Walker Revenge (The Walker Family Series Book 5) (17 page)

“Daddy!” He flung open the door and ran down
the hall yelling, “Daddy! Daddy!”

They turned and walked through the kitchen,
which was empty. The scent of fresh coffee filled Chelsea’s nose
and she wished to stop, but she followed.

He circled through the dining room and out
to the living room where Glenda, Everett, Ben, Gerald, and Russell
sat in anticipation.

He hurried to Russell. “Daddy!” He climbed
into his lap without help. “Santa came.”

Chelsea looked around the room and the
expressions associated with Lucas referring to Russell as his
daddy. Everett had a look of deep concern, and she couldn’t blame
him for that. She was sure she’d too have that same look. Glenda
already had tears in her eyes. There wasn’t any disappointment or
concern there. His brothers, on the other hand, were
bewildered.

Russell, however, smiled from ear to
ear.

“Look at that. Santa did come back last
night. Do you want to open presents?”

Lucas nodded enthusiastically and climbed
down from his lap and moved straight for the tree.

“I need my camera,” Glenda jumped up. “Give
me one second, kiddo.”

She moved to Chelsea, taking her by the
hand, and tugging her along into the kitchen with her.

“I thought you could use some coffee. I
could use some coffee. Oh, he’s precious,” she continued. “I hope
you don’t mind. I couldn’t help myself. I added a few presents
under the tree. I just love having him here and I…”

Chelsea moved to her and wrapped her in a
hug. “Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”

When she pulled back, Glenda was blinking
away tears that broke through and rolled down her cheek.

“He told me you said you’d marry him,”
Glenda admitted. “I’m so happy, Chelsea. You’ve always brought out
the best in Russ.”

“I worry that it’s not me that does
that.”

They both turned their head when they heard
Lucas squeal from the other room.

“They need each other,” Glenda assured her.
“He’ll be the best daddy he can be to him.”

“I know he will. It only makes me love him
more.”

Glenda pulled down two coffee mugs, filled
them, and handed her one. “We should get back out there. If he’s
like my boys, he’s going to explode.”

Chelsea laughed as she followed Glenda to
the other room.

The first thing she noticed was that Russell
had moved from his wheelchair to the sofa. She wondered if that was
even comfortable for him, sinking so low into the cushions. His leg
was propped up, and he looked anything but uncomfortable. He looked
at peace, and he hadn’t had that look since he’d come back into her
life.

“Come sit down. He’s at the end of his
patience,” Russell patted the seat next to him and Chelsea took
it.

The plethora of gifts from Santa had been
torn open and gleefully embraced within minutes. All of the
precious moments were caught on Glenda’s camera, and Chelsea
watched it all unfold, wrapped in the arms of the man she
loved.

There had never been a better Christmas,
ever.

“I need to get this cleaned up and help you
with Christmas dinner,” Chelsea began to stand, and Glenda held a
hand up to her to stop her.

“Susan is having Christmas dinner at Lydia’s
event hall in town. A little more formal.”

Chelsea bit down on her lip. “How formal? I
didn’t pack anything nice. And the dress Pearl brought isn’t
formal, will it work?”

Glenda laughed. “That’s the best part about
having family in the retail business. Gia has a dress for me that
she picked up in Lucca when she was there last. I can’t wait to see
it. I’ll bet she can find you something, or even better, we can see
if Pearl has something.”

“I can’t ask them to go to work on
Christmas, so I can have something to wear to dinner.”

“Yes, you can. That’s what family is for,”
she said and hurried away.

Chelsea turned to Russell, who sat there
grinning at her. “You might as well just go with it. She’s not
going to back down.”

“I feel bad. I don’t have gifts for
anyone.”

“Chels,” he lifted her chin with his finger.
“Don’t you see? Your being here has been the best Christmas gift of
all—for all of us.”

They both turned to see Lucas holding a toy
toward Everett, and Everett slid from his chair to the floor to
play with him.

“He belongs here, Chels. And so do you.”

Chapter
Nineteen

Russell’s mood had plummeted when Esther,
the nurse Karen had said would be coming by, arrived.

