Brendon (Alluring Indulgence #8)(47)
Author: Nicole Edwards

He found himself eager to see where this was going with Cheyenne, but he didn’t want to push things too fast, either. Although they’d spent two years working up to this point, Brendon knew deep down that they were moving fast. Probably too fast, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

A knock on the front door had him grinning from ear to ear. When he opened the door, Scrap made a beeline inside and Cheyenne met Brendon with an answering smile.

“You ready, camo boy?” she asked. If it weren’t for the sunglasses covering her eyes, he was pretty sure he’d see a glimmer of heat reflected there.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered. “Your truck or mine?”

“We can take mine, since it’s just a minute up the road.”

Brendon nodded and then told Scrap to be good before he closed the door and followed Cheyenne to her truck.

Just as she mentioned, it only took a minute to make it to the stables—located on his parents’ land—where his mom and dad housed their horses. He’d sent his mother a text earlier to let her know what their plans were so she didn’t worry if she came out to find the horses gone from their stall. He had practically heard her excitement in her responding text when she told him to have fun.

Getting the horses geared up took quite a bit longer than the trip from his house, but he worked alongside Cheyenne, readying his horse before helping to prepare one of the smaller geldings for her. After the saddle and bridle were in place, he assisted her onto the horse and then mounted the one he’d chosen for himself.

Once they made it beyond the fenced pasture, they had plenty of room to roam. Their horses moved together, walking slowly, seemingly enjoying the sunshine as much as Brendon was. The storm that had threatened last night had blown right past them, which was the only reason their outing hadn’t been postponed.

“Let’s play a game,” Cheyenne said, disturbing the silence of their ride, but easing some of the tension that had plagued Brendon for the last few minutes. She’d been so quiet ever since she arrived that he’d wondered briefly if something was bothering her.

“What game’s that?” he questioned, peering over at her from under the brim of his Stetson.

“Twenty-One Questions.” The smile on her face told him that she’d been considering this for some time.

“Twenty-One? I thought it was Twenty Questions,” he responded, confused.

“They’re actually two entirely different games,” Cheyenne informed him. “Twenty Questions would be if I were to think of something and you can ask up to twenty questions trying to guess what it is. Twenty-One Questions is simply we ask each other twenty-one random questions. Like an icebreaker.”

Brendon smirked. “I thought we already broke the ice.”

“Then let’s break it some more,” she said, laughing.

“I’m game if you are, but I think you’ve got on too many clothes, and we’ll have to get the horses back to their homes before we can start.”

“Funny, camo boy. I’m serious.”

“Fine,” he said on a long exhale, still grinning.

“Okay, good. I go first.”

Brendon waited patiently for Cheyenne to toss out her first question. Evidently she hadn’t thought that far in advance and he had to wonder whether that was because she thought he wouldn’t agree to participate. He wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into, but he was enjoying the ride, so he figured what the hell.

“Okay, first question. If you could only have one appliance in your house, what would it be?”

“I’d have to assume the television is not considered an appliance, so I’d go with coffeemaker. If the TV is considered an appliance, well, hell, I’d have to go with that one.”

“You and your brothers are all about the coffee, aren’t you?” Cheyenne retorted, but he could tell the statement was rhetorical. She knew them pretty well at this point. “Okay, your turn. You get to ask a question.”

Brendon considered that for a moment, staring at the land in front of them as the horses continued to steadily move forward. “What made you want to be a singer?”

There was zero hesitation in Cheyenne’s response. “I’ve always loved to sing. It wasn’t until I moved in with my grandparents that they encouraged me to take lessons. I was in the church choir and the choir at my school. But it wasn’t until high school when I was involved in one of the school’s performances that it struck me. I could do it professionally if I put my heart and soul behind it. When I talked to Grams about it, she seemed so excited. It was her excitement that spurred me on. There wasn’t any money for college, so I don’t have an education grounded in music though. Granted, I never thought I’d be where I am today. Honestly, I think it was a fluke that I had a run-in with Travis. If it hadn’t been for him, I really don’t think I’d have made it this far.”