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“Any reason I shouldn’t?”
Danni hated it when Jackson got all superior with her. She glared at him.
“So, what was Walker Wild doing at your house this morning or do I even want to know? Your brothers said you weren’t seeing anyone. Isn’t he kind of reaching the bottom of the barrel for you, Danni?”
She stopped walking. Walker was soft spoken and kind. He had a tender heart. He worked hard for her dad at the pub and for Matt putting up tobacco every season, which wasn’t easy, work as anyone who has done it knows.
“Not that it is any of your business, but Walker and I are just friends.” She wanted more from Walker, but he didn’t look at her that way.
He nodded as if he were contemplating her statement then he asked, “Friends with benefits or just friends?” She didn’t miss the hint of sarcasm in his tone of voice.
She could feel the steam rising, up her throat, soon to explode out of her ears. “Do you want me to look at your truck or not?” Danni asked him.
He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I see you don’t want to answer that question.”
Danni sighed at Jackson. “I don’t answer to you but to keep you from running to Matt about it. I give Walker a place to sleep and not in my bed. He’s always been kind to me since he and Matt were boys. You know that, Jackson. He sleeps in that barn behind my house. You must have passed it when you walked home. Now quit being a jackass about Walker.”
“He is nothing but trouble,” Jackson informed Danni, warning her away from him.
“I’m not y
our concern Jackson but your truck is mine according to Granddad. You want it fixed or not?” She asked growing more impatient by the minute.
There was nothing Jackson Hand could say to her that would dissuade her from taking Walker’s place to sleep away from him. She didn’t know his secrets and she wasn’t about to pry into Walker’s life and Danni liked him. He was a good man. She trusted her instincts where Walker was concerned.
Danni wouldn’t turn her back on him and there wasn’t a damn thing that Jackson could do about it. She held her hand out to him wanting his keys. He looked at her outstretched palm. “Keys,” she said to him when he did nothing.
He reached into his pocket and withdrew the keyring slapping them it into her hand. “Thanks,” she told him then she sidestepped Jackson and got into his truck.
After inserting the key, she turned it, making the engine purr. At first, she didn’t hear anything. Then she caught the slight ping of something that wasn’t quite right. She hollered out the open window. “Taking her for a drive.”
He tried to stop Danni; shouting at her that he wanted to go too but she was too quick for him. Jackson’s tires spun a little on the asphalt as she tore out of her grandfather’s parking lot. She headed down Main Street trying to figure out what that pinging sound was. It could be one of several things that all led to ruining the motor if not repaired and the truck was only a few years old.
She turned down the old highway that headed out of town towards Severe. Then she slowed when she saw Walker walking on the berm. She kept her eyes on the road but hit the button to put the window down. She knew where he was going. Every morning, Walker went to his mother’s house to see her.
She was sixty-five and although that was young in Danni’s book, she wasn’t in the greatest health. Artemisia Wild had aged years while Walker was in prison. She relied on him since his release. She wondered why he didn’t just stay at her house when Arte seemed to need him so much.
It was small, not bigger than a cottage, but it had two bedrooms. One that he could surely sleep in. “Want a ride?” She asked.
He shook his head at her. His dark locks fell over his beautiful eyes. “How do you know where I’m going or that you’re going in the same direction?” Then he gazed at the truck. “Whose truck is this?”
“Jackson Hand’s truck,” she informed him, rolling her eyes at Walker which made him laugh. “Get in. I’m trying to figure out what the pinging sound is.”
Danni could see his reluctance, but Walker finally caved and opened the door. They were lucky it wasn’t evening when more traffic was on the old county highway. She had waited a while on him to decide to take her offer of a ride.
Walker slid onto the seat. “Jackson will love you picking me up,” he declared.
“On my way,” she said.
He scoffed at her. Danni took off down the street heading towards Artemisia’s house, down the highway a mile and a half then a right, hand turn. A few winding curves and on the right in the woods sat the little cottage where his mother lived.
“Can I ask you a question?” Danni said to him.
“Sure,” he replied but he didn’t sound happy.
“Why don’t you just stay with your mother?”
Walker rubbed his big hands across his face. “It’s not that easy,” he told her.
