Holidays With the Walker Brothers (5 page)

♂♀

Sawyer

Who
was to say he couldn’t be a kind hearted, generous guy?

No
one, that’s who.

As
Sawyer pulled out of his driveway, he whistled an upbeat tune. For the first
time in a while, he had to pat himself on the back for coming up with a
brilliant plan. Ok, so it wasn’t a secret that his well-developed plans were
usually thwarted someway, somehow, but he couldn’t see how this could possibly
go wrong. Two days had passed since he came up with this clever scheme and
truthfully, he was looking forward to seeing how it played out.

The
drive to the animal shelter in Coyote Ridge was a short one, and by the time
Sawyer pulled into the small parking lot, he was practically floating on a
cloud. This was going to be a damn good day, he could feel it. Without wasting
another second, he climbed out of his car and hurried to the front door.

“Hey,
Adrianne,” Sawyer greeted the young woman who was rummaging through a stack of
papers on her desk. “Where do you want me?” Knowing the question was a double
entendre, even if he meant it in the most innocent of ways, Sawyer shot her the
flirty smile most women seemed to respond to.

“Working
and not flirting would be nice,” Adrianne said, glancing over her shoulder.

“Since
it’s my first day on the job, you’ll have to show me what that actually means,”
he informed her, moving closer to the desk that stood in the center of the
small ten-by-ten room that the shelter claimed as an office.

He
wasn’t sure where to stand, hell, he didn’t even know where to put his hands,
so he shoved them in his pockets and stared at the grungy walls decorated with
pictures of dogs and cats in mismatched frames. Some of the pictures were
crooked, probably not by design, while others were leaning as though the nail
had finally given up its effort to stick around.

Adrianne
continued to flip through the stack of papers hurriedly, not paying him any
attention.

Aaaaannnnnddddd
now Sawyer was self-conscious.

What
the hell?

Ok,
so maybe Sawyer wasn’t known much for his volunteering nature, so he couldn’t
necessarily blame Adrianne for being surprised that he’d called, much less
shown up, but he was here so shouldn’t she be paying him at least a little bit
of attention?

Insecure
much?

Sawyer
knew he needed to get a grip.

Yes,
maybe he had ulterior motives, which had led him to call Adrianne Reade to see
what he could do to help out at the animal shelter. But it wasn’t like Adrianne
knew what he’d been thinking when he called her.

He
couldn’t blame his quest to do a good deed on the Christmas spirit, or even his
selfless need to give back, although Sawyer considered himself a pretty all
right guy.

No,
this was actually entirely selfish on his part. He knew that any minute now,
Kennedy Endsley was going to walk through the front door for her bi-weekly date
with the animal shelter. Now
her
actions were selfless, but Sawyer’s
were geared more toward trying to get close to the woman.

It
was either that or get a dog. Not that the latter was a terrible idea, but for
the time being, Sawyer was holding off. After all, he wanted to start out
small. Getting a dog was going to require a commitment, even if he would do it
just to get closer to the one woman who had erected an invisible barrier that
kept her as far away from him as possible. It was common knowledge that Sawyer
didn’t do well with commitments. At least not of the relationship variety.

“Come
on,” Adrianne called as she turned and headed for the lone door that he assumed
led to the main part of the kennels.

Falling
into step with her, Sawyer glanced in the cages, checking out the animals, the
sad puppy dog eyes, the eager kittens with their little toys who stopped to
stare at him as he passed by. Hell, he could do this. How hard could it be to
spend the day hanging out with a bunch of animals? He liked animals. If nothing
else, he’d get the chance to make them happy for a few hours and he’d get to see
Kennedy. It was a win-win situation for him.

Adrianne
led the way through another door, but this one led into a sterile white room
that wasn’t much bigger than the main front office. The only difference was
that instead of battered pictures on the wall, this one had a drain in the
middle of the floor and a sturdy table in the center. There was a wash basin on
one side with grungy faucets above them.

“What’s
this?”

“You
wanted to work, right?” she asked.

He
couldn’t very well say no, so Sawyer nodded his head.

“Well,
then this is your job. I’ve got four dogs out there who need a bath.” Adrianne
pointed around the room as she continued to speak. “Over there is the shampoo.
On this side, you’ve got the sprayer. There’re some towels beneath the counter.
Just holler if you need anything else,” she said, but then disappeared before
he could say anything more.

Sawyer
stood in the tiny room, staring at the white walls and the stainless steel
cabinets, wondering just how he was going to achieve his goal of seeing Kennedy
if he was stuck in here all day.

The
door opened, and he turned back around just as Adrianne was walking in with a
huge, shaggy dog whose multi-colored hair was in need of a trim, or perhaps a
buzz cut might help more because the poor animal probably couldn’t see all that
well through the frizzy hair that covered both eyes. Sawyer wasn’t quite sure
that a bath was going to help the dingy mutt, but what did he know.

