Wilde Fire (Forever Wilde 3)

“He sure did,” Doc hooted from his spot at the table. I shot him a look that made Grandpa snort. Those two were such kids sometimes.

“What’s new with you?” I asked, struggling to think of something to say when all I wanted to do was enjoy a nice quiet lunch with my family. “You’re living in Hobie?”

“I am. I work for Leonard Fickle at the accounting firm.” Her smile was predatory, and her lacquered fingernails still ran teasingly up and down my shirtsleeves.

Doc leaned around with a grin. “Aren’t you and Leonard married?”

Leonard was about as old as the Bible and had been the primary tax preparer in town since before Texas was granted statehood. My eyes widened at her.

“We are,” she said with flared nostrils at Doc. “But he’s a very understanding husband, if you know what I mean.” This last part was whispered at me with significant eyeballs.

“Whoa-ho, what’s going on?” Walker’s voice interrupted Carrie-Anne’s flirt attack on me, and I’d never been more grateful for an interruption. “You two having a class reunion without inviting me?”

He reached out and tugged on my shoulder until I stumbled behind him while he gave Carrie-Anne an awkward handshake. It was a pretty smooth move, and I wondered if Carrie-Anne was the only person there who didn’t see it as the territory marking it clearly was.

My heart swelled with warmth, and I felt giddy as a schoolgirl watching him “protect” me from the cougar.

“Well, hello, Sheriff,” she drawled. “Fancy meeting you here. My, my… a sheriff and a firefighter together in the same—”

“So sorry to interrupt, but Walker was getting ready to consult with us on some town plans we need to discuss, and he doesn’t have a very long lunch break in which to do it. It was very nice seeing you, Carrie-Anne.”

Thank god for Grandpa. I could have kissed the man.

“Oh. Well, I guess… don’t be a stranger then, all right?” she cooed. “See you soon?”

Walker and I nodded as she sashayed away. When she was gone, he reached out and squeezed my shoulder, letting his warm hand linger a few beats longer than usual.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he murmured. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”

I wanted to pull him into my arms and rest my face against the familiar skin of his throat, but I didn’t dare touch him like that in public while he was still married.

“It’s fine.”

“Why don’t you two sit and eat?” Grandpa said, leaning forward and pushing out the fourth chair from the table.

Walker looked at me with a raised brow as if asking if it was okay for him to stay. I nodded.

“I thought you had plans to eat with your dad?” I asked.

“No. She made that shit up. Her jealousy of you was pretty off the charts. I’m sorry about that too.”

Once we were both seated, I reached over under the table and ran my fingertips against his outer thigh just softly enough to let him know we were okay. He turned and focused those blue eyes on me, and I saw the pain in them. He was worried Jolie had scared me off.

I smiled at him as reassuring as I could. “I’m really looking forward to tonight,” I said with a glance around to make sure no one was within earshot besides Grandpa and Doc.

He let out a big sigh of relief and smiled back at me. God, he was gorgeous. “Me too.”

We wound up having a nice lunch with my grandfathers talking about Walker’s niece Tisha and what it had been like living in Minnesota. They asked me some more questions about my time in the navy, but I tried to change the subject as quickly as I could. I knew Walker noticed every time I did it because he gave me a funny look. My grandfathers weren’t stupid either, but I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.

Finally it was time to finish up so we could let Walker get back to work.

“We’re headed to the firehouse to talk to Chief Paige,” Grandpa told Walker with a grin.

Walker’s eyes widened as he looked at me. Despite my rule against touching him in public, I couldn’t help put reach out my finger to lift his chin up.

“Your jaw was hanging open,” I teased softly.

Red heat moved up his neck at my touch. Damn, the man was so responsive; I couldn’t wait to get him in bed with me again. Just the thought of it made my pants uncomfortable.

“You’re really going to do it?” he asked just as softly. “Move back here?”

I nodded and smiled at him. “Of course I am. I’ll do anything you ask me to, Seth. Don’t you know that by now?”

The big, strong law enforcement officer in all his hardware and body armor looked like he was going to melt into a puddle of goo right in front of me. I wanted to draw him into my arms and reassure him until he really believed that I’d been his all along, regardless of him dumping my ass all those years ago.