How the hell was he going to be a decent husband if he couldn’t even pick out a gift that his fiancé would love?
“Problems?” his father asked, slapping Zane on the back as he joined him at one of the corner tables.
Glancing up at Curtis, Zane considered asking his advice. After all, the guy had spent half a century with the same woman and managed to keep her around after seven boys. He had to be doing something right.
“What am I supposed to get V for Christmas?” he blurted, clearly having made a decision to approach his father for help.
“What do you want to get her?”
“Anything she wants,” Zane replied simply, tipping his beer to his lips and taking a long pull, his eyes glued to his father’s face. Any minute now he expected to hear profound wisdom, something that would help him find that memorable gift that would make V love him all the more.
“What does she want?”
“She won’t tell me,” Zane admitted.
Curtis’ booming laugh echoed through the bar and half the folks crowded in the small place turned to look in his direction. “You expect her to tell you?”
“Why the hell not?” he asked, his displeasure evident in the tone of his voice. Obviously approaching his father for help wasn’t going to get him anywhere. Unless being laughed at counted.
“Son,” Curtis said, his voice low, his expression serious, “I won’t admit to knowing everything about women, but I can tell you one thing. If you go with your gut, search with your heart, she won’t be disappointed in you.”
Well, hell. That didn’t tell him dick.
“I’ve been married to your mother for over fifty years, and although you might not believe it, there was a point in our lives when money was scarce. We were two stupid kids in love without a pot to piss in. I could barely afford to pay the electric bill, much less buy her something fancy for Christmas. But, let me tell you something, kid,” Curtis’ voice descended another octave as he continued, “it’s not about the price, it’s about the love behind it.”
Zane stared at his father, took in his weathered face, and studied his expression. About the love, huh?
Nodding his head in understanding, because truthfully, for the first time in weeks, Zane felt as though he might just pass this first hurdle. If it was about the love, well, he had love in spades. Especially when it came to V.
“Now, don’t go killin’ yourself trying to figure it out. And that lil’ lady over there,” Curtis said, tilting his head in V’s direction, “she loves you somethin’ fierce. Which is all that matters.”
♀♂
Vanessa
V pretended not to notice Curtis and Zane sitting off in the corner by themselves. It was clear by their body language, their conversation was a personal one and considering the solemn way Zane had been acting lately, she couldn’t say she was surprised.
She’d inadvertently overheard a phone conversation between Zane and Beau just last week, and from what she gathered, he was worried about what to get her for Christmas.
Without giving away the fact that she knew, she’d been trying to reassure him. Little did the stubborn cowboy know, but she had all she could ever want for Christmas. She had him. The love she felt for him was so overwhelming, sometimes she felt as though her heart just might explode.
And to have been welcomed with open arms into his family, there wasn’t a single material thing that could ever top that sort of feeling. No jewelry, no clothes, not even a fancy car. Nothing compared to having someone love you as much as you love them. It took V a long time to accept that, but now that she had, well, she knew she would never let it go.
“Damn, woman,” Travis growled. “Can’t you take pity on a guy? I’m tryin’ to impress some people here.”
Travis moved around the table and pulled her up against his side, giving her a brief, brotherly hug.
“Well, if you want some advice, you might wanna try something else. You suck at pool.”
Travis laughed, pretending to push her away. “Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?”
Brendon chose that moment to show up at the table, his arm around Jessie, who apparently had shown up as requested.
“You here to impress someone too?” she joked.
Turning to look at Jessie then back to V, Brendon smiled. “I think I can take you tonight.”
Apparently the room had been waiting for this moment. She and Brendon were known to play several games and according to the Walker boys, it was like a death match, everyone hanging on the edge of their seats watching to see who would go down first.
Just as she was going to answer, Zane walked up beside her, pulling her against his side and kissing her forehead. “Don’t mess with my girl,” he said to his brother. “She’ll kick your ass every time.”
His girl.
V would never tire of Zane calling her that.
“Mmmm,” she hummed as she tilted her head back to look at him. “I’m pretty sure I can take him, but I’ll take a kiss for good luck.”
V should’ve known that Zane Walker wasn’t capable of a sweet, innocent peck on the lips. He turned her to face him, his arms still banded around her body as he dropped his mouth down to hers. When she would’ve pulled away – public displays not necessarily her thing – he gripped the back of her head and plundered her mouth with his tongue.
And that’s all it took.
A few long seconds later, weak kneed and anxious, V had to wonder just how in the hell she was going to be able to focus after that.
She could only hope something would distract Brendon, or she was definitely screwed.
♂♀♂
Brendon
Brendon grabbed his own pool stick that he’d brought with him, ignoring the community one that Travis had just discarded. Moving around the table, his eyes tracked Jessie who had instantly headed across the room to where Braydon was standing alone near the wall.
His brother was acting awfully strange these days, he noticed. In fact, he’d been acting strange for weeks now, and for the life of him, Brendon had no idea what could be wrong. The only sound conclusion he’d come up with was Braydon was reacting to Brendon’s ridiculous jealousy. Something he’d been paying attention to since the last time Jessie came to the house.