“What’s
that?” he asked.

“This
is Hercules,” she told him, reaching down to pat the dog’s enormous, flat head.
“He’s new here, but from what I can tell, he’s fairly sociable.”

Fairly?
Sawyer wasn’t
sure he liked the sound of that.

At
that moment, there was a knock on the door and to his surprise, Kennedy pushed
open the door and stuck her head just inside. She studied him for a moment,
then glanced back at Adrianne before meeting his eyes once more. Sawyer smiled,
hoping like hell she was there to save the day. Maybe she wanted to help him
bathe the dog. That would certainly get him closer to her.

When
she smiled back, his hopes soared, and that’s when he noticed the mischievous
twinkle in her lovely gray eyes.

“Mr.
Walker,” she greeted way too formally for his taste.

“Kennedy,”
he acknowledged her, keeping his tone light. After all, he damn sure wouldn’t
let her see his fear.

Not
that he was scared.

Glancing
back down at the dog who seemed to be fixated on him, Sawyer took an awkward
step backward. Funny how those big round eyes seemed to follow him, even
beneath all that fur.

“So
nice of you to help out today,” Kennedy said sweetly. “The shelter can always
use more volunteers. I think you’ll like this particular job. It’s certainly a
good one for a newbie.”

Sawyer
wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he just stood there, staring down at Hercules
who was aptly named based on his size.

Adrianne
stood to her full height once more, handed Sawyer the leash and then turned to
leave again.

“Hey,
wait,” he found himself saying, but quickly clamped his mouth shut.

“Sorry,
I’ve got to help Doc Endsley,” Adrianne explained. “She’s just got a couple of
vaccinations to take care of before she heads out.”

Heads
out? She just got there.

“See
you in a bit,” Adrianne chirped as she snuck out the door.

Sawyer
was pretty damned sure she was laughing at him as she went.

♀♂

Kennedy

“Thanks
for warning me that he’d be here,” Kennedy told Adrianne as they walked down
the narrow hallway back to the front of the building.

“No
problem. Don’t get me wrong, I think Sawyer’s a decent guy and all, but have
you ever seen him volunteer before?”

Kennedy
chuckled. “Not when it comes to animals, no.”

She
knew that when he was younger, because his parents always pitched in at the
church, the Walker brothers were known to do their part, – even occasionally
now – but, unless it meant doing the heavy lifting, or something that would
show off how masculine they were, they didn’t tend to offer their assistance.

Especially
not bathing stray dogs.

So,
needless to say, when Adrianne had called to let her know that Sawyer was
looking for something to do at the shelter, she had offered suggestions. The
two women had laughed over their options, but in the end, they decided a few
hours with some ornery, wet dogs would probably do the guy some good.

“Well,
I’ve got to run an errand, but I’ll be back shortly,” Adrianne called out as
she headed for the front door.

“No
problem, I’ll be here for about an hour, and your volunteer will likely be here
for about three. Maybe more.”

Adrianne
laughed. “When he’s done with Hercules, just give him whoever looks like they’d
enjoy some bonding time with him.”

“You
don’t have any others who need to be bathed?”

“Nope,
not today. But he doesn’t need to know that.”

Kennedy
broke out laughing, staring after Adrianne as she disappeared out the door.

If
she hadn’t spent the better part of the last few years trying to stay as far
away from Sawyer Walker as possible, she might just get a kick out of this.

Oh,
who was she kidding? She
would
get a kick out of this.

♂♀♂

Brendon

“What’s
for dinner?” Braydon asked when he walked into the kitchen, not paying the
slightest bit of attention to where he was going as he ran a towel over his wet
hair.

“Whatever
you find to eat,” Brendon said snidely. He damn sure wasn’t the chef in the
house.

“Where’s
Jessie?”

What
the hell was this? Twenty questions?

Brendon
took a deep breath, realizing he had to calm down. There was no need to take
out his frustrations on his brother.

“No
idea,” he answered honestly, taking a deep breath and trying to settle his
frazzled nerves. He’d already called her several times, but she wasn’t
answering her phone.

“I
talked to her earlier,” Braydon stated smoothly, causing Brendon to stop
mid-step and stare at his brother.

“When?”

“Right
before I got home. She said she had to run an errand, but then she’d stop by. I
hope she’s got something for dinner.”

Brendon
stared at his twin. Had Braydon been abducted by aliens while he was in the
shower? Since when did Braydon talk to Jessie without Brendon around? Shaking
off the thought, he turned and exited the kitchen. He needed to keep himself
busy, or he’d be overthinking this whole mess he seemed to have found himself
in.

