Walker Bride (3 page)

He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s the
case here. You, Susan, Bethany, and Lydia have a lot in common when
it comes to event planning. You with wardrobe. Susan caters. Lydia
is buying up the whole town where you can have a wedding. And I
heard Bethany is a floral artist in the making when she’s not
trying to try her hand at writing books.”

Pearl sat back in her seat, crossing her
legs. “You pay a lot of attention for a man who doesn’t like to be
around people.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like people.”

In his own way he had, she thought. “What are
you guys planning for Eric’s bachelor party?”

His eyes grew wide. “We have to do that?”

On a laugh, she leaned forward. “Yes. You
have to do that. You’d better get Russell, Gerald, Ben, and Dane
planning.”

“Dane won’t be any help. He moved away,
remember?”

Pearl nodded. Of course, she remembered.
She’d been at the going away party his mother had thrown for him.
Tyson had been the missing guest.

How could she blame him? He might be Eric’s
brother, but he was still a Morgan, and the rest of them were
Walkers.

A little tingle of excitement resonated in
her chest when she thought about it that way. What would they all
think if another Morgan and another Walker got involved?

Pearl watched him as he bit into his
sandwich. Lust began to pump through her veins now. She always was
one to go against the grain.

“You need another beer,” she offered as she
hopped off her chair.

“I think one is good enough.”

“Let me buy you one.”

He looked at his empty glass. “One more. But
get me something a little manlier.”

She gave him a wink and sauntered up to the
bar, hoping his eyes were right where she’d wanted them.

It was still early on a Friday afternoon, but
the tap room was growing more crowded, Pearl noticed as she walked
toward the bar to order them another set of drinks.

Elise leaned in over the bar toward her. “He
is super sexy if you ask me,” she said in a hushed tone.

“I think so too.”

“You making a move on him? I thought Walkers
and Morgans didn’t speak.”

Pearl shrugged. “Childish don’t you think?
And damn, he’s no child.”

Elise shook her head. “He ain’t that. Another
round?”

“Same for me. Something manlier for him.”

Elise laughed. “I got that covered.” She
turned and filled two more glasses. “He should like this.”

“Thanks,” Pearl said as she laid the cash on
the bar and picked up the glasses.

“Is he the one who ends up being the brother
of your cousin?”

Pearl hadn’t thought the city was so small,
but gossip sure could spread. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“No wonder he looks so pained. That’s some
drama there,” she said as another man approached the bar.

Drama would be her middle name, Pearl thought
as she walked back to the table with the drinks. She’d been born
under a cloud of it. They often talked about drama queens, but her
father was the king of the drama.

She set the drinks on the table and climbed
on her stool. Picking up her drink, she took a long sip.

“You look a little preoccupied,” Tyson said
as he pulled his glass toward him. “Something happen?”

Elise had surely put a damper on Pearl’s mood
though there was no reason for it. And Pearl wasn’t the kind of
woman to get worked up over it either, so why was she?

“Elise seems to think there’s a lot of drama
where you’re concerned.”

He choked on his sip of beer. “She what?”

“This city is smaller than I thought it was.
She knows your Eric’s brother.”

“Well, that made it’s way around pretty fast.
No wonder I keep away from here, huh?”

“What the hell would it matter who your
brother is anyway?” she continued. “So your family had secrets.
What family doesn’t?”

There was a thin smile that crept over his
lips, and she was quick to catch it.

“What?”

He sat back in his chair. “You and I have to
come from some of the most dramatic families around. I didn’t know
my past was so shrouded in drama, but your dad is quite famous for
his.”

And wasn’t that what she’d just been
thinking?

“What do you know about my father?” she
quickly quipped.

Tyson leaned in with his arms on the table
and his glass between the palms of his hands. “I know that his two
ex-wives were best friends before and after he was married to them.
I know that you and your sister Audrey, and your brothers, are very
close in age. And I know he was infatuated with Bethany’s mother
before he knew what a basket case she was.”

