Holidays with the Walker Brothers (Alluring Indulgence #4)(32)
Author: Nicole Edwards

And that’s all it took.

A few long seconds later, weak kneed and anxious, V had to wonder just how in the hell she was going to be able to focus after that.

She could only hope something would distract Brendon, or she was definitely screwed.

♂♀♂

Brendon

Brendon grabbed his own pool stick that he’d brought with him, ignoring the community one that Travis had just discarded. Moving around the table, his eyes tracked Jessie who had instantly headed across the room to where Braydon was standing alone near the wall.

His brother was acting awfully strange these days, he noticed. In fact, he’d been acting strange for weeks now, and for the life of him, Brendon had no idea what could be wrong. The only sound conclusion he’d come up with was Braydon was reacting to Brendon’s ridiculous jealousy. Something he’d been paying attention to since the last time Jessie came to the house.

Talking to Braydon lately hadn’t produced much information either, which wasn’t typical for his twin. Of the two of them, Braydon was certainly much more open than Brendon was when it came to talking about himself. But, no matter how he played things out in his head, he couldn’t understand what might be bothering Braydon. Unless it had something to do with their relationship with Jessie.

It wasn’t like the guy wasn’t getting laid on a regular basis, or so it seemed. Up until the last few weeks when Jessie began trying to distance herself from them, Brendon was lucky he had his brother because shit, he had a damned hard time keeping up with her.

She was something else. Smart, beautiful, so damn sweet, and sexy as hell… but despite all of those wonderful qualities, there seemed to be something missing. What, he had no idea. They spent time together, though that was less and less frequently these days. And most of the time, she was the one coming up with excuses. Not that he could blame her entirely for the rift that was developing between them because he certainly wasn’t pushing her.

At the beginning of their relationship, he’d been gung ho, wanting to spend as much time with her as possible and the feeling seemed to be mutual. For whatever reason, they hit it off and the chemistry between them was off the charts explosive. And the firestorm that erupted between them was still hot enough to burn them both to a crisp, but the initial lust had fizzled to more of a friendship. Or so that’s what it felt like for Brendon.

There for a while, he’d felt a little smothered. And he’d had to take a step back to realize that Jessie wasn’t at fault. In fact, since day one, she’d insisted on taking things slow. Slower than he had expected. But as time had passed, they seemed to be moving backward instead of forward.

Studying the balls on the table, Brendon mapped out his game, watching V as she continued to sink ball after ball into the pocket she called. He could only hope she’d mess up because that was when he could take over, potentially sweeping the table. With her, he needed to be one up at all times. And with his attention continuing to move back and forth between Jessie and the table, Brendon didn’t think he was going to be much of a match for V this time around.

“Your turn,” she called as the handful of people standing around groaned that she’d missed.

Blocking out everything in the room, Brendon focused on the table. Lining up a shot, he sank his ball and moved around, grabbing the chalk as he did. He had to take his time, this wasn’t like playing these amateurs that would line up for an opportunity to make a fool out of him night after night. Didn’t seem to matter that the only person – save for some freak miracle – who could beat him regularly, was V.

Bending at the waist, Brendon set his pool stick against his fingers, his sights running down the length as he gauged distance and angle. Just when he reared back to sink the shot, a woman spoke, and he floundered, missing the cue ball entirely and damn near face planting into the table.

Looking up, he expected to see the woman who’d been plaguing his dreams as of late because the voice sounded so familiar. Tipping the side of the cue ball with his pool stick, Brendon realized his mistake.

The voice wasn’t that of Cheyenne Montgomery, but then again, why the hell would she be in Coyote Ridge? It wasn’t like she’d ever even been back since her impromptu Mother’s Day visit as a favor to Travis. And if anyone would know, it would be Brendon. He thought he saw her or heard her everywhere. Sometimes in the strangest of places.

The country music star wasn’t known to frequent this part of the world often. But he couldn’t seem to convince his brain of that.

“Hey,” V whispered as she passed by him, “you all right?”

No, he wasn’t all right. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be all right again. At least not until he managed to get Cheyenne out of his system one way or another. For good.