Braydon

by Nicole Edwards

  When he pulled back, Jessie stared blankly at him, not sure what to say.

  “We’re starting over, Jess,” Braydon stated in a tone she hadn’t heard from him before. It was a demand, not a request, and it sent chills racing down her spine.

  As much as she wanted to cave, to give in to him, Jessie knew what the stakes were.

  Instead of agreeing, which she was scared she was actually going to do, Jessie shook her head, locking her gaze with his. “I’m sorry, Braydon. I can’t do it.”

  They sat there, staring at one another for what felt like forever. Knowing that she was going to give in if she stayed too long, Jessie apologized again as she got to her feet.

  “It’s over, Bray.”

  And with that, Jessie turned and walked to the door, fighting the tears that were forming and threatening to choke her.

  BRENDON NOTICED BRAYDON’S truck the moment he pulled into the diner. Just as he always did, Brendon was stopping by to pick up lunch, opting to eat in his truck before heading out to the next job site. While he had waited at the front counter, Brendon had noticed Braydon sitting with their mother, their expressions serious. Rather than interrupt, he had waited for his food and made his way back to his truck.

  Ten minutes later, he was still sitting in his truck when he saw Jessie pull up and head inside.

  Interesting. Looked like Lorrie was at it again.

  Ever since Cheyenne explained that his mother was the reason for her repeated attendance at Walker family functions, Brendon had suspected Lorrie was playing matchmaker. Clearly he’d been right.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate her good intentions. She was his mother, after all, and he knew she didn’t have a devious bone in her entire body. She just sometimes didn’t know the whole situation.

  And in his case, no one knew even a fraction of what was going on inside of his head.

  In recent months, things had changed for him. Drastically.

  It didn’t help that he’d had to adapt because of Braydon’s absence. In more ways than one.

  Not only did he have to figure out how to live alone, which he would admit he hated with a goddamn passion, but he’d also had to significantly alter his preferences. The threesomes had come to a jarring halt, leaving Brendon with the only option of going solo. Which he had. Just because Braydon left and thoughts of Cheyenne were making him crazy didn’t mean he’d died.

  Not that sex was the only thing he ever thought about. In fact, he was on the tail end of a rather brutal dry spell these days. One he didn’t see continuing if he had anything to say in the matter.

  When Braydon originally left, Brendon hadn’t had any intention of hooking up with another woman, because the notion seemed too far-fetched. Be with a woman alone? He’d never done that before. Not to mention, he didn’t have the desire to be with anyone. Not Jessie and certainly not some stranger.

  Of course, his good intentions were always tested. The first time had been a night at Moonshiners when he’d gotten shit-faced drunk. One of many. The sexy redhead he’d hooked up with had been passing through, visiting her uncle or some shit. He’d spent the night—one that had been incredibly awkward with his twin not there—with her at her hotel, and in the morning, with his head throbbing as though it would explode, he had disappeared before she opened her eyes.

  Even through the haze of alcohol, at first Brendon had felt guilty. Not because he’d slipped out on the woman or because he’d gone to bed with her in the first place, effectively discarding his one-on-one virginity card after all these years. No. His guilt was a hell of a lot more personal than that. It generally didn’t rear its ugly head until he thought about Jessie and how much pain he’d caused her. He might’ve been a first-rate bastard, as proven by the way he’d treated her lately, but Brendon damn sure knew his reactions weren’t rational. Nor were they acceptable.

  Braydon’s disappearance had killed a lot of things—including Brendon’s peace of mind.

  His ever-increasing dark mood had nothing to do with Braydon leaving and everything to do with the reason Braydon left. Women. He knew his twin loved Jessie. It had been clearly written all over his face for months. The man had been up in arms about what to do, and when he didn’t bother to talk to Brendon about it, Brendon knew he had to do something.

  Well, would you look at that?

  Brendon watched through the windshield of his truck as his mother came sneaking out of the restaurant, going straight for her car. If she had just looked up, she would’ve seen Brendon sitting in his truck. It wasn’t like she could’ve missed the giant four-wheel drive with the six-inch lift. It was the same as his brother’s, only the flames that decorated the glossy black paint were red, not blue.

