Beautifully Broken Pieces (Sutter Lake, #1)(26)

The walk to my car felt like an expedition up Everest, but we finally made it. I beeped my locks, and Walker opened my door. “Thank you.” It came out as a whisper.

His gaze was intense on my face. “You’re welcome. Do you want me to lead or follow?”

“Lead.” I was worried I’d drive off the road if I knew he was behind me, evaluating my driving, analyzing my face in the rearview mirror, seeing into my soul.

“All right.” He gently shut the door.

I tried to force myself not to hold the steering wheel too tightly. The night was almost over. As I followed Walker’s truck through the winding gravel road, I imagined the long, hot bath I’d take when I got home. How I’d let the steaming water relax the muscles that had wound tight from Walker’s stare and his touch.

I clenched my thighs together in an attempt to relieve some pressure. This was ridiculous. I probably just needed to get laid. Maybe I’d find some tourist to heat up the sheets with when Jensen and I went out on Saturday. A tourist wouldn’t stick around, so there was no risk of anyone getting too close. Now that sounded like a good plan.

Walker pulled into an open spot at the front of the cabin, and I hit the remote on my visor. The garage door opened. I prayed that Walker would stay in his car. But, of course, he didn’t. By the time I’d shut off my engine, he was opening my car door. I jumped in my seat.

“Geez, give a girl a heart attack, why don’t you.”

Walker let out a chuckle. “Just trying to be a gentleman.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Sure, you are.” He was trying to rile me. That’s what he was doing. He seemed to get some perverse pleasure out of pushing my buttons. I tightened my hold on my keys, the metal digging into my palm. “Can you please move so I can get out of my car?”

He stepped back, but barely. And when I had to squeeze by him to get to the door, our entire bodies brushed. My eyes shot to his. There was heat blazing in his green depths. My heart quickened, and my breaths turned shallow. “I need to get inside.”

He blinked a few times as if coming back to himself and then shook his head. “Sorry.” The one word had a bite to it, and his jaw tensed. He stepped back even farther, his fists opening and closing.

His change in demeanor had my brows furrowing. I managed to nod but didn’t say anything, just ducked my chin and rushed inside, wondering what I’d done to piss Walker Cole off.





15





Walker





I slammed my truck’s door with enough force to send the entire vehicle rocking. I adjusted my jeans, attempting to relieve some of the pressure. My dick was hard enough to split wood. Fuck.

I started the engine and hit the extra clicker to shut Taylor’s garage door. The attraction I felt for her was only growing, and I had no idea what to do about it. When her tight little body had brushed up against mine in the garage, I’d felt flames lick my skin.

Honestly, it was freaking me out. What Julie and I had shared was a pure, innocent love. We were each other’s first everything. Bumbling and fumbling hands and bodies. Learning what each other liked and didn’t. It was perfect. But it wasn’t this fiery, living, breathing energy I felt coming to life with Taylor.

It pissed me off. It was ridiculous for me to be angry at someone for turning me on in a way my dead girlfriend never had, but I was. I rolled down my window and let the chilly night air ease my temper and cool my overheated skin.

I inhaled deeply. None of this mattered. What Taylor needed right now was a friend. And I wasn’t even sure she’d let me be that, let alone have more than friendship.

Pulling up my gravel drive, I saw the darkened windows of an empty home. Was this how it would always be? Empty and dark?

I switched off the engine and hopped down from the cab to make my way up my front porch steps. “Pull up a rocker, would ya?” The voice had me going for my gun on instinct. But I relaxed when my brain processed that it was my grandmother.

“What in the world are you doing sitting here alone in the dark? And how in the hell did you get here?”

“Oh, relax. I’m just enjoying looking at the night sky. And I took one of the golf carts.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Grandma, you know you’re not supposed to be driving anymore. Do Mom and Dad even know you’re gone?”

“Golf carts don’t count,” Grandma huffed.

I took that to mean that my parents had no idea she wasn’t asleep in her bed at that moment. I sank into the rocker next to her. “So, what was so important you had to drag your ass out of bed and come all the way over here?”

She shook her head. “I won’t have you sassing me, young man.”

“Sorry, Grandma. Please, tell me what’s wrong.”

“That’s better.” My grandmother was quiet for a few beats with only the noise of the rocker against the wood-planked porch and the night insects breaking the silence. “I’m worried about Taylor.”

I stiffened, pausing the motion of my rocker. “Why?”

“She’s grieving,” my grandmother said, pain in her voice.

“How do you know that?” I hadn’t shared a word of what Austin had told me with anyone, not even my family.

“I’ve been around the block a time or two. I know what grief looks like.”