Page 19 of Protecting Her Secrets

“I think I’d rather have this.” I use my spoon to motion to the nearly gone food in front of me. “Did you make all this?”

“I baked the bread, but?—”

“You bake?”

“Yeah, I decided each winter I’d teach myself how to do something that will help me be more self-sustainable. Last winter, it was bread. Want to see my sourdough starter? I named her Mardough.” He starts to stand, but I stop him.

“No, that’s okay. Maybe later.” I grin. “But Mardough? What is it with you and punny names?”

“Each time I say or think about them, it makes me smile. And after spending a few years without a reason to smile, I decided to start finding ways to make myself happy, and punny names make me happy.” Sprocket whines, as if his feelings are hurt at not being mentioned. He reaches down to the dog, who’s standing with his front paws on Walker’s thigh. “Yes, rescuing you went a long way to make me happy too.”

I ignore the comment and switch to safer waters. “What about the soup?”

“Miss Martha made that.”

“Miss Martha?

“She and her husband are my closest neighbors. They’re like grandparents to me now. Miss Martha makes sure she stocks my freezer full of soups, chili, and casseroles so I don’t eat sandwiches all winter, and in turn, I do some stuff around their house her husband, Luther, is too old to do anymore. All this snow is hard on a house, and there are certain things you have to do every year once it melts.”

“That’s sweet.”

“They’re my family, along with my friends.”

“The ones in the pictures?” I ask.

“Yeah. Wilder, Rowan, and Ridge took me under their wings when I moved here. We’re all around the same age and volunteer for Search and Rescue.”

“Search and Rescue?” This new life is fascinating to me. It’s so different than anything I thought his life would be like, so different from the life I live.

“Sometimes a kid will get separated from his parents while out hiking, or someone will go out there alone and not come out when they were supposed to, and we go in to find them.”

“Wow. That’s incredible. You’re a hero.”

I swear the man blushes, and it’s so cute. “Nah, just giving back to the town that took me in and cared for me when I needed them.”

My heart breaks a little more with each reminder of the hurt I caused. It doesn’t matter how good his life is here; the reason behind all of it is my fault, and that sucks.

I stand and pile our plates up before taking them to the sink. “You cooked, so I’ll clean.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to. Go sit down and relax. It’ll just take a minute.”

While I do want to contribute, since he didn’t kick my ass out into the cold earlier, I honestly just need a minute. Guilt is such an ugly emotion, and try as I might to take what I deserve, it’s weighing on me. So, as I do the dishes, I force myself to remember my reasons and why I’m here.

It’s up to me to keep Walker safe.

Chapter Seven

Walker

I don’t meanto keep piling guilt on Skylar, but every question she asks ties back to her leaving me. Every decision I’ve made to get me to where I am today stems from that day, whether it hurts her feelings or not.

Flopping onto my recliner, I try to think of something to keep us busy and avoid the talk she wants to have. It makes me an asshole to fight for her when I know she’s engaged, but since she’s technically still my wife, I figure I have the right.

Movies. I can talk her into watching movies we’ve seen together. That should help awaken some nostalgia. The drive-in theater used to be our favorite thing to do together. Granted, we spent most of the movie making out, but that only works in my favor. And I know exactly what movie to play. I’m thankful I randomly grabbed it out of the dollar DVD bin at the store.

I walk over to the credenza that houses all my DVDs. Streaming services are great and everything, but the internet up here is notoriously unreliable. Sometimes it’ll be out for days,and when you’re snowed in with nothing to do, Hulu doesn’t mean shit.

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