Braydon (14 page)

“Look,” Sawyer finally began. “If you need to talk . . .”

Braydon didn’t find Sawyer’s offer surprising. Especially after he had recently found out the secret his older brother had harbored for so many years. As it turned out, Ethan had been assaulted years ago, and Sawyer had been the one who’d found him and nursed him back to health.

As the story went, Ethan hadn’t wanted to get the rest of his family involved because of his fear of what his brothers might’ve done.
Would’ve
done was more like it. Had any of them known that Ethan had been bullied because he was gay, a shit storm the likes of which no one had ever seen before would’ve descended on their quiet little town. Sort of like the one that came to a head when that jackass Jimmy Reardon thought he could continue to wreak havoc on Ethan’s life. The bastard had learned pretty quickly just how the Walkers felt about that shit. But Sawyer wasn’t the one who’d brought that on. Not completely anyway. Sawyer had kept Ethan’s secret, and no one had known until Ethan officially came out to his family earlier in the year. Despite the happy-go-lucky attitude Sawyer was known for, Braydon had realized just how much that had affected him.

“Thanks,” Braydon replied. “I might just take you up on that.”

Sawyer smiled and then smacked him on the back. “Anytime. If you’ve got time this week, we’ll get a beer.”

“Works for me.”

“All right, I’ll get outta your way.”

Braydon nodded and watched as Sawyer walked away. As he did, Braydon had to wonder whether there was a sign on his own forehead that warned his family that he was hanging on by a thread. As happy as he was to be home, he didn’t like all the attention. But most importantly, he didn’t like that he hadn’t settled things with Jessie yet. Or Brendon.

He really wanted to head home, so he figured he would take the opportunity to say good-bye to his mother and hope no one intervened before he got the chance. Leaving without saying anything was a guaranteed way to get your ass chewed out, so he knew not to even try.

“Do you even know how good it is to have you home?” his mother asked when he approached, her smile lighting up her entire face. V took a step back but didn’t disappear.

“It’s good to be home,” he replied, repeating once again the same thing he’d been saying all day. Braydon glanced between V and his mother and added, “Everything all right?”

“It is now,” Lorrie said, smiling up at him. “I’m sure you’re tired. And I know you’ve got to get back to work tomorrow, but I wish you didn’t have to leave just yet.”

Braydon smiled down at his mother. She could read his mind, apparently. “I’ll stop by this week. Maybe we can grab lunch one day.”

“That’d be wonderful.”

“Leavin’ already?” Brendon’s voice boomed from behind him. If Braydon had to guess, his twin had sensed that Braydon was ready to flee.

Braydon turned to look at the man who was the spitting image of himself. “Thought about it,” he answered easily.

“I’m gonna head out to Moonshiners with Kaleb,” Brendon stated.

Braydon noticed that he didn’t receive an invitation, which didn’t bother him in the least.

Okay, it bothered him a hell of a lot, but he didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. It was then that he realized the rift between him and his twin was wider than he’d imagined.

Braydon simply nodded his head and turned back to his mother. He offered a quick hug, met V’s concerned gaze, and then disappeared out the back door.

His chest felt like he had a two-ton anvil sitting on it, and he fought to suck in air as he walked briskly to his truck.

Thankfully, no one tried to stop him, because he needed to get away from there for a little while.

As he passed Travis’s house, which Jessie was currently occupying, he noticed that her beat-up little car was outside, which meant she was home. He argued with himself about stopping by, but his need to see her, to make sure she was all right, won out, and he found himself pulling into the driveway alongside her car.

JESSIE HEARD THE
sound of a car door slamming just outside her bedroom window, and she emerged from her bedroom, rubbing a towel through her wet hair after wrapping another around her.

What time was it?

Glancing at the clock on the wall, she realized Kylie was early. She had been to enough Sunday meals with the Walkers to know that they didn’t usually leave Lorrie and Curtis’s this early after dinner. She was anticipating her sister’s arrival, but had hoped to have enough time to shower and change before Kylie and her husbands came to pick her up. Even though Jessie had tried to dissuade her sister from going out after they finished with dinner, Kylie had insisted. Apparently, Kylie didn’t trust Jessie to be alone.

Jessie was okay with that because she didn’t want to be alone.

“You’re early. I’m not quite ready,” Jessie said as she pulled open the door, still sliding the towel through the saturated ends of her hair.

She nearly tripped over her own feet when she came face to chest with Braydon. Luckily, she caught herself—and her slipping towel—before that happened. Clutching both towels to her chest, she stared up at Braydon in surprise.

“Hi,” she whispered, her heart kicking into overdrive. “What’re you doin’ here?”

They both stood there staring at one another for a moment. Unable to resist, Jessie drank in the sight of him. He seemed bigger than he used to be. His arms stretched the fabric of the dark gray T-shirt he wore, and his neck was a little thicker. It would seem the man had been working out while he’d been gone.

“I wanted to see you. May I come in?”

Jessie turned and eyeballed the room behind her as though she might possibly be able to come up with a reason to not invite him in. When she looked back at him, she noticed the concern in his beautiful blue-gray gaze and she gave in. “Sure.”

Stepping back out of the way, holding on to the towels with a death grip, she allowed him to move inside, immediately recognizing his all-encompassing presence. He smelled good, like fabric softener and man. She had always loved the way he smelled. Despite the fact that he and Brendon were identical twins, they still had their own unique scents, which was one of the ways she could tell them apart at first. Now, she didn’t have a problem. In her eyes, they were no longer identical, because their personalities set them completely apart.