“I think we can forgive him for that one,
don’t you? I mean a beautiful actress is going to get a man’s
libido running.”

“Only she had many men’s libidos running.
Even men my age.”

Pearl winced. “Were you friends with Douglas
Brant too?”

He shrugged. “I knew him. I knew he was
seeing an older woman too. I just wouldn’t have pegged it to be
Bethany’s mother. Nor would I have thought he was crazy enough to
try and murder people.”

That alone called for another long sip of her
beer.

Douglas Brant had been just that man. He too
had been as obsessed with her sister Bethany’s mother, Violet
Waterbury. When Bethany showed up, after their grandfather’s death,
and was the spitting image of her mother, that had sparked some
deep seeded lust in the heart of Douglas Brant. He’d gone crazy
enough over it that he’d begun killing off Eric and Tyson’s cattle
and messing with their property in hopes of getting closer to
Bethany. In the end, he’d kidnapped her and burned Eric’s house to
the ground, with him inside. Luckily he’d made it out alive, and
Bethany had shot Douglas Brant before he could do anything to
her.

Tyson picked up his beer and lingered it near
his lips. “Tell me about your dad and his wives. There’s a story
there.”

“Of course, there is. My father is his own
soap opera.”

He chuckled. “Remember my mom had me, ditched
me, my uncle raised me as his, and she ran off and had another baby
with your uncle. I can say that we are two people that come from
soap opera families. I can handle it.”

She shook her head and laughed. “Maybe we’re
meant to be.”

His eyes opened wide as he took a long sip
from his glass. Okay, perhaps she’d scared him to death with that
comment. She’d move on to the story of her father’s wives.

“Let’s see. The story began when my father
was engaged to my brothers’ mother, Naomi.”

“But your brothers are younger than you.”

“Drama. Remember, I’m shrouded in drama.”

He laughed again. “Continue.”

“He and my mother, Naomi’s best friend, had
an affair, and oops, here I am.”

“She got pregnant while your father was
engaged to her best friend?”

“Nice huh? Anyway, he married my mom. My
sister was born a short fifteen months later. He left all of us,
married Naomi and quickly had Jake and Todd.”

“A man on a mission, huh?”

“I guess. They divorced a couple of years
later and then Bethany’s mom came along. But he never married
her.”

“But your mom and Naomi are still good
friends.”

“They are now. I guess they bonded over how
horrible a man Byron Walker is.”

He leaned in again. “You think your father is
a horrible man?”

“He’s no upstanding citizen. Look what he did
with my grandfather’s land. He gambled it away.”

“Yes, but that ended up being a scam.”

“But your family almost had everything my
family had worked for.”

And there was the stickler to the whole
Morgan/Walker feud.

He watched her carefully now and she couldn’t
decide if he was intrigued or disgusted.

She picked up her beer and drank it down.
“Well, I guess I had more of an issue with it than I thought,” she
said. “I’m going to get another one. You want one?”

He looked down at his half empty glass and
shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I have a longer drive home.”

“Right. Well, I’m thinking I need
another.”

She hopped off the stool and went to order
another drink. At that moment, she wished they served something
stronger than beer, though craft beer was plenty strong in her
opinion.

Another waitress took her order, and she
waited.

Her intentions on bringing Tyson to the bar
had been to ease him into something—anything. She’d had her blood
pumping since he’d walked through her door. What she hadn’t
anticipated was diving into family history and it upsetting her as
much as it did.

She was no prude. She understood
relationships and sex. Greed fueled her too. That’s why she was so
successful. What she didn’t understand was a man who would move
from woman to woman and family to family as if it were okay. Why
would he think it was okay to gamble away their savings over and
over and then try and take away what his father and his brother
worked so hard to grow?

The waitress set her beer on the counter, and
she picked it up with shaking hands.

The afternoon was going to be a waste now.
Tyson Morgan was going to finish his drink and get out of there as
fast as he could. Why wouldn’t he? Crazy Walker women were not a
prize to be won.

