“I’m sorry. I really did need to check out the ranch, I swear, but I admit that I hoped you would take to the place if you saw it.”
“Oh, yeah?” he snarled. “That’s what you’ll admit to?”
“Walker!” She grabbed his arm, and he swung around so suddenly that Charlie stepped back.
“Damn it, I told you I couldn’t do this. I told you I wasn’t qualified. But you didn’t want to listen.”
“If you’d only consider—”
“No,” he snapped. “I won’t consider it. You don’t know anything about it.”
She looked startled for a moment, but then she shook her head and frowned at him. “Are you kidding me? I’ve known you since you were sixteen.”
“You don’t know me!” he shouted.
“Hey,” she said, her voice low with shock.
Walker took a deep breath, trying to control himself. He didn’t yell at women. That wasn’t who he was. “Look. I’m not doing this. It’s not the place for me. I don’t belong here. Leave it alone, Charlie.”
“How can you say that? I’m sorry I manipulated the situation, but you obviously belong here.”
“I. Do. Not.”
“What are you afraid of? Not being good enough? Everyone thinks you’re amazing.”
“I can’t do this,” he said, putting his hands on the hood of his truck. “Stop asking. Please.” His heart beat harder. And harder. He pressed his fists against the shiny black paint.
“Walker. You love people. You’ve said it yourself. All you have to do is take a safety course for a few weeks. I know you don’t want to think about reading and writing, but it’s a temporary problem that could lead to a whole new life.”
“Charlie...”
“Why can’t you just try?”
“Damn it!” he exploded, swinging around to face her. “I didn’t graduate, Charlie, all right? It’s not so simple and pretty and tied up with a bow. I don’t have my fucking high school diploma!”
She drew her chin in, her eyes blank with shock. “What?”
“I never graduated!” The words hung in the air between them, real now. As real as a dust cloud she’d kicked in his face. He’d said it. To Charlie.
“But...” She shook her head. “You did graduate.”
“No, I didn’t. And you need me to admit that, apparently, because you can’t take no for an answer. You need me to say that out loud, not just to you, but to half the fucking people I know. I can’t teach children anything because I didn’t even graduate from high school! There. Are you happy now?”
“Walker... Just... We were at the same graduation ceremony.”
“Yeah. Since I’d already been held back my sophomore year, they let me walk the stage out of pure pity.”
She shook her head again.
Walker felt his lips draw back in a grimace of a smile. “I was supposed to take one more class that summer. I didn’t.”
Her eyes had gone wide. “But...why? Walker, why didn’t you do it?”
He turned away and walked toward the door of his truck. “I was working.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He froze, hand reaching toward the handle of the door. “Really? You’re kidding, right?”