Braydon

by Nicole Edwards

  Braydon turned to see Ethan coming toward him, a smirk on his face. “I’m quite capable of talking to people, thank you very fucking much.”

  “Oh, I didn’t say you weren’t. You just don’t.”

  “New leaf and all that shit,” Ethan answered, glancing over at Beau. “Hey, have you seen the girls? Travis is looking for Kylie.”

  “Not in a while, no,” Beau told him.

  “Hmm.”

  “Hmm, what?” Braydon asked, trying to translate the silent conversation going on between Ethan and Beau.

  “Nothing,” Ethan said, another smirk on his face. “I’ve got some people to talk to.”

  “Have fun,” Braydon said to Ethan’s back as his younger brother sauntered off.

  “I better go check on the food,” Beau told him. “Everyone’s hangin’ out by the pool.”

  “I’ll be out there in a minute,” Braydon said, saluting him with his beer.

  Yes, he was avoiding going outside, but so what?

  When Beau disappeared, Braydon took his time wandering through the main rooms of the house. The main room didn’t look much different since the last time he was there. Or the time before that even. He half expected the house to look like two men lived there; it was still just as pristine as ever. The only differences he noticed were a few personal pictures that now crowded the mantel. As he made his way over, he listened to the people in the room talking, nodding his head in acknowledgment as he passed by.

  He was staring at the recent pictures of Ethan and Beau, some from their wedding, some probably from their honeymoon at the beach, and a few random ones of Ethan, likely snapped by Beau when Ethan wasn’t looking.

  Something warm and wet licked his ear and Braydon jerked around, coming face-to-face with . . .

  “What the fuck is that?” he asked Sawyer as he stared back at . . . Holy shit. It was quite evident that the thing was of the canine persuasion, but that wasn’t what surprised Braydon. No, his momentary shock had to do with the fact that Sawyer was currently holding—although “cuddling” might be a better word for it—one of the . . . cutest damn dogs Braydon had ever seen. The cuteness factor of the animal didn’t play into his surprise, either. It was the fact that Sawyer had a dog.

  A freaking dog.

  “This is Buster,” Sawyer told him, scratching the little dog’s head.

  “Buster? That’s a . . . boy dog?”

  “Yup,” Sawyer answered with a wide grin. “Ain’t he cute?”

  “Oh, hell. What the hell have you done with my brother?” Braydon razzed him. “It is cute, but . . . seriously, Bubba? A dog?”

  Braydon kept an eye on the blond-haired animal as realization dawned. He began to laugh, looking back at Sawyer. “So it looks like your volunteering at the animal shelter isn’t going the way you thought it would, huh?”

  Sawyer had the decency to look sheepish. “I’ve been volunteering since before Christmas and it’s gotten me no-fucking-where. Well, unless you count my new buddy, Buster.”

  Christ. Braydon was pretty sure that Sawyer had hit his head somewhere along the way.

  “I’m just not sure that thing suits you?”

  “No? Let me let you in on a little secret . . . The ladies love him. I mean L-O-V-E love him.”

  “I’m sure they do.” The thing was so freaking pretty, it was hard to look at his rough-and-tumble brother holding a golden-haired cocker spaniel. Named Buster.

  Holy shit.

  “So he’s helpin’ you pick up women? Just not the woman you’re wantin’ to pick up?”

  “It’s just a matter of time. She’ll eventually come around.”

  Braydon had his doubts about that. “Well, what’d you expect? Kennedy’s not the type of girl to fall for your lame-ass lines. And I doubt she’s the type of girl to fall for a sweet little dog face, either. She sees them all day long.” After all, Kennedy Endsley was the town’s one and only veterinarian.

  “Oh, shut the hell up,” Sawyer answered with a chuckle. “You’ll see. I’ll get the girl, dammit. Or I’ll die trying.”

  Braydon knew that Sawyer had a hard-on for Kennedy Endsley, and although she’d put up with a few of his advances, namely his request to dance with her at Ethan’s reception and then again at Zane’s, he knew she wasn’t falling for Sawyer’s charm. He didn’t pretend to know what was going on between the two of them, or why Kennedy was so opposed to Sawyer, but he didn’t question it.

