Braydon (22 page)

“See, I told you that one was out. Okay, so I think we’ve narrowed it down. Arcades or go-karts?”

“What about miniature golf?” she asked sweetly.

“Is this your competitive side coming out?” he asked.

“Maybe.”

“Hey, wait a minute. There’s a huge place off 35 just north of Austin. They’ve got miniature golf and go-karts, I know. I think they’ve got arcades inside. They’ve even got rock climbing if you’re feelin’ adventurous. What do you say?”

“I say what time will you be here to pick me up?” Jessie answered, anxiously looking forward to seeing him.

“Twenty minutes?”

“Hold up, cowboy. You’ve got to give me time to get ready.”

“Fine. Thirty minutes.”

“Okay, then. I’ll see you in thirty minutes. Should I eat something first?” she asked.

“Nope. I’ve got that covered, too.”

They were both quiet for a moment. Jessie listened to the sound of his breathing, her eyes still closed. This was the day she’d hoped for for so long. An actual date with Braydon Walker. Sure, they might’ve started from the wrong direction, but did it really matter? To her it didn’t.

At least not yet.

“WOW! IMPRESSIVE!” BRAYDON
laughed as he moved toward Jessie, stepping over the small bumpers that outlined the miniature golf course.

“Why did you pick this game again?” Jessie asked, her eyes laughing, her sarcasm evident.

She had just hit the ball and missed the hole for probably the fifteenth time on this one, and it was a par three. After that, she’d stood up straight, held her hands up in victory, and then dropped her club. Jessie had never stopped smiling, although he knew, despite the fact she had mentioned it, she wasn’t particularly fond of playing the game.

“Hold on, I’ll help you out,” he offered, stepping away from her to retrieve the colorful golf ball. Once he had it in hand, he took a step over to the left and dropped it into the little cup.

“Yay! See, I can play this stupid game!” Jessie exclaimed, pretending victory again. “And technically, I think the rules say that if the other player hits the wrong ball into the hole, I win.”

Braydon laughed as he reached for her, pulling her into his arms and swinging her around once. “Whatever you want. I’ll give you all of my points if you really want ’em.”

“But?” Jessie asked when he put her back on her feet. “I hear a ‘but’ in that statement.”

“But you’ll owe me,” Braydon told her, leaning down and kissing her on the lips. “Come on, let’s finish this up so we can head inside. It’s too damn hot out here.”

Thirty minutes later, Braydon was leading Jessie back toward the main building that housed the arcade games and the food center. “You suck at miniature golf,” he informed her as he held open the main door to the huge air-conditioned building.

She laughed and punched him lightly in the arm. “If I remember correctly, someone cheated.”

“How do you cheat at miniature golf?” he asked, feigning innocence.

“You make up the rules as you go along,” Jessie challenged, moving a little closer to him.

Braydon purposely bumped her arm, keeping her close without actually putting his arm around her. It was a family place, and there were hordes of kids running around, but he had a sudden urge to be closer to this woman. For now, touching her arm was going to have to be enough.

“What rules did I change? You hit the ball into the hole. It’s as simple as that.”

“With my eyes closed? Or what about when you made me putt backwards?”

“Semantics,” he teased. “Fine. I’ll give you extra points for the difficult shots. You still lost by at least fifty.”

“Nuh-uh. I took all your points because you hit my ball into the hole.”

“Technically I didn’t hit anything, I dropped it in,” he told her.

Jessie put her hands on her hips and looked up at him. “I forgot about that. You’re right. In that case, you owe me another fifty.”

Braydon cocked an eyebrow, waiting to hear her new made-up rule.

“That’s what the rules say.” Jessie laughed, and the sight of her face all lit up made him grin like a fool. He wanted to put that smile on her face for the rest of his life.

Strange thing to be thinking on a first date, Walker.

But it was true. And technically this was a first date, but it really wasn’t. Which made it so much better.

“How about air hockey?” he suggested.

“Skee ball first,” she said quickly, glancing beside them.

Braydon followed her gaze to see that they were standing beside a row of skee ball machines. “You’re on.”

After retrieving the tokens, way more than they probably needed, Braydon returned to find Jessie talking to a mom who was watching her kid play skee ball. When Jessie noticed him, she excused herself to the woman and made her way over.

“You ready to lose?” she asked him seriously.

“Want to place a wager on this one?” he asked playfully.

Jessie glanced around them, and Braydon realized she was checking to see if there were kids listening in.

Braydon laughed. “Dirty girl. It’s an innocent wager.”

“Bray, I’m not sure you’re capable of innocent,” she teased him.

Braydon pretended to be hurt by her comment, but then moved over to the end and dropped tokens into two of the machines.

“So what are we betting?” Jessie asked as she stepped up to the machine.

“Foot rub,” he said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

“You wanna rub my feet?” she asked, grinning.

“If you win, yes. If I win, you get to rub mine.”

“Fine. You’re on.”

They shook hands and then turned to the machine. Braydon watched Jessie roll the first couple of balls, and he realized then that she didn’t suck at skee ball.

Just because he could, he tossed one of his balls onto her lane, earning a glare from her.

“Keep it on your side, Bray,” she demanded, bumping his shoulder as though that might help.

They played three more games after the first, and Braydon lost every damn one of them. Not because he’d thrown the game either, he just well and truly sucked at skee ball. But it was all worth it to see the spark in Jessie’s eyes.

“I win,” she said resplendently, bestowing him with a huge grin. “And I beat you enough to recoup points from losing at golf. I think it’s safe to say that I’m the first date champion.”

Unable to help himself, Braydon grabbed her and pulled her close, smiling down at her.

“I’ll let you have that title,” he whispered, “if I can have a kiss.”

