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

by Nicole Edwards

  “Do you love her?” Kaden asked.

  Keegan hadn’t expected the question, but his answer was easy. “Yeah. I love her.”

  “Do you think she’s right? It’s too soon?”

  “No.” Keegan leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “And I don’t think she believes it, either.”

  “Sure sounded convinced to me.”

  “It hasn’t been that long, Kaden. Hell, we spent one weekend with her and that’s pretty much it.”

  His brother’s head snapped up. “It’s been a fuckin’ year, Keeg. We’ve put our entire lives on hold so I could moon over her for a fuckin’ year.”

  Keegan swallowed his surprise. He had not expected Kaden to accept responsibility for it.

  But they both knew it wasn’t all Kaden’s fault.

  “If I recall, I didn’t put up much of a fight.”

  Kaden glared at him. “Maybe you should have. Then we wouldn’t be in this fuckin’ mess.”

  Ouch again. And now they were getting down to the blame game.

  Because he wasn’t interested in playing, Keegan slid out of the booth, got to his feet. He glared down at Kaden. “I’ll see you back at the house. Don’t you dare drive drunk.”

  A grunt was the only response he received before he strolled out of the bar, waving at Rafe on his way out.

  Keegan considered going back to Bristol’s to check on her but decided against it. He had too much to do right now and he needed sleep. They were currently undertaking a huge project with the house. Before Bristol had told them she was pregnant, they hadn’t had a deadline. Now that there was a due date, wasting time wasn’t something they could afford.

  Keegan had been home for an hour when his cell phone chimed.

  Figuring it was Rafe texting him from the bar to tell him Kaden was too drunk to drive home, he sat up in his bed, snatched his phone.

  The screen came to life, but it wasn’t Rafe who had texted him. Nor was it Kaden.

  The text was from Bristol and it was sent to both of them.

  I overreacted and I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t make it okay, but I wanted you to know. Maybe we can get together tomorrow. To talk.

  Keegan’s chest constricted.

  And now everyone was surprising him. The last thing he expected from Bristol was an apology. In fact, he’d been waiting for the Dear John text, not a request to see them. She was like Keegan in that regard. They were both quick to make decisions—good or bad—and by sharing them with everyone else, it made them official.

  As far as Keegan was concerned, this was a good thing. It meant there was still hope for them.

  As he lay on his bed, he stared up at the ceiling and smiled.

  Who woulda thought?

  *

  Travis had considered sleeping at the resort again tonight. No doubt about it, not going home was easier. He wouldn’t risk dealing with Kylie or Gage, getting into an argument, upsetting the kids. In a nutshell, they were better off if he stayed here.

  Only Travis didn’t want to stay here. He wanted to go home.

  No, he needed to go home.

  He needed the comfort he could find with his husband and wife, the love he got from his children. He wasn’t this man, the one who stayed away from them because he was out of control.

  With those good intentions, Travis dragged his tired ass home. Granted, it was going on two in the morning, so technically he had spent most of the night there, and he was sure Gage and Kylie would see it that way, too. But if he was lucky, they were asleep, and he wouldn’t have to deal with it until morning. And if not…

  If only he could bring himself to care.

  He hated that feeling. Hated it so fucking much.

  Having spent the better part of the day waiting for a confirmation that they had in fact found Juliet Prince, Travis felt every single one of his forty-two years. Plus a couple of decades to boot.

  He was tired. So fucking tired. Mentally, physically, emotionally. This constant state of chaos wasn’t something he was familiar with. Travis knew how to remain level when things went haywire, but these past couple of months had taken their toll on him. And he had only one person to blame.

  Himself.

  When he pulled into his driveway, he shut off the truck and sat there for a few minutes staring up at the big house. It had been Gage’s house at one time, brought back to its former glory by his wife’s perfectly manicured hand. This house had actually been what brought them all together. Gage had found out that Travis had been married—and never divorced—to Kylie, and in an act of revenge, Gage had lured Kylie here by using the house as the carrot.