  Yep, total setup. She deserved a pat on the back. She had done what Brendon had been trying to figure out how to do ever since Braydon stepped foot in their house yesterday. He would be the first to accept responsibility for sending everything into a tailspin, and from the moment he laid eyes on Braydon, he had resolved to do whatever it took to make things right.

  He could live without a lot of things, but living without his twin wasn’t an option for him.

  Braydon deserved to be with Jessie. He deserved all the happiness in the world. He shouldn’t have to atone for Brendon’s fucked-up way of thinking. If his brother was in love, then Brendon was hell-bent on supporting him.

  Any way that he could.

  He just had to figure out exactly what that meant. Thanks to his mother, now he didn’t have to think quite so hard because she’d just set the first domino into motion.

  As he turned the engine over, the radio blared one of his favorites by Brantley Gilbert, and Brendon put the truck in gear and headed toward the Walker Demo offices. He had some paperwork to turn in and then it was off to one last job site for the day. Then, if things went the way he hoped, maybe he’d get a chance to talk to Braydon later. They needed to talk, but at the same time, Brendon knew it needed to be a rational conversation, something he feared he wasn’t quite ready for just yet.

  When the song ended, one of the noon DJs started in on some sort of celebrity announcement and the mention of Dalton Calhoun, one of Brendon’s cousin’s friends, caught his attention. He reached for the knob and turned the radio up a little louder.

  “Did y’all hear the news? It would seem that the sexy Dalton Calhoun is officially off the market. That’s right, ladies. It’s time to mourn the loss of another one. It seems that country music’s most eligible bachelor is going to be joining the ranks of his good buddy, Cooper Krenshaw. We’ve recently learned that he’s been snatched up by none other than the feisty West Texas princess, Cheyenne Montgomery.”

  Brendon nearly swallowed his fucking tongue. He detoured into the parking lot of a strip mall to keep from running off the road. He turned the radio up again as though that would get the announcer talking faster.

  “And to top it off, it looks like Mr. Calhoun and Ms. Montgomery will be touring together. They’re gearing up to announce an upcoming benefit tour with their good friend Cooper. You can bet that as soon as we have more info, we’ll make sure you get it first. That’s all for . . .”

  Brendon turned down the radio as he stared blankly out at the run-down building that used to house a flower shop. Or maybe it had been a weight loss center.

  Hell, he didn’t know. And he didn’t fucking care.

  His heart was pounding and his fists were balled.

  What the fuck?

  chapter NINE

  Braydon evidently had forgotten how much he loved his job. As much as he had enjoyed working at the equestrian center, he still felt he was better suited for his family’s business. As a job foreman for Walker Demolition, he spent most of his time coordinating efforts between the various subcontractors on the many job sites they were managing. He didn’t have to spend any time in the office, other than che
cking in each morning. And for the most part, he worked by himself. He couldn’t ask for much more.

  For the last week, working solo was exactly what he had done, but on a much grander scale than before. Jared had loaded him down with jobs just like he’d promised, pushing him harder than ever before, but Braydon didn’t complain. First of all, he needed a distraction. Second, he knew he deserved to put in a little extra effort, considering he had disappeared for three months, leaving his family to pick up the slack.

  But the time for thinking about work had come to an end at five o’clock. At least for a little while. It was Friday night and he had agreed to meet his brothers at Moonshiners. There was a minimal chance that he would make it through the night without getting rip-roaring drunk and making an ass of himself. After his encounter at the diner with Jessie, he was willing to take that risk. Whatever it took to try to get her off his mind.

  Not that he expected it to work. Nothing else had so far.

  “Aww, hell!” Zane exclaimed from the bar when Braydon walked in. “Trouble just got here, boys. Looks like we oughta just call it a night.”

