Braydon (Alluring Indulgence #6)(45)
Author: Nicole Edwards

For the first time since she arrived, she actually smiled. It wasn’t quite natural, but she was doing her best. Yep, she should’ve known that Lorrie would put two and two together. Since she’d attended every single Sunday dinner since Braydon had left town, his mother must’ve realized that her avoidance had something to do with him.

“She’s getting kinda good at this,” Braydon told her as he reached for his tea.

“What? Setting people up?”

“Yeah. I heard she did the same thing to Beau and Ethan.”

Jessie laughed. She’d heard that, too. Something about getting them to help move furniture that had no business being moved. At least that’s the way Ethan told the story.

“I’m sorry,” she finally told him. “I didn’t mean to ruin your lunch plans with your mom. If I’d known, I would’ve politely declined.”

“I’m not sorry, Jess. And you didn’t ruin anything,” Braydon responded softly.

Jessie squeezed her hands together on the top of the table as she stared at him. God, up until today, she had thought about all the things she wanted to say to him if she ever had the chance, but now that the opportunity had presented itself, she couldn’t think of a single thing. She was scared. No, maybe a better word was “petrified.”

Jessie had feelings for him that she refused to accept because they went against all her good intentions. Her reasons for being with the twins in the first place. Turning her life around, focusing on what was important, and not falling in love . . . Braydon had put a hitch in her plan from the beginning, and she’d been fighting her ill-timed reaction to him ever since.

It wasn’t fair to either one of them.

“But I do need to apologize,” Braydon stated, surprising her.

“For what?”

“For leaving without telling you.”

Jessie considered that for a moment. The overwhelming sadness that had enveloped her the moment she realized he was gone came rushing back. She had to make a conscious effort to push it away. She wasn’t going to do this. Three months had gone by, and some of the ache in her chest had subsided. She knew if she gave him a chance, all the pain would return with a vengeance.

And Jessie had no intention of going through that again.

Ever.

“Why don’t we start over?” she asked, coming up with an idea. “Why don’t we pretend none of this ever happened and just get back to the friendship that we had in the beginning?”

Jessie felt the heat of Braydon’s gaze on her, but she didn’t look him in the eye. She couldn’t.

“I don’t want to start over, Jess.”

“Well, I do. And if we can’t be friends, then I guess there isn’t much more we have to say to one another.”

Braydon reached out and took her hand. His callused fingers scraped sensually against the back of her hand before he covered it with his. “I’ve got plenty to say.”

It took effort, but she forced away the rising emotion that started down deep just from his touch. The stern tone in his voice brought her up short. Jessie had never heard Braydon talk like that. At least not to her.

He was usually passive in his responses, especially in casual conversation. There had only been a few times when he’d been slightly aggressive during their sexual encounters. Brendon was usually the one with the take-charge attitude. Well, when she wasn’t trying to take the reins.

Not helping, she thought to herself.

Jessie knew her face was bright red. She felt a blush creep up her neck and infuse her face. The thought of sex with this man was so incredibly inappropriate at the moment, she couldn’t even look at him.

“You know what? Maybe we should start over,” Braydon said abruptly.

Jessie dug for the courage to meet his gaze, and when she did, she felt lightheaded. The heat she saw reflected there was unlike anything she’d felt before. Oh, sure, she’d seen passion in Braydon’s eyes. He wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. But this . . . This was ten times what she’d seen before.

“How?” she croaked.

It didn’t get past her that Braydon was still covering her hand with his much larger one.

“We’ll consider this our first date,” he answered effortlessly.

Jessie laughed. The absurdity of his comment nearly made her choke.

“A date?”

“Yeah. Obviously you’ll have to let me take you out again, since my mother is footing the bill for this one, but this’ll do for now.”

As Jessie stared back at the sweetest, kindest, most strikingly handsome man she’d ever seen, she wished she could agree to what he suggested. She wished they could be transported back in time to when they met. She might’ve done things differently then if she had known what might happen when she allowed the Walker twins to take her home.