“Well? Did it work?” Dani asked, arching a brow.
Jesus. Now, this was a group conversation. I knew avoiding it would only raise more suspicions, so I shrugged. Everyone knew, so there was no sense in not talking about it. But everyone didn’t know that our date turned out not so fake after all. If you counted that we knew each other quite intimately now.
Walker finished chewing and took a sip of water before responding, “It went well. I mean, the whole weekend was overshadowed by Dave’s heart attack. Jade was convincing.”
I smiled. “I can be charming when I choose.”
Valentina grinned. “You’re always charming.”
“Not always,” I murmured in reply before draining the rest of my water.
“Huh? A fake date. At least now I’m up to speed on the gossip,” Shay said.
“It’s not gossip,” I retorted, perhaps a bit too sharply.
When I turned, I caught Dani watching me, a clear speculative gleam in her eyes.
A few hours later, the guys had left to go to the bar as planned. It was just the girls—the girls being me, Valentina, Shay, Dani, and Grace. I had to put up with more curiosity than I preferred. Evie had gone home with Dawson early after she managed to cut her hand on the serrated blade on the industrial size saran wrap holder, giving herself a nasty gash.
“What’s with all the questions?” I muttered on the heels of Dani asking me again about the weekend with Walker.
Dani lifted her wine glass and wrinkled her nose as she spun it in her fingers. “There’re always questions. Especially when someone looks at a guy the way you were looking at Walker tonight,” she said pointedly.
“This from you who took forever to admit you never fell out of love with Wade,” I retorted.
Dani blew a puff of air out of her lips, directing it toward a loose curl falling over her eye and expertly sending it up in the air and out of her eyes. “And I finally got around to it. So there,” she said firmly.
“I feel like I’m at a disadvantage.” I cast a pleading look in Valentina’s direction. But, damn her, she was replying to a text on her phone, probably from my brother.
“What do you mean?” Grace interjected.
“I don’t work here all the time like the rest of you.”
Valentina finally set her phone down. Her cheeks were pink, further proof that she was texting with Lucas. “It doesn’t matter. It’s quality, not quantity,” she teased.
I sighed. “I had a very nice time at the wedding. Well, except for Dave’s heart attack.”
“I wasn’t asking about the wedding, I was asking what you thought about Walker,” Dani returned.
“Are you telling me you don’t think Walker’s handsome? Because I don’t have a thing for him or anything, but that guy is like seriously hot,” Shay offered.
Valentina snorted a laugh, finally coming to my defense. “Jade just said they had a nice time at the wedding. Let’s leave it alone.”
Dani threw a knowing look my way, but shifted topics, turning her lasered curiosity to Evie. “Speaking of men, when is Mack moving home? It seems like he’s changed plans several times,” Dani commented, referring to Evie’s older brother.
Evie shrugged. “He has. When I talked to him last week, he said no matter what, he’d be home this summer.”
Shay piped up, “Jackson said he told Mack about the upcoming opening on the first responder crew here with one of the guys moving.”
“Did you want some wine?” Valentina asked from my side as she filled her glass.
I shook my head. “No, thanks. I’m driving, so I’ll stick with water,” I replied.
Fortunately for me, the conversation didn’t loop back to me. It wasn’t much later that I was driving home through the early summer darkness. The mountain air was glorious this time of year. There was just a hint of the humidity to come, and the nights were still cool. With the windows rolled down as I drove home, the air caressed my skin. It was laden with the scents of rich greenery and flowers in bloom. With the half-moon low in the sky and illuminating a mountain ridge in the distance, the night felt a bit magical.
I paused to pull off the road at a small lookout. Climbing out of my car, I walked across the small parking area to sit on a bench. During the daytime, this spot offered a lovely view of Stolen Hearts Valley. The quiet seeped into me, and I savored the low sounds of crickets chirping in the darkness and the trees rustling in the breeze.
Leaning my head back, I looked up into the velvety dark sky with stars scattered across and glittering in the night. I took a deep breath, the tension bundled inside ever since I’d seen Walker earlier tonight finally starting to ease slightly.
I couldn’t quite believe how far I’d let things go with him that weekend. I’d almost convinced myself in the intervening two weeks that it was just a fluke, that when I saw him again it would feel normal. Maybe there would be a little buzz of chemistry, but nothing more. I was so wrong, so spectacularly wrong. At least I knew my judgment wasn’t the greatest when it came to men.
Every time I thought about how hard it was for me to trust, I thought about Shay and what she’d been through, and I felt ridiculous. She’d suffered public humiliation and a brutal physical assault. Yet, she’d walked through that fire and was now deeply in love with Jackson. Whenever I tried to tell myself I could find that same courage to trust again, I bumped into so many doubts.
I closed my eyes and took a slow breath. A friend for years had slipped a date rape drug in my drink. I would always wonder what he’d intended to do. Thanks to a waitress looking in the direction of our table when I went to the restroom, nothing happened. I would never know what he intended to do.
Trust was so fucking hard to come by in my mind. It had been so easy to tell myself I would never date, that I would never be interested in anyone. I hadn’t considered it worth the trouble.
Enter Walker and me agreeing to that stupid wedding and thinking it was no big deal. Now, not a single night passed when I didn’t dream about him. I hated admitting I brought myself to climax more than once with thoughts of his gaze locked on mine when he took me to the brink and beyond.
I was snapped out of my restless train of thought at the sound of a car approaching on the road, followed by a loud thump and a squeak. I jumped up and hurried back toward the edge of the winding highway. I watched the taillights disappearing in the darkness.
I knew I’d likely heard an animal get hit. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I felt sick. I fumbled for my phone in my pocket. I tapped the button for the flashlight and searched around carefully. Scanning the road, I saw a small shape in the darkness. It appeared to be a young opossum. It was still alive, moving slowly as it dragged itself to the side of the road.
Fortunately, it was coming in my direction and stopped once it had reached the small parking area where my car was. I wasn’t stupid, so I approached it carefully.
“Hey, sweetie,” I said softly as I stopped a few feet away.
The little opossum with its worried face turned in my direction. I could see its rapid breath, rising and falling, its entire small body moving with it. Stepping closer, I moved the flashlight over it carefully, ascertaining that one of its legs was badly injured.