Brayden (Wild Men Book 6)

by Melissa Belle

  I go upstairs to wash the tears off my face. I’m not sure where all the emotion is coming from. Maybe it’s relief because I never knew I could do this by myself. I never knew I could do what I wanted, something just for me, for no other reason than that I deserve to be happy.

  When Phillip’s still not home after I’ve taken a shower, I give up on talking to him tonight. I climb into bed alone and turn off the light.

  Brayden

  I drive back to the ranch, but I don’t go directly to my house after dropping Leleila off. I can’t. I’m so fucking wired from spending time with her—I feel like my dick is going to explode.

  And my heart. Because the vulnerable way Leleila threw herself at me when she saw that excuse for a human being in the bar—it was all I could do not to put my mouth on hers until she calmed down.

  Knowing that wasn’t an option, I went for the second best thing I could think of; I held her. Taking her to dinner and getting a chance to know her, to talk, was the highlight of my night. Leleila’s funny and quirky and down-to-earth. She’s also ridiculously smart, which just might be the only thing she and her fiancé have in common.

  I drive along the dirt path through the back of the property and pass by the edge of an open field. Stars litter the sky, and as I watch, a shooting star crosses above me. I keep driving, though, because the kind of dreams I’m wishing for right now involve a woman who’s not available. And that’s not the kind of guy I am. I want Leleila to get married to the man she loves and to live a happy life. She deserves that. If I can help her get there by being her friend, I’m happy to do it. And if it hurts? That’s something I’ll have to figure out how to work through.

  Everything will be fine. Leleila and her fiancé will get married. I’ll buy the ranch. And we’ll go our separate ways.

  Trying to ignore the ache in my chest, I turn for home.

  By the time I step inside the guesthouse, Ayden and Bella are asleep in my room, Jasalie’s in the spare room, and Cam’s sacked out on the couch. Not wanting to talk about Leleila, I sneak past him and go out to the porch to try to get some sleep.

  As soon as Leleila walked into the saloon, I knew Cam and Ayden were going to see right through me.

  That’s why I’ve always kept my personal life private. I love my cousins, but having five nosy guys is as bad as five curious women. Maybe worse because my cousins aren’t polite or civil about wanting to be in on a secret; they just keep pushing until they know everything.

  Sure enough, while the five of us are touring Jasalie and Dylan’s wedding venue the next day, Cam and Ayden corner me when the three of us are outside taking a break from hearing about flower arrangements and meal options. The mountains are all around us, and the air is still and quiet. It’s peaceful, and the sun is shining. But I know what’s coming, and Cam doesn’t disappoint.

  “So. Leleila’s a nice name.” Cam’s tone is light, but I know he’s just getting started.

  I point at him. “Don’t.”

  “She’s got a nice ass, too.”

  I’m on him so fast he doesn’t have time to fight back. I pin one arm behind his back and wrestle him face first onto the grass. Not enough to shut him up, though.

  “And a nice rack,” he says in a tone meant to drive me over the edge.

  I dig my knee into his thigh until he curses. I’d keep going, but Ayden’s involved now; two strong arms wrap around my middle, forcing me to release my youngest cousin, who I want to put through the damn picture window not ten feet away from us.

  “Cam, back the fuck up,” Ayden says. “Forcing Brayden to talk about a woman never works.”

  Cam flips over onto his back. His face is red, but his devilish grin is still in place. “You can’t keep her from us forever,” he says. “What’s the big deal, anyway? You obviously like her.”

  I don’t say anything; instead, I pick up a stray rock and chuck it toward the open field to our left. It doesn’t come close to hitting the mountains, but it sails.

  Ayden whistles. “You can still throw. You’d think you’d played quarterback and not receiver.”

  Some of the unbearable tension I’ve been feeling since last night leaves my shoulders, and I let out a deep exhale.

  Ayden takes a seat next to Cam on the ground, and I sink down to a squat in front of them.

