Braydon(99)

“What did she say?”

“She gave me one excuse after another as to why we can’t be together.”

Another couple of minutes of silence passed. Braydon was just getting used to it when Brendon spoke up. “She loves you. You know that right?”

“I’m not sure that she does,” he told him. He wanted to believe she did, but he really didn’t know. She hadn’t told him she did. There were plenty of times when they were together that Braydon noticed something deeper in Jessie’s eyes. Something compassionate. But then there were days like this that he just didn’t understand.

“You know what the problem is?” Brendon asked.

“No, Dr. Phil. What’s the problem?”

“Somewhere along the way, we stopped talking to each other.”

That was the truth. Braydon wasn’t going to argue, because he wholeheartedly agreed with Brendon. They’d just stopped talking. To each other. To Jessie. Vice versa. That was when it all started falling apart.

Braydon and Brendon had always been close. Really close. They talked about every damn thing. But over the course of this last year, they’d drifted. Mostly in communication. Braydon hadn’t really noticed it until around Christmas, but ever since Jessie came into the picture, they’d stopped really talking. Maybe that was Braydon’s fault. Because he had started falling for her early on and his possessive side had come out. In order to keep from damaging his relationship with Brendon, he’d let it fester until the next thing he knew, the roof had been blown off and their lives had fallen apart.

“You know how you can fix that, right?” Brendon asked.

Braydon didn’t answer. He knew his brother wasn’t looking for a response.

“You can talk to her.”

Yeah, that would probably be a good start, but he didn’t think Jessie wanted to talk to him. The way he’d left things earlier hadn’t exactly been the most mature way to handle the situation. Although he had told her that he would be waiting when she was ready to talk. More aptly, when she was ready to let him in.

God, she needed to let him in. Into her heart.

Fuck.

Shaking off the torturous thoughts, Braydon glanced over at Brendon. “What about us? We good?”

“We’ll always be good,” Brendon said gruffly. “I may not like it, but I get it. Things change. And more than I want to live in my little bubble where things stay just as they’ve always been, I have to accept that I can’t. And who knows?” Brendon nodded toward Cheyenne’s rental car. “Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe there’s a chance for me to be happy, too.”

“There is,” Braydon assured him, looking back out at the still darkening sky. “You just have to stop being a dickhead.”

“Easier said than done, Bray. Easier said than done.”





chapter TWENTY-SIX

The week was finally over, and for Braydon, the last few days had passed by in a blur.

Thank God for that.

He had immersed himself in work in order to avoid his personal life, but even that hadn’t stopped him from frequently thinking about Jessie and where they’d left things between them. Even the distraction that was his twin brother hadn’t helped him to keep his mind off her.

Although Brendon seemed to be on the mend, and he and Cheyenne had actually spent a civil moment together right before she took off on her tour again, things were still taking their own sweet time getting back to normal. Braydon didn’t pretend to understand what was going on between those two, but whatever it was, it consisted of a significant amount of passion. Sexual and otherwise, although he was pretty sure the two of them had no intention of giving in to it.

Now it was Saturday; Braydon hadn’t heard a peep from Jessie all week, but as far as he knew she hadn’t skipped town, either. It didn’t hurt that he’d heard her car was currently out of commission. That was probably the only reason she hadn’t hit the highway going north. But he didn’t know that for sure.

Right now, he was getting ready to head to Ethan and Beau’s for the party the two of them had been telling everyone about. He had no idea what they were celebrating, but at that point, he really didn’t care, either. A little downtime where he got to spend a few hours with his brothers was just what the doctor ordered. And quite frankly, not going to Moonshiners to do so was sort of a plus.

But . . .

Braydon couldn’t seem to convince himself to go straight to Ethan’s. Even after Brendon headed out, telling him that he’d see him at E’s, Braydon continued to contemplate what would happen if he made one little stop, knocked on Jessie’s door, and invited her to go with him.

No, he knew it probably wasn’t the brightest idea. Especially considering her rejection might just break him. But that wasn’t stopping him now.

He pulled his truck into her driveway, hoping she was actually home. After shutting off the engine, he climbed out and headed to the front porch, wishing he didn’t feel quite so conflicted.

Part of him knew he should be stronger, knew he should just leave well enough alone. If Jessie wanted anything to do with him, it was only fair that she reach out to him. Not that she would, whether she wanted to or not. Instead of sticking to his guns and insisting that she be the one to come crawling back, here he was, ascending the steps to her porch, ready to bang on the front door. Before he had the chance, he heard the sound of an engine coming down the road, and he turned just in time to see Zane stopping in the road in front of the house.