  It had worked.

  Over the years, they’d managed to fill that house with life and love…

  Travis’s chest tightened.

  The house was dark, all the lights off except for the one on the porch. There were security lights around the house that would come on if someone or something got close enough, but there was nothing out there now.

  As he stared, he felt that familiar storm brewing, the emotional turmoil twisting him up on the inside. Those people inside the walls of that dark house were his to protect, his to love, and he’d failed them. And in his attempt to make it right, he was failing them again.

  The constriction on his heart grew more intense until a sob tore out of him, tears following not long after.

  He was fucking it all up. He knew he was, but he didn’t know how to stop the spiral, how to pull himself back from the ledge. He’d depended on Gage to do that for so long, and in his quest to protect his family, Travis had hurt the man he loved.

  He gripped the steering wheel with both hands and let the tears fall because there was nothing he could do to keep them at bay. He didn’t even attempt to stop them when the front door opened and Gage appeared as though summoned, as though the man could feel Travis’s pain.

  Travis swallowed although his throat was tight, watched as Gage strolled down the steps, heading toward Travis’s truck. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but it wasn’t for Gage to walk around to the driver’s door, to open it.

  “Come on,” Gage said softly. “Let’s go inside.”

  Travis stared over at him, not bothering to hide his tears. Kylie and Gage were the two people in his life he’d never had to hide from, so it was natural. As was the pained look on Gage’s face at seeing those tears.

  Gage’s long, strong fingers curled around Travis’s wrist. “Come on, Trav.”

  He let his husband lead him into the house, although he barely remembered the walk.

  Another sob tore at his chest, nearly taking him to his knees, but Gage was there.

  Gage was always there.

  “I’m sorry,” Travis whispered, staring into those brown eyes that had taunted him all those years ago. “So fuckin’ sorry.”

  Gage pulled him close, palmed the back of his head, and held him. He was warm and smelled so good, so familiar.

  Like usual, Travis clung to him, scared to let go because, if he did, there was a good chance he’d splinter even more.

  “I love you,” he whispered, breathing in, taking Gage’s familiar scent deep into his lungs.

  “I know.” Gage’s strong arms tightened around him. “I love you, too, Trav. Always will.”

  He had needed to hear that, more than he would ever be willing to admit. Travis wasn’t one to show weakness, but he was as human as everyone else. He hurt like everyone else.

  He would blame the chaos on what happened next, how he found Gage’s mouth with his own. He kissed him like there might not be a tomorrow, and to his relief, Gage kissed him back. They both succumbed to the onslaught, to the passion that flowed freely between them. It didn’t matter that they were in the living room or that they could make enough noise to wake the house. Nothing mattered except the sparks they ignited when they kissed.

  “I need you,” Travis breathed against Gage’s lips. “Need you so much.”

  Gage gripped Travis’s head in his
hands, pressed their foreheads together. “Do you?”

  “Yes.” He tried to tilt his head to bring their mouths together, but Gage held him back. “Christ, yes, I need you, Gage. I’ve always needed you. Don’t you get it? Don’t you get that you’re the one I lean on? The one I look to to hold me up when I’m falling over? You, Gage. It’s always been you.”

  Gage’s hands tightened on his head, his voice a guttural rasp when he said, “You pushed me away, Travis.”

  Oh, fuck. He could feel Gage’s pain as if it were his own. He heard it in Gage’s voice, and it tore at him.

  Although he couldn’t move closer, Travis did have the use of his hands, so he slid them beneath Gage’s T-shirt, forced it up, and waited for Gage to release him. That worked because those strong hands released him, allowing Travis to rip the shirt up and over Gage’s head. Before it hit the floor, Travis had Gage up against the wall, nose to nose.

  “When I push you, it’s because I need you to push back,” Travis ground out, keeping his voice low. “I fuckin’ needed you to push back, dammit.”

