Page 14 of Slow Hands Cowboy

And then he had set out to make sure that nothing would hold him back ever.

From the college degree to varied and curated investments, Walker made sure that he would never have to worry about money again.

Beauty faded. But the almighty dollar was forever. As for developing a personality? Overrated.

“You look like you want to kill somebody.” His brother’s girlfriend Marlowe tapped him on the shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. The wedding is tomorrow, and I’m just celebrating my near freedom from the Addison Carey experience.”

“Well, that’s fair.”

“Were they wretched the whole rest of the bachelorette weekend?”

Marlowe shook her head and sat down at the dinner table with the rest of the family.

They were camped out in Cody’s backyard, as they did a few times a week, having a barbecue and discussing the family business.

That was the funny thing. He had vowed not to have too many connections, that was true.

But this connection, the family connection, had earned him a lot of his wealth, and it was going to continue to be lucrative for all of them.

Not having to worry about taking care of his family made them feel a whole lot less like a burden. That was a fact.

They were each self-sufficient at this point, and he couldn’t have asked for better than that.

They chose to stay together because it worked.

And that was pretty damn awesome.

“They were fine,” Marlowe said. “It’s all a little bit fussy, and they had the restaurant reserved for the bachelorette, where they invited a whole bunch of other women from town and it was a little bit wild. Not cowboy stripper wild, just lots of wine wild.”

“Right,” he said.

He couldn’t imagine wine-wild Addison. And, against his better judgment, he found himself curious about that.

He also wondered what she’d do if faced with a cowboy stripper. He tried to imagine that princess getting freaky in any capacity. Then he told himself to stop it.

“Addison didn’t drink much, did she?”

“I guess not, now that you mention it, but she managed to keep up with the energy.”

He had noticed that during the dinner, too. Her friends had more to drink than she did. She managed to make a glass of champagne last for a very long time.

If there was one thing he suspected about her, it was that she was a control freak. If he wanted to have a slightly kind perspective on the entire experience of planning the wedding with her, that was what he would say.

That she was obsessed with every last detail, that she constantly changed things, because she was trying to control every last aspect.

And to an extent, he could almost understand that.

Almost.

“We’re already pretty booked up,” Cody said, joining them at the table. “I imagine once everybody gets a look at Addison’s wedding, we’re going to be even busier.”

“That’s the idea,” Walker said. He wasn’t being accommodating of Addison just for his own amusement. Sure, there was something funny about pretending to accommodate her all while seething with rage; it was his own personal brand of martyrdom, if he was honest.

He liked it.

On some level.