Walker Pride (The Walker Family Book 1)

by Bernadette Marie

  As the sun was again covered by the fog, Eric decided to head back to the house. He figured he’d done what he needed to do for today and for the first time in twenty years he was going to take the rest of the day off.

  Susan was grateful for that loud truck of Eric’s. She was able to plan his breakfast and have it ready for him as he drove from the barn toward the house.

  She hadn’t started a fire in years, but she’d managed one in the fireplace in the living room. It took the chill out of the air and certainly made the house homier.

  It had been a very long time since she’d learned the preferences of a new man. Her ex-husband was a simple breakfast man. He liked fruit and oatmeal before he rode for twenty miles. Eric, she’d already learned was a little more traditional. He liked eggs and breakfast meats, which she couldn’t quite wrap her head around. He’d enjoyed a hearty plate of waffles at the diner the other morning as well.

  She chuckled to herself as she slid the eggs from the pan. For having only known the man almost a week, she’d had breakfast with him an awful lot. She never would have imagined that when he came slamming his way into Glenda’s kitchen that day, she’d want to always wake in his arms either.

  Eric’s truck was right in front of the house now as she set the plates on the table and turned back to gather the coffee mugs.

  Eric walked through the door carrying the cold on him. He hung up his hat, shrugged out of his coat and hung it up, then toed off his boots leaving them on the mat. This was obviously his process she decided.

  “I have a feast laid out for you,” she said smiling.

  “I’m hungry enough for that. Hopefully, my brothers will keep away today. I’d like to have you to myself. So you can feed me that is.”

  She laughed as he walked into the kitchen. “If they showed up I’d be obligated to feed them too. It’s how I work.”

  “Don’t let them know that. You’ll never get away from them.”

  “Can’t be so bad,” she said sitting down at the table.

  Eric picked up a piece of bacon and bit it as he sat down. “It’s not so bad—I guess.”

  “My sister moved to California for college and stayed there. So I’d give anything for her to just drop in and eat.”

  “Dane will be the first to move away, further than a few hours away,” Eric said as he spooned eggs on his plate.

  “Where is he going?”

  “Ohio,” his voice dropped as he said it. “He’s not too excited.”

  “Why? That’s awesome.”

  Eric shrugged as he took a bite of his eggs. “He’s a homeboy. I mean he’s still living at home with Dad and Glenda.” He washed down the eggs with a sip of coffee. “Okay, to be fair he’s living there with the intent to make this move. When his lease was up he moved home.”

  “It’s nice that your parents have the room for him.”

  “Him and Russell.”

  “They both live at home?”

  “Russ has been in school forever. It makes more sense.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Twenty-eight.”

  “What kind of school has he been in?”

  Eric picked up another piece of bacon and bit it. “He enlisted, did a few years, they put him through college and then he finished up his service. Up until this week, I think his plan was to make the ranch more profitable by expanding it.”

  “Why does that have to change?”

  Eric sat back in his chair and looked at her. “I’ve more than once been accused of being a closed book.”

  Susan picked up her coffee mug and shook her head. “Meaning?”

  “I don’t include the people in my life in the things going on in my life.”

  “You’ve had a busy week and even though we’ve become very involved, I wouldn’t hold that against you.”

  Eric studied her. “I want to keep you and continue to be very involved.”

  Susan swallowed hard. “I want that too.”

  He leaned in and rested his arms on the table. “My family is messed up,” he said very matter-of-factly.

  “I’ve met them. I don’t think…”

  “Not all of them,” he interrupted.

  Eric reached for her hand. He gave it a squeeze and then ran his thumb over her knuckles.

  “My mom died when I was eight. Dad met Glenda and gave me four more brothers. I don’t think I appreciated her as much as I should have,” he said as if he’d only just realized that.

  Eric lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to it. “My uncle isn’t so family oriented. He’s obviously married multiple times. He never even married Bethany’s mother. He’s not very close to any of his children.” He sucked in a breath. “And he has a severe gambling problem.”

  “Is someone getting him some help?”

  “It just kinda came to full light the other day at the reading of the will. It seems as if he was in debt over a million dollars.”

  “A million dollars? Oh, that’s a lot of money.”

  Eric nodded. “Well someone paid it off for him in trade for the acreage I’m living on—including this house.”

  Susan narrowed her eyes. “He paid off his debt with your land?”

  “My grandfather’s land. It’s written into the will that the land goes back to the original owner, now that my grandfather is gone.”

  Susan shook her head. “None of that makes sense, really. Isn’t there something you all can do about that?”

  “We’re working on it. There’s a lot of strife between my family and the family which will get the land back.” Eric sat back in his chair letting go of her hand. “The family in question is my mother’s family.”

  “That’s very complicated.”

  He nodded. “They disowned her when she fell in love with my father. I never laid eyes on my grandfather until the other day. I met my cousins when I got beat up,” he said raising his fingers to his blackened eye.

  “I wish I could have met her. Anyone who would give up their family for love…well she must have been very certain of that love.”