She could feel the first two beers swimming
in her head as she walked to the table. The glass sloshed over the
side a bit as she set it down.

“You okay?”

“Fine,” she said as she picked up the
glass.

“How are you getting home?”

“I have a car.”

Tyson’s lips pursed. “Yep, but I’m not
thinking you should drive it.”

“I wasn’t going to. I’ll go back to my store
and stay there for awhile. I’m not stupid. I won’t drink and then
drive. I won’t even text.”

He laughed at that. “I didn’t mean to get you
all worked up over your dad.”

She set her glass down and leaned in over the
table. “Are you attracted to me?”

His eyes widened, and his face went pale. “Of
course. You’re a very beautiful woman.”

“Why don’t you have one?”

“One what?”

“A woman?”

He finished his beer and let out a long
breath. “Don’t need one.”

That was her answer now wasn’t it? This date
was officially over, she decided as she drank her beer. What a
shame too. She was very much hoping to have shown him her very
secret tattoos. Now it looked as though they’d simply be awkward
around each other and that was a pity, especially since it seemed
they’d be attending all the same weddings.

Tyson watched as Pearl’s polished demeanor
disappeared with each sip she took. How was it he could anger most
men and sadden the women? No wonder he didn’t need one.

It had been a pain in the ass to drive into
town just to be measured for a tuxedo for a wedding and now he was
babysitting his cousin’s cousin while she wept over her family
drama. No thank you.

But he was still sitting there, wasn’t
he?

Oh, he didn’t need a woman, but it didn’t
mean he didn’t enjoy one from time to time. And what wasn’t there
to enjoy when he looked at Pearl Walker?

It had been hard not to sound like a caveman
when she’d asked if he was attracted to her. What living, breathing
man wouldn’t be?

She was stunning, and he’d been fighting off
the signals his body was sending to his brain all afternoon. But
watching her skin flush from the alcohol and her infectious good
mood slip away, he chose to ignore those incessant signals.

As she finished the last of her third beer,
in under an hour, Tyson scooted off his stool and stood.

“C’mon, I’ll walk you back to your
store.”

She lifted her eyes. “Thank you.”

With a nod, he held out his hand to her. She
took it and stumbled into him as she came off the stool. Once again
she was pressed to him, only, this time, she lingered there.

Tyson bit down on the inside of his cheek to
keep his mind focused on something other than how she felt
there.

Once she found her balance, she looked up at
him. “Thank you for being such a gentleman. You’re a Morgan, and
I’m a Walker. You could just drop me on my ass right here, and no
one would think a thing of it.”

Tyson took her hands, hoping to steady her,
but also to keep her body from his. “I’m not my grandfather, and
you’re not your father. I don’t see where the Morgan and Walker
feuds of the past have to work their way into our lives. Not any
longer.”

A smile formed on her lips. “I think that
would be nice. A clean start for this generation.”

He chuckled. “Aside from the few black eyes
that Eric and I gave each other, yes.”

Pearl gathered her purse and flung it over
her shoulder. “Thank you for a nice afternoon.”

Tyson lifted an eyebrow. “Was it nice? I’m
not very good company.”

“No, I think you were very good in the
company department. I hadn’t known I needed it so much.”

She took a few steps before stopping, bending
down, and removing her high heeled shoes. “Safer this way,” she
joked as she took his arm and let him walk her down the street.

The street that ran down the old part of
town, which was now filled with quaint shops such as Pearl’s, had
grown busier with pedestrians and cars driving slowly.

Pearl fished for her key in her purse. When
she retrieved it, she fumbled to put it into the lock.

“Let me help you,” he took the key from her
shaking fingers and opened the door.

“Thanks,” she said softly as he pushed open
the door.

Pearl stumbled inside and giggled to herself.
Tyson stood a safe distance at the door. “You promise me you’re not
going to drive, right?”

“I promise, but you’re welcome to stay and
make sure I don’t go anywhere.”

He let out a low growl. “I could just give
you a ride home. Then I’d know you weren’t going anywhere.”