She cringed. “I saw you playing ball once. I think it was rugby or football, or something along those lines.” She laughed as she thought back to that game. She’d pulled up at the park where Walker had told her to meet him after she’d gotten off from work. She’d only seen the last few minutes, but it had looked brutal, even though the four of them laughed off the brutality. “That wasn’t football, that was…” She tried to come up with a description but she just shook her head, shuddering at the memory.
Walker shrugged again. “It gets our minds off of difficult cases so we can come back with fresh heads.”
Amy looked down at Lilly who was finally finished. “She’s all yours,” Amy said and quickly closed her nursing bra, covering herself as best she could before Walker took their daughter to rock her to sleep.
Walker was just about to sit down in the chair when his deep voice stopped her. “You did your toe nails, didn’t you?” he asked with a smug sound to his voice.
Amy’s eyes dropped to her socks, then back to him. With the knowing, instantly hot look in his eyes, she blushed and wished she could ignore him. But ignoring someone as large as Walker was almost impossible.
“I’m not going to answer that,” she replied primly.
His eyes smiled back at her through the dim light. “I’m going to find out, Amy. There’s no way you can hide anything from me.”
Amy looked back at him and her crazy heart started racing again.
She slipped out of Lilly’s room, closing the door to her own bedroom quietly. What was she going to do about Walker? She leaned against the door, her mind racing with all the possibilities. None that she would dare to act on, but oh my, they were delicious possibilities.
Walker stepped into the conference room. Sam was tossing his stress ball up in the air and catching it. Brock was typing something quickly into his laptop, then grunting with irritation when the results didn’t come back immediately. Colt wasn’t there, but he walked in a moment later, punching Walker on the arm – just because.
He looked at these three men and took a deep breath. “I need some help,” he announced.
Three sets of eyes looked up at him, everyone stopping to pay attention. “Any chance you guys could take the afternoon off and help me do something important?”
Sam sat up straighter. “Yes. What’s wrong?” he demanded, standing up, understanding this was serious.
Colt turned around as well, and both he and Brock nodded their consent. Walker was relieved beyond measure. He hadn’t doubted these guys would help, but taking vacation time to help went above and beyond. “Thank you. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important.”
“Just tell us what you need. What can we do?”
Brock replied, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked, leaning forward now.
Walker shifted his shoulders slightly. “I’m fine. I just…” he paused, trying to figure out how to tell them. “I need help getting something ready by tonight. It needs to be perfect and I don’t know how to do all of it. I went out a couple of hours ago and got all the supplies, but I need hands to paint and put things together.”
The three men shrugged as if their support were a foregone conclusion. “Just tell us what we need to do,” Brock said, voicing what the other two were thinking.
Walker ran a hand over his face. “I need help getting my daughter’s room ready so she can move in tonight.”
With that bombshell, there was absolute silence while the three of them absorbed his words. Walker waited, wondering if they were feeling even slightly what he’d experienced the first time he’d seen Lilly. Was it only two days ago? It felt like forever since he’d discovered her. He was exhausted, terrified, thrilled and nervous all at the same time. And he knew he’d have to work fast to put his plan into place.
Sam was the first to react. “I’ll call the captain, let him know we’ll be on call but out of the station today,” he said, piping up and going into action. Brock snapped out of it as well. “Let me send an e-mail to Nina. She might be able to help.”
Sam was already on the phone with Hannah, nodding his head to indicate that his wife would
be part of the crew. Brock suddenly threw back his head and laughed at whatever Nina said and Walker was relieved to know that he would have two female minds to help him out. This was a pretty major undertaking with a limited time frame so all the help he could get would be appreciated.
“Chloe will be there
too,” Colt said as he ended his phone call, his eyes lighting up with interest.
“Great.” Walker was humbled but not sure how to say it. “Thanks everyone. Really, this is…”
Colt slapped him on the back. “Forget the mushy stuff. Put us to work.”
Walker
sighed with relief, not sure how to voice his gratitude, then straightened out. “Deal. I bought most of the stuff and it’s sitting in my garage. I’m not sure what else I need.”
Thirty minutes later, four men and three women stared at the room that needed to be transformed. There were boxes everywhere, no curtains on the two
windows, the carpet hadn’t ever been vacuumed while a crib, changing table and high chair waited in boxes in the garage to be assembled.