  Hell, he didn’t really give a shit.

  “Have you seen Jessie?” Braydon asked when Sawyer put the fur ball down on the floor. Braydon watched the little thing cautiously. “How many times have you stepped on him?” he asked curiously before Sawyer could answer his original question.

  “None,” Sawyer said quickly. “And no, I just got here.”

  Braydon met Sawyer’s gaze again. “You gonna take him swimming?” he asked, referring to the dog.

  “Depends,” Sawyer answered.

  “On?”

  “On whether I need to pull out all the charm. What woman can resist a man with a cute little dog?”

  “Bubba, that thing is gonna get you hooked up with a woman who’s lookin’ to be a mama. That thing’s . . . He’s . . .”

  “Don’t you dare fucking say it,” Sawyer grumbled.

  Braydon watched the little guy with his nearly white blond hair, giant brown eyes, stubby little tail, and feet that were bigger than they probably should’ve been. Yep, he was going to lure women in like crazy. He was that freaking cute. On top of that, Sawyer had dressed the thing in a bandanna. The longer Braydon looked at him, the more he started to see why Sawyer had grown so fond of him. “Did you adopt him?”

  “Yup. He came into the shelter a while ago. We’ve been waiting to see if an owner would show up. No such luck. He and I bonded, ya know.”

  “No, I don’t know,” Braydon answered, smiling. He hadn’t seen Sawyer quite this excited about . . . well, about anything other than women. So it was kind of nice to see that his brother had found something to call his own. And the way that Buster was circling Sawyer’s legs was proof that the little guy had established a relationship with his new owner already.

  “All right, well, we’re gonna head outside. I smell food and I’m starving,” Sawyer stated.

  Braydon nodded. He knew he should probably go outside and socialize with the others, but he was avoiding the area. Why, he didn’t know. It wasn’t like he knew who was out there. Considering the rumor was that Jessie was already there, and she wasn’t in the house, through process of elimination Braydon had to believe that she was outside.

  And he was nervous as hell to see her.

  “Y’ALL, I SERIOUSLY feel like an idiot,” Jessie complained to the women standing around her.

  “But you look gorgeous,” Kylie said. “Braydon’s not gonna know what hit him.”

  “How do you even know he’ll show up?”

  “Oh, he’ll be here,” Zoey assured her.

  “He’s already here,” V added. “And get this, Zane told me he ran into Braydon on his way back. Your main squeeze was actually knocking on your front door.”

  “What?” Jessie exclaimed, jumping to her feet. “He was at . . . He was?”

  “Yep. Looks like you’re not gonna have to work too hard to string him in. He’s halfway there already,” V said with a grin.

  Jessie’s stomach churned. She didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but either way, she felt a little . . . sick.

  Holy crap.

  Braydon had actually come by to see her?

  She hadn’t seen him since the night he walked out of her house. And that was her fault because twice she had thought about walking over to his house just to talk to him. It had been a hellacious week, to say the least. What with her reconciliation of sorts with Brendon, then her conver
sation with Cheyenne—who really was as nice as Kylie had told her she was—Jessie was pretty sure she’d cried more in the last four days than she had in her entire adult life.

  “What’re you gonna say to him?” Kylie asked.

  They’d had this conversation more than once already. Jessie had cried her heart out to Kylie, telling her sister all about her major heartache and how she’d been foolish enough to let Braydon walk away. She knew it was her own damn fault. She’d jumped to conclusions and then, rather than own up to her mistake, she’d pushed him until he walked right out the door.

  Every excruciating minute that had passed had made her miss him that much more. And now, tonight, she was ready to do whatever it took to get him to come back. Even if that meant admitting that she loved him and getting down on her knees and begging him to take her back.

  God, she loved him.

  More than anything in the entire world.

  And wasn’t that just dramatic.