  “She’s fucking taken.” My voice is so quiet I’d have thought they didn’t hear me except for Cam’s low whistle. “Bella and Jasalie didn’t say anything?”

  “Bella said something, but honestly, I had a little too much to drink, and I was so jetlagged I didn’t really understand what she was saying,” Ayden says.

  “Well, she’s got someone else.”

  “But she’s not married.” Ayden sounds certain. “I didn’t see a wedding band, and she acts…”

  “Lonely,” Cam finishes.

  “That’s because she is,” I say roughly.

  I take a breath and tell them about our arrangement.

  “You agreed to help her prepare for her first dance with her husband?” Ayden says incredulously.

  “Her fiancé sounds like a selfish bastard,” Cam says.

  I frown. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Cam stares at me hard. “You fucking like her.”

  “I would never hit on someone who’s taken.”

  “Not saying you would, but you want her all the same. And you can’t have her. You can’t use your Brayden Wild moves to woo her, either.” He says it jokingly, but the heaviness behind his words is weighty.

  Ayden’s eyes flash with sympathy. “Sucks, man.”

  I exhale. They’re right. I’m fucking screwed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Leleila

  Phillip and I spend all of Sunday in our pajamas, going over his research. My courage from last night has disappeared, and I don’t tell him about Noah. I also don’t ask him about his new friendship with Mindy. His bike race is Tuesday, and he’s anxious about everything. He keeps asking me if I think he has enough convincing evidence to support his claims regarding poisons in the ecosystem and how they negatively affect life on the planet, including humans.

  “Yes,” I say with a confidence I don’t quite feel. “I definitely think you have enough evidence.”

  “Don’t be influenced by your emotions,” he says to me, his eyes bloodshot from the hours of reading and re-reading. “Just because you want me to be right doesn’t mean I am.”

  I stop in the middle of my train of thought and stare at him. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about it in those terms before.

  “What you need to do is get your emotions out of the way,” Phillip continues. “Pretend I’m a stranger and you’re hearing these results for the first time. Would you believe it? Or would you think it was forced?”

  I reach over and touch his cheek, which is chapped from his bike rides.

  Looking for a way to get his mind off his own worries, I tell him about the container at the ranch. “It’s right by the reservoir,” I say. “I mean the land backs to it. It could be a really big deal.”

  “You alerted the ranch owners?” he asks me.

  “First, I’m sending a sample out to be analyzed.”

  “Leave it alone, Lei,” he says. “Don’t get involved where you don’t belong.”

  “It’s not that simple,” I say. “The owners of the ranch are going through a tough time, and Brayden doesn’t want to alarm them unduly…”

  “So you’re doing it all yourself?” Phillip frowns. “Honey, you’re being naïve. I’m sure it’s nothing, anyway. Just because a container says something doesn’t mean it’s truly dangerous.”

  “I just have a bad feeling in my gut.”

  “It should never come down to your gut,” Phillip says. “Not as a scientist. Because then you’ll be influenced by your emotions, and science must come from the brain.”

  “Speaking of me and science,” I say. “I ran into Gerry at the store.”

  I tell Phillip
what he said. “Every day that goes by, I just feel like my goal is slipping away from me,” I admit.

  Phillip rubs my arm. “I could try to talk to him if you want. Maybe he’ll cave and agree to let you re-try your dissertation before we get married.”

  “That would be amazing,” I say. “Thank you, honey. You’ve always been there for me.”

  I lean over and hug him. He gives me a light squeeze before turning his eye back to the lens.

  By the day of Phillip’s bike race, the soil samples are dried and ready, and I decide to see if anything shows up on a slide before taking them to Save the Soil.

  Phillip leaves early for class, and I promise him I’ll be waiting at the rest stop outside June’s store when he bikes by later this afternoon. Once he’s gone, I check the soil samples I took with Brayden. They’re sufficiently dried, so I fish around on Phillip’s shelf for a clean slide that’s large enough.

