“I’m not—”
Brendon’s voice came through the phone, this time even lower than before. “Bray, get your ass back here. Jessie’s worried. Really worried. You can’t keep this shit up forever. And we need to talk.”
They did need to talk, but Braydon wondered just what Brendon wanted to talk about. Probably not the same thing as what Braydon had in mind.
Neither of them said anything for several moments. Braydon was just about to tell Brendon that he had things to do when his twin said, “Please tell me you’re gonna drop the woman and come home.” This time, Braydon heard an unfamiliar plea in his brother’s tone. Brendon didn’t usually ask nicely.
“There is no woman, dammit,” Braydon bit out, tossing his hat on the bar.
“So you’re comin’ home?” Brendon asked, this time sounding hopeful.
“Fuck.” Braydon exhaled.
“I’ll be waitin’ for you,” Brendon finally said, and the phone disconnected.
Braydon dropped his phone on the counter and then put both hands on his head, tilting his head back and closing his eyes.
Going home had been inevitable. He knew that.
He just didn’t know why he was choosing today to finally give in.
JESSIE HELD HER breath the entire time Brendon was on the phone. From the moment she realized that Braydon had answered, she’d been damn near close to passing out. She was almost worried that the lack of oxygen to her brain was becoming a problem. And at first, her belly had actually started to churn with anticipation and hope.
But the moment she heard Brendon make reference to another woman, her heart had deflated. And now she just felt oddly empty even though she knew it was an unreasonable reaction. Would Braydon really be with another woman without Brendon? He’d never done it before, but then again, he’d never left on his own, either.
Oh, crap.
Maybe during his time away, Braydon had ventured down a different path and realized he liked the one-on-one contact and that’s why he’d left. So he could find someone to be with and not have to worry about hurting Brendon. After their argument at Zane and V’s reception, it was clear the two of them had come to an impasse of sorts.
“Is he coming home?” Jessie asked when Brendon ended the call.
“Yeah.”
“Now?”
“That’s what he said,” Brendon said brusquely, turning away from her.
Jessie was tempted to stop him, but she didn’t even know how she was supposed to act around Brendon. This was the most time they’d spent together since Braydon up and left right after Zane’s wedding.
She contemplated for a moment whether she should stay or go. Neither option would be easy, but she had to do something. There was no way she could just stand there and wait for Brendon to talk. She’d probably be waiting for an eternity before that happened. As it was, she was surprised he’d let her into his house, much less held her when she first broke down.
Trying to pass the time and ignore the awkward silence, Jessie glanced around the house, trying to see if anything was different from the last time she was there. The focal point of the living room was still the huge television mounted on the wall, the one Braydon and Brendon had both repeatedly told her was the best of the best. Good thing too, since they spent a lot of time watching it. It was on now, which meant not much had changed even with Braydon gone.
The mantel above the fireplace was still bare; the well-worn leather furniture was still in the same place: a long, off-white sofa flanked by two matching oversized recliners that faced the television, separated by a coffee table. Memories of what had happened right there on that coffee table came flooding back, and Jessie had to look away to keep from blushing.
“Right this second, I’m watching you,” Brendon told her as he clicked off the television with the remote he held in his hand. “I’m waiting patiently for the gift you promised us.”
“Patiently, huh?” Jessie chuckled, her nerves turning her muscles to mush.
“Sure,” Brendon said seriously. “If I wasn’t a patient man, baby, you’d be flat on that coffee table right now.”
“I would?” Jessie decided to play along, inserted a little innocence in her tone.
“You would,” Brendon confirmed as he flopped onto the couch, propping his feet on the coffee table in question and crossing his ankles in a deceivingly laid-back gesture.
“And what would I be doing if I were flat on that coffee table right now?” Jessie asked, dividing her attention between the two of them.
“Do you want a play-by-play?” Brendon asked.
Okay, so she really needed to get going. Standing around and waiting for Brendon to talk to her was a waste of time and energy, and the last thing she cared to do was to rehash old memories.
“Would you mind texting me when Braydon’s back?” she asked softly. “I just want to know that he’s okay.”
Brendon whirled on her then, his blue-gray eyes fierce. “Oh, no. No way. Bullshit. You’re gonna stay right here until he gets back, Jessie. The three of us have some things to talk about.”
“The three of us?” she asked dubiously, her own anger beginning to simmer.
“Yeah. You wanted me to call. I did. Now you’re gonna stick around to face the music, too.”
Face the music? Was he insane? “This isn’t about—”
“You think this is about me?” Brendon interrupted.
Actually, she thought it was about Braydon, but whatever.
Jessie didn’t answer him. It wasn’t like she could tell him all the reasons she believed Braydon had left. If she did, it would likely come back to bite her in the ass. It was an odd situation they had been in, but in a way, it had worked. Now it was over, and she was supposed to be moving on. If Braydon could walk away from her without a backward glance, then she should be able to do the same thing.
“He didn’t leave because of me, Jessie.”
Jessie lifted her eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. She didn’t bother to tell him that they should’ve had this conversation a long time ago.
