Braydon(101)

“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 f*cking 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 conversation 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.