Page 12 of Walker

“Why the fuck do you think she tried so hard to make it happen with you for all those years?”

I shrugged. “Because it was always her dream.”

“True enough, but that woman wouldn’t fulfil that dream with just anyone. She believed you’d be great at it.”

“Okay, well enough reliving a past that’s done. What the fuck do I do about the situation at hand now?”

“Call your woman and tell her you need to talk.”

“She’s not my woman.”

“Yet.” I turned my back on him. “You forget, I was there when you fell ass over teakettle for your ex-wife. Watched you two the other night. Haven’t seen you that engaged with a single human, outside of Griff, in years, brother.”

I nodded my head as I walked away thinking about just how long it had been since Snake called me by that title.

“It was good to see, Walker.”

I threw my hand up in acknowledgment of his final statement. Shit news needed to be delivered to a woman who didn’t deserve to hear it, and I had to be the messenger. No use celebrating the fact that I felt an instant connection to her, or that my club brothers didn’t still hate me, especially since I didn’t deserve another chance at happiness like that.

5 - Bad Things Come in Threes

“If he was going to ask you out, he could have done it over the phone when he talked to you.”

I stared at Trinity as we finished cleaning up. “I don’t know what else could be so important that he wanted to meet up with me tonight.”

“From what I’ve heard, he isn’t even really allowed to be here because Angel Girl and a few of the others hate him.”

I rolled my eyes at my friend. “They shouldn’t hate him for their own lack of action. They’re mad because Walker’s ex-wife won’t have anything to do with them. It has nothing to do with Walker and everything to do with the kind of friends they were to that woman.”

“Kind of friends?”

“The fair-weather variety who conveniently forget to be there in the bad times.”

“Damn, that sucks. Still, I say he’s coming to ask you out.”

I shook my head. “He seemed almost reluctant to talk to me, so I doubt that.”

“You need some good shit in your life, Ree.”

“Don’t I know it.” We finished wiping down the tables and when I couldn’t stall any longer, I said my goodbyes to Trinity and made my way out to the parking lot. Normally, it wasn’t an issue. There had been one time when a customer waited around to harass a dancer when she got off work, but security quickly dealt with him, and they didn’t do it quiet-like. The women I worked for wanted to make sure that the word got out, so no one tried that shit again.

My dread for the parking lot had more to do with the man who was supposedly waiting outside for me to get off work. What the hell could Walker want that he had to show up at my job when I was dead tired of working a whole shift on very little sleep? My boy was still sick, but thanks to the antibiotics he’d been given a few days ago, he had finally hit the turning point and went from cranky to trying to release all the pent-up energy he stored while resting. Needless to say, I was about two hours into my nap when he decided that sleep wasn’t meant for tired, widowed moms.

I glanced up to see Walker leaning on his motorcycle which was parked right beside my nearly ancient 2010 Dodge Durango. The brand-new minivan my late husband bought for me when I was pregnant with our son had long since been repossessed. That happened about two months before he died. The Dodge Durango was a pity sale from an elderly couple who lived two houses down. Supposedly, Cecilia couldn’t drive anymore and there was no use paying insurance on two vehicles. They sold the Durango to me for $5,000 and I had to make payments for half of it because our money continued to disappear at the casino on a weekly basis.

“How did you know that was mine?”

Walker grinned up at me, and his soft, brown hair flopped down into his eyes. “Trinity’s been to the clubhouse before, so I know the Jeep is hers.” He glanced around the otherwise empty lot and shrugged.

“Right. I guess that was a dumb question.” His eyes met mine again and the smile he greeted me with slipped a bit.

A deep, fatigue-riddled sigh seeped out of me as my shoulders slumped at the sight. “What is it? Let me guess, it turns out my no-good, dead husband owed the club money too and you’ve come to collect? Newsflash, buddy, I don’t make shit and what I do make feeds my kids, so you aren’t getting a dime from me.”

“Sweetheart, even if my club was into lending assholes money to gamble away – and to be clear, we’re not – the last person we would ever come collecting from is a single mom who didn’t have a hand in the loss of those funds. The debt would have died with your man.”

“Well, I can tell by your face that you didn’t come here to ask me out on a date.” When he stared at me in confusion, I pointed to where Trinity was hauling ass out of the parking lot leaving the two of us there alone. She had grown up with some of the MC’s members and didn’t have any qualms about my safety. It helped that the S.H.E. MC took extra measures and had the parking lot under surveillance as well. If I happened to go missing, they’d know exactly where to go look for me.

“Trinity thought that was why you called.”

---