Braydon(63)

In a mad rush, Jessie managed to shower, shave her legs, and brush her teeth in record time. There was no chance of her getting both her hair dried and herself dressed before he came back, so she combed her wet hair and opted to focus on the latter. Grabbing panties and a bra, a pair of shorts, and a T-shirt from her drawer, she made quick work of making herself presentable. She contemplated wearing sandals, but then she thought about what Braydon had said. He was going to help Gage with the fence. And if she knew her sister, Kylie was going to be helping too, even if her husbands didn’t want her to. Not that they’d have any reason not to.

Forgoing her sandals, she grabbed her Nikes and a pair of socks before heading back to the living room. She was tying her shoe when there was a knock at her door.

“Come in,” Jessie hollered. She got to her feet and turned to look at the man now gracing her entryway with his handsome presence.

“Impressive,” he said with a grin.

“Hey. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t get ready in under an hour.”

“Clearly,” he agreed with a laugh.

“Let me just get a hair tie and my cell phone.”

Braydon nodded and Jessie turned back to her bedroom. Her heart did a strange leap and her tummy twisted with anticipation. It was time to move forward. See where things went. She wasn’t sure this could quite be called a date, but she wouldn’t deny that she was excited about it regardless. Just the simple fact that Braydon seemed so intent on truly dating her had caused her insides to mimic that fateful day when she’d tried Zumba and failed miserably. Quite the strain on her body, plus she was breathless in the end. Same feeling she had now.

This was new for them.

Hell, it was new for her, period.

Truth was, Jessie hadn’t had too many traditional relationships in the past. She figured that was mostly her fault. Over the years, she’d had plenty of men ask her out, but she had found that her history was littered with long-term relationships. Again, her fault, because she couldn’t just date a guy and enjoy herself. She got attached and ended up exclusive with one.

Dating hadn’t been a priority when Jessie had already claimed to have fallen in love with a man. The men she’d been with took that as a sign that dating wasn’t necessary. And spending time with one at that point usually meant sex was on the agenda.

She’d been an idiot, never truly giving herself enough credit. Even her father had told her that a time or two.

And yes, from the moment she opened her eyes that morning, she had expected things to be weird between her and Braydon because of the whole falling-into-bed-on-the-first-date thing. After all, yesterday had been amazing, but they had still slept together in the heat of the moment. No matter what it might look like, there had been a significant amount of heat encompassing last night’s encounter, and she couldn’t take the blame for succumbing to it. She didn’t know a single red-blooded woman who wouldn’t lose her panties after one kiss with one of the Walker brothers.

What was different was the way things had been that morning. From experience, Jessie had been half expecting Braydon to disappear at dawn. Not that he deserved to be lumped in with the lot of losers she’d been with in the past, but she was known for jumping to conclusions. Almost as bad as making assumptions.

But when she woke up, Braydon had still been there. He’d actually still been asleep, which was what surprised her most.

Grabbing her ponytail holder and her phone, she practically skipped back into the living room. Braydon was leaning against the wall, his thumbs flying over his phone.

Texting.

He was obviously texting. Not to mention frowning.

“Everything all right?” she asked, praying that he wasn’t going to back out.

And didn’t that sound desperate.

Jessie knew she needed to slow down because she was already getting in way over her head again.

“All good,” he said with a huge grin as he looked up. He tucked his phone into the palm of one hand and then reached out to her with the other. “Come on. Before Gage has a coronary.”



THE DRIVE OUT to Kylie’s didn’t take them long. They didn’t do a lot of talking on the way, but someone clearly wanted to talk to Braydon, because his phone kept chiming. He never bothered to look at it, but Jessie could see from the hard set of his jaw that he wasn’t happy with whoever it was.

“You’re awfully quiet over there,” Braydon said, drawing her attention.

Jessie smiled. “Sorry.”

“What were you thinking about?”

Oh, God. He did not want to know what she was thinking about. “Nothing,” she mumbled.

Braydon laughed, a choked sound that covered his mumbled “Bullshit.”

Jessie laughed at him.

“I’ll get you to talk later,” he assured her.

“Is that right?”

“Yes, ma’am. You can count on it.”

Jessie glanced up through the front windshield to see that they were pulling down Kylie’s driveway.

“I love this house,” she crooned before she could catch herself.

“It’s impressive. Especially now that Kylie’s finished with it,” Braydon said.

“She worked so hard on this place. I still don’t know how she does it, and I work with her every day.”