Braydon (Alluring Indulgence #6)(37)
Author: Nicole Edwards

“How’re you?” Kylie asked, her voice soft and sweet, just like he was used to. He was a little surprised that there wasn’t any accusation or vehemence in her tone. After all, he had ditched her sister.

“Better now that I’m home,” he admitted truthfully, trying not to let his own guilt reflect in his words. He had needed the time away, but being home felt right to him. He had never been away from his family for that long. Hell, he hardly remembered spending even one night away from Brendon. They lived in the same house, for chrissakes, and had for all of their lives.

“Have you talked to Jessie yet?” Gage asked in a none-too-friendly tone.

Well, at least he knew where all the animosity was pooled.

Braydon glanced at Kylie, noticing the recognition in her eyes. He might not have talked to Jessie, but she had.

“Not yet,” Braydon told Gage.

“Get your ass over there and talk to her.”

Braydon fought the urge to tell Gage to go to hell. It wasn’t that he disagreed with the man, but the last time Braydon checked, his brother-in-law hadn’t been appointed as his guardian. He understood that Gage was just protecting his wife’s sister, but why the fuck did everyone insist on treating him like a fucking kid? He was thirty years old. With the exception of Zane and Ethan, who were both younger, the rest of them acted as though Braydon was still a punk-ass kid who didn’t know right from wrong.

“Stop,” Kylie said softly, putting her hand on Gage’s arm. “He’s quite capable of doing what he needs to do without you telling him.”

Gage didn’t say anything, thankfully.

Not interested in getting into an argument, Braydon moved on after telling Kylie he’d talk to her later. He was too pissed at Gage to say anything to him.

He purposely avoided Brendon, who was talking to Kaleb and Zoey. He noticed Travis was in a heated discussion with their father, so he bypassed that direction too. His gaze landed on his mother, who was standing in the kitchen talking to V. Figuring that was the best option at the moment, he moved toward her but was intercepted by Sawyer.

“Hey, Bubba,” Braydon greeted him, wondering whether he was going to get a sage piece of advice from him as well, the way he had from everyone else.

“Glad you’re back,” Sawyer said, a huge grin on his face.

“Why’s that?” Braydon asked before thinking.

“Can’t I just be glad you’re here?”

“Well, thanks,” Braydon said, meeting Sawyer’s gaze. “I’m glad to be back.”

“So you were workin’ on a farm, huh? How’d that go for ya?”

“It wasn’t bad.” In fact, Braydon had actually enjoyed taking care of and working with the horses that Tessa and Cooper owned.

Sawyer reached for his arm, squeezing his bicep firmly, and said, “Looks like you got a little muscle on you there. I’ve always wondered when you were gonna finally pack some meat on those bones.”

“Fuck off,” Braydon snorted. It was true. The grueling manual labor had put a little extra weight on his already bulky frame. To hear Sawyer tell it, Braydon had been skinny at one point. Maybe he wasn’t as big as Beau or as defined as Gage, but Braydon definitely wasn’t a lightweight.

Sawyer laughed but didn’t say anything for a moment, and Braydon started to feel like a science experiment that his brother was expecting to boil over.

“Look,” Sawyer finally began. “If you need to talk . . .”

Braydon didn’t find Sawyer’s offer surprising. Especially after he had recently found out the secret his older brother had harbored for so many years. As it turned out, Ethan had been assaulted years ago, and Sawyer had been the one who’d found him and nursed him back to health.

As the story went, Ethan hadn’t wanted to get the rest of his family involved because of his fear of what his brothers might’ve done. Would’ve done was more like it. Had any of them known that Ethan had been bullied because he was gay, a shit storm the likes of which no one had ever seen before would’ve descended on their quiet little town. Sort of like the one that came to a head when that jackass Jimmy Reardon thought he could continue to wreak havoc on Ethan’s life. The bastard had learned pretty quickly just how the Walkers felt about that shit. But Sawyer wasn’t the one who’d brought that on. Not completely anyway. Sawyer had kept Ethan’s secret, and no one had known until Ethan officially came out to his family earlier in the year. Despite the happy-go-lucky attitude Sawyer was known for, Braydon had realized just how much that had affected him.

“Thanks,” Braydon replied. “I might just take you up on that.”