Talking to Braydon lately hadn’t produced much information either, which wasn’t typical for his twin. Of the two of them, Braydon was certainly much more open than Brendon was when it came to talking about himself. But, no matter how he played things out in his head, he couldn’t understand what might be bothering Braydon. Unless it had something to do with their relationship with Jessie.
It wasn’t like the guy wasn’t getting laid on a regular basis, or so it seemed. Up until the last few weeks when Jessie began trying to distance herself from them, Brendon was lucky he had his brother because shit, he had a damned hard time keeping up with her.
She was something else. Smart, beautiful, so damn sweet, and sexy as hell… but despite all of those wonderful qualities, there seemed to be something missing. What, he had no idea. They spent time together, though that was less and less frequently these days. And most of the time, she was the one coming up with excuses. Not that he could blame her entirely for the rift that was developing between them because he certainly wasn’t pushing her.
At the beginning of their relationship, he’d been gung ho, wanting to spend as much time with her as possible and the feeling seemed to be mutual. For whatever reason, they hit it off and the chemistry between them was off the charts explosive. And the firestorm that erupted between them was still hot enough to burn them both to a crisp, but the initial lust had fizzled to more of a friendship. Or so that’s what it felt like for Brendon.
There for a while, he’d felt a little smothered. And he’d had to take a step back to realize that Jessie wasn’t at fault. In fact, since day one, she’d insisted on taking things slow. Slower than he had expected. But as time had passed, they seemed to be moving backward inst
ead of forward.
Studying the balls on the table, Brendon mapped out his game, watching V as she continued to sink ball after ball into the pocket she called. He could only hope she’d mess up because that was when he could take over, potentially sweeping the table. With her, he needed to be one up at all times. And with his attention continuing to move back and forth between Jessie and the table, Brendon didn’t think he was going to be much of a match for V this time around.
“Your turn,” she called as the handful of people standing around groaned that she’d missed.
Blocking out everything in the room, Brendon focused on the table. Lining up a shot, he sank his ball and moved around, grabbing the chalk as he did. He had to take his time, this wasn’t like playing these amateurs that would line up for an opportunity to make a fool out of him night after night. Didn’t seem to matter that the only person – save for some freak miracle – who could beat him regularly, was V.
Bending at the waist, Brendon set his pool stick against his fingers, his sights running down the length as he gauged distance and angle. Just when he reared back to sink the shot, a woman spoke, and he floundered, missing the cue ball entirely and damn near face planting into the table.
Looking up, he expected to see the woman who’d been plaguing his dreams as of late because the voice sounded so familiar. Tipping the side of the cue ball with his pool stick, Brendon realized his mistake.
The voice wasn’t that of Cheyenne Montgomery, but then again, why the hell would she be in Coyote Ridge? It wasn’t like she’d ever even been back since her impromptu Mother’s Day visit as a favor to Travis. And if anyone would know, it would be Brendon. He thought he saw her or heard her everywhere. Sometimes in the strangest of places.
The country music star wasn’t known to frequent this part of the world often. But he couldn’t seem to convince his brain of that.
“Hey,” V whispered as she passed by him, “you all right?”
No, he wasn’t all right. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be all right again. At least not until he managed to get Cheyenne out of his system one way or another. For good.
He bit his tongue, not saying a word. He couldn’t. There was nothing he could say. It wasn’t like he could explain his predicament to V. She was friends with Jessie and no matter what was going on between him and Jessie, he certainly wasn’t going to let another woman interfere. Not even the memory of a woman who had come into his life like a whirlwind and then disappeared just as quickly as she’d arrived. And for the first time in Brendon’s life, he’d been the one watching her walk away.
Standing tall, he backed away and let V take over the table.
Clamping his mouth shut because the last thing he wanted to do was to make a fool out of himself right here in front of all these people, Brendon glanced over to where Jessie stood, leaning close to Braydon. Much closer than he would’ve expected them to be in a public place. It wasn’t a secret that Brendon and Braydon shared their lovers; however, when they were out, they didn’t usually make a public spectacle of their lifestyle.
Staring at Braydon, he waited patiently until his brother met his gaze, which didn’t take long. That was part of their twin connection. Surprisingly, the look in Braydon’s eyes had worry shuddering down Brendon’s spine.
Well, hell.
It looked like Brendon wasn’t the only one with a secret.
Chapter Thirteen
♂♀♂
Braydon
“Are you ok?” Jessie asked.
She was close enough that Braydon could smell the sweet and spicy, floral scent of her perfume – a scent he’d found himself craving for months now. And the more he got, the more he wanted. Like a drug, addicting. But, no matter how much he wished otherwise, Jessie was seemingly doing her best not to get too close which meant moments like these were few and far between these days.
Braydon wanted to draw Jessie up against him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her as close as he could. He wanted to press his nose against the soft, silky strands of her hair and then rest his lips against the enticing hollow at the base of her throat.