“I’m
gonna take a shower,” Brendon called out as an afterthought before retreating
to his own room and slamming the door behind him.

What
the hell was wrong with him?

Here
he was, completely frustrated with the situation he found himself in, yet he
was getting jealous that his twin brother had talked to Jessie? That was
supposed to be a good thing, right?

He
needed for Jessie and Braydon to get along. There wasn’t much of a choice.
Brendon knew for damned sure that the two of them were able to get along while
they were naked. He’d been witness to that on more than a million occasions.

So
why was it Brendon felt that his life was shifting in a different direction?
Actually, he’d been feeling this way since last May when one extremely popular,
very talented, not to mention seriously fucking sexy, country music star made a
surprise appearance on Mother’s Day.

Cheyenne
Montgomery.

Stripping
off his clothes in a rush, Brendon didn’t even wait for the shower water to
warm before he pulled open the glass door and stepped in. And wouldn’t you know
it, thoughts of Cheyenne had him so worked up that not even the chilly bite
from the water could make his balls shrivel up.

Turning
his back to the water, he thrust his fingers through his hair and closed his
eyes. Once he was good and soaked, he grabbed the shampoo and made quick work
of sudsing up and rinsing off. Moving on to washing his body, he kept his eyes
closed and remembered the last time he’d seen Cheyenne.

Mother’s
Day night, after all the festivities were said and done, Brendon had ventured
out to Moonshiners with his brother and lo and behold, there she was. The famous
country musician had apparently been invited by Travis, and that’s how it all
got started.

But
no matter what happened before, Brendon could not for the life of him get that
woman – or the explosive kiss they’d shared – out of his head. She’d consumed
him mentally. For weeks, he’d thought about her, wondering when she would come
back or whether he’d get the chance to explore what had happened between them.
He relived that kiss in his dreams, only when he was asleep, they didn’t stop
at just a kiss.

The
woman had done a number on him with minimal effort, and he wanted to see her
again.

Only
he wasn’t supposed to want her. Not anymore.

He
had Jessie. Another woman who had stormed into his life and stolen his breath.
But the feelings he had for Jessie were vastly different from those he’d
developed for Cheyenne over the course of just a couple of hours. Jessie was
his friend. She was one of the sweetest, most giving women he’d ever met, and
it didn’t hurt that she hadn’t balked at Brendon’s insistence that his brother
join them in their sexual escapades.

But
Cheyenne was a different story. He knew there wasn’t a chance in hell that she
would give him the time of day if he insisted that she give herself over to his
twin. Not a fucking chance. She’d basically told him as much when Brendon had
insisted his brother stay close that night.

So,
he knew he was better off with Jessie. She was more his type. Beautiful, smart,
and open to new things – and yes, he was referring to new things in the sexual
sense. The woman blew his mind when she lost her inhibitions. Especially
considering she was so open to the threesome aspect of the relationship they
shared, even if she didn’t seem to understand it fully.

Turning
so that the water poured down over his face, Brendon held his breath, wishing
like hell he could just get his mind focused on the one place it needed to be.

He
had to stop worrying about Braydon and Jessie and what might be developing
between them. His twin brother was his other half, and the two of them hadn’t
been separated in any capacity since the day they were born. Braydon was his
best friend, his confidante, and he was also the third in Brendon’s
relationships and vice versa.

And
that was something he’d never questioned before…

Until
Jessie.

And
Cheyenne.

♂♀♂

Braydon

The
knock on the door was barely detectable over the buzz of the television and the
sound of the water pipes rumbling in the wall of Brendon’s bathroom. Braydon
had no idea how long Jessie had been standing there, but as soon as he opened
the door, and just like every other time he laid eyes on this woman, his world
tipped on its axis.

Too
bad she belonged to his brother.

“Hey,”
he greeted, taking a step back to allow her to come inside.

“Hey
back,” she said with a shy smile. “I brought tacos.”

At
the mention of food, Braydon’s stomach growled, making Jessie laugh. “I guess
it’s a good thing, too.”

“I’m
not complaining.”

God,
she was the most radiant woman he’d ever had the pleasure of laying his eyes
on. Especially in those tight denim shorts and the oversized hoodie that
disguised the rest of her luscious curves, he found her so damn hot, he worried
he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off of her.

Too
bad she belonged to his brother.

That
was a mantra he had better get used to. Because the direction that his thoughts
had been going recently, was probably going to get him in some serious trouble.

It
didn’t seem to matter that Braydon and Brendon shared women, and it didn’t seem
to matter that Braydon knew he’d be buried to the hilt within this woman before
the night was out. The simple fact that she didn’t belong to him was making him
crazy.

And
it was a first.