“On the first date?” she asked innocuously. “What kind of girl do you take me for?”

Her smile was brilliant, her eyes crinkling at the edges, and at that moment, Braydon felt as though nothing in the world could possibly be better than standing there with her. “The sexy kind,” he said softly.

“Sweet words will get you everywhere,” she replied, her smile sliding away as she glanced down at his mouth.

His resistance was futile when it came to her, so Braydon gave in to the urge momentarily. He didn’t kiss her long and hard like he wanted, because there were kids around, but he kissed her deeply enough that she gripped his waist possessively. If he hadn’t been worried about innocent eyes watching them, he would’ve pulled her into a dark corner and deepened that kiss even more.

Instead, he leaned away from her, releasing her lips but not taking his eyes off her.

“So what now?” she asked.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Yes. But not for this place,” Jessie answered, gesturing behind her.

The arcade was equipped with a pizza bar, but Braydon had to agree with Jessie. It didn’t sound all that good. “I know this great little Mexican food place.”

“As long as it doesn’t have a drive-thru, I’m game.”

“No drive-thru, I promise.” Braydon took her hand, entwining his fingers with hers as he led her toward the front doors.

They had managed to pass the majority of the day riding go-karts, fooling around at miniature golf, and playing arcade games. That was after they’d stopped for lunch at, yes, a place with a drive-thru. But it had been Jessie’s suggestion, so Braydon didn’t feel guilty. Now he was hungry for real food though. And real conversation.

Once they reached his truck, Braydon unlocked the doors and then opened the passenger side for her. When she climbed in, he allowed his eyes to travel down the slender length of her, stopping briefly to admire her sexy legs. She was wearing denim shorts, and they weren’t necessarily designed to be sexy, but Jessie made anything look sexy.

When she cleared her throat, Braydon looked up to see her watching him, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.

“Busted,” he said.

“Definitely.”

With a smirk, he shut the door and made his way around to the driver’s side.

On the way to the restaurant, they managed to rehash the afternoon and all the ways that Jessie believed she had come out the reigning champ. Braydon argued his viewpoints until they both finally agreed that it was a tie. By the time they’d come to that conclusion, he was pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant.

“Have you been here before?” he asked when he went around and opened her door for her.

“Nope, but I’ve heard Kylie talk about it.”

“Please tell me you like Mexican food,” he said, realizing he hadn’t bothered to ask her originally.

“My favorite,” she said promptly, linking her fingers with his.

Braydon held the door open for Jessie, not bothering to release her hand as he did. When they were inside, the delicious smell of fajitas and enchiladas made his stomach rumble.

The host grabbed two menus from behind the counter and then led them toward the back of the restaurant. When he attempted to seat them at a table, Braydon nodded toward a booth on the far back wall. The man smiled and then directed them to the booth, informing them their server would be right with them.

Within minutes they had received a basket of chips, two small bowls of salsa, and iced teas. After they’d scrutinized the menu for a few more minutes, they gave the server their order and were then left alone.

“Did you have a good time today?” Braydon asked, attempting to make conversation.

“Yeah,” Jessie answered shyly. “I can’t remember the last time I did that.”

“A first date?”

“No,” she said with a grin. “Well, yeah, that too. But no. I meant the fun part. What about you? Did you have fun?”

“Best first date ever,” he said easily.

“How many first dates have you been on?” she inquired.

“Depends on how you look at it,” he told her, reaching for a chip from the small basket in the middle of the table.

“I didn’t realize there were multiple perspectives,” she teased.

“I think it’s safe to say that I don’t have the most conventional dating history.”

Jessie’s smile faded, but she didn’t look away. “What started that? You and Brendon sharing women?”

Braydon thought about the question for a moment. “I don’t really know if there was any sort of defining moment. That’s just the way Brendon and I started out. Her name was Elizabeth McMurray,” Braydon explained. “We were in sixth grade and the rumor was that she had a crush on both of us. So, Brendon and I went to see her at her house. We rode our bikes over and when we got there, she was sitting outside on the curb.

“We spent most of the day talking to her. I think it was the first time we’d really talked to a girl outside of school. We went back several days in a row. Always right after school. There was no doubt that she liked us.
Both
of us.”

“Please don’t tell me you had sex when you were in the sixth grade,” Jessie said, appalled.

Braydon laughed. “No. That wasn’t until eighth grade.”

“Oh my God. You lost your virginity in the eighth grade?”

“Yeah. But not to her. She was just the first girl we kissed.”

“By ‘we’ . . . you mean both of you?”

“Not at the same time, mind you. Brendon kissed her first. As a joke, we told her she should compare us.”

“Ladies’ men from the beginning, huh?” Jessie asked, chuckling. “Who did she say was better?”

“She didn’t. But we kept going over to her house for probably a month. That lasted until we realized she had shared the news with all her friends.”

“Oh, you poor babies. Did she tarnish your sparkling reputation?” Jessie joked.

“Yep, she sure did. We’ve never been the same since.”

“Right.”

The server brought their fajitas and margaritas and the conversation continued as they ate. It wasn’t until they had both pushed their plates away that Braydon returned to their original topic.

“What about you? What was your first kiss like?”

“It wasn’t nearly as eventful as yours, I can tell you that much,” Jessie explained, looking at her glass. “I was a junior in high school.”

“Late bloomer, huh?”

“Funny. This was just a kiss. But, of course, that kiss meant the world to me. I thought I was in love with the guy. He was a senior and much more experienced than I was. Needless to say, it didn’t end well. You would’ve thought I had learned my lesson, but no. That’s pretty much the story of all the guys I’ve kissed. Not that there have been all that many.”