  Glancing around, Braydon realized that Zane wasn’t talking to anyone in particular. Not exactly something new. Zane tended to spout off at the mouth whenever the urge struck him. Like now. Although the bar was more crowded than usual, Braydon realized no one was really paying him any attention.

  Thank God.

  As for Zane’s reference to trouble . . . Right. Not that he was all that proud of the good-guy reputation he’d earned through the years, but Braydon knew trouble didn’t play into it whatsoever. If anyone was trouble, it was Zane.

  “Not gonna work, Bubba,” he told Zane. “You still hold that title.”

  “Damn,” Zane huffed, grinning. “You by yourself?”

  “Looks like it,” Braydon told him. “Where’s V?”

  Zane nodded his head toward the back. “They’re all gearin’ up for Dalton and Cooper to arrive.”

  “Calhoun?” What the hell were they coming to Coyote Ridge for?

  “Yep. Rumor is they’re gonna share the good news about the upcoming tour they’re doin’ together. It’s all over the news. Sounds like their teamin’ up with Cheyenne Montgomery. That or Dalton’s datin’ her. V was ramblin’ on and on about it. I didn’t pay much attention.”

  Calhoun and Cheyenne? Well, that explained Brendon’s temper for the last few days. If it was in fact true. Not that he would know, because he didn’t listen to the radio much and his brother hadn’t said so much as two words to him for the last few days.

  “And they’re comin’ here?” Braydon wasn’t sure why he was so taken aback by the news. It wasn’t like Tessa and Cooper hadn’t stopped by from time to time. And they’d all been graced with Dalton Calhoun’s presence a time or ten as well. But this sudden appearance seemed a little off the cuff. Completely unexpected.

  Braydon glanced in the back to see Zoey, V, Kylie, and Jessie all sitting together at one table. They were grinning from ear to ear and laughing. As much as he tried to tell himself to look away, he couldn’t seem to. He just drank in the sight of Jessie in profile as she sat on one of the tall stools. Tonight she was wearing a short jean skirt, a formfitting T-shirt, and cowboy boots. It was an outfit he’d always loved seeing on her. And off her.

  Not helping, Walker.

  “Did you hear that Ethan and Beau pushed their party back to next weekend?”

  “Yeah,” Braydon told Zane, forcing his gaze away from the prettiest woman in the room. “Ethan texted me earlier.” From what his brother told him, they wanted everyone to be there and Travis had a sudden meeting he had to go to up in Dallas on Saturday, so they were holding off.

  A sharp, piercing whistle sounded, drawing Braydon’s attention toward the front door just in time to see Sawyer stepping into the doorway. “Who’s ready to get this party started?”

  The surprisingly busy bar erupted in applause and a few grunts. Sawyer was known to want to be the life of the party, so his grand entrance wasn’t exactly a new thing.

  Braydon waited for his brother to head their way, but instead, Sawyer took a step back and held the door open. In walked Tessa and Cooper Krenshaw, along with Dalton Calhoun, Katie Clarren—one of the waitresses from Tessa’s bar—and . . . Sonuvabitch. Cheyenne Montgomery strolled in with a huge smile on her pretty face. Had he not been so distracted by a rowdy group closing in on him, he would’ve searched the room to see the look on Brendon’s face.

  “Now we can get this party started!” Sawyer exclaimed, and the noise level rose once again.

  Turning so that his back was to the bar, Braydon watched the chaos as it ensued. He figured if Mack, Moonshiners’ owner slash bartender, didn’t do something soon, the small bar was going to bust at the seams. Especially once—not if—word got out that they had three of America’s most beloved country music stars in their midst.

  “What’s all the fuss about?”

  Braydon turned to see Mack leaning over his shoulder.

  “No clue.”

  “Don’t you let ’em burn this place down.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Braydon laughed, but Mack didn’t hang around. The bar was probably close to capacity now, and everyone was trawling for drinks. From the looks of it, Mack wasn’t going to be able to keep up with the demand on his own. One of these days, Braydon expected the guy to hire a little help. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

  “Hold your horses!” Mack bellowed as he faced a row of cowboys. “One at a time.”

