Braydon(77)

Maybe Kylie was onto something there. It wasn’t that she had anything against the woman. She knew if they’d actually been introduced, she probably would like her. But for some reason, Jessie had always been tossed to the shadows when Cheyenne was around.

That got her thinking, and Jessie suddenly wondered whether she was laying blame where there shouldn’t be any. It wasn’t that people had purposely pushed her away. That’s just what she did. She sought solace in silence whenever she was cast into a situation she wasn’t comfortable with. And truth was, she wasn’t comfortable around Cheyenne.

Thanks to old habits dying hard, Jessie had been jealous of Cheyenne in the beginning, back when she feared the twins were going to toss her to the side. After all, from everything she knew about the twins at the time, Braydon did what Brendon wanted.

Sighing, Jessie forced herself out of the truck. Grabbing her tablet, she hurried after her sister. Her job was to take notes, which meant she needed to be right there with Kylie or she was going to miss something.

There was a time and place for her contemplative thoughts. Thank God now was not the time and this certainly wasn’t the place.



“YOU REALLY DON’T have to babysit me,” Brendon growled as Braydon returned to the kitchen.

Braydon had woken up like normal, showered, shaved, and made a pot of coffee. He had also called Jared to let him know that he was going to be in late that morning. His cousin had inquired as to Brendon’s status, and after a short explanation, Braydon had hung up the phone.

It wasn’t that he was babysitting his brother . . . Okay, he was. He had somehow relegated himself to being Brendon’s babysitter. But that was Brendon’s fault. After this past week, Braydon was actually worried to leave him alone. At first he’d just been worried because Brendon had been gone so much. But then when he did turn his back, Brendon went and got himself hospitalized.

“Bray, I’m gonna be fine,” Brendon said, pulling Braydon’s attention to him.

“I f*cking know that,” he replied. Yes, he was frustrated. He was pissed off at Brendon and himself, he was angry at the situation, and above all else, he wanted to throttle his brother for drinking and driving. Un-f*cking-acceptable.

“I’m going to Mom and Dad’s today,” Brendon told him as he took his empty plate to the sink to rinse it.

“Good,” Braydon told him. “You need to.”

Brendon turned toward him and rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna do anything stupid.”

“You’ve said that before,” Braydon countered. “Look where that got you.”

“Fuck off,” Brendon said without heat. “I get it. I f*cked up.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Braydon exclaimed, his anger reaching the boiling point. “You keep saying that. Do you think it makes things better? That it excuses your actions? Do you think we can look the other way because you said you f*cked up? You obviously haven’t learned from your mistakes, Bren. You’re still f*cking up.”

Okay, so he probably shouldn’t have laid into Brendon like that, but he couldn’t help it. His twin had scared the ever-loving shit out of him last night. He could’ve died.

But what Braydon was having such a hard time with was the fact that he hadn’t known. As close as he and Brendon were, as strong as that mysterious twin thing was, he should’ve known. He should’ve been able to tell that Brendon needed him.

He hadn’t known.

Was that because he was too distracted by Jessie?

God, he missed her.

Last night, when he brought Brendon home, he had been tempted to go back to her place, to crawl into bed beside her and hold her. He had needed her.

But Brendon had needed him more. So Braydon had crawled into his own bed by himself, scared to sleep for fear that Brendon would need him during the night. And yes, the lack of sleep had left him in a piss-poor mood.

“If you want, I’ll go to work with you,” Brendon told him now.

“What the f*ck would I want that for?” Braydon asked, startled by the comment. He really didn’t want to be Brendon’s babysitter. “And anyway, the doctor said you’re dehydrated. Last thing you need to do today is be out in the heat.”

“You know as well as I do that I’m not skipping out on work, Bray.”

“No, but you can take half a day to worry about yourself. Go see Mom and Dad and then you can go to work.”

Brendon rolled his eyes again. “This is gonna get old real quick, bro.”

Braydon didn’t say anything. He agreed wholeheartedly. Brendon was thirty years old; he didn’t need a keeper. He needed to grow up was what he needed to do. But Braydon couldn’t very well tell him that, now could he?



BY THE TIME Braydon crawled into work, it was nearly noon. He stopped in at the Walker Demo office first to make sure Jared knew Brendon needed to take a few hours off.

“And you’re his keeper now?” Jared asked, amused when Braydon informed him of the news.

“Someone has to be,” he muttered.

“We can’t baby him, Bray.”

“I know that.”

“Do you? Is that why you’re in my office, telling me to take it easy on him today?”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Okay, it was what he was saying. Shit.