Kaden & Keegan (The Walkers of Coyote Ridge Book 9)

by Nicole Edwards

  Chapter One

  Present Day

  Monday, October 19, 2020

  Keegan Walker stared at his twin, doing his damnedest to get the man to come over to his way of thinking. Being as he’d been working on Kaden for the better part of ten minutes, it wasn’t looking good for him.

  “All right. What about a bakery?”

  “Coyote Ridge already has a bakery,” Kaden countered.

  “Pet store?”

  “No.”

  “Gym?”

  “No.”

  “Vape shop?”

  Kaden shot him a get real look. “No.”

  “Thrift shop?” Of course, that had Keegan doing his rendition of Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” “I’m gonna pop some tags … only got twenty dollas in my pocket.”

  A little too much twang, he thought, but not terrible.

  “Stick to your day job, Keeg.”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. “Fine. No thrift shop. What about an arcade?”

  Kaden narrowed his eyes in that manner that spoke of disbelief combined with a modicum of concern. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. Seriously.” Keegan was serious, and he wasn’t sure how much clearer he could be. Yet Kaden didn’t seem to be on board, hence the reason he was feigning ignorance.

  “Is this some sorta midlife crisis?” Kaden questioned, his dark eyebrow lowered at a sharp slant, his incredulity evident.

  “First off, we’re a long damn way from midlife. And two, it’s a damn fine idea and you know it.”

  “Oh, yeah? And who in their right mind is gonna hang out in an arcade? In Coyote Ridge?”

  “Just because you’re old doesn’t mean we all are,” Keegan argued, staring at the man who was more or less his mirror image. “Have you seen the town lately? They’re finally gettin’ with the program.”

  “Yada, yada, I got it,” Kaden sniped. “Ever since Rex opened the B and B, blah, blah. I know the spiel, Keeg.”

  But what a spiel it was. The Double R Bed and Breakfast had been open for a year, and it had proven to be a fruitful venture in just a short time. The big, renovated farmhouse right in the heart of town had been at capacity every weekend since the opening, and it didn’t appear they’d be letting up anytime soon. What more could a small-town hotel ask for? Or those who had invested in the project from the jump?

  Keegan grinned wide. “Damn good idea, wasn’t it? I knew that place would be a helluva investment.”

  “Frog giggin’, cow tippin’, and a B and B. What more could Coyote Ridge possibly offer?” Kaden grumbled.

  “An arcade,” Keegan answered, deadpan.

  Kaden rolled his eyes again.

  Keegan had known his brother would react this way. They might share the same DNA code, but there was no denying their personalities were polar opposite. Kaden had always been the level-headed one, the one who came up with a plan even when a plan wasn’t necessary. Keegan was more of the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kinda guy. He tried not to take things too seriously, while Kaden spent more time thinking than actually doing. And sure, Keegan could admit his brother was usually right when it came down to their arguments.

  Didn’t mean Keegan agreed with his twin. In fact, most of the time they didn’t see eye to eye at all.

  But…

  Yes, but. Backing Rex Sharpe in the bed-and-breakfast had been a stellar idea if he did say so himself. And now, who was to say an arcade couldn’t bring some life to this sleepy little town? Of course, Keegan was only considering it because his true dream couldn’t be realized yet. It had always been his goal to own a ranch, but without one available to acquire, that was unfortunately on the back burner.

  “Well”—Keegan lifted his coffee mug, offered his brother a casual one-shoulder shrug—“I think it’s a smart idea. Think about all the things Coyote Ridge has goin’ for it. Just in the time we’ve been here, they’ve opened a toy store and a bookstore, right on Main Street. I heard they’re plannin’ to expand the bookstore to include a coffee shop. An arcade might kick it up a notch.”

  “I get my coffee at the bakery,” Kaden retorted.

  “Options, Kaden. We’re always open for options.”

  “No. No way,” Kaden retorted. “I’ll admit, I doubted the B and B in the beginning, and it turned out all right, but I’m not at all on board with an arcade.”