  No, Moonshiners wasn’t equipped for this type of gathering. Hell, at most, they could probably cram one hundred people in, and that would be shoulder to shoulder. But there were still people coming through the door.

  Taking a step to the side, Braydon tried to keep from being trampled. Over the heads of the people cramming themselves inside, he noticed that Travis, Gage, Kaleb, Zane, Ethan, and Beau had all gone into alpha-protector mode. Travis and Gage were flanking Kylie as she sat at the table in the back, now talking to Tessa, Katie, and Cheyenne. Kaleb had his arm wrapped around Zoey’s shoulders as she chatted with Cooper and Dalton, who were standing beside the women they had walked in with. Zane had pulled V close as they talked to Beau, who was shoulder to shoulder with Ethan.

  Braydon immediately looked for Jessie, wondering just who was keeping an eye on her. He didn’t want to see her with Brendon, but he hoped like hell his twin had taken to her side to make sure she wasn’t squashed during the melee.

  Wait. Brendon wasn’t there. Or at least Braydon hadn’t seen him since he came in.

  Worried, he continued to scan the room until he found Jessie. She was over by the jukebox. By herself.

  Without considering how she might react to him coming to her rescue, Braydon began pushing through the group that had gathered near the bar on his way to the back, but he came up short when he saw Sawyer and Jared make their way over to her. When the two men spoke, Jessie’s face lit up like a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.

  A tap on his shoulder had him turning and coming face-to-face with Brendon, who looked dazed and confused. “What the hell is goin’ on here?”

  Braydon nodded his head toward the back. “Someone invited the celebrities tonight.”

  Brendon’s eyes moved across the room and Braydon followed his gaze. When it rested on Cheyenne Montgomery, who was arm in arm with Dalton Calhoun, his brother murmured under his breath. Braydon was pretty sure it was a string of creative curse words that he’d never heard before.

  “Problem?” he asked acerbically, not expecting Brendon to answer. For the entire past week, they’d pretty much ignored one another. At one point, Braydon had thought they stood half a chance of having a civil conversation, but then Brendon’s mood had gone from bad to shitty. Braydon had left him alone since.

  “Yeah,” Brendon retorted, turning
an angry glare on Braydon. “Plenty of them. Take your fucking pick.”

  Clearly, Brendon wasn’t trying to make conversation because he stalked off toward the back of the room. Braydon watched him go.

  Shit. He was heading directly for . . . Jessie.

  Oh, fuck.

  This wasn’t going to be good.

  Not good at all.

  UNTIL SAWYER AND Jared arrived to keep her from having to be alone, Jessie had been hoping the floor would open up and swallow her whole.

  Before Tall, Dark, and Famous walked in—all three of them and the woman Jessie didn’t recognize—she’d been having a good time talking to Kylie, Zoey, and V. But the moment Sawyer announced their arrival, she found herself lost in the shuffle. As soon as the guys started with their protective bullshit, surrounding their women like they were wolves protecting their mates or something, she’d been shoved to the side.

  In an effort to pretend as though it didn’t bother her, Jessie had gone straight for the jukebox. It was that or walk home, which she had absolutely no intention of doing. So she had pretended to study the music selection until Sawyer and his cousin came over and started talking.

  She had heard very little of what they were saying for two reasons: one, the room was so loud, she could barely hear her own voice when she spoke; and two, she had caught sight of Braydon watching her. If she wasn’t mistaken, he had actually been planning to come talk to her, but thankfully, Sawyer and Jared had jumped in and saved the day.

  But now she had more than just Braydon to worry about. He was standing stone still in the middle of the room, silently looking in her direction, but he wasn’t the one she was concerned with. At the moment, Brendon was pushing through the masses. He seemed to be heading toward her, but she hoped she was wrong. Since the hallway to the restrooms was to the right of where she was standing, maybe he was actually just planning to take care of business.

  Wait. Nope. Nature didn’t seem to be calling his name. And now he was calling hers.

  “Jess.”