Page 83 of Slow Hands Cowboy

“David Reynolds isn’t my dad.”

“I know,” Cody said.

“No, I don’t mean that in the way that we’ve talked about it before, where we’re pretty sure. I mean, I know.”

Cody looked out at the horizon, his hat shading his expression just slightly. “All right.”

“Is that it?”

“Like you said. We were pretty sure about that already.”

“Well, yeah, but isn’t it kind of... isn’t it a little bit of a surprise that you know for sure? Kind of. But also not really. That’s very you.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. You’re not the kind of guy that likes to share things, Walker. You don’t tell people what’s going on with you. You pretend to. You’re a good listener, you give great conversation, but I’m very aware that you don’t like to share what’s going on with you.”

That made him mad. He wasn’t even sure why. Because it was true. That was actually why it made him mad. Because Cody could see him, perceive him. Because he was acting the wrong way about this. He should be mad at him. He should be mad at him for keeping that secret and not trusting him with the truth about himself. He should be. It would be perfectly reasonable for him to be pissed off, and he wasn’t even pissed off.

He thought that he knew everything about Walker, in the sense that he knew that he didn’t know everything about Walker. In the sense that he believed that Walker would always withhold information.

“I slept with Addison.”

Cody looked at him, blinked rapidly. At least he had the decency to look surprised about that.

“Really?”

“Yep. Last night.”

“Took you that long?”

His face was hot with indignation. “To be fair, I didn’t offer until last night. Took approximately five seconds when she found out it was on the table.”

“That’s not what I meant. And you know that. You’ve had a thing for her for years.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have. That’s the thing, Walker, you don’t tell me things, but I’m not a dumbass. I watched you handle this whole wedding thing, and you just put up with all that bullshit from her. I know that you did it because you have a thing for her. I think you felt like doing her wedding was going to be an exorcism of a sort.”

“As in getting that demon out of my life?”

“She’s not a demon. We both know it.”

He did know it. He felt like an ass even saying that after everything that they had shared last night, and worse, he even felt like he needed to go and confess to her that he’d said that.

God.

“Of course she’s not. She’s just another complicated fucking human. Like us. Like everybody.”

“What has you feeling confessional today?” Realization slowly dawned on Cody as soon as the question was done being asked. “Oh. Her.”

Walker growled and started to walk away from Cody.

“No, no, don’t go. I like this. You are perennially unbothered by everything. You sit around and smoothly give advice to all of us and act like nothing means anything. You’re having a breakdown.”

“I’m not having a breakdown. I’m getting laid.”

“Yeah, with the woman that you’ve had a thing for since high school. Hell, middle school. And you’re a disaster. You told her about your dad, didn’t you?”