He kissed the top of her head like he had so many times before. “I hear you, Danni but think about it. I’m an ex-con. I’m worried about Jesse and what everyone in town will say about you being with me? Did you think about that?”
Danni understood what he was saying. She saw the looks that some people, those who didn’t know Walker well gave him. She saw how they skirted around him like he was dangerous, but Danni didn’t care. She knew Walker. She knew what kind of man he really was and so did her family. She couldn’t imagine them not wanting her to be with him either.
She propped herself up on her elbow. “Why can’t you understand I don’t give a damn,” she declared.
He brushed her hair back from her face and tucked a curl behind her ear. “Of course, you don’t but I do. No one knows that I have money that my grandparents gave me, and I invested. They don’t know that I have turned that into four hundred thousand dollars, a nice nest egg. They don’t know that I take care of my Mom with the money I make from helping your dad or working with Matt on the farm. It’s more than I need to take care of you and her and my needs, but they don’t know that,” he explained. “They think I’m worthless. Shank Wild’s son. They think I’m just like Jesse.”
Danni laid her head on Walker’s chest and let the quiet speak for her. She didn’t care if he had a dime to his name. She loved that he had always watched over her and took care of his mother. When he came home after prison, she anticipated awkwardness because her eighteen-year-old self-had poured out her broken heart to him in letters. She was embarrassed but he hadn’t mentioned them once.
Walker knew she was embarrassed. Walker understood her. He cared for her, she knew that he did.
“Say something, dammit,” he declared.
“I don’t need to,” she replied.
“Why not?” He grumbled.
“Walker, I have had a mad crush on you since I was five and you were fourteen.”
He sighed because she knew that he didn’t understand.
“I have loved you since you came home from prison and didn’t embarrass me by saying something about the letters that I sent you that must have seemed childish when you were locked away for a crime you didn’t commit.”
“I was frustrated and angry at Jackson Hand for doing that to you when I could do nothing to make you feel better.”
She rose up again and looked him in the eye. “You could have written me back.”
He stared at her for a moment then he licked his lips. “And say what, Danni? I wish I was there to pick up the pieces? All I could think of was how badly I had hurt you and my mother. Matt too. He wrote a few strong letters to me while I was in prison not like yours that were full of heartbreak and not just because Jackson had left town.”
She gasped. She knew what was in those letters to Walker besides the things she had written about Jackson. She had told him about the day he had been taken away in handcuffs. It was another day that had broken her heart.
“Your dad told me when he picked me up outside the jail that I should have come to him. Even then he knew I hadn’t done it or Simon believed that I hadn’t.”
None of them had. They knew Walker well, but they hadn’t guessed the extent of Jesse’s deceit that got Walker thrown in jail for five years.
“What happens now, Walker?” She asked.
“I don’t know. We wait Jesse out. He has to give up eventually and leave town.”
She shook her head causing her hair to fall over her shoulder. Walker pushed it away from her face and let a strand slip through his fingers. Then, he gazed at her. “This was a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Because you are wearing very little,” the words came out as a groan. “And I can think of nothing else than what is beneath that nightgown.” The last few words came out low and needy.
Danni laid her hand on Walker’s cheek. She didn’t hide what she was feeling. The need. The emotions. Everything was written on her face. He pushed her onto her back and gazed at her for a moment before his lips touched hers with such softness that she melted in his arms, drawing him closer to her.
“Danni, this isn’t good. I should sleep on the couch.”
“Why?” She was frustrated with Walker. She wanted him right where he was.
“Because, I want nothing more than to remove that flimsy nightgown and fuck you silly and that isn’t good right now.”
“But I want you too, Walker.”
“No baby, you want to be made love to. There is a difference.” He kissed her lips and pulled back again. “You were right when you said prison changed me. It made me harder. The man before prison,” Walker hesitated. His eyes were locked on Danni’s. “He could say the sweet words that you need to hear. He could give you the love and make love to you the way you deserve. Danni, that’s not me.” He slipped out of her arms. She watched him leave her room.
Then Danni turned to her side away from the door. She stared through the open window, listening to the sounds of the night that should be relaxing her. She knew in the morning, Walker would be gone before she got out of bed.