Braydon(90)

Reluctantly, he made his way across the living room. Figuring one of his brothers had come by to check on him, he pulled open the door, ready to blast them with all the reasons they needed to just leave him alone.

Instead of yelling, Brendon damn near swallowed his tongue.

“Hey,” Cheyenne greeted him softly, her eyes weary as they locked with his. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he answered reluctantly. “Uh . . . Fine. Why?”

When her gaze strayed, Brendon felt a heated trail down his chest, and that’s when he realized he was standing there in front of Cheyenne Montgomery in only a towel.

“Shit,” he bit out. “Sorry. I had no idea you were coming.”

“No, I’m sure you didn’t,” she said with a smile.

“Want to, uh, come in? I’ll go change, er . . . put clothes on. I just got out of the . . .”

“I get it, Brendon,” Cheyenne said with a strained laugh. “Go get dressed, and yes, I’ll come inside.”

Brendon stepped out of the way, allowing Cheyenne to come inside. The fresh, floral scent of what he assumed was her perfume tickled his nose, and for the first time in weeks, he felt something strange flickering in his chest. Hope?

God, he hoped not.

Shit.

“Give me two minutes,” he told her. Without waiting for her response, he made his way to his room and shut the door behind him.

Grabbing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt from his dresser, he managed to pull on his clothes. It wasn’t until he was dressed that he actually took a breath.

Okay, so this was really unexpected. What the hell was Cheyenne doing there? Especially after the last time he’d seen her at Moonshiners. Out of habit, he reached up to touch his eye. He knew the bruising was pretty much gone, but he still felt the ghost pain of the black eye Sawyer had given him the last time he had been in Cheyenne’s presence.

He wasn’t sure whether he should be pissed or excited about her arrival on his front porch.

“Want something to drink?” he asked when he forced himself back into the living room. He couldn’t very well hide out in his bedroom all day, now could he?

“Water?” she suggested.

Brendon nodded and then made a beeline for the kitchen. After retrieving two bottles of water, he again took a deep breath. Something inside of him said he shouldn’t get his hopes up about this visit. He didn’t think Cheyenne had come to see him of her own accord. For some reason, Brendon got the impression that Travis might have had a hand in this.

Either way, he was trying to figure out whether that mattered as he made his way back to the living room. She was there. That was the important thing, right?

“Shouldn’t you be on tour?” he asked, keeping his tone devoid of accusation.

“Quick break,” she said in that soft Texas drawl that he loved.

No, he didn’t f*cking love it. It was nice. That’s all.

Good f*cking grief.

“So you thought you’d head this way for your break?”

“Travis called me.”

Those three words had a spike of anger lancing his insides, but Brendon bit his tongue to keep from saying something he shouldn’t. He had no idea what it was about this woman or why he had to be a jackass whenever she was around, but he couldn’t help himself.

“And what? You thought you’d come pay the poor f*cked-up guy a visit?” he asked, mentally slapping himself for letting the words past his lips. “Ignore me, Cheyenne. You really shouldn’t have come,” he told her, walking back toward the door.

He was fully prepared to let her out when Braydon came through the front door, nearly knocking Brendon over.

“Hey,” Braydon said as he came to an abrupt halt just inside the door. He glanced at Brendon, then slid his gaze over to Cheyenne, who was looking at Brendon as though he’d lost his mind.

He had. She should know that by now.

“Hey, Braydon,” Cheyenne responded in kind. “How are you?”

“Good,” Braydon offered, glancing back and forth between Brendon and Cheyenne like he’d never seen two people in the same room together before.

“She just stopped by,” Brendon said automatically, somewhat defensively. “Travis asked her to stop by,” he went on to clarify, “to make sure I wasn’t doing anything stupid, I’m sure. But she was just about to leave.” Yeah, that heated rage was boiling in his gut once again and Brendon couldn’t seem to douse it no matter how hard he tried.

“I wasn’t leaving,” Cheyenne told Braydon, not bothering to look at Brendon. “I just stopped by to talk.”

“About?” Brendon asked as Braydon continued to watch them with interest.

“To see how you’re doing,” she said simply.

“I’m great. That all? Here, I’ll show you the door.”

“Stop being a dick,” Braydon muttered beneath his breath.

“Fuck off,” Brendon retorted.

“How’s the tour going?” Braydon asked in that friendly way that he used on women about the time Brendon was going to make an ass out of himself. Brendon watched as his twin made his way over to the chair opposite where Cheyenne was now sitting.

Great. Now his brother was going to stay, which meant there was zero chance that Brendon could get Cheyenne out of his house before he caused any more of a rift between them. As it was, he was surprised she wanted anything to do with him; he didn’t give a shit how sorry Travis managed to make her feel for him.