Braydon(74)

“Didn’t want to stay?” he asked.

“They need time to themselves. Would you, uh . . .” Jessie looked toward the doors that led to the area Brendon was in and then back to him. “Would you mind taking me home?”

“Did you tell Braydon?” Sawyer asked.

“Yeah. He told me he’d take me, but I really think he needs to stay with Brendon.”

Sawyer agreed. He wasn’t sure why he agreed, but he did. Brendon had hit a rough patch. At the moment, he needed his family to be by his side. Although this had been a long time coming, Sawyer hoped it was going to be the beginning of the end of the cycle. This little stunt had scared the shit out of them all, and whether Brendon liked it or not, they weren’t going to let him be alone for a while.

“Yeah, I’ll take you home,” he told her, and then looked over to where his parents were sitting, talking to Kaleb and Ethan. “Let’s tell them we’re leavin’ though.”

Jessie nodded and fell into step with him.

Ten minutes later, Sawyer was pulling out of the hospital parking lot.

“So . . .” Sawyer felt Jessie’s gaze on him as he let the single word hang between them. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t particularly like the silence. And this was his opportunity to be nosey, although he knew he should probably just back off. Since that wasn’t in his nature, he continued. “Do you know what’s going on with Brendon?”

Jessie was silent for a minute, maybe two, and Sawyer was convinced she wasn’t going to open up to him. Not that he really blamed her. Although she was practically an adopted member of the family, regardless of her relationship with the twins, Sawyer didn’t know her all that well. It was totally for lack of trying on his part.

She surprised him when she said, “He misses Braydon.”

“Because Braydon left town?” It was a logical question, he knew.

“Not necessarily. I think this all started before that.” Jessie’s choked sob stunned him, and he glanced over at her, trying to make out her face in the dim lights from the dashboard. Her hands came up and covered her face as her body shuddered.

“Jess,” he said, not really knowing what he was supposed to do or say at that moment. He reached out to touch her arm, but stopped just shy of making physical contact. Truth was, he wasn’t really good with emotional women.

Up until he’d acquired a couple of sisters-in-law, Sawyer had made a point to stay far away from women when they were upset. Sure, he’d earned a reputation because of it, but he couldn’t do much about that. Emotional women scared the shit out of him.

“I’m sorry. I just . . .” She sniffed and wiped her eyes before dropping them to her lap. “This is all so messed up. And I can’t help but think it’s my fault. If I’d just stayed in Dallas. If I hadn’t followed Kylie down here—”

“Hold up,” Sawyer interrupted, causing her head to dart in his direction. He didn’t take his eyes off the road as he continued. “You came here with your sister, right? Kylie came to Coyote Ridge to work on Gage’s house. You were with her when she showed up, if I recall correctly.”

Granted, plenty of things had led up to that little debacle, but ultimately, Sawyer wanted to point out that Jessie hadn’t just showed up out of the blue. Sure, they’d been introduced to Kylie briefly thanks to that questionable stunt Gage had pulled by bringing her to confront Travis without telling anyone. But Sawyer actually remembered being introduced to both Kylie and Jessie officially at the same time.

“Technically, yes,” she said firmly. “But that’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point?” he asked just as sternly. “If you’re gonna sit here and try to take the blame for Brendon acting like an idiot, I’m gonna stop and you can walk the rest of the way.”

He did peek over at her then to see that she was staring back at him with wide eyes.

“I’m kidding, Jess. But seriously, I don’t want you to try to take this on yourself. I’m not gonna pretend to know what the hell goes on with those two, but I can tell you, this isn’t your fault.”

“How do you know? Like you said, you don’t know what’s going on with them. And yes, Braydon left because of me. Does that make it clearer for you? Brendon told me that Braydon loves me. So he left.”

Sawyer laughed harshly. “Bullshit.”

He darted his gaze to her and grinned when he saw that she was looking at him indignantly.

“That’s absurd. Maybe men aren’t the smartest fools on earth when it comes to women, but we don’t run away just because we love a woman.” Not that he’d know, because he had never truly loved a woman.

“So now you’re an expert?” she asked incredulously.

“Nope,” he said quickly. “Not saying that, either.” Sawyer took a deep breath. “Look. Brendon did something really stupid tonight. Aside from drinking himself into oblivion, he got behind the wheel of a truck. That’s something we’ve grown up knowing is not even an option. You don’t drink and drive. No matter what.”

“I agree, that was stupid,” she said softly. “But—”

“No buts, Jess. Not in this case. It’s inexcusable. You see, my mother . . .” Sawyer peered over at her briefly to make sure she was listening. “My mother tolerates a lot from us. She’ll be the first to tell you that the seven of us made her crazy growing up. I won’t argue with her, either. But see, there were plenty of times she and my dad talked to us. We listened just like most kids, in one ear, out the other. But there was one specific point that she was insistent we pay attention to. I can remember her talking about it with one or all of us since we were kids.