  Eric nodded. “I guess so.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I was young when she died. I don’t remember their love. She loved me and that was all I cared about then.”

  Susan picked up her cup of coffee and took a sip only to find that it had gone cold. “Can I warm your coffee?”

  Eric looked at his mug and shook his head. Susan stood and walked to the sink to pour out the cold coffee. She filled her mug with hot coffee and sat back down across from Eric.

  She lifted the mug to her lips. “So her family wants the land?”

  Eric nodded. “They want her back too.”

  Susan set her mug back on the table. “They want who back?”

  “My mother.”

  She wasn’t sure what to think about that. “Where is she?” she asked with her words drawn out as she tried to think it through.

  “We have a family plot. My mother is buried there.” He kept his gaze steady on her. “The plot is just up over the hill on our original land.”

  “And now they want her buried on their land?”

  “Yes.”

  Susan reached for his hand now. “You look to lose your land and your mother?”

  Eric’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened. “Over my dead body will they take her from me.”

  Susan certainly didn’t like the thought of him putting his life on the line. Though she certainly understood it.

  Eric raked his fingers through his hair. “All of this has led us to someone poisoning my horses and my cattle. They cost me my business. You tell me my mother’s family isn’t involved.”

  “You know that for sure?”

  He shook his head. “No. My father says it’s not them. But they sure were defensive when I showed up asking questions.”

  Susan moved to him and positioned herself on his lap. “If you need a place you can…”

  “I won’t need a place,” he said.
“No one is taking my house. No one is taking my mother.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Sharing all of this with me.”

  Eric touched her cheek and then brushed his fingers into her hair. “Your turn, you know.”

  “My turn for what?”

  “Why did you get divorced?”

  Susan winced. Yes, it was only fair she supposed. “I was horribly bored.”

  The surprise in her answer surprised him. That was evident by the flash of shock in his eyes. “Bored?”

  “I wanted to go to culinary school. I wanted children. I freaking wanted to drive from one end of town to the other without my husband telling me how bad it was for the world.” She took a breath. “I heard the phrases ‘you should have, why don’t you, and I think it would be better if you’ more than I ever would have liked. My obsession with food was wrong.”

  “Wrong?”

  “Yes. Just wrong. I needed to focus on doing good for the environment and the world. I needed a job that brought in decent money. I simply wasn’t good enough for anything. I just got bored with being nothing.”

  Eric brushed his thumb over her cheek. “I don’t buy into you being not good enough. I’ve seen what you’re building.”

  Susan couldn’t help but smile. “That’s why I’m in Georgia. It was far enough away to not matter what I did. I gladly drive across town and I’m doing what I love.”

  “You do a good job too.”

  “He’d never have said that.”

  “He doesn’t have to. I’m saying it.” Eric lifted his lips to hers and sealed his words with a kiss that had her clinging to him.

  He pushed them back from the table and carried her to the couch, his mouth still firmly pressed to hers. Gently, he laid her on the couch and slid atop of her.

  Susan hadn’t imagined she’d be happy with a man, ever. She’d written this part of her life away. But Eric had brought back the wanting.

  Eric kissed her until her body eased beneath him. The warmth from the fire made the room’s new heat grow in intensity. Then, he pulled back and looked down at her with that grin that tugged at only one side of his mouth.

  “What the hell does Q stand for?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The humor that lit in Susan’s eyes had been priceless.

  “Q?”

  “Your business card. It says Susan Q. Hayes.”

  She looked up at him and simply grinned. “Is this driving you crazy?”

  “I’ll just lay here, pinning you down, until you tell me,” he said.

  Susan puckered her lips as if to keep them tight.

  “You’re not going to tell me?”

  “Didn’t you just say you’d lay here if I didn’t tell you?”

  He let out a groan and lowered his lips to her neck. Having her beneath him was doing him in. In time she’d tell him. She’d probably tell him if he asked again. But his body couldn’t be controlled when she toyed with him like she was.

  She moaned as she raised her arms to encircle his neck.

  As he moved his hands to skim under her shirt and touch her soft, warm skin, he heard the unmistakable sound of a truck driving up to the house.

  “My family has the worst timing.”

  She smiled, her eyes still hazy. “How do you know it’s your family?”

  “Trust me.”

  Eric rose and took her hand, pulling her from the couch just as his father burst through the door.

  Poised on the tip of his tongue was a colorful comment for the intruder, but when he saw who it was, he swallowed down his comment.

  “Dad? What’s wrong?” He moved toward the door.

  His father looked up at him and then toward Susan. “Sorry. I didn’t know you had company.” He turned and looked out the door before turning back to Eric. “I didn’t even notice the car.”

  “I have coffee. We have some breakfast left. Why don’t you come join us?”

  The look on his father’s face said he hadn’t made the trek out to his house just to say hello.

  “Can we talk?” His father’s words were tight and hushed.

  Susan smiled sweetly. “I should head out and get some work done.”

