Victory Page 17

  Jake reached for her hand, took the spoon from it and laid it on the counter. He moved the pan to another burner, and turned off the one she’d been using.

  He handed her the glass of wine she had sitting on the counter next to her, and took her by the hand out to the back yard.

  She wasn’t sure what he was doing, but she followed. He walked them to the back of the yard by the water feature where he had a porch swing. He sat down, and then pulled her to his lap.

  The sound of the water trickling and falling over rocks eased her, and she was sure that was the point. Spring flowers bloomed in pots and in a small planted section next to the fountain.

  Jake rocked the swing with one foot, and wrapped an arm around her.

  Missy pressed her head to his shoulder. “This is nice.”

  “I haven’t taken the time to really enjoy this spot enough,” he said. “But this is what I was thinking it would be for someday.”

  She turned to look at him. “What does that really mean?”

  He sipped his wine. “I built this part of the yard so that when the time was right I could sit here as the sun began to set. I could listen to the calm of the water, smell the flowers, and hold the woman I love in my arms.”

  She sucked in a sharp breath and sat up so that she was stiff on his lap. “Jake…”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t love me. Don’t ruin what I’ve got going.” He urged her back against him. “You’re not in my way, Sheridan. You’ve become my way. I needed that and I didn’t know I did.”

  She squeezed her eyes closed and rested her head back against his shoulder. “When I was inside, I worried that you wouldn’t feel the way I do.”

  He shifted and she opened her eyes to see him glancing at her. “How do you feel?”

  “Oh, right now, I’m overwhelmed as hell. But I have been in love with you for a while now, I just thought it was everything getting to me. You pulled me from the flames of my car, saved my ass in a parking lot, and through all that, now I’m living in your house. I’ve taken over your life, Jake.”

  “I’m fairly sure you’ve enhanced what was mundane and boring. If I didn’t want you in it, you wouldn’t be in it.” He touched her cheek and held her gaze. “I love you. I’m going to be saying it now a lot. So, if you don’t want to hear it or want to say it back I’ll under…”

  “I love you too. It scares the hell out of me, but I do love you.”

  He brought his warm mouth to hers and took her under with his kiss. “I’d say we got this out of the way now. Let’s enjoy the sounds for a little bit longer, then you can finish your dinner and I’ll clean up the kitchen.”

  Dropping her head back to his shoulder, she breathed in the moment. Never could she have assumed this was where she’d land in her life. It was by far the biggest crash she’d ever had, and she didn’t want to be pulled from it.

  With Missy wrapped in his arms, sleeping soundly, sleep should have come easy to him as well, but it eluded him. It was nearly two in the morning, and he was wide awake—his mind wound round and round to everything happening in his life.

  Before they’d gone to bed, he’d checked his emails. The roster for Savannah had been updated. He’d be racing against Sam, and Justice as expected, but there was a different mindset now, he thought.

  Sam would be the cowardly driver. It came with being new. They were as much a threat on the track as the veteran who was out to win at any cost. He’d still have to make a qualifying time. But if he did that, then he’d deserve to be racing.

  He didn’t even know what to think about Justice. He wanted to be mad as hell at him. He’d taken everything from Jake that Jake had thought he wanted. It had always been obvious that Justice wanted it more. He’d go to the big circuit. He’d race NASCAR, and Jake had no doubt that in time, Justice would win those races. He was a good driver.

  Jake just didn’t care.

  Suddenly, the things on his mind were acquiring another car. There was no reason he couldn’t race alongside Missy in a team. Lydia had wanted him to meet with her partner, and maybe something could come if it—more than what already had.

  Thoughts of adding another dresser to the bedroom had his mind wandering. Missy could use her own space.

  Then he decided that they needed to add on the garage he’d always planned to build next to the house. It wasn’t important for his one truck, but with two of them living there now, it would be nice to have.

  If things continued between them, as he was sincerely hoping they would, they’d have to decide their future. Would they live in the small house forever, just the two of them? Marriage hadn’t really been in the forefront of his mind—ever. But he didn’t know if that would come up. If it did, and they did get married, he’d want children. Ones he could raise with love and respect. He’d be damned if they cursed his name as he did his own father’s.

  If all of that happened, they’d have to have a new house.

  Jake had an acre of land on the ranch property. They all did. So far, only Eric lived out there. They could build a house there.

  It was that thought that finally had him climbing from bed and walking to the TV room for a bottle of water in the mini-fridge.

  He couldn’t move on into this happily-ever-after until he made peace with a few things, he decided as he plopped down onto the couch.

  The feelings he had for his father clouded most decisions he’d ever made in his life. Sometimes they kept him from doing something big. Other times, it was his father’s fault that big things fell out from underneath him.

  Byron Walker was a two-faced liar, a gambler, a cheat.

  Jake grumbled to himself as he thought of it.

  How did his sisters and his brother deal with it? This part of his life needed clearing before he could go forward.

  He went back to the small desk area in the kitchen and opened his laptop. Penning an email to his siblings, he asked them all to meet him for a drink later that afternoon.

  Jake smiled to himself as he pushed send. Maybe he did want all those things that came with a woman putting tampons in your bathroom.