“I’ll work on the crib,” Sam said.
Colt nodded his head. “Brock and I will start moving the boxes out.” A moment later, Nina piped up. “You chose a good color for the walls, but we’re going to have to hurry so it can air out in time.” Hannah had her arms filled with a tray loaded down with fresh coffee, handing a cup out to everyone. Nina rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, obviously one of Brock’s old shirts because it was huge on her, the edges ending around her knees.
She and Hannah shifted the boxes so the guys could move them out of the room more easily, stuffing anything back into them that had fallen out. In no time at all, the room was completely empty. Nina
vacuumed, then laid down a drop cloth while Hannah and Chloe started taping the trim with masking tape. By then, four men had moved in with paint and rollers. Nina, Chloe and Hannah looked at the items Walker had bought for the room and smiled. “We’re off to get sheets and curtains,” Nina called out.
Walker stepped out of the room, unaware of the paint smeared on his left cheek. “Here’s some…”
“Don’t you dare!” Hannah called right back, walking faster so Walker couldn’t give her any money. “We’ll be back.”
Walker swallowed down the emotion that welled up once again,
then walked back into the room. The walls were almost completely pink by that point.
“You need fans,” Sam said and pulled one out of the hall closet. “I’ll get Hannah to stop by my place.”
“I have two at my house as well,” Brock mentioned, already pulling his phone off of his belt to call his fiancée. “Nina can swing by there and grab those to help the paint dry.”
All the windows were opened and the guys were back out in the garage, applying screw drivers and drills to the various pieces of furniture when the ladies came back. Hannah’s car was loaded down not just with sheets and curtains but also sandwiches that Chloe had gathered up, chips, sodas, safety equipment and several stuffed animals.
Walker watched the three of them walk up his driveway, laughing and joking, their arms loaded down with bags. “You’ve got to let me pay for all this,” he said seriously.
The women quickly shook their heads. Hannah was in the front and smiled up at th
e big guy. “Not a chance. This is our semi-informal baby shower that we didn’t get to give you before your daughter was born. Even though we didn’t know any of you guys back then,” Hannah said, laughing and reaching up to kiss his cheek.
“Watch it!” Sam called out.
Hannah just laughed and walked over to kiss him, but in a less sisterly fashion. And Walker would never dream of putting his hand on her butt either.
They walked in to the pink room, set up the fans in every direction to help disperse the smell and dry the paint. Everyone sat down and ate the delicious sandwiches, homemade chips and delicious lemonade that Chloe had crea
ted, pulling out several types of desserts at the end as a surprise.
The
n Hannah and Nina directed Walker and Sam while the curtains were hung. Moments later, the furniture was brought in. Or there was an attempt to bring it in. The guys all groaned when the fully assembled crib wouldn’t fit through the doorway. The ladies laughed, delighted when the men had to take it apart, bring it through the door in pieces, and then reassemble it. All the while, they maintained their masculine demeanor, grumbling that they meant to do that anyway.
By five o’clock that night, a delicious dinner was warming in the oven, Lilly’s new nursery was finished
, and Walker even had the spare bedroom set up with a new queen sized bed and flowery sheets as well as a fluffy comforter and lots of pillows. He didn’t intend for Amy to actually sleep in that room, but he didn’t want to pressure her either. If it was going to happen, and he intended to do everything in his power to encourage it to happen, then he wanted it to be right. He wanted it to be her choice.
Everyone quickly filed out, Hannah, Nina and Chloe giving Walker a kiss on his cheek while the guys just punched him with heartfelt congratulations.
Walker couldn’t believe how the rooms had transformed. Not just Lilly’s room, but his whole house felt….warmer. It wasn’t just the new color. There was an anticipation, something that was more alive.
He didn’t stand around waiting
to figure it out. Grabbing the keys to Sam’s truck, he rushed out the door, hurrying to pick up Amy and Lilly, eager to see both of them again.
When he arrived at Amy’s school, she was standing in the lobby waiting for him. She looked nervous and he wasn’t sure what to do to help her get over that feeling.
“I’m not sure why you wanted to do this,” she said, knowing something was different about him.
“Hum
or me,” he told her, opening the passenger side door to help her in. “I have something to show you,” he said when he was driving away.