  “Okay, fine,” Keegan conceded. “What then? It’s not set in stone and the place is still for sale. We can snatch it up, put in somethin’ of our own.” He leaned in, lowered his voice. “For fuck’s sake, everyone else is doin’ it. Why can’t we?”

  “If everyone else was jumpin’ off a cliff, would you wanna do that, too, Keeg?”

  He grinned. “Damn straight I would.”

  Those familiar steel-blue eyes glinted with incredulity. “You’re serious? You want… Us? You and me…?” Kaden exhaled with a sigh and shook his head. “Ain’t gonna happen, Keeg.”

  Keegan chuckled. He happened to enjoy getting his brother riled. Especially first thing in the morning.

  “I’ll come up with somethin’,” he told his twin. “You just wait.” Although he certainly wasn’t giving up on the arcade.

  Kaden challenged him back with a simple tilt of his eyebrows upward.

  Keegan knew that look. Kaden thought he was off his rocker. And perhaps he was, but hey, everyone else seemed to be making their mark on this town. Why couldn’t they?

  Kaden leaned back, allowed the waitress to set his plate down in front of him. “Thanks.” He turned his full attention to Keegan. “Might I remind you, we’ve got enough on our plates.”

  Keegan smiled at the waitress. “Thanks, doll.” He peered over at his brother. “What? With Walker Demo? That’s gonna be our claim to fame?” It was his turn to shake his head. “In case you didn’t notice, it just kicked over leadership again.”

  Granted, that was because Reese Tavoularis had moved on to the governor’s task force, another brainchild of their cousin Travis Walker. In Reese’s place, Autumn Jameson—one of Travis’s many cousins on his mother’s side—had come on board to run things. She’d been in her new role for nearly a month, and to his surprise, she was doing pretty darn well. He was tempted to say she could pinpoint an issue with an engine faster than he could. But that didn’t change the fact that even the family business didn’t seem all that stable.

  “What about the time we’re puttin’ in on the ranch?” Kaden asked.

  “Key word there bein’ the. The ranch infers that it doesn’t belong to us.”

  As much as he enjoyed working on the Walker ranch, which belonged to Uncle Curtis and Aunt Lorrie, it had always been a dream of his to have one of his own. And yes, Keegan was keeping his eyes open for that opportunity. If it were to arise tomorrow, he’d drop every damn thing else and follow his dream. Until then…

  Silence settled between them as Kaden covered his scrambled eggs in tabasco sauce. Rather than stir him up more, Keegan took a sip of his orange juice, stared at his pancakes. He always had pancakes. Every damn day. Why? At what point in his thirty-seven years had he gotten so damn … boring?

  “Are you really serious about this? Openin’ a place of our own?” Kaden finally asked, his voice lowered.

  “Hell, I don’t know. I’m just…” He met his twin’s eyes. “I’m tired of watchin’ everyone else doin’ their thing while we settle for bein’ along for the ride.”

  Kaden sighed.

  Keegan sat up straight, picked up his fork. “Tell you what. I’m gonna stuff my face with these pancakes and we can pretend this conversation never happened. Deal?”

  Kaden’s blue-gray eyes locked on his face, but Keegan didn’t flinch. He knew how he sounded. Petulant, whiny, sullen. Take your pick.

  In his defense, Keegan had always allowed Kaden to make the final decisions. Sure, he threw in his two cents, like where they were gonna put down roots. His choice had always been Coyote Ridge, and since they were metaphorically attached at the hip, where one of th
em went, the other followed. When they arrived here, they’d thought it would be a fruitful venture. Years later, although they’d technically settled in, they weren’t completely settled.

  “Fine,” Kaden huffed, grabbing his coffee mug. “Let’s talk to Travis. Get his thoughts.”

  Great. Go to the man with the plan and tell him what? That they didn’t have a plan? Yeah, no thank you. Their cousin Travis was not just paving the way here in Coyote Ridge, he was the way. Hell, after Travis’s daughter was kidnapped a few weeks back, a task force governing the state of Texas had been formed to search for other missing people. Thank the good Lord, Kate had been located and returned seemingly unharmed two painfully long days after she went missing, but still. Guy had some serious pull. Not to mention, half the town went to Travis for advice. Keegan didn’t want to be another in that long line.