  That wasn’t what he’d had in mind, but he certainly wouldn’t have wanted to stay if it were her father walking in sounding so desperate.

  “Give me just a moment, Dad,” Eric said following Susan to the kitchen where her car keys sat on the counter. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to go.”

  “He needs you right now. Call me later. If I miss you tonight I’ll be out for dinner with your family tomorrow.”

  Eric grunted knowing this was best. But the positive thing was she was still planning to come back.

  He took her hands in his. “This isn’t how I planned this.”

  “I’m flexible. I have a family too. My ex didn’t like giving me my space when my family needed me. I’d never do the same to someone else.”

  “I think I love you,” he said quietly.

  Her eyes shot open wide and her breath seemed to catch. “I didn’t expect that.”

  “I don’t think I did either.” He wiped a hand across the back of his neck. “In fact, I don’t want you to say anything right now and let’s just let that linger there.”

  She smiled and he took that as a good sign.

  Susan touched his cheek with her soft, warm hand. “Call me if you need me.”

  “Dinner is always at five,” he said.

  “I’ll be there. I’ll bring something.”

  That made him chuckle. “She’s never allowed anyone to do that before. But something tells me you’d be allowed.”

  She lingered a loving gaze on him before she walked past him and toward the door.

  “Goodbye, Mr. Walker.”

  “Oh,” his father said as if waking from a trance. “Goodbye…”

  “Susan,” she said gently offering her name when he stumbled trying to remember. “I met you after your father’s funeral.”

  “Right. I’m sorry. I remember.”

  She rested her hand on his father’s arm. “Take care.”

  Eric watched as his father’s mouth curled slightly and he was sure his father didn’t even know he’d fallen for Susan’s charm.

  They both watched as she pulled on her coat and walked to her car. A few moments later she drove away.

  “How about that coffee, Dad?” Eric offered, hoping to break the ice a little. Whatever his father had to say wasn’t good. That much was written all over his face.

  “Sure.”

  Eric hadn’t actually expected him to accept the offer. His father was a get-down-to-business kind of man.

  But Eric would take the slight distraction offered by the time to pour the coffee.

  His father took a seat at the table and picked up a piece of bacon from the plate, which had been left there. “I suppose if you get involved with a woman who cooks all the time you eat well.”

  “I’ve eaten more full meals this week than I have in a long time. She’s a vegetarian though. I suppose I’ll have to get used to a few things.”

  His father took another bite from the strip. “Getting used to things means you’re planning on keeping her around?”

  Eric swallowed hard as he poured the coffee in two mugs. It was warm enough, for now.

  “It seems as if that’s what I want to do.”

  “I’m happy for you. Crappy timing though, huh?”

  Eric turned toward the table and set the mugs down before he took his seat. “Who’s to say the timing would ever be right?”

  His father nodded as he lifted the mug to his lips, sipped, then winced.

  Eric sipped his as well. “I guess it got cold.” He stood, picked up the mugs and dumped them into the sink.

  “They’re going to move your mother.”

  Eric felt the mug slip from his hand and crash into the sink, breaking into big chunks. A ceramic sh
ard bounced from the sink lodging itself into the side of his hand.

  “Shit!” He yanked his hand back and pulled the shard from his hand. Blood trickled down his arm and onto the floor.

  His father moved quickly, taking the dishtowel from where it hung on the oven door handle.

  “Get this wrapped around it.”

  Eric grit his teeth against the sting.

  “Let’s look at it. Do you need stitches?” His father reached for him.

  Eric pulled his hand back. “I don’t need any damn stitches. I’ll take care of it.”

  He held the towel tighter, noticing that the blood was beginning to ooze through the fabric. Blood never bothered Eric, but having it pulse out of his body made his knees feel week. With a swift swipe of his foot, he pulled the kitchen chair out further and sat down.

  His father looked down at him, forcing Eric to take a long, deep breath. Before he spoke, he bit down on the inside of his cheek trying to get just a little control over the anger that still boiled in him.

  “You’re letting her go? You’re letting them move her?”

  “Eric, there’s a lot going on here.”

  “And I’m the one getting screwed!” If he were sure he wouldn’t fall over from the amount of blood soaking into the towel he’d walk out of the room. He didn’t need to have this conversation.

  “You know this isn’t all about you,” his father’s voice broke. “I loved her. I lost her too.”

  Eric gasped as his father spat the words toward him.

  “They turned her away. They disowned her and pushed her out of their lives. She was your wife. My mother. To them, she was nothing.”

  Eric watched as the color began to drain from his father’s face.

  “That was so long ago,” his father’s voice drifted.

  “What does that matter? You can’t go back.”

  “People make mistakes, Eric.”

  His heart pounded in his chest and his hand throbbed in the towel. He was damn sure he too was going to need stitches, but this conversation just might give him a heart attack first.

  “She didn’t make a mistake. She fell in love with you, married you, and had me. Where is it written that that is a mistake?”

  The color was coming back to his father’s face. His cheeks were red and the vein on the side of his temple became pronounced.