“What is it?” she asked, tr
ying to pretend like she wasn’t scared of him. He looked different today. Still that confident, crazy attractive male that he was, but there was something…new. Something that just... “What’s on your ear?” she asked. There was a smudge of pink just behind his ear.
Walker’s hand moved up but he couldn’t find it. “We’re here,” he said, pulling into the parking lot of Lilly’s day care.
Amy jumped out, furious that he had pink lipstick on his neck. “Fine. I’ll go get Lilly. You just totter on back to your girlfriend.”
Walker almost laughed at her fit of jealousy. As soon as he got her to his house, she’d understand, but until then, he l
iked it. Jealousy meant that she cared for him. It wasn’t just that crazy sexual desire that had never abated between them. There was something more, something substantial. And that was good. He wanted so much more from her.
And he was determined to have it all!
He waited until she was back outside, carrying Lilly and her diaper bag. He plucked Lilly out of Amy’s arms and snuggled with her, enjoying the way her little hands grabbed onto his cheeks and giggled. “Did you have a good day?” he grumbled and she laughed again at his deep voice.
Leaning over, he secured her into her car seat, making sure the straps were tight enough, but not too tight. He checked all the other straps one more time, just to be sure.
When he was in the driver’s seat, he turned to face her. “I wasn’t with any other woman today.” Then he thought about that. “Well, actually, I was, but it wasn’t one woman…”
Amy was even more furious with his words.
More than one woman?! What had happened to him over the past year? “I don’t want to hear about it! You don’t owe me any explanations.”
He laughed and put the truck in gear. “You still don’t trust me. And that’s okay. I’ll just prove it to you.”
She humphed and slouched lower in the seat. “Just drive us home. We’ll be perfectly fine tonight.”
The laughter shone through in his eyes and he almost laughed out loud.
“You’re not going anywhere without me. I thought we’d already discussed that.”
She glared at him. “That was before you admitted having been with several women!”
He chuckled at her assumption, the sound rusty. “I’m glad you think I have the kind of stamina it would take to take care of several women, but the truth is…”
She crossed her arms over her chest, blocking him off at least through her body language.
“I told you, I don’t want to hear it!”
“The truth is
, you’re more than enough woman for me. And the women that were at my house are like sisters to me. Besides, if I even glanced at them wrong, I’d have a fist planted in my face. And rightly so. Hannah is Sam’s wife.”
Those words were so
startling, she couldn’t absorb them very well. “Sam got married?” Amy asked, stunned.
“Yes. She owns Quirky Café downtown.”
Amy blinked and shook her head slightly. “I used to go there all the time,” she said, her eyes wide. “She’s that cute brunette that’s always smiling?”
Walker chuckled. “That’s Hannah. And then Nina was there to help as well. She’s the creator of that new computer game ‘Bandits’ that everyone keeps talking about.” Walker turned left, then left again, looking in his rear view mirror. He w
asn’t sure, but there was a black Honda Civic that seemed to appear behind him repeatedly. It was a common car though, so he couldn’t be sure it was the same one or a different one.
“I bought that game,” she gasped. “It’s awesome!”
Walker nodded. “I’ve tried it a few times. Nina is great. She’s married to Brock.”
Amy’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t Brock the one with the scar on his left cheek?” she asked.
“That’s the one. Chloe was also there.”
“Don’t tell me,” Amy sighed.
“Chloe’s about to run for president.”
Walker threw back his head and laughed. “Chloe is about as far from political office as you can get.
I don’t know her well enough yet, but I imagine we’ll all get to know her very well soon. She’s sweet enough, but the world isn’t ready for Chloe to be president. I’m not even sure if Colt is able to handle her. But he’s trying.”
“Colt is even married?”
Amy was starting to feel left out, but knew she shouldn’t even think that she had a right to be married, especially since she quickly pictured Walker as the man in the tuxedo waiting for her at the end of the aisle.
Walker shook his head as he made a few more left turns, not seeing the
black Civic any longer. “No. Colt probably wants to marry Chloe, but he might not know it yet. Chloe owns that little bistro with the great sandwiches a couple blocks from Quirky Café. I can’t remember the name of it at the moment, but she also cooked us dinner.”