  Okay, so she loved him. That wasn’t something new. But it was a little terrifying. Especially now that she’d come to the conclusion that she had never loved another man the way that she loved him. And she doubted she ever would.

  Remembering that Kylie had asked her a question, Jessie turned her attention back to the three women standing behind her. “I’m gonna tell him that I love him,” she whispered, praying she didn’t cry.

  “Good for you, girl,” Zoey shot back. “He’s been miserable, you know.”

  “No, I don’t know. I’m the asshole who sent him away, and he’s the smart one who stayed away.”

  “Not because he doesn’t care about you,” V told her. “Woman, I’m not one to hand out advice, because Lord knows, I’ve made some foolish mistakes in my time and I gave Zane a run for his money, but if you want my two cents . . . Go after him. And when you grab hold, never let him go. Sometimes it takes a little shakeup for us to realize just what we’ve got.”

  “What if he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me?” Jessie asked, talking to anyone who would listen.

  “What if, what if, what if. That shit don’t matter,” Kylie told her firmly. “You won’t know until you try.”

  Easier said than done, Jessie thought to herself. What if Braydon didn’t want to be with her anymore? What if he thought she was just a few screws short of a hardware store? What would she do then?

  “I think you need to go on out there, hold your head up high, and claim the man that you love,” Kylie told her. “And then, have a beer. You sure as shit need one.”

  Jessie laughed at that. She did need something to put her mind at ease, but she wasn’t sure a beer would cut it.

  Somehow, Jessie managed to make it to her feet. She smoothed down her sleeveless blouse and wiped her hands on her shorts. She didn’t look fancy, but, probably because she wanted to make her feel better, V had taken the time to fix Jessie’s hair into some fancy, intricate knot, and for whatever reason, it did make her feel a little better.

  “Okay, I’m going out there,” Jessie told them, sounding as though she were about to take on a battalion of angry zombies during the apocalypse.

  “Good girl,” Zoey said. “Knock him dead.”

  Jessie laughed, but it was strained. Her nerves had tied her stomach in knots and her knees felt like they were made of Jell-O. Even hearing that Braydon had gone to her house before coming to the party didn’t help much, although she continued to remind herself of that fact as she reached for the doorknob.

  Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door to Ethan’s guest bedroom open and stepped out into the hall. She looked left, then right, and then straight ahead. And that’s when she saw him.

  Oh, God. He looked so good.

  Braydon was wearing board shorts, a T-shirt that showed off his incredibly chiseled chest, and those tattered canvas flip-flops that he said were just for when he didn’t feel like putting his boots on. He had on his John Deere cap, backward, and she was instantly reminded of the night she met him.

  “Jessie.”

  When he said her name, her stomach lurched forward, but her feet did not.

  At least not until Kylie gave her a not-so-gentle nudge from behind. At that point, she stumbled, but she managed to right herself as she made her way closer to him. She spared her sister a quick glance, seeing that they were all following her out into the hallway. Turning back, she locked her eyes on the sexiest man she’d ever met.

  “Braydon.”

  He was staring at her, studying her like he hadn’t seen her in months, and the way his eyes caressed her face almost reverently made her heart lapse into a double time rhythm.

  “Do you mind if we talk?” he said, at the same time she said, “Could we talk?”

  When he smiled, some of her anxiety dissipated. And when he reached for her hand, Jessie thought the floor might just come up to meet her face. She was that off balance, and she knew she shouldn’t be. Just because he said he wanted to talk didn’t mean that it was going to be good.

  “No hanky-panky in there, you two,” Sawyer said as they walked past him.

  Jessie stopped short and stared at him. “Is that your dog?” she asked as she glanced at the precious bundle of blond fur that he was holding in his arms.

  “This is Buster. Buster, this is Jessie. Give her a kiss.”

  Jessie laughed when Sawyer thrust the little dog near her face. She was greeted by a warm tongue on her cheek. “Buster? A boy?”

  “Yeah,” Sawyer said, sounding as though he didn’t like the sex of his dog being questioned.

  “Sorry,” she said with a chuckle. She reached out and stroked the animal’s soft fur.