It was Christmas, so her demeanor and
bedside manner weren’t what Karen’s were. She didn’t want to be
there, and it showed in everything she did.

“Whose bed is this in here?” she snapped at
him.

“My son’s,” he replied as if he’d been
saying it since Lucas had been born.

“You can’t rest with him in here.”

“Oh, I do just fine with him in here. I’m
better with him in here,” he stated firmly, and Esther gave a loud
humph.

He didn’t like the way she directed Chelsea
while they went through his physical therapy. And he was damn glad
that his mother had taken Lucas out to the kitchen to play with his
coloring books from Santa.

Esther was there an hour, and by the time
she left, Russell was exhausted.

“Can I do something about who comes out here
to train you? I didn’t like how she talked to you,” he groaned as
he watched her pick up the room after physical therapy.

“There are only so many people who can train
me, and you have to admit this is an unusual situation. I should be
in a clinic, not in a private house. I get to do this because your
mother had the right connections.”

“I suppose, but she made me feel worse.”

Chelsea smiled and moved to him. “It was one
hour out of your day. It’s all going to be okay now, and tomorrow
you go in, and they’ll look to see how you’re doing. My guess is,
you’ll come home with a little less hardware,” she joked scanning a
hand over him like a magician.

“I’d be happy to have a lot less of this
crap. I never thought I’d be so excited to pee on my own.”

She laughed a hearty laugh at that. “That's
what happens when your truck impales you. Considering that accident
could have ended so differently…”

“I know. I’m lucky to be alive,” his voice
dipped. Russell reached for her hand. “Why do you think someone did
this? Sure, I talk crap, but the way Phillip tells it, someone
tried to kill me.”

She cupped his face in her hands. “I don’t
know. It’s all too coincidental with the truck having been stolen,
my house having been broken into, and my ex on parole.”

“Are you scared?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t been since I
walked in the front door of this house. I don’t understand it all.
All I know is I want it to end, and I want you healthy so we can
start this new life. If it’s all just been coincidence throwing us
together again, I’ll take it.”

“My mom would call it fate.”

“Fate then,” she whispered and kissed him
gently. “Tomorrow we’ll talk to Phillip. He was going to study the
surveillance again. Maybe he found something. We’ll have him check
on Dominic too, just to make sure he’s still in Texas.”

“And you think this will make it all go
away. We’re going to find out that it just happened I was run off
the road in a stolen truck that had been in your garage?”

“I want to think that.”

“One day at a time.”

“It’s what we’ve got, right? I should check
on Lucas. He’s going to need a bath before we head to town.”

Appreciating the view as she walked away, he
thought about the moment when he could get on the floor and give
Lucas his bath and tuck him in. He could never have imagined that
he would crave such things.

His cell phone buzzed on the nightstand, and
he pushed himself toward it. Phillip Smythe’s name appeared with a
text message.

Fiona Cleary, Chelsea’s ex-mother-in-law,
was picked up in Athens last night on DUI. She said she’d come from
Macon, which means she’s been nearby. I’ll need to talk to Chelsea
tomorrow, and you too. I won’t mention it tonight. Just wanted you
to know.

He held the phone in his hand rereading the
message over and over. So perhaps Dominic Cleary wasn’t there, but
his mother was. She’d had a hand in Lucas’s kidnapping too. This
wasn’t sitting with him very well.

The more he thought about it, perhaps she’d
have reason to have run him off the road. After all, Chelsea had
broken ties with him only shortly before she left with Dominic. He
texted back.

Did you run prints from the truck to match
her?

He waited until Phillip responded.

Working on that. Not going to talk about it
today. You have plans. I’ll see you tonight.

Russell bit down on the inside of his cheek.
If he wasn’t going to go into it, why did Phillip bring it up? He
seemed to have a habit of doing such things.

The highlight of Russell’s morning had been
that Chelsea had given him his shower. His lewd comments and
immature groping of her, while she worked, had only aggravated her,
but he could read her eyes. She was merely trying to be
professional, as there was no need to get sexually worked up when
there was nothing they could do about it.

