Page 57 of Slow Hands Cowboy

She shooed Cody away, and Walker waited for her to produce the cheese. Then he carried the package of sliced cheddar outside.

Lila was already there, lolling in a chair in the shade, while Marlowe’s former sister-in-law Cara and her boyfriend Zane were sitting together in one chair. Zane had his arms wrapped around Cara’s stomach, and she was leaning back against his chest.

A stranger sight Walker didn’t think he had ever seen before. He would have never imagined that Zane would find somebody like that. And Cara was sweet. Sunny, and a generally lovely person, while Zane—one of the strays that Cody had picked up from his rodeo days—was taciturn and borderline antisocial. But they seemed to be happy together, and far be it from Walker to deny what worked. Especially when it came to romance, because he didn’t have any idea about it. Nor did he want to.

“It’s hot,” Lila muttered. “It’s so hot,” she went on when nobody reacted to her.

“No shit, little mouse,” Walker said. “We’re all standing out here in the same heat.”

“Yes, but I have to lead a hike right before sunset, and I don’t think it’s going to cool off.”

“Okay. For that you have my sympathy. You really should get yourself off of this manual labor duty,” he said. “It’s beneath you.”

“Is it?” She smiled up at him, then pushed herself out of the chair. “I like being out on the ranch. It’s nice. I just don’t like it in this weather.”

“That’s when you should flex your management position,” Walker said. “Talk to your boss.”

“Cody isn’t my boss,” Lila said. “We’re all part owners in this.”

He arched a brow at his sister. She knew better than that. Yeah, on paper they might all be part owners of this place. But Cody was the boss. Cody was the one who had gotten them this place. He was the one that had driven this endeavor forward. And yeah, Walker and Lila were good at what they did, but this was all Cody. And what he said went.

Because that was the story of their life. Cody was the one who had taken care of them, and now they did what they could to help him with this place that he loved so much.

It was why he was doing this now. It was. Well, and also for his own ambition.

Because Cody and Lila had their demons, demons they had spent years trying to outrun.

But Walker had a set of his own.

Nobody else knew what they were, and nobody else needed to.

One thing Walker Grayson would always do was succeed.

There wasn’t another option.

Chapter Eleven

The texts from Alan started early in the morning, continued into the afternoon and on into the evening. Addison didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to talk to him, but he was angry. Angry that she had gone out with Walker. Angry that she had embarrassed him—was he kidding?

He was giving her attitude on top of everything else. Jill had called him, apparently, and had told him everything that she’d seen.

She just didn’t have the capacity to deal with this. She had never considered what Alan’s reaction might be to any of this, and he didn’t deserve to have a reaction. Not at all. He didn’t deserve to feel any damned thing about any of this.

She was the one who had been put through hell because of his actions.

She was ruminating about that when she heard a heavy knock on the door.

It was late. She doubted that it was room service. And something inside of her went still, then shimmered just slightly.

No way. You couldn’t feel someone’s presence. Just as she had not felt Walker watching her during the bridal shower, she certainly didn’t sense that he was at the door.

She got up off the end of her bed and walked across the room, looking through the keyhole. And what she saw through that little oval blasted through her like a punch to the solar plexus.

Because it was Walker. Damn it.

She opened the door, and then immediately regretted it. She was wearing her sweats—and they were nice sweats but sweats all the same—and her hair was up in a ratty bun.

Nobody ever saw this side of her unless she was deliberately looking undone for a video, and even then, quite a bit of makeup was involved in that natural look.