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“Can I come in and say hello to Artie?” She asked, parking the truck in the driveway.
“Mom would like that,” he agreed.
Danni hopped out and went in front of Walker towards his mother’s little house. A stone front, a brick walkway that led to a solid, wooden door. She started to knock, and Walker reached around her and opened it. She smiled at him. He was close. He smelled like fresh soap and man. She closed her eyes, so he wouldn’t see what she was feeling. The shock of nerves that shot up her spine and made her hands tremble. With her eyes closed, she didn’t see his response either.
“Ma,” Walker shouted as soon as they entered the living room which was tidy. “Danni is with me.”
His mother was smaller than Danni which was surprising because she had produced two very large, sons. She had raised them too, alone. Danni couldn’t remember how old they were when their father disappeared, but they weren’t very old. She was old enough to remember Walker telling Matt about it. He was hurt because he and his father were close. His father ran off with another woman leaving them behind.
The town, like Jackson said changed men, made them desperate when they couldn’t find work. They either committed suicide, drank themselves to death at her father’s bar or ran away. Jackson chose to run away like Walker’s father had.
She glanced up at Walker. She wondered what made him do it. He was always a good boy, an even better man. Possession with intent to sell. That was Jesse’s deal, not Walker’s. His brother was always in trouble, not Walker. Why was he protecting Jesse?
He placed his hand on Danni’s back and gave her a little shove into the house. His mother walked forward too. She was smiling at her. Danni hadn’t seen Artemisia in months not even at the grocery store. Walker apparently had been purchasing all her groceries for her.
She was still beautiful with her long dark
hair that only had a streak of gray at the part in her bangs. It only added to her attractiveness. Danni glanced over her shoulder at Walker and could see the resemblance between mother and son.
Her dark eyes that were fringed by long, thick lashes. The full, pouty lips that begged to be kissed were his mother’s eyes and mouth. Arte’s skin for sixty-five was flawless. She had faint lines at the corners of her eyes but even they did not detract from her beauty. Her thin, cotton nightgown clung to her ample curves.
“How are you, honey?” Artemisia asked.
“I’m good, Ms. Wild. I was testing a client’s truck and picked up Walker giving him a ride. I just wanted to say hello.” Walker cleared his throat at her referring to Jackson Hand as a client, but she chose to ignore him.
“You get prettier and prettier,” she told Danni. “Doesn’t she Walker?”
Her son rolled his eyes at his mother. Arte’s hands grasped Danni’s in hers. “Walker needs to find a sweet, young lady just like you and settle down. Don’t you agree?”
Danni knew that she blushed. She had crushed on Walker in her younger days and now, well now, she thought looking at him that she might just be in love with him, not that he would ever figure that out for himself.
She remembered thinking how handsome he was. He was bigger, stronger than anyone she knew. If boys were picking on her he seemed to show up at the right time and put them in their place. She remembered him walking her home on more than occasion to be sure, Dovey Michaels didn’t steal her left-over lunch money because he had seen her crying more than once because Dovey had done that very thing. Her brothers were of the mind that Danni Rose needed to toughen up and fight her own battles. Not Walker, he didn’t have a little sister.
Danni became that little girl that he treasured and took care of. He protected her until he couldn’t. Until that day that the Hawk Simpson handcuffed him at Matt’s farm where Danni was standing by Matt’s wife, Layla on the front porch watching them take him away. She still remembered telling Matt to do something that this wasn’t right. Walker wouldn’t do this but then he confessed, and she still couldn’t believe it.
Her brother had agreed with her. He told her he would help Walker, but his friend had pled guilty to all charges. He refused her and Matt at the county jail and at the Lebanon Correctional Facility. They neither one believed that he was guilty. He was hiding something then like he was now.
She looked at Walker who wasn’t looking at either of them. He was staring through the large window that faced the woods. “Walker, where are you?” His mother’s voice brought him back to them. He looked between them a little dazed and confused.
“I’m nowhere you want to know about,” he told his mother.
She smiled at him with a sadness that made Danni think maybe she knew something about Walker that she didn’t. Maybe Arte knew why Walker pled guilty. “Sit down with me,” his mother said to her.
“Danni just stopped by to say hello, Mom.”
“I can sit for a minute,” she argued with him which irritated him.
Artemisia led her to the sofa that wasn’t new but was well cared for. It wasn’t expensive, but it wasn’t worn either. The scent of freshness rose to her nostrils when they perched on it. Arte must have sprayed it down with some air freshener recently.
“How’s your mom and dad?” She asked Danni. She told her about the divorce. “I heard something about that. I’m sorry honey. Sometimes, we can’t see what’s right in front of us.” She looked right at her son who chose to ignore her. “Matt doing well?”
“He is. You know he and Layla had a boy who is two.”
She sighed and patted Danni’s hand. “I want grandchildren. Walker is my only hope. Jesse is a lost cause. I hope he remains unmarried and without children. A child of his would have a terrible life.”
“Why’s that?” Danni asked Arte.
She shook her head. “He’s nothing but trouble.”