Once she’d helped him get dressed, she was
busy elsewhere with Lucas and Russell’s mother. It was a good
thing, too. His phone hadn’t stopped buzzing since he’d put the
first text into Susan at one o'clock that morning.

Chelsea walked into the office where Russell
was scoping out houses on the computer. He quickly changed over his
screen to Facebook. There was no need to let her in on the house
search yet. They had other things going on.

“Your mom wants me to go into town with her
to pick up her dress and see if Gia or Pearl have something I could
wear. I've never had a Christmas dinner so fancy I had to get a
dress.”

“My mom does Christmas up right.”

“I know. I just…” She blew out a breath. “So
anyway, Lucas and I are heading into town with your mom. Your dad,
Ben, and Gerald are coming later, and you’re coming with them.”

“Sounds like a plan. We can take Lucas with
us.”

He saw her shoulders tighten. She wasn’t
ready for that yet, and he could understand.

“He’s fine with us.” She walked around
behind the desk and kissed him gently, and then looked at the
computer. “Facebook? You know, we’re not friends on Facebook.”

“You don’t say?”

“Find me. Let’s be friends.”

He searched her name, and when her picture
came up, he looked at the profile. “How old was he in this
picture?” he asked of the photo of her and Lucas on her cover
picture.

“He was six weeks old.”

“He looks just like you.”

She smiled still looking at the picture. “It
was right before he was kidnapped.”

Russell squeezed her hand. “He was that
little?”

Chelsea nodded. “He’ll never remember it,
and for that, I’m grateful.”

There wasn’t anything he could say now. He
needed to show her that she and Lucas could trust him forever.

Russell clicked on the button to add her as
a friend on Facebook and a smile displaced the frown on her
lips.

“I accept,” she said with a laugh.

“Good. We’ll change our relationship status
too—as soon as you officially accept my friendship.”

She laughed and kissed him again. “I’ll meet
you in town. Merry Christmas, Russell.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Chapter
Twenty

Chelsea hadn’t been to Gia’s new store in
the building of which Lydia Morgan and Pearl Walker-Morgan were the
owners. She’d heard many things about it. Pearl had told her once
it was a
wedding mecca,
and that it was.

There was an event center, a bridal store,
flower shop, bakery, photographer, and of course Gia’s gift store.
It was fantastic.

The lights were on in Pearl’s bridal store,
but nowhere else. The sign in the window still said closed, but
Glenda walked straight to the door and pulled it open.

Chelsea followed, picking Lucas up and
placing him on her hip so he wouldn’t touch anything.

Pearl and Gia moved to them and hugged each
of them, including Lucas, who hid his face in his mother’s
neck.

“Girls, every time I come here, it looks
more beautiful,” Glenda complimented as she looked around the
store. “Lydia sure has an eye for location, doesn’t she?”

“It’s her calling,” Pearl agreed.

“And the smells from the event center are
fantastic.”

Gia laughed. “Susan has been over there all
day cooking. Dinner will be wonderful. I sent back cases of wine
from Lucca when Dane and I were there. I took a few bottles over
for later.”

Glenda’s cheeks rose as she smiled. “I can’t
wait. So, my dress.”

Gia nodded. “I brought it over to steam. It
is in the back.”

Glenda followed Gia leaving Chelsea and
Lucas alone with Russell’s cousin, Pearl.

“So you need something for tonight, too?”
Pearl asked.

“I’ve been told. I've never had a Christmas
dinner that’s this fancy. I’m a bit out of sorts.”

Pearl’s eyes were wide, and a smile grew
wide on her lips. Chelsea noticed that Gia and Glenda had come from
the back, a dress draped over Gia’s arm. A moment later Bethany,
Russell’s other cousin, burst through the door with an enormous
box, and her eyes matched those of everyone else.

“Why is everyone just standing here?”
Bethany asked. “We have things to do.”

They all shifted their eyes back to Chelsea,
who could only stare at the antics going on around her. “What do we
have to do?”

Bethany set the box down on the table, and
they all walked toward her. When she took the lid off, she revealed
an entire box of beautiful flowers.