  Travis didn’t let Gage speak. He kissed him instead, their lips slamming together, tongues battling as the emotional storm stirred the chaos.

  And then he was tearing at Gage’s clothes, shoving the flannel pajama pants down to his ankles, gripping the steel-hard length of him in his hand.

  “I fuckin’ need you,” he bit out again. “Right. Now.”

  “Then take me,” Gage challenged. “If I’m what you need, show me.”

  Oh, fuck.

  “I will,” he warned. “Right here.”

  Gage’s brown eyes glittered with challenge and Travis accepted it.

  With rough hands, he spun Gage around, roughly shoved him against the wall, biting his shoulder in the process.

  This wasn’t the first time they’d engaged in this emotion-driven battle of wills. It had happened plenty of times before and would happen plenty more. Travis had come to think of it as his anchor, what he needed to regain his footing.

  Gage.

  Always Gage.

  Leaning against Gage’s back, Travis reached around and stroked Gage’s cock with one hand while he fumbled with the button on his own jeans. It took a few minutes, but he managed to get the denim down to his thighs, out of the way enough that his cock was free.

  “Spread your legs,” he demanded, breathing against Gage’s ear.

  Gage didn’t hesitate, widening his stance, his hands planted on the wall.

  Travis guided his cock along the crack of Gage’s ass, pushing and prodding, his dick anxious for the blistering heat he knew he would find.

  He had enough mind to pause, to use his own saliva as lubricant before he took a single step back, jerked Gage’s hips toward him, and drove in deep and hard.

  They both groaned.

  Right there in the living room, just one floor below all those sleeping in the house, Travis fucked Gage. He used his husband’s body to calm the dragon that had been unleashed, used it to drown out the noise in his head.

  “I fuckin’ needed you to push back,” Travis said through clenched teeth, his emotions getting the best of him.

  “I know.” Gage grunted, reaching back and gripping Travis’s thigh.

  He didn’t push him away, didn’t pull him closer, just held on.

  While Kylie was his shelter in the storm, Gage was his lifeline, the one he depended on to reel him in when necessary. He hadn’t realized how out of control he truly was until he realized Gage wasn’t there to catch him.

  “I need you,” Travis whimpered, biting Gage’s shoulder, trying to hold on as he continued to slam his hips forward again and again.

  “You’ve got me, Travis. I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

  A sob tore free because he had needed to hear that more than anything. The thought of losing his family … it wasn’t something he could accept but he knew he put them through so much. Especially at times like this when he couldn’t keep himself under control.

  Travis stopped moving, lodged to the hilt inside Gage while he breathed in, out, in again. He took a moment because the storm wasn’t raging anymore.

  He dislodged from Gage’s body, tugged his jeans up so he could walk, then took Gage by the arm and led the way to his office. Once inside, he closed and locked the door, flipped on the light, and began removing the rest of his clothes.

  “On the couch,” he said, not looking at Gage while he retrieved the lubricant from the top drawer of his desk.

  When he joined Gage, he was calmer, more focused. Enough to realize that he needed this man more than his next breath.

  So he took him again, this time slower, deeper. With the lights on. Face-to-face.

  Travis took his time sliding in deep, retreating slowly. Their gazes remained locked, so much being said without a word spoken. And when he knew Gage was close, Travis heaved himself up, using Gage’s shins for leverage as he began pumping his hips faster.

  “Stroke yourself. I want you to come with me.”

  He saw the flash of heat in those dark brown eyes and it was a solace that he’d been missing for too long now. Sex might not be the answer, but for them it was what soothed, the current that connected them.

  “God, baby,” Travis groaned, his hand gripping Gage’s legs tighter. “I’m gonna come. Fuck.” He groaned and growled, fucking Gage harder, faster while he watched Gage’s hand piston over his cock, stroking in rhythm to Travis’s thrusts.

