Walker Spirit Read online

  WalkerSpirit

  The Walker Family ~ Book Seven

  Bernadette Marie

  Contents

  Walker Spirit

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Bernadette Marie

  Walker Spirit

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Epilogue

  preview

  Beginnings

  About the Author

  Other Titles from 5 Prince Publishing

  Walker Spirit

  Bernadette Marie

  This is a fictional work. The names, characters, incidents, and locations are solely the concepts and products of the author’s imagination, or are used to create a fictitious story and should not be construed as real.

  * * *

  5 PRINCE PUBLISHING & BOOKS, LLC

  PO Box 16507, Denver, CO 80216

  www.5PrinceBooks.com

  * * *

  Digital: ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-210-1

  Print: ISBN-13: 978-1-63112-211-8

  WALKER SPIRIT. Bernadette Marie

  Copyright Bernadette Marie 2017 Smashwords Edition

  Published by 5 Prince Publishing

  Cover Credit: B. Soehner

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations, reviews, and articles. For any other permission please contact 5 Prince Publishing and Books, LLC.

  First Edition 2017

  5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND BOOKS, LLC.

  To Stan,

  * * *

  You continually lift my spirit

  with your belief in all that I do.

  I love you.

  Acknowledgments

  To My 5: You are the spirit of my life. No matter the battle ahead of us, you are my joy.

  * * *

  To Mom, Dad, and Anni: Thank you for your encouragement to follow my spirit (or all 900 of them.)

  * * *

  Cate, thanks for putting up with my “on its own schedule” spirit. I appreciate you keeping me on track from the other side of the world.

  * * *

  To My Readers: Thank you for holding out for this book. It challenged me until I knew it was right.

  Also by Bernadette Marie

  THE KELLER FAMILY SERIES

  The Executive’s Decision

  A Second Chance

  Opposite Attraction

  Center Stage

  Lost and Found

  Love Songs

  Home Run

  The Acceptance

  The Merger

  The Escape Clause

  A Romance for Christmas

  * * *

  THE WALKER FAMILY SERIES

  Walker Pride

  Stargazing

  Walker Bride

  Wanderlust

  Walker Revenge

  Victory

  Walker Spirit

  * * *

  THE MATCHMAKER SERIES

  Matchmakers

  Encore

  Finding Hope

  * * *

  THE THREE MRS. MONROES TRILOGY

  Amelia

  Penelope

  Vivian

  * * *

  THE ASPEN CREEK SERIES

  First Kiss

  Unexpected Admirer

  On Thin Ice

  Indomitable Spirit

  * * *

  THE DENVER BRIDE SERIES

  Cart Before the Horse

  Never Saw it Coming

  Candy Kisses

  * * *

  ROMANTIC SUSPENSE by BERNADETTE MARIE

  Chasing Shadows

  Walker Spirit

  1

  Wondering when her dress would turn to rags, and her high heels to slippers, Audrey Walker ducked out of the reception hall full of Walker family and half the state of Georgia, she reckoned. Leaned against the outside wall, she pulled off her shoes, wiggled her numb toes, and rested her head for a moment.

  It had been a long day. Her aunt had been planning this ball for the past month, and it was as sweet as the one Cinderella attended, she was sure. However, Audrey had nearly single-handedly made everyone at the ball look fantastic. She’d been doing hair and make-up on everyone, in the kitchen of her condo, since early that morning. And now, as the night inched toward late, she was exhausted.

  Perhaps she wouldn’t ditch the night all together. After all, where else could she snap pictures on her phone of her brothers in tuxedos? She wasn’t even sure Jake would wear one for his own wedding, which had also been announced at the ball.

  Things were quickly changing around her, she pondered, as she heard the DJ change songs. Jake was going to marry a fellow race car driver, whom he’d always had a rivalry with. Missy Sheridan, however, wasn’t the enemy he’d made her out to be. Audrey hadn’t been around Missy too much, but she thoroughly enjoyed her. She’d be happy to have Missy for a sister-in-law, and she’d fit in with the women of the Walker family. They were all bold, smart, and strong.

  The wedding was planned for October. An outdoor fall wedding. And with Lydia Morgan, the owner of the reception hall and many other venues around town, in charge, it was bound to be extraordinary. Pearl, Audrey’s sister who owned the bridal store and co-owned the building with Lydia, had already begun talking wedding attire with Missy.

  Pearl had married Lydia Morgan’s brother Tyson almost two years ago. They had eloped, though Audrey wished they’d done it up big and bold. It was a union that deserved a big celebration. They’d had a reception, but it just wasn’t the same, as far as Audrey was concerned.