  Keegan sipped his juice, glared at his pancakes.

  They finished their breakfast in silence, although it was obvious Kaden’s mind was running a million miles a minute. That was the way his twin’s brain worked. Whenever Keegan planted an idea, his brother would veto it immediately, then spend considerable time mulling it over until he came to a final decision. Generally, Keegan would go along with whatever his brother wanted, because truth was, Keegan was the laid-back one. Most things he could simply take or leave. Didn’t matter. But something hadn’t been sitting well with him lately.

  While living and working in this small town had always been a dream of his, there was only one teeny tiny problem… They hadn’t really put down roots. When Keegan took stock of what they had to call their own … besides their trucks, there wasn’t much of anything.

  Take the house they occupied, for instance. Someone else’s. Technically, it was now just one of seven separate structures Curtis had built for his boys when they were old enough to venture out on their own. Originally, it had been Kaleb’s place. Then it was Jared’s for a bit. Now it was theirs until they figured out what they wanted to do.

  To buy or not to buy? Coyote Ridge or bust? For the moment, their options were open although real estate in Coyote Ridge was scarce and what did come available was usually snatched up within hours of being listed. If it ever made it to listing at all. Just like the building on Main Street. If they didn’t make their play, it would be gone before they knew it. There wasn’t even an apartment to be had. Not that Keegan had any desire to live in an apartment. He preferred wide-open spaces.

  Sure, he loved Coyote Ridge. Had since he was a kid, when their parents would bring them and their brothers and sister down to visit their aunts and uncles. He remembered one summer—they were probably twelve, maybe thirteen—his brothers and sister all ganged up on their parents, tried to convince them to move to the small town their father had grown up in. Their parents won in the end, determined to hold down the fort in El Paso, but they’d all talked about moving here eventually.

  Their oldest brother was the first to take the leap, relocating to Coyote Ridge permanently. Jared had fled a bad situation only to have it all turn around for the best once he settled down here. Of course, Quinn and Eve had rolled in only a month ago, with Wesley promising to pull up the rear sometime in the next year. At the very least, Wesley had promised to make it down here at some point during the holidays. Keegan was looking forward to seeing their overachieving doctor brother as well as their parents.

  Even having his family close wasn’t doing what it used to though. Keegan wanted something more.

  Then again, perhaps that didn’t have anything to do with the house they lived in or the jobs they held or the hobbies they’d picked up along the way. In most ways, they had the life they’d hoped for. Perhaps his settling-down issue had more to do with a someone, not necessarily a something.

  That, of course, was Kaden’s fault. His twin was still adamant they would eventually have the big wedding and greet some sweet young thing at the end of the aisle where they would vow to love endlessly, blah, blah, fucking blah. Keegan was no longer disillusioned in that area. Been there, done that. Twice. Another ride on the merry-go-round that was shitty relationships? No fucking thank you.

  Unfortunately, he was starting to suspect Kaden had a specific woman in mind.

  Did he still want to share women with his twin? Damn straight. He didn’t know any other way. Their desire to share women between them was something that had come naturally since they were old enough to don a condom. Then it had been sealed thanks to Mrs. Whitley, the sexy housewife who’d turned two horny teenagers into men. Some found their untraditional need an abomination, but that had always been the way it was for them, and Keegan wasn’t the sort to make excuses for it.

  It was the marriage part he wasn’t on board with. Nothing permanent, either. Fucking for the sake of fucking, that was his motto. Why, you ask? Well, that was because their attempts at happily ever after had blown up in their faces not once but twice in their history. Thank the good Lord, they’d never made it to the altar either time, but that had been the plan.

  He was still on board with shagging the same chick, but he was no longer interested in seeing if it would lead to something more. It wouldn’t. Might as well steer clear of the heartache.

  Which was another reason Keegan was content to live in Coyote Ridge. He saw the way people treated Travis, Kylie, and Gage. They certainly weren’t abominations and they were making the ménage à trois work. Of course, that was a different version of what Keegan and Kaden engaged in. Travis was in love with both Kylie and Gage, he was intimate with both of them, while Keegan and Kaden merely wanted to bang a willing, sexy woman from both ends. At the same time.