“He left because he loves you,” Brendon stated flatly, and the air left Jessie’s lungs in a rush.
“He doesn’t love me,” she shot back. Because if he did, he wouldn’t have left in the first place, she thought to herself.
Brendon laughed, but the sound was rough and lacked any humor. “He’s loved you since the day he met you. And I think that . . .”
“That what?” she asked when Brendon stopped talking, taking a step forward when he turned away from her.
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Braydon’s comin’ back. We’re gonna figure this out.”
We. Right. Figure this out. Whatever this was.
Jessie knew how this was going to end. She was going to get kicked to the curb and Brendon was going to move on, which meant Braydon was going to follow his brother’s lead. She was pretty sure Braydon had hated himself after giving in to the threesome the last time in the storeroom. After all, he’d limited their time together during the few weeks that led up to that. But then he’d given in. Why, she didn’t know.
So they’d all fucked up. And now it was time to move on.
Jessie didn’t want to admit it to herself or anyone else, but she had developed feelings for Braydon. Not quite love, because she didn’t think she had it in her. And even though she cared about Brendon, what she felt for him wasn’t the same.
Not that any of it mattered, because Jessie wasn’t about to admit it to them. She didn’t want a relationship. At the moment, her life was just fine. It would be even better with Braydon back home just because she wanted to know he was doing all right. Not because she wanted to be with him.
No. Definitely not that.
“Just call me when he gets here,” Jessie stated. “I’m going home, so I won’t be far.”
Currently, Jessie was living in Travis’s house because Travis had since moved in with Kylie and Gage, the three of them living in wedded bliss together. When Travis had moved out, he had offered Jessie his house so that she would be closer to her sister.
Jessie hadn’t argued. At the time she’d been without a home, staying in a hotel because she had grown quite fond of Coyote Ridge and hadn’t been ready to leave. And now she was working for her sister, helping Kylie run her thriving home restoration business, and she loved her job. Spending time with Kylie every day was easier than she’d ever thought it would be. They even had an office now, which Jessie spent most of her time in, thanks to that surprise Christmas gift that Travis and Gage had given Kylie.
Not wanting to hash it out with Brendon, she turned toward the door.
“Don’t walk away, Jessie,” Brendon rumbled.
That had her spinning on her boot heel as she turned to face him. “Walk away? Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“It’s what you did the moment Braydon left.”
“Bullshit!” she yelled. “Braydon walked away. You walked away, Brendon. Not me.” She circled her hands to reflect the two of them. “I took it to mean it was over. And you know what? I’m good with that. I just want Braydon to be okay. I don’t want to come between the two of you, and if you think Braydon loves me, then I really do need to get going.”
Because she desperately needed time to think about what that meant.
“You’re gonna run from him, too?”
“Too?” Jessie’s face heated with her anger. “I’m not running from anyone. I know when I’m not wanted. I get it. You found someone else . . .”
Jessie bit her tongue and closed her mouth, but not before Brendon’s eyes flared.
“What are you talking about?”
Not wanting to fight, Jessie turned to go again, but this time Brendon placed his hand on her arm. It was a gentle touch. Just enough to stop her from walking away, but she flinched nonetheless.
“Whoa,” Brendon said softly, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “I’m not gonna hurt you, Jess.”
“I know that,” she snapped back. She didn’t want any apologies, didn’t need his sympathy. She didn’t want anyone’s sympathy.
She just wanted . . .
Jessie didn’t even know what she wanted. She certainly knew what she didn’t want.
Jessie wasn’t ready for the relationship between the three of them to end, because the twins had given her something to look forward to, but she knew it was inevitable. All good things came to an end. But, if nothing else, she wanted to be friends. These men were important to her. She cared about them. And more importantly, they were Travis’s brothers, which meant that because Kylie was married to Travis, they would be a part of Jessie’s life whether she wanted them to be or not.
Brendon urged her to turn around by lightly pulling her, his hand even gentler than before. When she did, she looked up into a face that was so familiar, even if it didn’t belong to the man she’d spent too many nights dreaming about, although it was disturbingly similar. “Just stay, Jess. Let’s wait for him together.”
The urge to tell him no was so strong, but then Brendon placed his hand on her cheek and she had to fight back the tears. For months, she’d wondered what had happened between them. Tried to figure out why Brendon would turn his back on her the same way Braydon had.
All of a sudden, here they were, staring at one another, and she saw something she’d never seen before. Usually, when she met Brendon’s gaze she saw lust and passion. Those emotions were absent, and in their place . . . Jessie swore she saw something akin to worry. Fear.
Yeah, she knew that when Braydon left, Brendon had been hurt. She didn’t blame him. The twins were inseparable, yet she’d come along and look what happened.
Unable to find the energy to argue, Jessie nodded her head and shrugged out from beneath Brendon’s touch.
She would stay.
But for how long, she didn’t know.
chapter FIVE
With the radio blaring and his windows down, Braydon pulled onto the dirt road that wound through his parents’ land, the same one that would ultimately lead back to his house. The drive from Devil’s Bend had taken a lot less time than he’d thought, and certainly not enough for him to prepare for being back home.
