Page 9 of New Home for the Holidays

Maybe Santa will bring me more than a few presents under the tree this year. The way Walker focused on me during breakfast flashes in my mind, again, and I try to push away the warmth it brings me. Sometimes hope is a dangerous thing.

After chatting with Mom for a little while longer, I head out. When I pass where Walker pulled me over yesterday anddon’t see him, I’m a little disappointed. I push the feeling aside because it’s ridiculous. Just when I get inside my place, my phone rings and I smile at seeing my best friend’s name.

“Hey, Audrey,” I chirp.

“Get ready, we’re going to The Range tonight,” she blurts without greeting me back. “I need to get out. Between the kids in my classes and my own, I’m done. I need a night with my bestie.”

I tease her, “You’re trusting Grant with the kids?”

She scoffs before her voice drops dangerously low, “He’s their father. He’s not a babysitter or something ridiculous like that.”

I deadpan, “You’re having his mom stop by aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she snaps, “but it has more to do with not wanting him to accidently burn down the house than the wellbeing of our children. He’s a good dad but a shitty cook.”

I can’t keep my laughter inside and she joins me soon after. Grant is a good guy and an amazing father, actually, but Audrey is right when it comes to cooking. She’s tried to help him, but after he ruined a second pot trying to boil water to make the girls mac and cheese she gave up. Then she started buying the microwaveable single serve mac and cheese.

After making plans for her to get picked up by Larry, who drives for all the rideshare apps and is the only game in town, and then coming to get me, I start to get ready. Audrey might be all about going out right now, but I know her, and she won’t last much past ten. Not like I blame her. If she hadn’t called and demanded that I join her then I wouldn’t be going at all.

I’m kind of in awe of my best friend considering she works with kids all day and then goes home to raise her two girls. One day, maybe, I’ll be the kind of mom she is. She’s so present andeven if she’s had a bad day, she works hard to put it aside for her girls.

Which means she deserves a night—more like a few hours—out on the town.

By the time she comes to pick me up, I’ve had a sandwich and am ready to get some snacks and a drink or two. The Range Bar and Grill is basically the only option in town if you’re looking to cut loose for a night. The brothers who own it make it a happening spot.

Not only do they have good food, but they have live music and a karaoke night. The moment we open the door, it’s clear that tonight is a live music night. I’m more than a little excited to get out on the dance floor.

While I’m not the most outgoing person, I do love to dance. Audrey looks over her shoulder at me and grins while I try to stop myself from shimmying in place. She’s been my dance partner for years and it’s not going to change tonight.

“I knew I made the right decision to pawn off my devil spawn on my hubby and drag you out for some fun,” she shouts as she looks around for a table.

While shaking my head and giggling at my best friend, I look for a table as well. The last person I expect to lock eyes with is Walker. My face heats at the big grin on his face and the hunger in his gaze. It’s kind of amazing that I don’t even need to be close to him to know he wants me.

It’s a little surprising though. I would have thought that Jared had pulled the big brother card and told him to stay away from me. The whole overprotective thing has worked in the past, why wouldn’t it work now?

Because Walker Montgomery is a man, and those guys were just boys playing pretend.

My panties become instantly soaked at the thought of Walker not taking Jared’s bullshit or letting my brother come between us. Because there is something there. That is, of course, if he’s feeling the same thing I am.

Audrey leans closer to me and talks out of the side of her mouth, “Who’s the new guy hanging out with the Burns brothers?” I glance at her and bite my lip and her eyes widen. “Yeah, you clearly have been holding out on me. How could you? You know I call dibs on living vicariously through you and any escapades you get up to.”

“I don’t get up to escapades,” I insist.

“I know,” she sighs dramatically, “which is why my whole living vicariously thing has been very dry.” She eyes me before she looks between Walker and me like we’re the most riveting tennis match there ever was. Her tone is smug, “Looks like it won’t be for much longer.”

“Audrey,” I groan, “you’re the one who fell in love at fifteen and married your high school sweetheart. Isn’t it enough?”

“I love Grant. He’s my soulmate,” her eyes go dreamy before her focus snaps back to the here and now, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t get a little side action through you.”

My mouth falls open, but I don’t get the chance to react because she grabs my wrist and expertly maneuvers us through the people and toward an empty table. Our table is, conveniently, very close to where Walker is hanging out with the three Burns brothers.

I’m not surprised he knows them considering Jared is best friends with Noel who is the middle Burns brother, but the second born of the family. Their sister, Carson, was born after him but is older than Huxley, the baby of the family. Then there’s Fletcher, the oldest. All three brothers work at Limitless Ranch which has been owned and operated by their family for four generations.

Noel and Jared enlisted in the military together. Thankfully, they came home together as well.

Somehow, Audrey and I missed having any of the Burns siblings in our grade, but Carson was a year ahead of us and Huxley was two behind. They’re one of those families in Wintervale which has deep roots. It helps that they’ve always been good people.

The brothers working the ranch didn’t come as a surprise. Neither was Carson leaving town to follow her dreams by going to art school. From what I’ve heard, she’s found her calling and became a tattoo artist. She was always talented. We were friendly, but not close, and I sometimes got the feeling like she felt a little left out when it came to her siblings.

---