  I know I won’t be able to decipher much with my limited knowledge, and I know a microscopic exam is more outdated than the methods now in use, but I want to see if anything looks different between the two samples before I involve Save the Soil.

  The soil fills each slide easily, and I put my eye to the lens.

  The first sample, the one taken from Big River, looks the way I would expect. But the second one doesn’t.

  It looks … off. But I’m not an ecologist, and I have no clue what I’m actually looking at. I just know it doesn’t look right, not from all the samples I’ve had to look at for both my parents and for Phillip through the years. I know enough to spot an abnormality. So I place the slide into a plastic bag, making sure to keep it flat and immobile, and then I gather up the two core samples.

  I jump in my car and drive to Save the Soil.

  “I need you to send this out for analysis,” I say to Patsy, handing her the slide and jar of soil. “I’ll fill out a form, but this soil needs to be analyzed for toxins and contaminants ASAP. And let me know when the results are in—I want a rush order on them, please.”

  When I walk into Big Sky Grocer, I immediately look around for Brayden. I haven’t seen him since he drove me home. I don’t see him anywhere, and I try to push down the feeling of disappointment in my gut.

  “I’m going to start painting the mural today,” I say to June.

  “Great. But before you do that, I have a favor.”

  She sets me up at the cash registers. “It’s not hard,” she insists. “I just have no one to cash right now—Kim called in sick, and I have a vendor meeting in two minutes. Just scan and total. The codes for bagels and fruits are here.” She shows me the list taped next to the register. “And the morning crowd will pick up any minute now, so get ready.”

  Talk about being thrown right in. The line is around the corner and down the aisle within a half hour. Gerry comes by and asks if we can meet for lunch later in the week. Something about the way he asks makes my stomach twist with nerves, but I don’t have time to ask him what’s going on. So I say yes gratefully and am momentarily buoyed, only to inwardly cringe when Dr. Matt Lucas comes through the line.

  “So this is what you’ve been doing since you took a break from school,” he jokes.

  “Just helping out my sister,” I say with a fake smile.

  Brayden happens to be stocking magazines by the register, and I catch him giving Dr. Lucas a hard stare, a stare that grows more pronounced when Matt adds, “Remind me never to fail my dissertation, huh? It’s a hard fall.”

  I grit my teeth and don’t answer him, but the receipt paper in the register manages to pick this time to snag. The entire line gets held up, and I can’t unsnag it.

  Brayden jumps over the counter, so I get a great view of his ass while he’s unwinding the paper, and that almost makes up for what Matt Lucas is loudly going on about for the whole store to hear.

  “Seriously, Leleila, you holding up okay?” he presses me. “You really should take my wife’s “Spousal Support for Professors” class. It would give you something to focus on.”

  I try to interrupt with a quick, “I’m fine, really,” but Dr. Lucas won’t stop. “I feel like I’d have nothing without my research. But I admire your fortitude. Honestly, I don’t know how you’re getting up in the morning.”

  “Leleila’s doing great,” Brayden says abruptly as he jumps off the counter and Matt’s receipt finally prints. “She doesn’t need any letters after her name to tell her that.”

  Matt Lucas turns red and leaves quickly.

  I swallow and turn to Brayden. “Thanks,” I say quickly.

  His gaze slides over me like he’s checking for injuries.

  “I’m fine,” I assure him. “And while I appreciate your support, that guy you embarrassed is Phillip’s boss.”

  “Well, he should have more respect for you,” he says, his jaw tight as he turns back to his work.

  I agree with him. But Matt Lucas is typical of a lot of Phillip’s colleagues—too smart for his own good.

  I finish cashing in relative peace, and then I spend the rest of the morning at the big white wall at the front of the store. With the image of Brayden on his horse in my mind, I begin to sketch.

  A long while later, I step back to see what I’ve done.