Now that he was here, he wished it was as simple as keeping his foot on the gas and steering the winding road until he reached his own driveway. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. In order for him to get home, he had to pass his parents’ sprawling ranch house first, not to mention several of his brothers’ houses.
He wasn’t worried about his brothers. Not yet anyway.
No, right now, his focus was on his parents. Avoiding them after being gone so long would be one hell of a way to kick-start what he anticipated was going to be a really shitty day. In order to start off on the right foot, hopefully tempting karma to work in his favor, he opted to stop there first. If his mother saw his truck pass by without him stopping, his father would light into his ass as soon as the opportunity arose. It wasn’t like he drove a discreet Walker Demo truck like Ethan. No, his big-ass black four-door Chevy with the six-inch lift, blue flames, and chrome exhaust pipes was conspicuous at best. Which meant his parents would see him from ten miles away. Knowing his dad, a fly-by without stopping would garner an immediate ass-chewing. So, essentially, Braydon was just trying to save face.
It wasn’t because he was trying to stall for time.
Not at all.
A minute later, Braydon was walking through the back door of the big two-story ranch house that he had grown up in. The updated kitchen smelled like breakfast—eggs, bacon, and homemade biscuits—but it was clear his mom and dad had already finished and even cleaned up. The counters were spotless and there was a vase of fresh flowers sitting in the middle of the four-person table his parents now ate at. It was still sometimes difficult to imagine his parents only eating in the confined area. When he’d been growing up, their meals were shared at the giant dining room table his father had bought his mother. With nine Walkers in all, the small eat-in kitchen hadn’t been big enough to contain them.
“Anyone home?” he hollered as he walked into the main living room with its comfortable couches, his dad’s worn recliner, and the picture of him and his brothers mounted above the fireplace. It was the picture they’d given their mother for Mother’s Day last year.
But other than the same old furniture, all shiny and clean, Braydon found no one there to greet him. His parents weren’t there, which surprised him.
“They’re checking on the horses.”
Braydon glanced up at the stairs to see his cousin Jared making his way down.
Jared Walker, Braydon’s cousin on his dad’s side, looked as well put together as usual. He was sporting a navy blue Walker Demo polo, Wrangler jeans, boots, and his straw hat. Typical Walker attire for a workday. Not so much for a Sunday though. Braydon was about to ask if Jared was working weekends but stopped himself. He wasn’t ready to initiate a conversation that could easily go in a direction Braydon wasn’t ready to deal with. Instead, he opted for simple. “Thanks. I’ll check there,” he replied quickly.
“Hold up,” Jared said resolutely, catching Braydon before he could turn around.
Braydon closed his eyes for a moment. This wasn’t going to be good, and he knew it.
“You back for good?”
That wasn’t the first thing he expected Jared to say, but Braydon didn’t pause before he answered. “Don’t know yet.”
Jared grunted at that, his eyes narrowing on Braydon. “If you are, are you comin’ back to work, too?”
“If I stay, then yeah,” he said simply, waiting for Jared to jump his ass for neglecting his responsibilities all these months.
Jared must’ve realized what
he was waiting for because he smiled. “You’re a grown man, Bray. And I’m not your father,” his cousin began. “Yes, I’m pissed that you disappeared, but we’ve been worried. Everyone, your brothers included, wants you to come back.”
Braydon nodded. That’s it?
“Don’t worry; you’ll get your punishment when you decide. I’ll work your ass into the ground over the next few weeks. We’ve got some new jobs coming up and you’re just in time to get assigned to them.”
Of course he was. Although Braydon didn’t like the idea of putting in sixty-hour weeks just to pay Jared back for skipping out on him, he still smiled. “Thanks. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.”
“Sure you will.” Jared laughed, surprising Braydon. He hadn’t seen his cousin laugh all that much back when he first got to town. The man had some serious personal issues, and from the few details he’d heard, Braydon didn’t blame the guy for being in a perpetual state of pissed off. So his positive, upbeat attitude was new. And a little disconcerting.
“I’ll be waitin’ for that phone call,” Jared said, clapping Braydon on the back and then making his way to the kitchen.
Braydon followed his cousin, but he didn’t stop in the kitchen; he continued out the back door. Another quick drive and he was pulling up to the barn where his parents kept the few horses they owned.
He was at the main doors when a loud gasp caught his attention, and he squinted into the shadows of the barn to see his mother coming toward him.
“Please, God, tell me you’re home for good,” she said as she walked right up to him and wrapped him in her arms.
“I don’t know yet, Mom,” he told her, hugging her in return. He wouldn’t lie to his mother, so if he said he would stay, he had to stay, and at the moment, he couldn’t commit.
“Boy,” his father greeted him as he ambled his way.
“Dad,” Braydon replied when his mother released him from her death grip.
“’Bout damn time.”
That was all Curtis said, which wasn’t surprising. Braydon knew his father meant every word he spoke, even when he didn’t talk in complete sentences, and Braydon felt his father’s unspoken relief to the depths of his soul. His parents were incredibly supportive of all their boys. Always had been, even when they didn’t quite understand or agree with one of their sons’ decisions.
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