  He chuckled as he closed the laptop. Perhaps he could fall asleep now. Even more than that, he just wanted to be near Missy.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  It was funny how drinks turned into a six-pack among siblings while sitting in the empty space that would one day be Audrey’s Salon and Boutique.

  Pearl sat in her office chair, which she’d wheeled over from her bridal boutique. Bethany was on the floor, her legs twisted like a pretzel on her yoga mat, which she had in the back of her car. Audrey sat on a crate, and Todd and Jake stood, leaned up on either side of the pillar in the middle of the room.

  “This is going to be fabulous,” Pearl said as she looked around the open space. “I feel as though Lydia was holding out for you. Maybe she knew what was going to happen.”

  Audrey gave the space a scan as well. “I wouldn’t have gone to her had Jake not suggested it.”

  “Everyone should do what they want to do, the way they want to do it,” Jake said.

  Bethany moved her head from side to side, stretching as if she were in her own little yoga class while she sat with them. “Do you think you’ll have it all together by the time they begin filming the movie of Kent’s book here at the end of the summer?”

  Audrey shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll be close. I have a meeting with Lydia’s contractor next week. I’m going to have a working space prior to that. I have to keep my clientele happy.”

  Pearl crossed her legs and balanced one of her fancy high heeled shoes from her toes. “Kitchen beautician,” she laughed. “It’ll be like old times.”

  “I just don’t want it to be for too long. It’s not professional.”

  Bethany crossed one arm over her chest and stretched it with her other arm in front of her, giving it resistance. “I was just thinking that you could work on set. They’re going to want to use locals.”

  “The way my luck ro
lls, I don’t see that happening. But keep me in the loop. Gregory Bishop is starring in it, isn’t he?”

  A moan came from Pearl which had all their heads turning. “My husband is a fine man. But Gregory Bishop still makes my skin flush,” she said as she fanned her hand in front of her.

  Jake held his hands up, as if in surrender. “I appreciate all this sisterly whatever it is, but can we move away from hot men and talk about dad?”

  Pearl snarled. “You’re an ass. I was feeling all warm and fuzzy before.”

  “You’ll get over it.”

  “Fine. What’s up your butt about Dad now?” Pearl looked at her manicure and then back up at him.

  “You all know that I lost my original sponsor.”

  Todd nodded. “Stout Farm.”

  “Right. Huge blow, but Lydia bailed me out, as she usually does for all of us.” He saw them all nod. Who would have thought Lydia Morgan would become a savior to the Walkers, but she sure had. “Anyway, they picked up Eddie Justice as their driver. Their looking to take him to the bigger circuit, race NASCAR.”

  Bethany’s brows drew together. “Isn’t that what you do?”

  He shook his head. “I’m small circuit. Their looking at Daytona, Talladega, things like that.”

  “Oh. And you didn’t want that?”

  He shrugged. “I did. I can say I did, but now I don’t.” He shook it off. “The point is, I just found out Dad is partnering with the Stout Farm people.”

  Todd shifted his stance, and Jake wasn’t sure he could look more uncomfortable, but he’d managed. “Where does he get the money? The man has nothing. Shares nothing. Yet…” He blew out a breath. “Go on.”

  “I get it,” Jake assured him. “I don’t understand. But he’s partnered with them and Samuel Sheridan.”

  Pearl’s attention was piqued. “So dad has partnered with all the enemies.”

  Jake nodded. “I suppose you could say it that way.”

  “But they fired you?”

  “Yeah, more or less. And Sheridan is putting his son in to race in Savannah.”

  “But he’s not as good as Missy?”

  Jake tucked his hands into his front pockets. “No.”

  Pearl folded her hands and rested them on her knee. “So what does this have to do with us?”

  “I needed my family. I guess, I just needed us all together. Only us five really understand Dad, or we don’t. We’ve all been cheated by him, scorned. Knowing that he didn’t have an interest in my career, and was part of why I was in that damn wreck and run out of other races, well it hurts.”

  “What do you mean? He had something to do with your wreck?” Todd stiffened.

  Jake ran his hand over the back of his neck. “He bet against me. You know him. Money is his main motivation.”

  He could see the fury in his brother’s eyes. “They said something was wrong with your car. You crashed because of a malfunction.”

  “Yeah, that’s what they said.”

  “You gave me a key to your shop after you opened,” Todd reminded him. “I’d been working on something.” He looked up as if trying to remember. “God, it seems like it was something stupid, too. Oh, the damn lawnmower.”

  “I remember.”

  “Dad dropped by to take me to dinner, before your wreck. I remember thinking how strange it was. He doesn’t have a lot to do with me usually. But he’d stopped by, took me to dinner, then came in after for a few minutes. The next day I had to call Eric and ask for a ride to work. I couldn’t find my keys. Later that day dad came out to the ranch with them. He said he’d picked them up off my counter by accident.”

  Jake felt the blood drain from his head. “Dad had the keys to my shop.”

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t know jack about cars.”

  “He’s got connections,” Jake bit out the reminder.

  Pearl stood and moved to him. “Don’t you dare go over there to him. You’ll kill him,” she said and he knew that his face had gone red with the anger that boiled inside of him. “Let me talk to him.”