“Want something to drink?” she offered, trying to play the role of polite hostess, although she certainly wasn’t dressed for the occasion. She pretended not to notice and hoped he wouldn’t, either.

Braydon didn’t answer; he simply stared back at her, his smoldering gaze sliding down her nearly nude form, and her heart did a triple Lutz in her chest. Oh yeah, he noticed.

Crap.

“I missed you,” he said softly, his voice rough.

Jessie fought the urge to break down in tears again. She had missed him, too. So much. But he had abandoned her and ignored her attempts to get in touch with him. It didn’t matter that he probably had his own personal reasons; it still hurt. And she damn sure didn’t want him to know that she’d shed any tears for him. Ever.

“I missed you, too,” she finally said when the risk of tears accompanying the words dissipated. “I’ll take that as a no?”

Braydon’s gaze slid back up, his eyes searching her face, but Jessie did her best to pretend not to notice. The way he looked at her sent heat bubbling through her veins.

When he glanced away, the relief was palpable. Jessie didn’t have a whole lot of self-control when this man was around. It hadn’t always been that way, but as time had passed, and they’d become closer, she had started falling for him. Hard.

But she had to remind herself that she’d already picked herself back up. And Braydon had too, because based on the conversation she had overheard today, he had been with another woman. Just that morning.

Anger settled in and the heat blossoming in her bloodstream started churning, mixing into a potent blend of exasperation and regret. “Is there something you wanted to say? I really need to get ready. I’m goin’ out tonight.”

Braydon made eye contact once again and nodded. “I won’t keep you. But we really need to talk. Tell me a good time and I’ll come back.”

Jessie took a deep breath. “I really don’t think there’ll ever be a good time, Braydon.”

“Come on, Jess,” he whispered.

“Don’t do that! Don’t act like I owe you something,” she bit out heatedly. “There isn’t anything left to talk about. It’s all done and over. I’m glad you’re home. I know your parents and your brothers are, too. So, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to just keep moving forward.”

She didn’t bother to tell him that she wasn’t moving forward, she was standing still, and the unstable ground she was on threatened to pull her under any minute now.

“It’s not all the same to me,” Braydon growled softly, taking a single step closer but still leaving at least two feet between them.

Jessie tightened her grip on the towel until her fingers throbbed. She swallowed and dug deep inside of herself for the confidence she needed to push through this. What they had shared before had run its course. Jessie no longer wanted what the twins represented. And clearly Braydon didn’t want her.

Been there. Done that. Didn’t even get a crappy T-shirt.

“What you want isn’t important anymore,” she said dejectedly. She hated lying to him, to herself, but hopefully, if she continued to repeat that mantra over and over, it would be true.

Braydon’s eyes widened and the misery she saw reflected there nearly leveled her. She loved this man. She loved him with every single pained breath she took. It had been inevitable and Jessie knew it was her downfall. She fell in love too easily. Her track record of loving every man she was with was long.

They needed to make a clean break. There was no way she was going to come between Braydon and Brendon again. No pun intended.

“I need to finish getting ready,” she said, her tone much more assertive than she felt.

This time Braydon nodded, his eyes locked with hers for only a second before he turned toward the door. When he stopped, his hand on the knob, Jessie held her breath.

“This isn’t over, Jess. We’re gonna talk. Maybe not tonight, but it’ll be soon. I promise you that.”

There was no longer any misery reflected in his eyes. No, that emotion had been replaced with what Jessie could only assume was sheer determination.

Why that made her feel good, she didn’t know.

But she couldn’t make her voice work, so she merely nodded.

When he simply walked out into the night without looking back, Jessie felt her heart fracture in her chest. It wasn’t that she had expected him to stay and fight for her right then, but there had been a tiny inkling of hope lingering there.

The gentle click of the door demolished what was left of that.

BY THE TIME
Kylie, Travis, and Gage arrived to pick her up and take her with them to Moonshiners, Jessie had managed to put on a brave face. She wasn’t going to let it get to her. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life pining away for a man she would never have. While she had put on her makeup, she’d actually tried to come up with a way in which she could see it all working out. That’s what she did, she daydreamed about the impossible.

Because the twins shared their women, and because she no longer cared to be the filling in their hot twin sandwich, she knew there was going to be another woman who would come along and fill that spot. Maybe that country music superstar.

Even now as she thought about it, Jessie’s stomach cramped from the idea. She did not want to think about Braydon with another woman.

“Up for a game of pool?” Gage asked, nudging her arm as they walked in the front door of the small-town bar.

“Not this girl,” she answered, injecting some humor into her tone although she didn’t feel it. “I’d be a waste of space at that table. But I’ll watch if you’d like to play V.”

Gage laughed, the sound booming through the bar. “Yeah, no thanks. Playing V is worse than playing Brendon. I’d like at least half a chance of winning.”

Jessie glanced back at the pool tables and her heart tripped over itself for a brief moment before she realized that she was looking at Brendon, not Braydon. The only way she knew was by the shirt he was wearing. It was the same one he’d been wearing that morning. He was playing pool with a man she didn’t recognize, probably some poor sucker who thought he could beat him. Men in this town lost that bet all the time.