursed through her veins. Even a chaste kiss from him was enough to make her feel lighter than air.

“Coffee tomorrow?” she asked.

“Always.”

Walker offered Talia a wave as he stepped around his car. His eyes were solely focused on her until the last second, when they flicked to Cliff, who was now standing dumbfounded next to her. Walker’s soft smile fell away in an instant as his eyes trained on her ex. The glare was a warning. No words were exchanged between the two men, but Talia couldn’t help but discern the meaning in Walker’s heavy stare, thick in the air that circulated between them.

You hurt her, I hurt you.

The sound of Walker’s car door shutting and the minivan starting snapped Talia out of Walkerland, and she begrudgingly turned her attention to her ex.

“Who is that?” Clifford watched with obvious distaste as Walker’s car drove down the street and rounded the corner.

“Walker,” Talia said simply, giving Cliff nothing in the way of an explanation. Frankly, the massive pissing contest Walker and Cliff had put on was both unnecessary and annoying, but she’d live through the tension again for another moment with Walker.

Clifford’s eyebrows bent together. “Are you—is he your boyfriend?”

“He’s… a friend,” Talia replied, still supplying the bare minimum. She sighed deeply and lifted her shoulders. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to talk. To discuss us. I don’t like the way it ended. It doesn’t feel right.” Clifford pointed at the wooden bench swing on Talia’s porch, which Walker and Roscoe had installed for her earlier that month. “Can we sit?”

“Cliff, I’m not the same person you dated anymore.” Talia didn’t move to take a seat.

“At least talk to me. You didn’t even tell me you were leaving. I found out from a piece of mail with your forwarding address on it that they mistakenly sent it to our old address. New York is your home, Tal.”

“This is my home now. You broke up with me.” Talia remained calm but swallowed when she remembered the reason for their split. “I did what I had to do to move on, to move past it.”

“What if I changed my mind?” Cliff looked down at his feet.

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