Page 54 of Slow Hands Cowboy

He closed the door, and started the engine, and all she could think as she watched him drive away was that the most problematic storm that had been unleashed was the one raging inside of her body right now.

Chapter Ten

Today had been a day. Walker had received emails from a couple of different news outlets, most of them relatively local to Mustang River, all in the state of Oregon, asking for him to confirm whether or not he was dating the famous jilted bride.

He hadn’t responded, not today, because he felt like it was best to let it all stew for a few days, really let all the flavors of this weird situation marry, before he said anything to anybody. Maybe that was a weird plan, but it was one that he thought would probably work best. He also got Addison moved out of the cabin and into the hotel—which, to be fair, wasn’t much of him doing anything. She didn’t have her car, which they were going to have to solve. It was still parked somewhere on ranch property, it was just that nobody had made a move to do anything with it, because she had gone to ground so deeply after the wedding dissolution.

Once he’d had that realization, he had her car moved over to the hotel, Pike being exceptionally helpful in getting that done. Which was funny, because Pike was rarely helpful, not for anything other than what he wanted to do.

Maybe that wasn’t fair. Pike was a generally cheerful person, but Walker found him to be entirely unserious.

Many people thought that Walker was unserious, but those people were wrong.

Walker was deadly serious about a few things. One of those things was the family business. And really, everything he was serious about connected to that. His desire to earn money, his need to prove himself.

He gritted his teeth together. He didn’t especially like that thought. That characterization of what he was doing.

The need to prove himself.

What the hell did that even mean?

He had proven himself. At least insofar as anyone could. They had inherited this ranch, so of course there would always be an idea that what they had gotten couldn’t have been theirs without a hand up—which would of course be seen as more of a handout.

There was nothing he could do about any of that. What he needed to deal with was the influx of interest in the ranch. Separate from the interest in himself and Addison. But it was difficult to wade through those things.

Anyway, what he actually needed was a break from Addison.

The way that he had teased her last night had pushed him to the edge, and it hadn’t been the best idea.

He should know better than to tease her like that. Because it only ended up charging up his own latent desire for her.

Latent? The whole time you were planning that wedding, the only thing you wanted to do more than strangle her was fuck her up against the nearest wall.

Fine. His annoying internal voice was correct about that.

But he was an adult. And he didn’t let his baser instincts control him. Something he bolstered himself with as he walked into his brother’s house.

Cody and Marlowe would be serving dinner for everyone tonight, and Walker was more than happy to take the free meal.

It was scorching hot outside, but they would still be eating in the backyard. Walker went inside for a bit, because he needed a break from the pounding sun.

He walked in and saw that no one was there. He pressed his palms on top of the kitchen island for just a moment, letting the cool from the stone countertop seep into his palms.

“There you are.”

He looked up to see his future sister-in-law, Marlowe, standing there, arms crossed.

“Ditto yourself,” he said.

“Everything has been a little bit crazy lately.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“And you went out with Addison last night.”

“I did,” he said, waiting to see what she would say.

“You’re up to something.”