“What was I supposed to say?” Travis countered.
Jessie couldn’t hear any more of the conversation as Gage deposited her on the sofa in the living room.
“Are you okay?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“Yes. Sorry. I just . . .” She just what? Almost passed out from the thought of Braydon not coming home? Why wouldn’t he come back? Those were questions she wanted to ask, but she knew no one had the answers. No one other than Braydon.
“I’ll be right back,” Gage informed her.
Jessie looked around the open, airy room until clarity returned and she no longer felt faint. When her head stopped the tilt-a-whirl imitation, she felt so much better that she sprang from the couch and grabbed her purse from the table in the entryway before she ran out the front door and directly to her little piece-of-shit car, which was truly on its last legs.
With a flick of her wrist, she tried to get the engine to turn over. It took two attempts, but finally, with a bone-rattling whir, the engine came to life. Thank goodness too, because Jessie looked up to see Kylie standing on the front porch, one hand cocked on her hip, the other motioning Jessie back.
Jessie just shook her head as she threw the car in Reverse and put her foot on the gas.
It was time to pay Brendon a visit.
She’d clearly put it off a little too long.
BRENDON WAS DRAPED across his couch, glaring at his cell phone, which he had resting on his bare chest and was tempted to pick up. He’d been battling that urge for the last half hour, and he still hadn’t completely talked himself out of it.
He wanted to call Braydon. He wanted to tell his brother it was time to come home.
Not that he hadn’t tried that already, but talking to Braydon’s voice mail obviously hadn’t been as effective as, oh, say, confronting his twin face-to-face would’ve been. That was the one thing Brendon hadn’t done yet, but as each day passed, he was getting dangerously close to tossing caution to the wind and making a beeline for Devil’s Bend, where Braydon was currently hiding out.
Brendon sighed, staring at the damn phone in utter frustration.
What the fuck was wrong with Braydon?
Brendon had asked himself that question repeatedly for the last three months, but he didn’t have the answer. His twin did, but, unfortunately, Braydon wasn’t forthcoming with his reasons. In fact, Brendon hadn’t actually talked to Braydon at all during that time. Not once.
After having gone through his entire life with his twin by his side, the last three months had been hell. Then again, it was a hell that he hadn’t tried too hard to crawl out of, so he knew he had to shoulder some of the blame.
Never had he thought Braydon would abandon him. Not like this. Nor had he ever thought that he was capable of making it through a single day without his twin brother. Not that he was ready to brag that the feat had been a simple one. Yes, Brendon knew it probably made him look weak and needy, but he’d always expected Braydon to be there. No matter what.
It just went to show that Brendon had gotten a little too wrapped up in himself. He hadn’t looked beyond his own selfish needs to think about anyone else. Including someone as important to him as his twin brother.
But he had managed to survive the last few months, despite his constant fear that he wouldn’t make it through another day. Each day was spent hating himself for having feelings for Cheyenne and for allowing that to come between him and his brother.
He was supposed to be content, supposed to only want the threesome aspect because anything else just didn’t make sense. Brendon had never questioned it because he felt as though his path in life was lined up perfectly with Braydon’s. He couldn’t imagine being separated from his brother, so sharing women just seemed natural. At least until that night. The night Cheyenne changed his entire world with a simple kiss.
Since then, Cheyenne had taken up residence in his head, and he couldn’t seem to shake her no matter how hard he tried. She was always there, and he constantly relived that one explosive kiss that had rocked him in his boots nearly a year ago.
One. Fucking. Kiss.
Nothing had transpired between them aside from that kiss. At least not when Brendon was awake. His dreams were a different story altogether, but since fictional Cheyenne didn’t compare to the actual living, breathing woman, it didn’t even matter.
For months after their original introduction, Brendon had thought about her constantly. Hell, he still did.
But then he’d met Jessie.
Sweet, beautiful Jessie.
Travis’s wife’s sister.
And Lord knew, he should’ve been more than content with Jessie because she was everything a man would want in a woman. She was fun, smart, and sexy as fuck. Oh, and she didn’t seem to have an issue with Brendon and Braydon sharing her between them.