  A cowboy on what will be a chestnut-colored horse stands proudly in the foreground with large pastureland behind him. Snow-capped mountain peaks, lush green grass, and Montana’s signature big sky surround the scene. The mural typifies Mountainview, and my hope is it will showcase the store’s aisles filled with local produce, meats, and cowboy tack and gear. I’m so immersed in my work I don’t stop to think about the fact that anyone and everyone will have their eyes on it. It’s been years since I painted, and I don’t really know what possessed me to do something so crazy as to paint a mural in the middle of a public space.

  “Don’t worry,” I say to myself. “You can cover it completely with a solid color if it looks like crap when you’re done.”

  I pick up a paintbrush and start to bring the sketch to life.

  I’m immersed in my work when my phone buzzes, alerting me to Phillip’s bike race. He should be coming around the corner in the next half hour, and I need to make sure I’m ready.

  I drop all the brushes into a bucket to soak, clean up the drop cloth, and go find June.

  When I find her standing with Brayden by the front door, my heart rate picks up.

  My physiological reaction has nothing to do with the hot, sexy cowboy next to her. Not at all.

  “I’m off to the pit stop,” I say to her as I jerk my chin toward the outdoors. “Phillip should be here soon, and you know how much support he needs at these races. I’m the only one he’s trained.”

  Brayden cocks an eyebrow. “He trained you?”

  I sigh. “If you glance out the window when the riders come by, you’ll see what I mean.”

  “Actually, Brayden,” June says sweetly, and I could kill her. “I’m going to need help outside. I’ve got the bottled drinks and waters lined up at the table on the sidewalk as well as some on-the-go energy snacks. Would you mind staying out there when they come by?”

  “Sure. I’m leaving for practice in an hour, but I’ll work until then.”

  “Perfect.”

  As soon as Brayden leaves, June smirks at me. “This is going to be a fun bike race.”

  “Why?” I say suspiciously. “Who have you been talking to?”

  “Mom.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I smile when I hear that Mom and Dad are back in the country.

  “I emailed them and never heard back,” I say. “When did they get in?”

  “Late last night. Apparently, Phillip called and invited them.” June shrugs. “You know how he likes to show off to Dad, especially when he’s eyeballs deep in research for a new paper he hopes to publish.”

  “But he won’t even get to talk to Dad. Remember these races?”

  “Oh, I think I do,” June says. “I have nightmares about
them still sometimes. Phillip’s sweaty body hunched over his teeny-weeny bike and all of us standing there cheering him on while he demands you deliver him water and petroleum jelly for his chafing. Ugh.”

  She shudders at the memory, and I have to dig my heels into the ground to not join her. These bike races are so unpleasant.

  She gives me a shove toward the door. “You should get out there and stake your spot. And keep your cell with you so you can phone me in for a listen if things get really interesting.”

  As I make my way to the corner where the pit stop is located, I do a double-take.

  I’m not the only one here from the Phillip Rowe Fan Club.

  Mindy’s in my spot. I say “my spot” because she’s standing with her right foot directly next to the curb, in such a way that nobody can get next to her on that side and push her out. Phillip taught me to stand that way. Several people are lined up behind her, but nobody’s getting in front of that girl. She knows her place, and she’s not giving it up for anything.

  I don’t want to make small talk with her, but she nods at me immediately.

  “Hello, Mindy.” I nod back. “How are you?”

  “Hello, Leleila.” She nods again, and a flush slowly fills her cheeks, almost like she’s guilty about something.

  Probably the fact that she’s got an obvious massive crush on my fiancé.

  I introduce her to Brayden just as Sophia screams out, “Hi,” while she and Slammer cross the street toward me.

  “You skipped work for this?” I say to her when they reach me.

  Sophia laughs. “Honey, I always find an excuse to skip work. You know that. Plus, my boss is away for the day. Nobody will even notice I’m gone. Slammer and I were going to get dessert tonight. You and Brayden should come with.”

  Brayden’s blue eyes sparkle with mischief. “Where to, Sophia?”