Braydon(75)

“The point is, if you’re me or one of my brothers, you’ve heard the devastating story that my mother has to tell. You might not know this, but my mother had five sisters.”

“Had?”

“Three of them are still alive,” he answered. “Two of them died. In a car accident. Together. My aunt Kathy was nineteen when she died. She had been at some college party. Well, my aunt Celeste, who was a couple of years younger, had needed a ride home from a friend’s house. Before she went out that night, Celeste had asked Kathy if she’d pick her up on her way home.”

“Oh, God,” Jessie whispered.

“Exactly. Kathy was well past the legal limit when she drove over to pick up Celeste. On their way home, just a few blocks away from their house, Kathy crashed her car into a tree. According to my mother, Kathy died on impact. Celeste suffered from fatal injuries. She died in the hospital a few days later, never waking up. My mother was barely a year older than Kathy, but she was already married to my dad, so she didn’t live at home. To hear my mother tell that story, I don’t care who you are, you feel her pain.”

“I can only imagine,” Jessie whispered.

“And tonight Brendon got behind the wheel of a vehicle. He risked his own life and the lives of innocent people. There is no excuse. No one but Brendon can accept responsibility for that. He’s just damn lucky he didn’t kill someone. Or himself.”

Jessie nodded, her eyes focused straight ahead. Sawyer let the silence linger for a moment as he pulled onto the back road that led to his parents’ land.

“Jess, I don’t know what’s going on with the three of you,” Sawyer said when he pulled up in front of Jessie’s. “I don’t want to know. I just want you to think this through.” He contemplated what he would say next. He was tempted to leave it at that, but something spurred him on. “I’ve seen the way Braydon looks at you. I’ve never seen him look at another woman like that before. And I’ve seen the way you look at him. It surprised the hell out of us all when he left town. It was bad enough that he left the rest of us like that, but he also left Brendon. They’ve got to work this out between them. In my opinion, it’s about damn time they grew up. They’re thirty years old, Jess. They can’t keep doing this forever. It was bound to happen that one of them fell for a woman sooner or later. I had suspected it would be Braydon, too.”

Resting his hands on the steering wheel, he turned his head toward her. “This isn’t your fault. And if you try to make it your fault, it won’t help. This is a screwed-up situation, at least from the outside looking in. But I’m gonna tell you . . . if you want to work this out with Braydon, you’re gonna have to help them work through this. Whatever happened to split things up between the three of you is probably for the best. Unfortunately, things get complicated that way. Trust me, I know.”

Sawyer glanced back out the window, refusing to think about his own issues where that was concerned. “Brendon’s a big boy. He’s gonna have to accept responsibility for his own actions. They’ve always had a strong bond between them, and I hate to see him like this, but I do think it’ll work out.”

Jessie nodded her head, but she didn’t say anything. Sawyer figured that was for the best anyway. He’d stuck his nose where it didn’t belong, but he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t speak up. That was his own personal demon.

“Thanks for the ride home,” she whispered as she reached for the door handle.

“Catch ya later,” he replied.

He watched to ensure she made it into her house safely. When the front door closed behind her, Sawyer backed out of the driveway.

Deciding that the night had been blown to shit already, he opted to call it a night. In the mood he was in, it was safe to say that Brendon wouldn’t be the only one getting himself into trouble tonight.

And that was the last thing they needed.





chapter NINETEEN

“What are you doing here?” Kylie asked the moment Jessie stepped through the door of their little office.

Glancing around, confused about who Kylie was talking to, Jessie realized she was the only one there, which meant her sister was talking to her.

“I, uh, work here.”

“Is Brendon out of the hospital?” Kylie asked, coming directly toward her.

“Yes, he’s out.” Braydon had called her sometime during the wee hours of the morning to let her know that he was taking Brendon home and staying with him. He had then let her go, insisting that she go back to sleep.

“Did you get any sleep last night?” Kylie questioned, studying her.

“Of course,” she lied. In fact, she hadn’t gotten much sleep at all. After Sawyer dropped her off, Jessie had made a cup of hot tea, hoping that would do the trick. Then, for the next few hours, she had tossed and turned, trying her best to make sense of what Sawyer had said.

He hadn’t helped, that much she knew for sure. It would’ve been so easy for Jessie to have accepted responsibility for Brendon’s lack of common sense with his binge drinking, but she hadn’t been able to do so.

She hadn’t been able to blame anyone. Not Braydon. Not Brendon. And not even Cheyenne, who Brendon was clearly hung up on.

This happened, and although Brendon was truly at fault for his own actions, she could very well see why he had done it. Drowning sorrows in alcohol was something she’d done plenty of times in her adult life. Never quite to the extent he went to, but she’d indulged a few times, sure. Not that it excused his drinking and driving.