Braydon (Alluring Indulgence #6)(112)
Author: Nicole Edwards

“I’d like that,” Jessie answered.

Well, hell. That was easier than he’d thought.

Pushing to his feet, he didn’t run to the door like he wanted. Instead, he waited for Jessie to stand and then he made his way over to her. Cupping her face briefly, he smiled down at her and then pulled her into his arms. “I really am sorry, Jess,” he whispered into her hair.

“Me too,” she said, her arms trembling as they wrapped around his back.

Drawing back from her, he kept his hands on her upper arms, forcing another smile. “This is gonna work out. Trust me on that.”

Jessie nodded, but he could tell she didn’t agree with him.

That was okay though. Brendon didn’t need her to.

Despite what Jessie thought, or even what Braydon thought, the two of them were meant for each other. He could feel it.

BRAYDON WANTED TO put his fist through the wall.

He hadn’t yet, but he feared he was going to soon.

The sound of Brendon’s truck pulling into the driveway relieved a small amount of the tension, but not much. Rather than wait for Brendon to join him in the house, he made his way outside.

The sun was settling down over the trees, the sky a hazy shade of blue. It made him think of Jessie’s eyes, which didn’t help his darkening mood at all.

He stepped outside, shutting the front door behind him. Leaning his hands on the wood rail that surrounded the porch, he took a deep breath. When he realized Brendon hadn’t gotten out of his truck, he looked over. That’s when he realized Cheyenne’s rental car was still there. But from where he stood, he could see that she wasn’t in the truck.

A minute later, Brendon was climbing down out of his truck.

“What did you do? Kill her and hide the body?” Braydon asked, only half kidding, as he nodded in the direction of Cheyenne’s car.

“She’s still with Jessie.”

“Why?” he asked, suddenly curious.

“Girl time. Shit, I don’t know.”

Braydon nodded, trying to appear as though he didn’t care. But he did.

Mainly because he wanted to be the one talking to Jessie.

“Feeling better?” he asked Brendon as he made his way up the steps.

“Still feel like shit,” his twin admitted. “But yeah.”

“I know the feeling.”

They were silent for a minute as they both stood on the porch, Braydon leaning forward with his hands on the rail, Brendon perched on the edge, leaning back against the wood post that held up the roof above them.

“Something happen with you and Jessie?” Brendon finally asked.

“Last time I saw her, she was packing her stuff,” Braydon admitted.

“Really? Why?”

“She thought you, me, and Cheyenne were making out on the couch.”

Brendon laughed. “Are you serious? Why the fuck would she think that?”

“She came over right after you passed out. I guess from the doorway it might’ve looked like we were . . . It probably looked awkward from where she was.”

“Did you tell her what happened?”

“Yeah.” He had told her what happened. He still wasn’t sure she believed him.

“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.