Braydon(55)

“Have you been here before?” he asked when he went around and opened her door for her.

“Nope, but I’ve heard Kylie talk about it.”

“Please tell me you like Mexican food,” he said, realizing he hadn’t bothered to ask her originally.

“My favorite,” she said promptly, linking her fingers with his.

Braydon held the door open for Jessie, not bothering to release her hand as he did. When they were inside, the delicious smell of fajitas and enchiladas made his stomach rumble.

The host grabbed two menus from behind the counter and then led them toward the back of the restaurant. When he attempted to seat them at a table, Braydon nodded toward a booth on the far back wall. The man smiled and then directed them to the booth, informing them their server would be right with them.

Within minutes they had received a basket of chips, two small bowls of salsa, and iced teas. After they’d scrutinized the menu for a few more minutes, they gave the server their order and were then left alone.

“Did you have a good time today?” Braydon asked, attempting to make conversation.

“Yeah,” Jessie answered shyly. “I can’t remember the last time I did that.”

“A first date?”

“No,” she said with a grin. “Well, yeah, that too. But no. I meant the fun part. What about you? Did you have fun?”

“Best first date ever,” he said easily.

“How many first dates have you been on?” she inquired.

“Depends on how you look at it,” he told her, reaching for a chip from the small basket in the middle of the table.

“I didn’t realize there were multiple perspectives,” she teased.

“I think it’s safe to say that I don’t have the most conventional dating history.”

Jessie’s smile faded, but she didn’t look away. “What started that? You and Brendon sharing women?”

Braydon thought about the question for a moment. “I don’t really know if there was any sort of defining moment. That’s just the way Brendon and I started out. Her name was Elizabeth McMurray,” Braydon explained. “We were in sixth grade and the rumor was that she had a crush on both of us. So, Brendon and I went to see her at her house. We rode our bikes over and when we got there, she was sitting outside on the curb.

“We spent most of the day talking to her. I think it was the first time we’d really talked to a girl outside of school. We went back several days in a row. Always right after school. There was no doubt that she liked us. Both of us.”

“Please don’t tell me you had sex when you were in the sixth grade,” Jessie said, appalled.

Braydon laughed. “No. That wasn’t until eighth grade.”

“Oh my God. You lost your virginity in the eighth grade?”

“Yeah. But not to her. She was just the first girl we kissed.”

“By ‘we’ . . . you mean both of you?”

“Not at the same time, mind you. Brendon kissed her first. As a joke, we told her she should compare us.”

“Ladies’ men from the beginning, huh?” Jessie asked, chuckling. “Who did she say was better?”

“She didn’t. But we kept going over to her house for probably a month. That lasted until we realized she had shared the news with all her friends.”

“Oh, you poor babies. Did she tarnish your sparkling reputation?” Jessie joked.

“Yep, she sure did. We’ve never been the same since.”

“Right.”

The server brought their fajitas and margaritas and the conversation continued as they ate. It wasn’t until they had both pushed their plates away that Braydon returned to their original topic.

“What about you? What was your first kiss like?”

“It wasn’t nearly as eventful as yours, I can tell you that much,” Jessie explained, looking at her glass. “I was a junior in high school.”

“Late bloomer, huh?”

“Funny. This was just a kiss. But, of course, that kiss meant the world to me. I thought I was in love with the guy. He was a senior and much more experienced than I was. Needless to say, it didn’t end well. You would’ve thought I had learned my lesson, but no. That’s pretty much the story of all the guys I’ve kissed. Not that there have been all that many.”

When the waiter returned, Braydon signaled him to get Jessie another margarita. He was giving up after one because he had to drive, but he wasn’t ready to leave just yet.

“Tell me about the last guy you dated, Jess,” Braydon said.

Jessie’s eyebrows dipped down as she frowned. “What do you want to know?” she asked, already sounding defensive.

“Everything,” he said truthfully. “I want to know everything there is to know about you.”

They were silent for a moment, and Jessie didn’t speak until after the waiter returned with her margarita. But then, after she took one sip, Jessie surprised him.

Meeting his gaze across the table, Jessie started talking.

“His name was Mike. I met him at work. He was nice enough.” Jessie stared down at the table while she wiped the condensation from her margarita glass. “We didn’t work in the same department, but he was an executive at the company and I had to talk to him on occasion. When he asked me out, I felt . . . special, I guess. Come to find out I wasn’t the only special one.”