  Perhaps their reasoning was because the Morgans had once been family rivals of the Walkers, but she couldn’t say she’d ever fully bought into that. For as long as she could remember, Audrey had been friends with Lydia. And wasn’t it because of Lydia that Audrey was taking the plunge into owning her own business?

  With a grin on her face, she walked around to the front of the reception hall and out to the sidewalk that lined the shops in front of what her sister and Lydia had coined their Bridal Mecca.

  The two entrepreneurial women had purchased the entire building, with hopes of filling it with businesses that were geared toward weddings. And they were certainly succeeding.

  Pearl owned the bridal store. Their sister Bethany worked part-time for the florist. Her cousin Dane’s fiancée, Gia, owned an Italian import gift store. Audrey had lost count of the number of businesses Lydia was involved in between venues and restaurants. She was a wonder.

  Now Audrey would open her own hair salon in the same location. She wasn’t sure what thrilled her more; having her own business, or being that close to her sisters every day.

  The sky was dark, with no hint of the moon. But she wanted to walk to the storefront where her salon would soon be, just to be
near it.

  Slowly, enjoying the warmth in the air, and the sounds all around her, she walked to the dark window where a small sign said Coming Soon! Audrey’s Salon and Boutique.

  In the past week, the contractor had been working on getting the plumbing run. She’d opted for four shampoo sinks, though to start, she’d be working alone. But she didn’t know if that was forever. It was better to plan ahead, she thought.

  Audrey opened her tiny purse, which Pearl had loaned her with the dress, and had made her swear to return in pristine shape so she could sell it. Inside, she fished for the keys. She wanted to go inside and look around. To breathe the air in her very own space would give her a high to last for the night. She’d been in there only hours earlier, so nothing would have changed, but it did something to her to be there. Perhaps that was the same thrill Lydia got when she opened a new business. Audrey could see how it could become addictive.

  Last month, when she’d walked out of the salon she’d worked at for nearly ten years, her brother Jake suggested she go into business for herself. She’d planned on buying the salon until they sold it out from under her. So she’d walked out. What else was she supposed to do? That day, she’d thought her career was over, but now, oh—the possibilities.

  As she turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door, she felt that wash of pride warm her. This was what she thought of as Walker style—doing something the way you wanted to.

  Everything in the salon would be right where she wanted it. The colors would be hers, the furniture, and even the magazines. How was it that she’d never thought of having something she’d built from the ground up before?

  “Hi. I’m sorry to bother you, but…”

  The voice of a man boomed behind her, and Audrey spun around, dropping the elegant bag to the ground and into the dust.

  Her first instinct would have been to gather the bag, but she was paralyzed looking at the dark shadow of a man standing in her doorway.

  “Oh, God, I didn’t mean to startle you. I am so sorry.” He stepped in further, and Audrey took a step back, fisting her hands at her side. The man then stood still, his hands up in surrender. “I’m just looking for Kent Black. I was told I could find him around here.”

  Audrey blinked hard, trying to get her eyes to focus in the dark area. “Why are you looking for Kent?” she asked. Her sister hadn’t mentioned anything about someone coming for her husband. Audrey certainly wasn’t going to be the person to just give up his presence.

  “I’m with the film crew that’s going to be making the movie here. I was supposed to be in town yesterday when they all met.” She saw him shrug. “But you know, things come up.”

  Audrey scanned her memory for the conversation she and her sister had had that morning while she was doing her hair.

  Bethany’s husband, Kent Black, was a famous sci-fi novelist, and they were making a movie of his latest book. And they were doing it right in Macon, Georgia. Why, she had no idea. Bethany had told her about the hundreds of meetings Kent had had in the past few months. Then when the talent was supposed to arrive, Gregory Bishop, the actor cast in the role of the main character, called last minute and said he’d had an itch to pull some slots in Vegas.

  Audrey narrowed her eyes on him trying to decide if this man, standing in her doorway, was Gregory Bishop. If he was, she had some mixed emotions. First of all, he’d been named one of the sexiest men on the planet, or something like that. From the shape of his shadow, she could see that he easily might fit that bill. In fact, just looking at the cut of his arms where the light from outside illuminated them, those were the kind of arms that carried a woman away. She swallowed hard.

  He was tall, she guessed six-four. The voice. She should recognize the voice. Because her evenings were spent with Netflix, she’d seen every Gregory Bishop movie, more than once. She’d recognized the satin sex in his voice, she thought. But as she hadn’t been prepared when he spoke to her, she wouldn’t have thought to single him out as the hunky movie star. She needed him to speak again.

