Page 35 of Walker

Darren is holding my hand and I look down at his hand, tattooed and huge compared to mine. I look up to his face. His piercing eyes looking back at me, I can see the happiness radiating back at me.

God, how I feel the same way.

I sit down and Walker slides in beside me, with Darren in front. They slide the menus down in front of us.

“I didn’t know I was this hungry.” My stomach growls at the smell of all the steaks wafting through the air.

“I’m always hungry,” Darren says simply, winking at me.

I almost swallow my tongue at his double meaning. “Darren, don’t be naughty right now,” I whisper to him; my face burns and it’s like everyone in here knows what he is saying.

Walker and Darren chuckle at me, I swear the more I blush and get embarrassed, the more they love it.

Walker’s hand rests on my thigh, rubbing slightly. “Are you feeling okay though, Summer? That was fucking intense,” Darren says.

I let out a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m fine, it was just a shock. No one got hurt so that’s what matters the most.”

Walker kisses my cheek, rubbing my thigh soothing me. “Don’t downplay how you’re feeling.”

My nose burns from the unshed tears that I have held back, I blink them away. “I’m just scared that people will get hurt because of me,” I admit my fears and rest my head on Walker’s shoulder.

“Baby, if someone does get hurt it’s not because of you, it’s because someone is batshit crazy, and you have the bad fucking luck of being involved,” Darren tells me.

“I know Darren, but it’s ingrained in me to take care of people, to help people. I promised to do no harm to others in my life, but to care. It’s hard to push that away.”

“That’s why we want to fucking protect you, you’re so fucking precious and kind, baby. Please get these worries out of your mind, let us take care of you, and just be the angel you are.”

Can I do that?

I look to both, staring into their beautiful, caring faces. Give up the worries, the control? “Okay,” I agree softly.

Darren reaches across the table taking my hand kissing the back of it. “Good, you don’t need any of that shit.” I smile at his dirty mouth.

“Alright, you win.” I raise my hands up in surrender.

My worrying isn’t going to solve the problem, it will just cause me pain. My phone goes off and I scream throwing my phone. “Oh my God, why me.”

Darren catches my phone and looks at it. He bursts out laughing setting it on the table. “Fuck that’s an image I won’t forget.”

“Why must my parents not be normal?”

Walker takes my phone off the table, and I avoid looking at the screen. My mother is lying in bed naked trying to entice them into bed with her.

I take the phone back from Walker, texting my mother. “MOTHER!! YOU TEXTED ME A PIC OF YOU NAKED!!! I’M BLIND!!!!”

A second later she calls me and I put it on speaker phone. “Hello?” I answer.

She starts screaming at the top of her lungs. “OH MY GOD MY PRECIOUS BABY I’M SORRY!” She is being sarcastic.

I put my head against the wall groaning. “I thought it was to your dad,” she whispers at the end after the freakout. “Plus, I used to breastfeed you, so you’ve seen all of my boobs before, child.” She must throw in that last tidbit to add salt to the wound.

“I love you Mom, but please double check who you are texting.”

She laughs. “Cheer up angel baby.”

I sigh and hang up the phone on her just as the waitress takes our drink order. “I need a margarita, a strong one please,” I practically plead to the woman; she laughs, and we order an appetizer.

“Speaking of mothers, mine is wanting to have us over for dinner sometime this week,” Darren tells us.

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