Braydon by Nicole Edwards Page B

nights dreaming about, although it was disturbingly similar. “Just stay, Jess. Let’s wait for him together.”
    The urge to tell him no was so strong, but then Brendon placed his hand on her cheek and she had to fight back the tears. For months, she’d wondered what had happened between them. Tried to figure out why Brendon would turn his back on her the same way Braydon had.
    All of a sudden, here they were, staring at one another, and she saw something she’d never seen before. Usually, when she met Brendon’s gaze she saw lust and passion. Those emotions were absent, and in their place . . . Jessie swore she saw something akin to worry. Fear.
    Yeah, she knew that when Braydon left, Brendon had been hurt. She didn’t blame him. The twins were inseparable, yet she’d come along and look what happened.
    Unable to find the energy to argue, Jessie nodded her head and shrugged out from beneath Brendon’s touch.
    She would stay.
    But for how long, she didn’t know.

chapter FIVE
    W ith the radio blaring and his windows down, Braydon pulled onto the dirt road that wound through his parents’ land, the same one that would ultimately lead back to his house. The drive from Devil’s Bend had taken a lot less time than he’d thought, and certainly not enough for him to prepare for being back home.
    Now that he was here, he wished it was as simple as keeping his foot on the gas and steering the winding road until he reached his own driveway. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. In order for him to get home, he had to pass his parents’ sprawling ranch house first, not to mention several of his brothers’ houses.
    He wasn’t worried about his brothers. Not yet anyway.
    No, right now, his focus was on his parents. Avoiding them after being gone so long would be one hell of a way to kick-start what he anticipated was going to be a really shitty day. In order to start off on the right foot, hopefully tempting karma to work in his favor, he opted to stop there first. If his mother saw his truck pass by without him stopping, his father would light into his ass as soon as the opportunity arose. It wasn’t like he drove a discreet Walker Demo truck like Ethan. No, his big-ass black four-door Chevy with the six-inch lift, blue flames, and chrome exhaust pipes was conspicuous at best. Which meant his parents would see him from ten miles away. Knowing his dad, a fly-by without stopping would garner an immediate ass-chewing. So, essentially, Braydon was just trying to save face.
    It wasn’t because he was trying to stall for time.
    Not at all.
    A minute later, Braydon was walking through the back door of the big two-story ranch house that he had grown up in. The updated kitchen smelled like breakfast—eggs, bacon, and homemade biscuits—but it was clear his mom and dad had already finished and even cleaned up. The counters were spotless and there was a vase of fresh flowers sitting in the middle of the four-person table his parents now ate at. It was still sometimes difficult to imagine his parents only eating in the confined area. When he’d been growing up, their meals were shared at the giant dining room table his father had bought his mother. With nine Walkers in all, the small eat-in kitchen hadn’t been big enough to contain them.
    “Anyone home?” he hollered as he walked into the main living room with its comfortable couches, his dad’s worn recliner, and the picture of him and his brothers mounted above the fireplace. It was the picture they’d given their mother for Mother’s Day last year.
    But other than the same old furniture, all shiny and clean, Braydon found no one there to greet him. His parents weren’t there, which surprised him.
    “They’re checking on the horses.”
    Braydon glanced up at the stairs to see his cousin Jared making his way down.
    Jared Walker, Braydon’s cousin on his dad’s side, looked as well put together as usual. He was sporting a navy blue Walker Demo polo, Wrangler