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Neither she nor Walker lived simple lives. It didn’t matter how undemanding their jobs were or how much drama they tried to avoid, the nature of their mental illnesses meant it was next to impossible to enjoy lives free of complications. Their existences felt precarious, like they were always hanging off a ledge by a thread. At any moment, something could break and send them plummeting to the ground—breaking into pieces.
She was beginning to learn that while those falls were inevitable, they were easier to bear when you had people to catch you. Good friends could be the difference between being left splattered on the pavement or landing hard but steady on your feet.
And there it was, yet another reason why she and Walker couldn’t work out. It wasn’t just that she lived in one place and he in another. It was that they each lived where they did for a reason.
She’d chosen Greenbelt because it was small and quiet and didn’t add to the loud mess that already existed inside her. Walker lived in Charleston because it was as far away from this town as he could reasonably get. She was growing in Greenbelt, changing because of the people in it. She had friends, people who actually had her back. People she felt confident she could call on a dime with a chest full of panic and maybe find a bit of real comfort. Walker had the same thing in the place he called home.
She’d never felt more aware that love couldn’t solve everything.
… not that she was in love with him.
That would be ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous.
The stark reality just meant that she couldn’t even consider the possibility of falling in love with him. Not if they each wanted to keep their shit together.
“I’m glad you found them.” She meant her words, but they were hard to say.
Walker put a hand on her knee, his thumb stroking along the tensed ball. “Me too. I’m happy you’ve found some people here who are good to you and genuinely care. It makes me happy to see that not everyone in this fuckin’ town is an asshole.”
“Same,” she laughed. “Or else I have no idea what the hell I’d be doing right now.”
“Probably not be at Cunny Creek with a guy you can’t make whoopie with.”
Aja reared back like she’d been slapped across the face. “Make whoopie?”
“What?”
“Walker… make whoopie?”
“What?” His question came out even more forcefully. “What’s wrong with that? Would you rather I said somethin’ like get fresh?”
“You know, it’s never more obvious that you were raised by your grandmother than when we’re talking about sex and you all of a sudden start talking like you walked straight out of 1973.”
He blushed and it was simply delicious, the tips of his ears turning as beet red as his cheeks. “I never claimed to be cool,” he mumbled.
“Trust me, I know. You would have been lying right to my face if you had.”
He growled, propelling his upper body towards her until she was flat on her back, nearly underneath him. She looked up at him, and his lips pulled back from his teeth as he playfully snapped them at her.
Her eyes fluttered closed briefly. Having him on top of her, even fully clothed and in a completely innocent way, sent shock waves through her body. She’d been on top when they’d had sex. She hadn’t gotten to experience his weight on her, gently pressing her down. Her entire body flushed, heated and singing. She ached to part her thighs, to have him settle between her legs just before he moved inside her again the way she was so quietly desperate for.
His body shifted and the evidence of his same desperation became apparent. He was hard beneath the material of his shorts, and when he accidentally pushed against her crotch, they both sucked in a swift breath.
It was a gut punch when he pulled away, straightening himself up by tugging on the button of his shorts before resuming his earlier position.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“No, it’s fine.” She cut him off too fast for her words to be honest. “This place is like a beacon of horny energy. We… got swept up in it.”
He laid back against the rock, moving his legs over the edge more and staring up at her. The sun was high and bright in the sky, so he had to squint. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who could find a logical explanation for being too horny to function quite like you, Aja.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, so she kept silent.