Only she wasn’t his. Which meant he didn’t have the luxury of touching her the way he wanted to. A quick peek across the room, Braydon noticed his twin wasn’t paying any attention to him or Jessie, but he knew that could change at any moment.
Damn, this was getting harder and harder with every single second that passed, and to know that Christmas was literally just days away was killing him. Braydon wanted to spend Christmas with Jessie, he wanted to invite her to his parents’ house as his girl, have her sit next to him at dinner, and put his arm around her shoulder while they watched It’s a Wonderful Life.
Braydon wanted it all, but for now he would have to settle for being the third wheel. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the time he got to spend with Jessie, but until her, Braydon had never imagined himself separating from his twin this way.
They shared women, it’s just what they did. Neither of them ran solo when it came to sex with women – never had. And until recently, he had never questioned the reason. And hell, they shared Jessie, and he knew for a fact that Brendon had never fucked her without Braydon present.
Because that was the way things worked.
Brendon needed him to be there. Needed him around. In fact, Braydon got the impression Brendon expected him to sustain this type of relationship for the rest of their lives. And because his twin was the most important person in his world, Braydon wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to tell him that his idea of a relationship was morphing into something a little less… threesome based.
But even he knew that most of their relationships were based on sex and pleasure. But with Jessie, what had taken up residence in the center of Braydon’s chest had so much more to do with deeper emotions and less about physical gratification.
It didn’t make it right though.
Braydon glanced back at Jessie as she spoke softly.
“What do you want to do when we leave here?”
God, why did it sound like she was actually talking directly to him? Almost as though the “we” in her statement was just the two of them. But that wasn’t the case. The “we” she referred to included Brendon.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said gruffly, suddenly irritated with himself. He needed to back the fuck off and get his shit together before he did something incredibly stupid.
And Lord knew he’d done enough stupid things during the course of his life. No reason to rack up more points.
♂♂
Beau
Beau had spent the better part of the night bullshitting with Kaleb and Gage about the Dallas Cowboys, talking to Sawyer about his latest adventure at the animal shelter, and ultimately wasting time until he could get a minute alone with Ethan.
Since Blake wasn’t around – yes, miracles did happen – he was hoping for just a chance to talk to Ethan. Not that he expected anything to happen, but quite frankly, Beau missed their weekly chats over a beer right here in this very same bar. Whether he was the one who had fallen into sync with Ethan’s schedule, or vice versa, they always seemed to meet up. Not that either of them would take responsibility for it being more than just a coincidence.
However, they hadn’t said two words to one another since the afternoon he stumbled upon Ethan receiving a blow job from Blake. And tonight wasn’t looking good for him either.
Ethan was putting a noticeable amount of space between them, and Beau was honestly tired of this cat and mouse bullshit. He should’ve taken the hint. Should’ve let Ethan’s blatant reaction to his being a witness to his sexual satisfaction send him in the opposite direction. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been pissed. Or insanely jealous.
But for some reason, after seeing Ethan and Blake together at the mechanic shop, he’d had more than his fair share of fantasies which absolutely did not include Blake Henley. Nope, you could cut Blake right out of those images and paste Beau right over that empty space, and
you’d get a front row seat through the portal into Beau’s deepest, darkest fantasies.
Beau knew that before long, he was going to have to do something about his complete and total obsession with Ethan Walker. Either he was going to have to approach him, or he was going to have to walk away. It was obvious that Ethan wasn’t going to be making the first move.
Ironically, Beau had just come to terms with the fact that he was gay, but it seemed a man who had never been with a woman in his life still had trouble admitting the obvious.
If only Beau could figure out a way to help Ethan over that hurdle and prove to him that the world would continue to turn, even if he did finally come out.
♂♂
Ethan
Ethan could feel Beau’s eyes as they tracked him through the bar. He’d felt them since the moment he walked in the door. And, like a true asshole, he’d fought every urge to turn around and make eye contact with the man.
After watching Beau fly out of the parking lot of Walker Demo’s mechanic shop, Ethan knew he’d succeeded in driving him away. Making eye contact with Beau while Blake had been sucking him off probably hadn’t been the best idea, but he did what he had to do. And the memory still assaulted him.
As did what happened after that.
That afternoon, he had physically been with Blake, his cock lodged deep in his ass, the friction blowing his mind. But mentally, he’d been with Beau. It had been Beau whom he’d told to grab hold of the rolling toolbox. It had been Beau whom he’d all but ripped his clothes off of. It had been Beau he’d knelt down behind and reamed his ass with his tongue until he was begging, pleading for him to fuck him. And it had been Beau he’d rammed his cock inside and thrust in earnest until they were both covered in sweat.
But, at the same time, it hadn’t been Beau.
And that’s what sucked.
After that encounter with Blake, they’d gone back to work, pretended that all was normal in their world while Ethan had spent the afternoon imagining what it would be like to fuck Beau senseless.
Holidays With the Walker Brothers Page 9