On Steady Ground (The Walker Brother's Series) Read Free Page A

to hurt me?” Such an irrational thought considering, this is Ian and I hadn’t seen his handsome face in years. I might as well get used to it. I am now damaged goods with a psycho ex-husband. Pushing my hair behind my ear I watched his door shut behind him and I walked into my room, locking the door behind me. The same irrational fears telling me Craig was going to find me and hurt me while I slept.
    Glancing into the mirror, my cheek was now turning black and blue and I had forgotten about it completely. Wondering why Ian didn’t ask me about it, he probably was being a gentlemen. Ian was always the guy that didn’t poke into other people’s business. Glancing over to my purse I was itching to turn on my phone and listen to Craig either apologize or threaten me to come back. I’m sure he has probably left both kinds of messages by now. Changing into my soft silky white nightgown and pulling my hair back I turned that little old radio to an oldies station. Craig hated the oldies which means it’s my new favorite. Digging into my closet I retrieved the one pair of sneakers that I hadn’t worn in years. Setting them out with a nice pair of pants and shirt I was ready for work in the morning. I hadn’t worked a day in about two years. Craig always insisting that I was his princess and I didn’t need to work. Now knowing he didn’t want me to meet anyone else and replace him. Just another form of isolating me. My heart to stupid to figure it out at first.
    Laying down in bed and staring at the ceiling, I don’t know why I was wasting a single minute thinking about Craig. Rubbing the pain in my cheek, I never really believed in violence to solve a problem, now wishing I’d kicked him in his male parts for good measure. Rolling over onto my side, I had a good view of Ian’s house, now wondering what he was doing. Moments later, I could hear Ben coming through the door with a giggling woman. Looks like he found his hottie number two. Hoping the walls were thick I soon fell asleep from exhaustion.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Two
    Waking up early, I always did have a built in alarm clock. Gathering my clothes, I could hear Ben rummaging around in the kitchen. Unlocking the door and stepping out, looking forward to a shower.
    “Hi Ben.” I said still sleepy.
    Ben looking at me with a coffee in his hand, he handed it to me. “Hi Lizzy. You look ravishing.” He said winking at me. “You ready for your first day of work?”
     “As ready as I’ll ever be.” Taking a sip before setting it down on the counter.
     “I’ll drop you off since I have to run into town anyhow.”
     “Thanks Ben.” Knowing other wise it was going to be a long walk. I really needed to look into buying a junk car. What little money I was able to hide from Craig, still shoved in a side pocket of my purse.
    “No problem.”
    “I’m going to go take a quick shower. Your girl leave already?”
    Smiling, “Yeah, she was a wild one. I hope I didn’t keep you awake.”
    “No worries. Thankfully, I didn’t hear a thing.”
    Laughing at me, “Hot nightgown Lizzy.”
     “Thanks. I think.” Walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind me, I quickly took my shower and was nervous for the first day on the job.
    Pulling up to the family restaurant, It looked about the same as it always has. Mrs. Taylor was as nice as she could be and put me to work immediately. Impressed on how quickly I caught on, I didn’t mind the work but sometimes wished that I would have waited for my swollen black and blue cheek to go down first. Catching people looking at me with sympathetic eyes, all of them bought my car accident story. Having no car to speak of helped in that story. Tips were good and people were friendly and the lunch crowd was thinning out and everyone else was going on their lunch break. I volunteered to wait on my break, being the newbie I didn’t mind. Concentrating on a ticket, I didn’t pay much attention