  When it became too much, when his release barreled down on him, Travis ground his teeth together and waited. And when Gage’s eyes slammed shut and his cock erupted, Travis threw his head back and groaned, doing his level best not to wake the entire house with the energy he released.

  Completely spent, he fell forward, crushing Gage beneath him as he sought the man’s mouth with his own. The kiss was gentle, reverent, Gage’s hands warm and reassuring as they slid over his back.

  “I’m sorry,” Travis whispered. “So fuckin’ sorry.”

  Gage wrapped his arms around him and held him close, giving Travis the time and privacy he needed to let the rest of the emotions drain out of him.

  He had no idea how long they remained like that, but he didn’t move until Gage said, “Let’s go to bed.”

  “Where’s Kylie?” he asked, pulling back from Gage and scrubbing the tears away with his hands.

  “She’s there waitin’ for us.”

  A few minutes later, after a quick shower for both of them, Travis was in their bed, too, spooned up to Kylie while Gage was pressed up against his back. It didn’t take long for Kylie to find him in the dark, turning so she was facing him.

  And then there he was, right where he needed to be.

  At least for a little while.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Bristol woke early on Sunday morning, feeling a little worse for wear after tossing and turning most of the night. But she was alert and that was all that mattered as she washed her face, brushed her hair and dragged on clothes. The text she’d been hoping for came right before she woke up, letting her know to go to the diner for her coffee date, so she called for an Uber and had them deliver her there.

  When she arrived, she found the popular town restaurant was relatively empty, most people in Coyote Ridge still warm in their beds, tucked beneath the covers to catch a few more hours before they ventured off to church or relaxed on their day off.

  “Hey, Bristol,” came the voice from the back corner, followed by a wave.

  She smiled and headed that way.

  “I hope I didn’t drag you out too early,” Bristol said by way of greeting.

  Kylie Walker-Matthews watched her approach, a brilliant smile on her pretty face. “It was a … uh … a good night, so no. Not too early.”

  Bristol slipped off her coat, laying it in the seat and sliding in. The waitress made a quick pass by the table, and Bristol considered ordering coffee just to keep up the ruse but changed her mind at the last second, going for oran
ge juice instead.

  Kylie was watching her intently as a slow smile formed.

  “You’re pregnant,” the other woman said, her voice so low Bristol barely heard her.

  Evidently, her wide eyes must’ve given her away because Kylie chuckled.

  “Who told you?”

  Kylie nodded toward the empty coffee mug in front of Bristol. “It was the first thing to go when I was pregnant with my babies. Hardest thing, too.”

  Yeah, Bristol had a feeling giving up coffee was going to be easy in comparison to what was looming in her future.

  “Is this a good thing?” Kylie asked, taking a sip from her mug.

  “Yes.”

  “You sound certain.”

  “I am. About the baby, yes. That’s the easy decision.”

  Kylie observed her, those cornflower-blue eyes scanning her face. “So I take it you didn’t ask me here for motherhood advice.”

  Bristol shook her head then thanked the waitress when she brought her juice.

  “Can I get you something else?”

  “Oatmeal, please. And fruit,” Kylie said easily. “For both of us.”

  “Sure thing.”

  And then they were alone again, and Bristol knew she had to get on with it or she would lose her nerve.

  “How’d you manage it?”

  Kylie didn’t ask what she was referring to, and Bristol had to wonder if the woman had been asked that question more than this one time.

  “Love.”

  Bristol waited for her to elaborate. She didn’t.

  “I don’t understand.”

  Kylie leaned forward. “What’s difficult about it? Love can get you through anything. If it’s real, if it’s strong, nothing else matters.”

  That wasn’t what she was hoping to hear.

  She’d spent most of the night trying to predict what Kylie’s answer would be and she’d hoped for some sort of elaborate plan to skirt all those knowing stares she would no doubt get when she ventured out in public with Kaden and Keegan. If she ventured out. Right now she wasn’t sure they were even going to give her the time of day. Neither one of them had responded to her text last night.