Braydon (16 page)

“Good,” Lorrie answered, her eyes meeting his for the first time.

“I’m glad you called,” he told her honestly, and those words changed his mother’s expression immediately. No longer did she look quite so eager to go.

“Everything okay?” she asked softly, her hands coming to rest on the top of the table.

“No. But I don’t expect it to be.”

Lorrie’s eyebrows furrowed; her smile faltered. “Talk to me. Are you thinking about leaving again?”

“No,” he assured her. “I’m not leaving again. I’ve decided to stay and figure this out. The time away was good for me though. I . . . I needed to be away from Brendon, Mom.”

Lorrie nodded in understanding. “The two of you never wanted to be apart as kids,” she began. “Did you know that I could never just take one of you somewhere? Brendon couldn’t tolerate being away from you. If you weren’t there for him to see, he would panic.”

“Seriously?” Braydon hadn’t heard that particular story, although he knew they’d been inseparable.

“Oh, yes. Taking care of two babies at one time was hard enough, especially when I had Travis, Sawyer, and Kaleb to contend with. But it was even harder because Brendon insisted on being with you at all times. Your father couldn’t even take one of you off my hands for a little while. He had to take both of you, or it resulted in Brendon throwing a tantrum.”

Braydon smiled at the thought of Brendon crying like a little girl.

“But we’re grown, Ma. He should know that this can’t last forever.”

“Can’t it?” she asked. “Have you ever given him the impression that you wanted otherwise?”

No, he hadn’t.

His mother reached out and patted his hand. “It’s gonna work out, Bray.”

Why did everyone keep saying that? And how did they know?

Before he had the chance to ask her those questions directly, his mother’s phone rang and Braydon watched as she lunged for it in her purse sitting beside her. Holy shit. She was jumpy all right.

“Hey, yeah. Oh, okay. Just a sec,” she told the caller. Lorrie looked up at him and smiled. “I need to take this phone call, dear. Give me just a minute.”

Braydon’s eyebrows lifted, probably touching his hairline based on his shock. He fought the urge to laugh his disbelief as he watched his mother slide out of the booth, snatching up her purse as she did. His mother, the woman who detested phones being used at the dinner table, was excusing herself to take a phone call. He was suddenly glad they weren’t sitting near a window or he’d have been tempted to look outside to see if pigs were flying over.

Rachel arrived at the table a second later to take his drink order. “I’ll have what my mother’s having,” he told her.

“Oh.” Rachel glanced behind her and then back at him. “She hasn’t ordered anything yet.”

“Then I’ll have iced tea.” Damn. What in the hell was she up to? He’d suspected she hadn’t ordered yet, and Rachel had confirmed it.

Braydon looked up to see Rachel walking away, and that was when he saw her.

Jessie.

Rachel stopped, offered Jessie a friendly smile, and then pointed toward his table.

Yep. This was a setup.

And for the first time in his entire life, he was grateful that his mother insisted on being a matchmaker.

Even if she wasn’t at all subtle about it.

JESSIE OFFERED A
sincere thank-you to Rachel after the waitress motioned her toward a table in the back. It was the only thing she could do as she stood frozen in place, staring in the direction Rachel had pointed her. Her brain was too busy trying to process what she was seeing to say anything else. There was Braydon, sitting at the table that Lorrie had supposedly been seated at a few moments ago.

Okay, so maybe she shouldn’t have been quite so stunned. Her first clue that something was off should’ve been when she had passed Lorrie on her way into the restaurant. Lorrie had been rushing for the exit, holding her cell phone to her ear, and with a brief interruption to her call, she’d told Jessie that she would meet her at the table but she needed to take the call. It should’ve also clued her in when Lorrie didn’t bother putting the phone back to her ear, instead dropping it into her purse as she darted toward the front of the restaurant.

For whatever reason, Jessie hadn’t thought anything of it.

In fact, she hadn’t thought that it was strange that Lorrie had called her that morning and asked to meet her for lunch. The older woman had informed her that she’d missed her during last night’s dinner and wanted to catch up. Seemed legit.

Since that was normal Lorrie behavior, Jessie had agreed to meet her.

And here she was, standing just a few feet away from Braydon.

“I see she hooked you, too,” he told her gruffly when she finally got her feet moving and approached the table.

“A setup?” she asked curiously.

“It would seem so.”

Jessie glanced over her shoulder and then back at Braydon. “She’s good.”

Braydon gestured for her to sit as he smiled. “And she’s gone.”

“Gone? She left?”

“I’m pretty sure that was her plan,” he answered.

Well, crap.

Jessie lowered herself into the booth across from Braydon, placing her cell phone and her keys down in front of her. She was nervous and she had no idea why. As soon as she saw him sitting there, her insides had started breakdancing, and they didn’t seem to be letting up.

Luckily, Rachel chose that moment to come back to the table, placing two glasses of tea in front of them. “What can I get y’all to eat?” she asked, flipping through her notepad briefly before looking up at . . . Braydon.

Jessie wanted to smack the woman. The way she eyed Braydon—as though she were slowly stripping him out of his clothes one piece at a time—made her want to jump in front of him so the waitress couldn’t eye-fuck him when she was done mentally undressing him.

“Just bring me a burger and fries,” Braydon told her, and Jessie peered over at him to see that he was staring at her. Which meant he’d probably just seen the eye daggers she’d shot at the unsuspecting waitress.

Great.

“I’ll have the same,” she answered, not bothering to look up at Rachel.

Rachel had just hurried off when Jessie’s phone vibrated on the table. She heard a familiar chirp at the exact same moment, and Braydon reached for his own phone on his belt.

Jessie retrieved her phone, then swiped her finger over the screen. A text.

She began to read silently as Braydon read out loud from his own phone:

So sorry. Something came up that I have to take care of. Lunch is on me though so enjoy.

Braydon chuckled and then put his phone back on his belt. “It was bound to happen sooner or later,” he said.

“What?”

“My mother interfering. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brendon shows up in the next few minutes.”

Jessie’s body went rigid. It was bad enough that she was face-to-face with Braydon and had no way to get out of it, but if Brendon showed up, she knew she’d be in a world of hurt. “Let’s hope not.”

“That’ll teach you not to come to Sunday dinner,” he teased, his words reflecting the humor but his eyes not nearly as amused.

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.

But she couldn’t change the past. And she couldn’t allow this man to break her heart again. She hadn’t fully recovered from the last time.

It took every bit of courage that she had to pull her hand out from under his and to look him in the eye.

Braydon must’ve suspected that she was getting ready to run because he reached for her again, this time curling his fingers around her bicep. His touch was gentle yet firm. Jessie glanced down where he touched her, then back up to meet his gaze. It was then that she realized he was leaning over the table, his mouth inches from hers.

Before she could figure out what to do next, Braydon’s mouth was on hers. The kiss blazed like an out-of-control inferno and Jessie reached for him. It never dawned on her that they were sitting in the middle of a crowded diner. When his lips met hers, his tongue thrust possessively into her mouth, Jessie’s thoughts fled.

She was finally jarred when Braydon groaned, a sound that made her body tremble.

When he pulled back, Jessie stared blankly at him, not sure what to say.

“We’re starting over, Jess,” Braydon stated in a tone she hadn’t heard from him before. It was a demand, not a request, and it sent chills racing down her spine.

As much as she wanted to cave, to give in to him, Jessie knew what the stakes were.