  “See, I told you, man. Chick magnet,” Sawyer said, looking over her shoulder at Braydon.

  “Got it. Now you go find your own chick. This one’s mine.”

  “Come on, buddy. Let’s go find something to make a sign with. High time we try to get some attention from the ladies. I’ve got a hunch that bringing you along to entice them might just draw in more women that way.”

  Jessie chuckled at Sawyer’s statement, remembering the stories about how Sawyer liked to stand on the side of the road and entice women. But the attention she offered Sawyer didn’t last long, and that was because her brain finally processed what Braydon had said. As soon as the words replayed once in her head, Jessie stopped short and spun around to face Braydon. Her heart had begun a freakish tap dance in her chest at his admission, and she wanted to ask him to say it again, to assure her that what she was going to tell him was reciprocated. But before she got the chance, he took her hand again and pulled her along behind him until they were in the guest room and he was closing the door behind them.

  Jessie turned to face Braydon but found that they were literally just inches away from one another. He was looking down at her when he cupped her face in his big hands, and lo and behold, she did the one thing she didn’t want to do.

  She started to cry.

  chapter TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Oh, damn,” Braydon muttered when he noticed the first tear fall.

  Jessie had her eyes closed when he reached up and brushed the first wet streak, then the second, away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, Jess. Please don’t cry.”

  “I can’t help it. I’m a mess,” she mumbled.

  “A beautiful mess,” he replied, unable to help himself. At least it garnered a small smile from her.

  When her eyes opened, he was lost for a moment in the glistening blue depths. There were so many things he wanted to say to her right then, so many ways he wanted to tell her that he loved her and that they could work this out, but he somehow managed to keep his mouth shut.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her eyes locked with his.

  “About what?” he asked. It wasn’t that he wasn’t capable of filling in the blanks himself, but he really wanted Jessi
e to come forth and tell him. As Brendon had said, they’d spent so much time not talking, not opening up, that now was the time to do so. Jessie wasn’t the type of woman who would open up easily, and he’d learned from experience that if he started to talk, she would sit back and let him and then, before he knew it, he would’ve divulged all of his secrets and she would’ve kept all of hers inside.

  There was no doubt that he wanted her. He wanted every piece of her. But he wasn’t going to make it easy for her. Wrapping her in his arms and telling her that everything would be okay was making it way too damn easy.

  “I’m sorry for being a bitch. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. I’m sorry for sending you away. I’m sorry for making you hate me. I’m sorry for—”

  “Stop,” he ordered softly, placing his finger over her lips. “I appreciate you trying to take all of the blame here, but that isn’t how this works. You could’ve started and stopped with the jumping to conclusions piece.”

  “But the rest of it is true,” she told him. “I’m crazy; you should know that by now. I’ve got so many crazies living inside of me, and unfortunately, they don’t bother to schedule with me when they’re gonna let loose.”

  Braydon couldn’t help himself; he leaned down and pressed his lips to Jessie’s lightly. He didn’t let her move closer and he didn’t try to deepen the kiss, but he needed that little bit of physical contact with this woman.

  When he pulled away, he continued to stare down at her. “Jess, I know you’re not perfect. Neither am I. But I don’t want us to be perfect. What kind of life would that be?”

  “It wouldn’t be crazy,” she mumbled, glancing away.

  Braydon tipped her chin, getting her attention. When she met his gaze again, he said, “It’d be boring as hell, is what it’d be. I’ll live with imperfect over boring any day.”

  “I don’t want to be perfect.” Jessie’s gaze bore into his as she spoke. “I just want to be normal.”

  “You are normal,” he replied.

  “Yeah?” she asked, a hint of frustration inflected in her tone.

  Braydon held firm; he kept his hands cupped on her face, unwilling to let this get out of hand. Jessie always seemed to turn to anger, as though getting defensive was her automatic response, and the last thing either of them needed was for this to fall apart. He feared that there were only so many cracks that a relationship could take before it ended up with a mile-wide fissure right down the middle.