I wasn’t about to make that mistake again, and I honestly didn’t trust myself not to make that mistake again with Dean.
Chapter 6
Addison
Walkerhadbeenbackhome for about a week, and we quickly settled into a nice routine of riding the horses together in the morning and then meeting up for an afternoon workout in his home gym. I loved having my big brother back. I didn’t see him much when I lived up in Boston, so I was trying to take full advantage of these next few months that he was home during the offseason.
As we were finishing one of our afternoon workouts, I glanced over at him. “So any special lady in your life, Walk?”
His head fell back in laughter. “You lasted longer than I thought before asking that question. Nope, you know I like to gift my body to all the ladies across the nation as I travel from city to city.” He waved his hand down his body.
“Gross.” I threw a towel at his head, but he caught it immediately.
“I’m just kidding. I don’t have time for a relationship when I’m trying to win my first World Series before I retire in the next year or so. Plus, I’m no good at relationships, that became evident with how royally I fucked everything up with Farrah,” he said while putting away the rest of the free weights.
Farrah King was the eldest daughter of my mom’s best friend, Liz, and she was one of my close friends. We grew up riding horses together. She also happened to be Walker’s ex-girlfriend, and the rest of us James siblings still believe she is the love of his life.
They started officially dating when Walker was seventeen and she was sixteen, but they had always seemed to have a thing for each other long before that. They attended the University of Texas together, where Walker played baseball and studied business and she studied interior design and architecture.
No one knew the why behind the breakup, as neither of them would talk about it. All we knew was that when Walker was drafted with a massive contract to play baseball professionally, their relationship didn’t survive. Farrah ended up marrying another man and had a daughter, and Walker played the field literally and figuratively.
I decided to change the subject. I could tell that now was not the time to dive deeper into the Farrah situation. “So, I’m meeting Caroline today in a couple of hours to check out this property that just came on the market. Would you want to go with me?” I had seen several properties over the past couple of days, but none were quite right. I was also probably being impossibly picky for someone on a budget.
Walker wiped a towel down his face. “Yeah, for sure. Let me grab a shower, and then let’s leave a little early so I can grab a coffee on the way. I’m dragging today.”
I smiled. “Sounds good. I’ll meet you at your house in an hour.” I grabbed my phone, which I had left on the weightbench, and headed out toward the guesthouse. I had several text messages I’d missed.
Harper:
Hey girl! I just booked my flight. I’ll see your fine ass in 1 week!
Noah:
I went by our favorite bakery today. Ms. Robertson asked about you. I miss you. Please text me back.
Dean:
Hey. Been a while since I’ve seen or spoken to you. Seems weird with how much you know about me now.
After deleting Noah’s message, I replied to Harper.
Hey! Just like you to wait until the last minute to book. I am SO excited to see you. Send me your flight info.
Harper sent me all her flight details, and we talked about some of the things we planned to do while she was in town.Then I sent a reply to Dean.
Lol, that’s true. We’re basically besties now. Sorry, things have been crazy with Walker back home and looking at horse properties. How’s everything going?
Being friends was safe. Yup, I could be friends with Dean—no risk in being besties.
Dean:
That’s right. I’m sure your family is happy to have him home. Things are good, ya know, the usual craziness of being a small-town vet. I had a farm call this week out at Richard Hopkins’s place, and he has a couple of horses that I think you might be interested in as lesson horses.
Oh, really? I’ll have to give him a call and see what he has. Thanks for the heads-up! I gotta run. Walker and I are checking out a horse property that I’m hoping is the one. I’ll text you later!
Dean:
Hmm, you’ve said that before…