  Crude, yeah, he could see that.

  And yes, he was jaded.

  So fucking what.

  Kaden’s cell phone rang, drawing Keegan from his rambling thoughts.

  His brother snatched the phone off the table. “What’s up, Trav?”

  Keegan watched Kaden’s face, waited to see what emergency they were being dragged into now. For whatever reason, they were the go-tos when it came to helping out Curtis’s branch of the Walker family tree.

  “Absolutely. We can run by there now, take them to the daycare. No problem.”

  Keegan grinned. Looked as though they were on chauffeur duty again.

  When Kaden hung up, he grabbed his napkin, wiped his mouth, and signaled the waitress over.

  “What was that about?”

  Kaden reviewed the check, pulled out some cash. “Travis needs us to run by his house and pick up Kade, Avery, and Maddox. Asked us to drop them off at the daycare.”

  “Somethin’ wrong?”

  Kaden got to his feet. “Said Haden isn’t feelin’ well. Runnin’ a fever. Kylie’s hesitant to get him outta the house.”

  “Can’t blame her there. What about Kate? She back at school yet?” Keegan asked, hopeful the little darling was finding some normalcy again after her horrific ordeal with the crazy psycho bitch who’d snatched her.

  “Not yet. Travis said she’s with him at the resort. Gonna take her to Lorrie this afternoon.”

  Keegan got to his feet, grabbed a five out of his wallet, and tossed it onto the table along with the money his brother left.

  “I covered the tip already,” Kaden mumbled as they were walking toward the door.

  “And I bumped it a little. Now she’ll be happy to see us next time we come in.”

  Kaden smirked. “She’s happy to see us already.”

  Yeah, but Keegan was still on the fence as to whether he was going to attempt to get her phone number or not. Never hurt to be extra nice.

  You know, just in case.

  *

  Half an hour later, Kaden was hopping out of the truck while his brother carried on a conversation with the three kids strapped into their car seats in the back seat. Kaden couldn’t help it, he was laughing at some ridiculous joke Keegan told. Didn’t matter that it was juvenile and rather simple, he still laughed.

  Kaden had to admit, he was a tad jea
lous of how easily Keegan got along with the little ones. His twin was the guy all the kids wanted to be around, the one they chased over and under the jungle gym, shot with water guns on Sunday afternoons, hunted Easter eggs with, opened presents with. In recent months, Keegan had even claimed Beau’s title belt as the favorite uncle, although technically they were cousins, not uncles.

  Granted, that transition only happened because Beau was ear-deep in dirty diapers of his own with the rowdy triplets. Beau had promised Keegan he would be back to challenge him for the title, but he needed some time to settle in. Kaden had to wonder how true that was because the triple terrors were now one, and Beau was still on hiatus, his return to glory still iffy.

  Didn’t seem to bother Keegan in the least. In fact, Kaden was pretty sure Keegan was mighty proud of the title.

  Funny thing was, Keegan didn’t have to try too hard to be the favorite. He was merely good with kids. Kaden, on the other hand, loved the little munchkins, but he didn’t have the smooth way that Keegan did. His brother would talk them into damn near anything, including brushing their teeth and eating their vegetables. The guy was a miracle worker.

  At one point, Kaden had figured they’d have a houseful of their own rugrats by now, a ranch to raise them on. Some sweet woman sleeping between them, waking them up with a smile, a woman they could love beyond reason, spoil because she deserved it. So far, it hadn’t happened, but he hadn’t lost faith.

  Kaden even had one particular woman in mind, but he found himself trying to navigate a couple of obstacles.

  One: Bristol Newton, the sassy daycare owner he’d set his eye on, was proving to be resistant to their charms. A problem Kaden figured could be remedied if he just put his heart into it.

  Two: Keegan. His twin was adamantly opposed to happily ever after. According to him, it wasn’t possible, so why bother. He did, however, say just sex was always on the table.

  Kaden didn’t really see Bristol as the just-sex kinda girl, which brought him around to those obstacles he was still attempting to hurdle.