I smiled. “I bet. Plus, major bonus is Rylie has another friend. I swear, that little girl is so social. She’s nothing like Lucas.”
Valentina grinned. “He is much quieter than her.”
I threw my head back with a laugh at her dry tone. “I’d say. It’s hard not to be quieter than Rylie.”
Valentina laughed softly before asking, “What was her mother like? Lucas almost never talks about her.”
I thought about Melissa. “Melissa was average social. Rylie’s something else. I mean, according to her teacher last year, she was the most social kid in her class.”
“I know. The only thing she ever gets in trouble for in school is talking to her friends in class. Fortunately, she handles redirection well.”
I laughed. “She certainly didn’t get her social butterfly gene from me.”
“You and Lucas are a lot alike. Always keeping to yourself and holding back a little. You’re a little more friendly than him even though you did scare me to death when I first knew him.”
I grinned. “I’m a protective sister because he got burned. Maybe I was a bit much. Once I realized how awesome you were, I was totally on team Valentina.”
She flashed a grateful smile. “Thank you for that. Speaking of things like dating, what is going on with you and Walker?”
I masked my initial reaction with a sip of coffee, although I could feel my cheeks heating and hoped it wasn’t enough for Valentina to notice. When I looked back over at her, I saw nothing but warmth and understanding in her gaze. Maybe, just maybe, a hint of teasing.
After another sip of my coffee, I decided to be honest. “I don’t know. It all started because of that fake wedding date.” I sighed and traced my fingertip in a circle around the base of my coffee mug.
“Maybe that date wasn’t so fake after all.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jade
“It was supposed to be. It’s just… Well, in case you didn’t notice, Walker’s totally hot.”
Valentina nodded firmly. “For sure. He’s not my type, but it’d be hard not to notice. Although I don’t feel that way about him, he’s got a little bit of that same tall, dark, and mysterious vibe Lucas had.”
“Had?” I teased.
Valentina’s cheeks went pink. “Well, it’s not so mysterious anymore. He’s still tall, dark, and sexy.”
“Enough about how amazing my brother is,” I teased.
Valentina sipped her coffee and tilted her head to the side. “Fine with me. Tell me what’s going on with you and Walker?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t plan on this.” I seemed to have an abundance of saying and thinking that when it came to contemplating whatever was happening between Walker and me.
“I know that. You made it perfectly clear that you intended to never date again. I have to admit, I was a little puzzled about that.”
“Getting serious means trusting someone enough to know that they’re not full of shit. I don’t even have to tell you how hard that is. Just look at my life. I thought Brad was my friend. People lie and bullshit all the time to people they allegedly care about. Not to speak ill of the dead, but look at what Melissa did to Lucas. The reason I offered to be Walker’s date was because he didn’t want his ex-girlfriend pestering him to try to get back together after she screwed around behind his back with his best friend’s brother. That guy’s an asshole who apparently has screwed around on her plenty. Although, I hear she’s done the same. They deserve each other. That’s just a few examples close to me. Should I continue?”
Valentina leveled me with a pointed look. “Do you think Lucas would lie to me? I’m not talking about screwing around on me, more generally speaking.”
“Oh my God! No. He would never do that.”
“How about Jackson to Shay?”
Now, I sent a pointed glare in her direction. “I see where you’re going with this. Obviously Jackson would never lie to Shay.”
Anxiety began to twist in my chest. I hated that feeling. In fact, it was this jumble of feelings I had sworn to avoid forever—uncertainty, worry that I might trust the wrong person, worry that someone would do something I didn’t expect, something horribly wrong.
After a fortifying sip of my coffee, I drummed my fingertips on the table. “It’s not that simple. I don’t know how much Lucas has told you—”
Valentina interjected. “Most of it. I can understand why you worry you might trust the wrong person. That’s a risk we all have to take. Do you trust Walker?”
Valentina, being Valentina, never hesitated to strip away the veneer in a conversation and go straight to the painful core of an issue.
“Yes,” I said, rather reluctantly. I wanted to say the opposite, but that wasn’t fair to Walker.
After a moment, she nodded slowly. “I see. It’s easier if you don’t, isn’t it?”
“Yes! Exactly.”
“Not to get too personal, but I always wondered when you said you never planned to date if you meant that you never intended to have sex again.”
I shrugged. “That was the plan. Let’s face it, not all sex is good. In fact, statistically speaking, most women don’t have great experiences.”
Valentina opened her mouth to say something, but I held my hand up. “Oh, for God’s sake. Do not talk to me about your sex life with my brother. I’m not a prude, but please don’t. Just don’t.”
Valentina shrugged. “Fine. It just seems kind of extreme to plan to never date or have sex at your age.”
“You know, there are some incredible sex toys. You should know, that’s what brought you and Lucas together to begin with,” I teased.
Valentina burst out laughing, her cheeks tingeing pink as she nodded.
Although my brother had never discussed it with me, it was a running joke among those of us who were friends with her. She’d ordered a vibrator in the mail, and it accidentally got delivered to Lucas. That mishap set the wheels in motion for them to fall in love.
“I’m not asking about Walker specifically, but is a vibrator really better?” she asked when she stopped laughing.
My cheeks got a little hot again. The moment she asked that, my mind flashed to the night before when I was so frantic for him, and he had me against the door half-dressed. That, along with every other encounter with him, ranked as the best sex I’d ever had. Much as I was loath to admit it, even my favorite vibrator paled in comparison.
“You made your point,” I mumbled.
Conveniently, as far as I was concerned, Valentina’s cell phone rang. Glancing down at the screen on her phone, she said, “I need to get this. It’s Shay.”
She took the call, while I stood to refill my coffee. She held her mug up when I turned back, so I did the same for her. While she chatted with Shay about something to do with the accounts at the lodge, I wiped down the counter and checked the calendar on my phone for my schedule at the bar.
Before I began babysitting full-time for Lucas, I still hadn’t formed a clear plan for my life. I’d been working as a bartender and trying, to no avail, to figure out when I could start my pie in the sky landscaping business. That meant money, and I still didn’t have tons of that.