‘Yup.’
This was news.
‘When?’
‘Few years ago.’ Alex contorted his face at the memory. ‘Well, I hoped it was heading that way anyway. With Amber.’ He put his knife and fork down and sighed. ‘I thought I’d end up living with her and Jayden.’
Walker choked on his chicken. Alex slammed him on the back. Fatboy Jim opened one eye to check he wasn’t going to die and then closed it again.
‘I didn’t realise it had been that serious,’ he said when he could talk.
‘Ancient history now, mate.’ Alex settled back into the sofa.
‘What happened?’ Walker asked, far more interested in this story than the prattling presenter on television. Alex took a pull of his own beer and then began.
‘I fucked up, mate. That’s what happened. I did what I always did when things got tough. I ran away rather than stay and sort things out.’
Walker knew Alex’s history. He’d heard from Etienne how Alex had become addicted to gambling in his late teens. How it started with arcade games and fruit machines. After their parents died in a car crash, Alex had sought to escape his grief in backroom poker games run by the local gangsters with impossibly high stakes. He’d run up a massive gambling debt and had to run away for his own safety when he couldn’t repay it. He’d lived almost on the run like that for four long years. It was when he contacted Etienne again after all that time, asking for help to repay the debt and regain his life, that Etienne had enlisted the help of Walker and Fox, and they’d made a plan to bring him back. Which didn’t quite go to plan and ended up with an attack at Tutto Mio and the first gunshot injury in Honeybridge in a decade. None of them had known of the romance between Alex and Amber, who had moved to the town a year or so before Alex arrived. When they found out there had been a relationship, everyone had presumed a one-night wonder, or perhaps a brief fling, because neither party seemed to want to go into detail. In fact, if he was honest about it, Walker had presumed Alex had cheated on Amber because she seemed to want nothing to do with him. ‘Why did you run?’
‘Long story, Walks. Let’s just say I made the wrong call. I thought I was making the right move, but I made the wrong bet.’
Walker sipped his beer thoughtfully.
‘Anything still there?’ he asked.
Alex shrugged. ‘Wouldn’t matter if there was,’ he said. ‘She hates me. She moves away if I get anywhere near her.’ He screwed his eyes closed. ‘I really fucked it up.’
‘So, you don’t think she feels anything?’
Alex exhaled slowly through his nose.
‘Ihopeshe still feels the connection,’ he said. ‘But she’s definitely not letting herself act on it.’ He half laughed and Fatboy snapped out a paw in surprise and caught Alex’s hand in his claws.
‘Steady there, boy,’ Alex said, holding very still until the cat relaxed again and went back to purring. ‘Anyway, enough about that. Who else snapped your braces today then?’ Alex abruptly changed the subject. Gabi’s face flashed into Walker’s mind– her smile as she looked up at him, leaning against his chest.
‘Gabi,’ he said.
‘Feisty,’ Alex said.
Walker snorted. It was a good word for Gabi. Feisty. Funny. Feminine. Flirty? He caught himself with the last one. He saw the flash of her eyes under her dark lashes as she laughed. They had been flirting earlier. Just a little, but there had definitely been something there. And the way she’d listened in the car had been surprising. Her encouragement of him to take the promotion. He’d add another F. Fearless. She was all the Fs.
‘She came by for her earring. She was saying she finds it hard in the day when she’s on her own to move about, to carry things.’
‘I can imagine,’ Alex said, standing and lifting his tray from his lap at the same time. ‘I’ll sort the kitchen.’
‘Thanks, darling,’ Walker smiled.
‘Fuck off.’ Alex laughed.
Walker watched him go but his mind was lingering on Gabi’s face.
Chapter Eleven
Gabi
Isabella waved Gabi towards what had already, in the few weeks she’d been in town, become their usual table in Tutto Mio. Cosy in the corner next to the window, it was set up for two, complete with a vase of fresh white tulips. Gabi sat and positioned her foot, leaning her crutches against the wall, and waited for Isabella with the coffee.
Funny how quickly she’d settled in to Honeybridge. She knew her way around the kitchen at Amber’s, and Jayden’s favourite snacks after school. She was fast becoming her physio’s favourite client for all the work she was putting in. She could see her cousin every day if she wanted to, and she got to give Nonna a hug whenever she liked.