  “Kent is busy,” she said, and the man nodded, running his fingers through his hair.

  “Yeah, I know. On my drive from the airport to the hotel, I thought I’d better apologize. I was supposed to be here yesterday to meet with him about my character. Hollywood gets into my brain sometimes, but then I forget that people depend on me. Kent expects me to play Lieutenant Price expertly, and giving into my senseless desires sometimes gets me in trouble.”

  Well, that was all she needed. This was indeed Gregory Bishop standing there in front of her, having an easy conversation, and acting as if he had a conscience.

  Suddenly her mind flashed to the picture of him on the cover of some tabloid at the store. She didn’t have to think about what he looked like beyond just the shadowed silhouette in the doorway. She knew exactly what he looked like, and if it weren’t for his reputation for being quite a playboy—oh, she’d like to trace her fingers all over those ridges that made up his chest and stomach.

  But she remembered he was there looking for Kent, to apologize for being too Hollywood. She could only imagine what that meant. Maybe she’d take him to Kent after all. Kent was too good a man to have someone treat him badly. Audrey decided she wanted to see what this Gregory Bishop was all about. Her own sister had been Hollywood too. Sex, drugs, and trouble were all it brought to her. Thank God she’d moved back to Georgia, Audrey realized now. Bethany’s mother had succumbed to the ills of the industry, and Bethany had begun to slide into them as well. Had it not been for Kent, who could tell where Bethany might be. Now she was a respected member of the community, married to an amazing man, and she wrote children’s books. Things had worked out for Bethany. Audrey, however, wasn’t so sure about a man who could drop everything for Vegas just because he was too Hollywood.

  She knelt to pick up the small purse she’d dropped. Pearl was going to kill her for walking into a construction site in her borrowed dress. That, she hadn’t thought about, when she decided to look at her space.

  Hiking up her skirt to a modest height, she carefully walked toward the door.

  “Something wrong?” Gregory asked as he stepped outside.

  “My sister loaned me the dress and the purse. I dropped the purse when you startled me. And it just occurred to me that the dust from the salon floor will now be on the dress.”

  She watched him scan a look over her in the dimly lit doorway.

  “Your sister is very picky, huh?”

  “What? No. She owns the bridal shop.” She pointed to the door a few down from hers. “These are samples that she hopes to sell. I can’t afford to pay her for them right now, so if I mess them up…”

  “I’ll buy them for you,” he offered. “Consider them yours.”

  Audrey choked out a laugh as she pulled the door closed. “Brilliant. I’d like to put in an order for some Jimmy Choo shoes then, so I can wear the ensemble again.”

  “What size?”

  He was toying with her, but she caught a whiff of his cologne, and as she swooned, she found she just didn’t care. “Seven and a half.”

  “It’s dark. What color is the dress?”

  She locked the door and turned right into him. His hands came to her hips to steady her. Lifting her eyes up to his, she realized that Gregory Bishop was holding her, in the dark, very intimately. Was there a woman on the planet that hadn’t fantasized about a moment like this?

  The air seemed to stick in her lungs, and she fought for breath. Perhaps she was willing herself to faint so he’d have to administer mouth to mouth.

  What in the hell was wrong with her? This man had blown off Kent’s importance and came to grovel.

  She stepped back, out of his ever-so-sensuous grasp. Finally inhaling, she ran her hands over the satin fabric. “Royal blue,” she managed as Gregory reached out and curled a loose strand of hair around his finger.

  “I love blue dresses. What’s your name?”

  At that moment, she wasn�
�t sure. She blinked twice and let his voice just sink into her. “Audrey. Audrey Walker.”

  “Gregory Bishop,” he said holding out his hand.

  “I know. I mean everyone knows. Right?”

  “Bethany Waterbury didn’t know who I was when they cast me. We even worked together once,” he said.

  “Bethany is my sister.”

  She saw the whites of his eyes as they widened, then the grin and sparkle of his teeth in the dark. “You’re Bethany Waterbury’s sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re not a Waterbury?”

  “She’s a Walker. She kept her mother’s last name, as she wasn’t married to my father. And because of the movie industry. Violet Waterbury, her mother, was well-known.”

  He nodded slowly. “It’s amazing who you meet on the street.”

  Didn’t she know it? Who would have thought she’d run into the world’s sexiest man, and he’d touch her, talk to her, offer to buy her Jimmy Choo shoes.

  “Ms. Walker, since you’re Bethany Waterbury—forgive me—Bethany Black’s sister, would you know where your brother-in-law Kent might be?” His voice was easy, sincere, and still filled with that sexy strain that was entangling her.