Kickstart My Heart (Burgers and Brew Crue #1) - Lacey Black Page 0,54
up to her and kissing her forehead.
Turning to my great aunt, who’s smiling like the cat who ate the canary at the stove, I say, “You’re selling your bed?”
“Mmhmm,” she replies, stirring the pot of gravy. “Jamal is gonna post it on that interweb thing.”
“Facebook,” Jamal hollers from the living room, where he’s watching some car show with Uncle Donald.
“That. He’s gonna post it for me.”
“Well, I might know someone who wants to buy it,” I tell her, casually. “How much?”
“Fifty dollars. Do you think that’s too much?” she asks, looking up from the gravy.
“Not at all. If anything, it’s probably too cheap.”
Aunt Edna just waves off my comment and goes back to finishing lunch.
To be honest, I almost just offered to pay for it right then and there, but I knew that’s not what Mallory would want. Not after her big speech about doing things on her own. Even though this decision seems minute to me, it’s not mine to make.
So, I’ll talk to her after lunch and see what she thinks about purchasing it. If she does, and fuck, I hope she does, I’ll have Jamal drop it off after we eat.
I’ll be able to sleep better at night, knowing she’s in an actual bed and not on that shitty couch anymore.
Edna shuts off the heat and removes the pot from the burner. “All right, Walker, go finish setting the table. Time to eat!”
Chapter Sixteen
Mallory
“Want to go for a quick walk?” Walker asks, as he approaches the chair I’m sitting in.
“Oh,” I reply, glancing over to where Lizzie plays with Jamal. They’re kicking an old Smurfs ball around the yard, making up rules to their game as they go.
“Just a short one. We’ll be back in just a bit,” he adds, throwing me those sexy blue eyes that seem to make me weak in the knees and my heart all fluttery.
“Go ahead, kids. I’ll keep an eye on Lizzie,” Marie, Walker’s mom, says, smiling at where my daughter plays in the yard.
“We’ll only be a few minutes,” he says to his mom, before reaching for my hand.
I place mine in his, catching the way Marie openly grins at where we’re joined. As he leads me around the house, I ask, “Should I tell her I’m stepping away for a few minutes? I don’t want her to look for me and get scared.”
Walker stops, considering my words. He turns back to Lizzie and hollers, “Hey, Lou?” She stops and turns to face him. “Your mom and I will be right back, okay? You can keep playing and beating Jamal. Sound good?”
“Otay!” she yells back, kicking the ball as hard as she can. He pretends to stumble for it, allowing the ball to slip between his legs.
“She’s fine. Come on,” he says, guiding me toward the front of the house.
It’s a small subdivision on the edge of Stewart Grove with smaller family homes. Edna’s house is probably the smallest on the street, but it seems just right for her. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus a large dining room, which Edna said over lunch was the reason she bought the place. She loves to cook, and since she has such a large extended family, she wanted a place that was comfortable for a crowd.
I also learned over lunch that Walker tends to the property each week. He mows, trims the bushes and trees, and takes care of snow removal in the winter. Jamal helps too, but it’s Walker who’s the closest and who does most of the work. He doesn’t seem to mind, though. I can tell by the way he smiles at her, he loves her.
She’s a sweet woman, who instantly took a liking to Lizzie—and me too. But it was Lizzie who stole everyone’s attention today. Between Edna and Marie, my daughter ate more sweets than she has all year. That’s why I’m glad she’s outside burning off some of that energy. Naps aren’t really her thing anymore, but I’m sure once she lies down to rest, she’ll be out like a light.
“So, I wanted to run something by you,” Walker says, leading me toward the sidewalk.
“Okay.”
“Aunt Edna is selling her old bed,” he starts, as we head away from Edna’s home. “I was thinking, since you needed one, maybe you’d be interested.”
“Oh. How much is she selling it for?” I ask, mentally running through the amount of cash I have in my purse and in the can at home.