Braydon(8)

“Braydon!”

Braydon turned to see Cheyenne Montgomery walking his way. She was holding the lower part of her colorful glimmering gown and trying to maneuver through the mushy grass in heels, which was a sight in itself. He knew the confusion was clear on his face as she approached, but he was a little shocked that she was there in the first place. Yeah, he knew who she was, but up until Mother’s Day of last year, no one had even heard of her.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. They’d heard of her because her music topped Billboard’s country music charts and their mother was a huge fan. But no one had known that she was a friend of Travis’s. And since then, she’d been showing up to more and more family functions, which seemed . . . strange.

“I knew I should’ve worn boots,” she said, straight-faced.

Braydon tried to picture her in that dress and boots . . . Couldn’t do it.

“Seriously, I wanted to let you know that Cooper’s looking for you. Something about seeing if you know of anyone who might want to fill in on his ranch for a little while. He’s been asking anyone who’ll listen. Looks like Dalton’s gonna be on the road for a few months.”

Cooper was Braydon’s cousin Tessa’s husband. He was also a famous country music singer who’d moved to the small town of Devil’s Bend and opened up an equestrian center last year.

“Thanks. I’ll catch up to him in a bit,” Braydon replied, turning slightly away. When he realized Cheyenne wasn’t leaving, he turned back. Trying not to be rude, although he had already developed a grudge against this woman for reasons that were completely unfair to her, Braydon said, “Was there something else?”

“Yeah,” she began, squinting up at him as the midday sun bore down on them. “I just . . . wanted to apologize.”

“For?”

“For whatever I did to make you not like me.”

Braydon wasn’t sure what the woman’s angle was, or if she even had one, but her apology caught him off guard. “I like you fine,” he told her.

Cheyenne’s laugh was as sensual as the rest of her. Her voice was smooth and raspy, mixed with just the right amount of Texas drawl to catch people’s attention. He could completely see why Brendon was hung up on her; after all, she was pretty. Granted, it wasn’t the fact that Brendon had a thing for her that bothered Braydon the most. It was the fact that Brendon was holding on to Jessie in the meantime. Almost as though he didn’t want Braydon to have a chance with her. Then again, a solo relationship for either of them was unheard of. They shared their women. Always.

Not that any of that mattered anymore, because Braydon had done what he’d never thought himself capable of. He’d called a halt to the threesomes with Jessie.

As Braydon stared back at Cheyenne, realization dawned.

He recalled the conversation Brendon had with Cheyenne that first night they met her. Brendon had been working hard to get Cheyenne to go home with them. Braydon damn sure hadn’t been opposed to the idea at the time, but he’d tried to stay in the background. From the moment he’d been introduced to her, Braydon had known that Cheyenne wasn’t like most of the women either of them came on to, despite her age and her likely inexperience with men. Or maybe because of. He didn’t know. The only thing he knew for sure was that Cheyenne, although confident and sexy in her own right, wasn’t like the women who usually flocked to him and Brendon, whispering sweet nothings and looking for the next hookup. There was something very real, very innocent about Cheyenne. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.

Regardless, her refusal to go home with them had been expected, as was her reason. Cheyenne insisted that she would never be shared between two men. She was adamant about that fact, too. Since then, Brendon had been infatuated with her. But then they had met Jessie, and Braydon had thought that his twin had moved on. After all, Brendon had seemed genuinely interested in Jessie from the beginning. She was, quite frankly, everything they could ever want in a woman. Beautiful, smart, funny, incredibly sexy. And a spitfire in the bedroom.

But no, Brendon didn’t seem to be satisfied completely. He also didn’t seem to be willing to let Jessie go.

Because Braydon wanted her.

Ah, damn. As he stared back at Cheyenne, everything became so f*cking clear. How the hell had he not seen it before?

Brendon still wanted this woman and she was clearly not interested. At least not where a threesome was concerned. And if Braydon was right, Brendon was biding his time with Jessie until he could convince Cheyenne otherwise. Or maybe there was a deeper reason that Braydon wasn’t considering, but it was so much easier to assume Brendon was just drawing things out, purposely keeping Braydon in the shadows.

That still didn’t explain why Cheyenne seemed to be popping up all the damn time.

“Well, I should get back,” Cheyenne said uncertainly, and Braydon realized he’d been staring at her like a dumbass.

“I’ll walk you,” he told her.

“You don’t have to do that, but thanks for the offer.”

Ignoring her protest, Braydon held out his elbow for her to take and escorted her back toward the church. It was slow going because the heels of her shoes continued to get stuck in the soft ground.

“Is your car here?” he asked.

“No. I rode with Jared. Lorrie and Curtis were kind enough to let me stay the night at their place last night. Have I ever mentioned that it is impossible to say no to your mother?”