Never
before in his life had he wanted to stake a claim on a woman. Not until Jessie.
And wouldn’t you fucking know it, Brendon had put the moves on her first which
made Braydon officially the third in this little tryst of theirs. Something
he’d never had a problem with until lately.

But
there was something different about this woman. Something that he found himself
drawn to on a level that was so much deeper than mere sexual chemistry. And the
more time they spent together, the stronger his feelings for her seemed to get.

Leading
Jessie into the kitchen, he grabbed three plates from the cabinet and three
beers from the refrigerator before returning to join her at the center island
that doubled as a bar. Jessie had already gotten comfortable, perched on the
bar stool opposite him.

“How’s
it going?” she asked.

Braydon
paused in his pursuit to sate his hunger, holding the unwrapped taco in midair
as he looked up at her, but he was surprised to see she wasn’t looking at him.
In fact, it appeared she was avoiding eye contact at all costs.

“Good.
You?”

Damn,
they sounded like two nervous teenagers at a high school dance.

“Good,”
she mumbled, reaching over to grab one of the tacos out of the plastic bag.
When her hand brushed against his, Braydon held his breath, refusing to
acknowledge what her simple touch did to him.

This
was fucking crazy.

Wanting
to drive his cock into her pussy while his brother took her ass was one thing,
but the visions of the things he wanted to do to her – alone – were unsettling,
to say the least.

He’d
never been with a woman solo. During all of their relationships, Braydon and
Brendon had shared their women. Since the very first time when they lost their
virginity at fourteen. Which meant, by their combined participation, they
managed to remain detached from the female in question. After all, having his
brother present allowed him to remain emotionally detached, something he’d
grown used to over the years. For him, it was all about pleasuring the woman.
That was his only concern. Sure, the logic might not add up, but it was
something neither of them had ever questioned.

Until
Jessie.

With
her… things were different.

At
least for Braydon they were.

“Hey,”
Brendon greeted Jessie when he came stomping into the room a few seconds later,
running a towel through his damp hair. When he leaned over to kiss Jessie
firmly on the mouth, Braydon found his hand had involuntarily clenched at his
side.

This
was such bullshit.

He
was an idiot to think that a relationship with Jessie was even possible, but he
knew he wasn’t just imagining the way she seemed to be distancing herself from
Brendon
and
him. Or how Brendon had suddenly become standoffish when it
came to her.

Something
was changing between them. The dynamic was shifting, and unlike other times
that they’d decided to move on from a regular fuck buddy, this felt different.

♂♀♂

Jessie

Jessie
could feel the tension in the air. It was thick enough to strangle her.
Grabbing her beer, she took a long pull and managed to avoid looking Braydon in
the eyes.

The
last time she’d been here, which had been about a week ago, she had noticed how
distracted she’d been. How she never noticed it before, she had no idea. Rather
than enjoying herself, hanging out with both of them, Jessie found her mind
wandering more and more to Braydon.

And
normally, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, except she was supposedly Brendon’s
girlfriend. Although, girlfriend wasn’t quite the word she would use. Fuck
buddy, maybe? Ok, that was a little harsh because truthfully, Brendon treated
her better than just a fuck buddy. She talked to him every day, most of the
time he was the one calling her even, and they saw each other several times a
week.

Well,
until recently. She had successfully managed to put a little distance between
herself and Brendon and she was trying to do the same with Braydon. Only he
wasn’t letting her.

For
the last few weeks, they’d had side conversations, mostly by text, and Jessie
found herself longing to talk to him more. There were times when she wished she
could see him, only him. Only that wasn’t possible because the dynamic of their
relationship didn’t work that way. And she knew Braydon wouldn’t do that to
Brendon. Nor would she.

All
of a sudden, there seemed to be a tremendous amount of turmoil churning between
them. She was more and more uncomfortable being around them, and she sensed
that there was some tension between the two of them as well.

Why?
Well, the answer to that question hadn’t been quite so forthcoming initially.
However, after a lot of thought, not to mention the encounter the last time she
was here with them, Jessie realized exactly what her problem was.

She
was falling for Braydon.

And
obviously Brendon was picking up on it.

Placing
her taco on her plate and retrieving her beer again, she forced her eyes to
wander around the room and not to either of the twins. She knew what she’d see
if she looked at them. They were both devastatingly attractive with their dark
hair and mesmerizing blue-gray eyes. Their chiseled features offered a rugged
appeal, but those intense eyes made them boyishly handsome at the same time.
And what made it worse… they were absolutely identical. To this point, she
hadn’t found a single distinguishing mark on either of them. Their hair was cut
the same, their style of dress was relatively similar, the deep timbre of their
voice was identical, and they even walked the same.

The
only difference she’d noted was that Braydon was much calmer, more laid back
and infinitely more concerned about her in an emotional sense. Oh, and he made
her feel beautiful every single time he looked at her.