Page 25 of Walker

“Me too?”

“Got something a little different for you, buddy.” Walker leaned down and produced a miniature, Matchbox-sized Harley Davidson motorcycle for my son. “I thought you might like a motorcycle more than flowers.”

“Yeah!” My son cheered as he made a vroom sound and ran the motorcycle right up his sister’s arm. To my surprise, Ariel giggled at her brother instead of getting angry with him. I owed Walker for that too. He gave me my girl back. She still had some residual teenage attitude, but after our talk about her father and the potential for there to have been another woman, it was like a weight was lifted from her shoulders and she was able to be a teenager again instead of struggling with adult worries.

Walker stood at my side as he ruffled my son’s hair and watched my daughter admire her flowers. “How about I take those and put them in some water, so you two can go enjoy your night?” My sister asked from where she stood, leaned against the wall near the kitchen.

She gave me the slightest nod, meaning she approved of everything that just happened. Walker had certainly won points with the Ambrose family, and it appeared he did with my hard-to-please sister too.

“Sorry, didn’t realize there would be someone else here with them.” He took a couple steps and met my sister halfway. “I’m Walker.”

“Tillie,” my sister offered as she reached out and shook his hand. “That was awful sweet of you.”

“Would have brought you some too, if I’d known.”

“No need,” she waved his words away. “Seeing you include those kids was my present. Thank you for making all of them smile.”

“My pleasure.” Walker turned back to me. “Ready to get on the road?”

I nodded and handed my flowers off to my sister, though parting with them was done reluctantly. I couldn’t remember a time, outside of my senior prom when someone had given me flowers and then it was because Josh’s mom had picked up a corsage for him to give me – not because he thought of it himself.

I kissed each of the kids and told them to behave before we made our way out the door.

“Thank you for thinking of them.” We were already in his truck when I finally found my words.

“It was the least I could do for stealing time with their mom.” His grin was infectious.

“So where are we going?”

“The Coppertop for dinner, then after that, I figured we could make a decision together depending on how you’re feeling about things.”

I smiled over at him as he maintained his focus on the road. “You mean, in case we end up disliking one another?”

Walker chuckled. “Nah. Already know I like you. We did the histories and backgrounds at the clubhouse the first day we met.”

“I guess we did. Whatever are we supposed to talk about over dinner now?” I teased.

“Anything. Everything. How was your day?”

“Well, I received flowers for the first time in my life that wasn’t prom, so it’s been good so far.”

His head snapped around and he stared at me for a minute, as if he was checking to see if I was serious. “Never?”

I shook my head pathetically. “Seems unreal, right? I was with my husband since high school. Our senior prom was the last time he got me flowers, and if we’re being honest, it was his mom who remembered to get my corsage, not him.”

“Why in the hell did you marry him?”

I laughed at that. “Got pregnant at 17 with Ariel."

“Parents force you to marry?”

I shook my head again. “Nope. We thought we were in love. At least I did and he claimed to be in love with me.”

“I know what you found out about him was shitty, but that doesn’t mean your entire relationship needs to be painted with the same dirty brush.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “We all went to school together. He’s gone and who knows if I would have ever gotten the truth from him if he’d been alive. She would only tell me exactly what she thought would hurt me. They dated briefly before he and I got together. We were together for two years before I got pregnant, but she swore that he was going to come back to her before I got myself knocked up. Maybe she didn’t lie back then. I’ll never know, and it makes it hard not to wonder if something was going on with them the whole time. Honestly, no one knows who Dina’s father is either. What if it was my husband?”

“There are ways to find out, if you really want to know. I don’t think it would give you the answer you’re looking for if she turned out not to be his. It wouldn’t prove things weren’t going on between them back then, just that she was with someone else too.”

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