Fragile Hearts (Poplar Falls #4) - Amber Kelly Page 0,41

are engaged,” I state.

“Yep.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Like Brax said, it doesn’t have to. They are chicks.”

Braxton nods his agreement.

“Tickle my pickle?”

“If you’re lucky,” Walker says and grins at me before he takes another pull from his beer.

“That’s not going to happen. I think Bellamy is a sweet girl, but—”

Walker cuts me off, “Sweet girl? She’s gorgeous. And she’s into you. I could tell the other night at the bar. So, why won’t it happen? Are you carrying a torch for my woman, Doc?”

“No.”

“Then, what’s the problem? If it’s Myer, don’t worry. He might sucker punch you when he finds out, but he’ll eventually come around.”

Braxton cuts his eyes to Walker. “That’s still debatable.”

“You love me, and you know it.” Walker blows off his comment.

“I’m just not someone she wants to get involved with.”

“Why not? You’re a good-looking dude. Successful. Good to your momma. What’s wrong with you? You got a secret girlfriend or a lovechild back in Oregon or something?” Walker digs.

“No, not a girlfriend. A wife.”

All humor falls from Walker’s face, and both he and Braxton focus their big-brother stares on me.

“Come again?” Braxton bites.

“Her name is Annie. Was. Her name was Annie. She was killed by a stranger in a restaurant parking lot almost three years ago.”

Walker whistles low, and they both sit back heavy in their chairs.

“Damn, man. I’m sorry to hear that.” All humor is gone from Walker’s voice as he takes on a serious tone for the first time ever in my presence.

This is why I don’t share. I hate the pity that people instantly feel when they hear the words.

“What happened exactly?” Braxton is focused on me, but he isn’t offering sympathy or feigning pain over a woman he has never met.

“It was our wedding anniversary. We had reservations at her favorite Italian restaurant in town. I promised I wouldn’t be late. My practice was new, and I was always working. Always running late or missing everything important to her. I insisted I’d be there. Then, I got held up at the office.

“A lady came in, and she was in a panic about her dog, just as I was trying to lock up. The dog was having a seizure. The poor woman was a mess. So, I brought them in and looked the dog over. It was an older dog. I texted Annie to tell her I would be there as soon as I could, and I waited with the lady until the seizure passed and she was calm. Then, I sent them to the emergency clinic.

“Angry, Annie had texted back not to bother, to go ahead and treat the dog. I hurried to the place as fast as I could, hoping to catch her before she was gone. I made it just in time to watch a vagrant slit her throat with a dirty blade and yank her purse she was clinging to. She bled out in my arms before police or medics could make it to the scene.”

Until now, I haven’t told that story out loud to anyone since the trial. Not a single soul.

“Did they catch him?” Braxton asks.

“Yeah. I was able to describe him and tell them the direction he had taken off in. They found him in an abandoned house with a needle in his arm a few hours later. He used the twenty-three dollars Annie had had in her wallet to buy a single hit of heroin. He’d killed my wife for a thirty-minute high.”

“Fuck,” Walker utters.

“It’s good they got him,” Braxton affirms.

“Yeah. But he wasn’t the only one responsible. I should be rotting in that cell right beside him,” I mutter more to myself than to them.

“Are you shittin’ me?” Walker asks.

Braxton puts his hand up, and Walker halts what he was about to say.

“You been carrying that shit on you all this time?” Braxton asks the baffling question.

“Shit?”

“Yeah, that guilt you have sitting on your chest like an anchor.”

I don’t respond as he bores his eyes into mine. It’s like he can see all the way to my soul.

Then, he starts his story. “It was early November. We were on our way to cut down a Christmas tree at Kringle’s Tree Farm. We usually waited until after Thanksgiving to get one, but it had snowed that weekend, and since Aunt Madeline and her new beau were coming for a visit, Momma wanted to go ahead and decorate the house and start being festive a little early that year. It was the first time we were