“It would seem so,” Kylie said, turning her attention back to her laptop.
“To look at the house with you?” Jessie asked, trying to spur Kylie into dishing up the dirt.
“Yes and no.”
“What does that mean?” Jessie knew what it meant, but again, she wanted Kylie to ’fess up because she could see on her sister’s face that she was holding something back.
“Travis called her. He told her about Brendon. She’s worried.”
“She’s worried? Why the hell is she worried?” Jessie knew she sounded indignant, mostly because she was, but this was a woman who’d blown Brendon off more times than not, so for her to be worried all of a sudden didn’t seem appropriate.
“She likes Brendon,” Kylie offered.
“Likes him? Like a friend? Like a friend who tries to push his buttons every time she sees him?”
“It’s not like that,” Kylie argued, her voice rising with her apparent frustration. “Cheyenne has always liked Brendon. We’ve even talked about it once or twice. She just doesn’t . . .”
“Doesn’t what?” Jessie implored.
“She’s not interested in the threesome thing.”
Well, that was a damn good thing because as far as Jessie was concerned, that wasn’t even a possibility anymore. At least not with Braydon being the third.
Oh, God. The thought of Braydon and Brendon with Cheyenne . . . Jessie was pretty sure she was going to be sick. Rather than sit around and piss off her sister any more, Jessie left as quickly as she came, heading directly for the bathroom.
After washing her face and running cold water over her wrists and hands, she managed to pull herself together. But even then she didn’t leave the bathroom until Kylie was knocking on the door.
“Are you all right?”
“No,” she replied.
A second later, the door was opening and Jessie flew up from her perch on the closed toilet seat. “What are you doing?”
“I’m checking on you?”
“I wanted some privacy, Ky,” Jessie disputed.
“You’ve had enough. Now come on, let’s go to the break room.”
Unable to find any objection that would get her sister off her case, Jessie followed Kylie into the break room.
“I want to introduce you to Cheyenne,” Kylie told her after she had retrieved two cans of Diet Coke from the refrigerator and planted them on the small table.
Jessie dropped into one of the chairs and reached for the drink. She didn’t bother opening it, but she wrapped her hands around the cool aluminum.
“I don’t want to meet her,” Jessie mumbled.
“Oh, come on. Quit being a brat.”
Jessie glared at Kylie for a moment. “Fine, I want to meet her. But I don’t want her to have Braydon.”
“What the hell are you talking about? She doesn’t want Braydon.”
“No, but she apparently wants Brendon. And . . . God . . . I know it sounds stupid, even when I think it, but what if Braydon . . . ? What if he decides . . . ?”
“Lord have mercy.” Kylie sighed. “Do you hear yourself right now?”
Yes, she did. And yes, she thought she sounded crazy and paranoid—which so wasn’t the case—but she couldn’t help herself.
“Braydon loves you,” Kylie stated.
“I don’t know why, if that’s really the case,” Jessie returned. He had mentioned that once, but he’d never brought it up again. Granted, she hadn’t shared her true feelings with him then, and especially not now, so she couldn’t necessarily blame him.
“Have you told him?”
“Told him what?” Jessie asked, pretending not to understand.
“That you love him?” Kylie smirked.
“Well, no,” Jessie said in an isn’t it obvious we don’t talk about that stuff sort of way. “We’re taking things slow.”
“Yep, that hickey on your neck sure tells me that you’re taking things slow.”
Instinctively, Jessie reached up and covered the hickey that Kylie was referring to. She hadn’t even realized he’d left a mark on her until she made it into work that morning. And at that point, she’d already put in too much time getting her hair piled on top of her head, so she hadn’t bothered to mess with it. Clearly she was going to have to be more careful.
“Okay, fine. You win.” Jessie didn’t know where Kylie was going with this.
“I don’t want to win,” Kylie said, reaching across the table and touching Jessie’s hand. “I want my sister to be happy. I want you and Braydon to have a chance at this. I personally don’t see Cheyenne as a threat.”