  “This isn’t your fight, Pearl.”

  “It’s all our fight. We’re a team. And since we’ve never been able to depend on our mothers or our father, it’s been just us.”

  Bethany stood now and Audrey moved in closer.

  “If he was the cause behind hurting you, it’s unacceptable,” she said.

  “It was three years ago. We can’t even prove anything.”

  Todd stiffened. “I’ll talk to him.”

  All eyes shifted toward the quietest of them all.

  Todd cleared his throat. “Let me do it. He knows I’m afraid of him. It’ll throw him off.”

  The anger that had been stirring in Jake now burned in pride. “That’s a lot.”

  “I’ll let you know what I find out.” Todd pulled his keys from his pocket and headed toward the door.

  “You call us if you need us. Don’t let him turn on you.”

  “Now that I know, or think I know, that he used me to get to you, I’m pissed,” he said as he walked away.

  Pearl shook her head. “We just threw him under the bus.”

  “He wouldn’t do this if he didn’t want to. I can follow him out to Dad’s.”

  “No,” she said. “He needs to do this too.” Pearl moved behind her chair and gripped the back of it, as if she were ready to move it back to her store. “I have a tux ready for you for Glenda’s ball.”

  “You said a suit was fine.”

  “I lied. I like my men in tuxes,” she said with a wink. “All Walker men will be wearing one, even Eric.”

  “You’re the devil,” he said and it caused Bethany to snort out a laugh.

  Pearl looked at their sister and back at him. “I’m banking on needing to keep it in stock. You have a woman in your life now. Things happened.”

  “She’s not the big wedding type.”

  “All women are. Especially the tough ones.” She pushed the chair past him and out the door.

  Bethany rolled up her mat and tucked it under her arm. “For what it’s worth, I hope Todd doesn’t find anything. I don’t want to believe that both my parents have no moral compass.”

  “But if he does?”

  “I still have my brothers and sisters. You’re my blessing, Jake.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Goodness can come from the dark.” With a smile, she passed by him and out the door.

  Audrey looked around the open space. She picked up her beer bottle urging him to do the same. It had gone warm, but that wasn’t what mattered, he decided.

  Audrey lifted her bottle toward him. “To new beginnings, Jake. Sometimes they emerge from the crappiest of conditions.”

  She took a long drink from her bottle, and Jake watched her. She was right. His garage wouldn’t be successful had he not wrecked and had time to recover. His relationship with Missy would never have taken off had he not stopped Maverick’s attack on her. And where would he be with his siblings if they hadn’t been able to rally around their father’s ill will?

  But from here on out, he’d like a new beginning without having to go through the crap. Perhaps that’s what Lydia had to offer with her sponsorship. And even when he thought about Missy living with him. She’d arrived under that cloud of crappy conditions, but she stayed because they had something now. At that moment, he wanted that to continue.

  He was glad he’d asked his family to have a drink with him. He needed that Walker bond. He should have depended on it more.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Taking his lead, Missy had texted that she was going to have dinner with her brother. Perhaps they were all making strides, he thought.

  He’d stayed with Audrey for another half hour, listening to her plans and offering her advice she hadn’t asked for. Then he stopped in and talked to Lydia, who was going over plans with his cousin Russell on some construction details for her house.

  Not ready to head home, he started out for the garage. He was used to being out there until
nearly ten o’clock every night anyway. That would change now, he considered as he drove down the road. Even having Missy in the office, he’d want to get home to her as quickly as possible.

  But for tonight, he’d stop in, make sure the doors were locked tight, and check the schedule for tomorrow.

  Jake pulled up in front of the garage. The few cars that would be early on the schedule were lined up. The bay doors were shut, and he could see two cars on lifts through the windows.

  Instead of walking around to the back, he opened the front door, and turned off the alarm. The first thing he noticed was that Janice had forgotten to turn off the coffee machine. How many pots had they run through because she’d forgotten to turn it off? Maybe he could put a timer on it. Why hadn’t that occurred to him before?

  As he walked behind the counter to look at tomorrow’s schedule, he heard tools falling to the ground in the racing garage out back.

  Jake looked out the back door and noticed a pickup truck parked there.

  He hurried, unlocked the door, and ran out to the other garage.

  Jake saw the man move from behind the car, but before he could turn on the lights, he felt the cold steel of the wrench hit him in the head.

  He tried to blink away the swirl of color behind his eye lids, but it just grew darker.

  Missy’s truck skidded along the gravel as she sped into the parking lot at Jake’s garage and slammed on the brakes. God she’d wished she’d been wrong, but when she saw the pickup truck parked outside of the racing garage, she knew she wasn’t.

  She had to assume that the flat tire on her truck wasn’t an accident either. Changing a damn tire on a truck that size wasn’t easy with a broken wrist, but she assumed he’d been banking on that.

  Missy threw the truck into park. She’d hated that she’d called Officer Smythe on a what if she were right call, but she didn’t want to second guess her intel.

  With anger boiling through her veins, she pulled open the side door, and just as she’d expected, she saw her brother there, a crowbar poised over the windshield of Walker’s car.