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Page 12

“Nah. I promised the kid I’d make her chicken soup, so I will. It was my mom’s staple when we were sick. Unless you want me to go?” Braden cocked a brow at him. He always did that. It shouldn’t be so sexy, but it was.
He also should tell Braden to leave. The man had no business being tied into their lives. He didn’t want Jessie to get close to someone who had no reason to stick around. “Listen,” Wes peeked into the living room to see she still slept. “This is probably going to make me sound like an ass, which I’m sure wouldn’t be a surprise to you considering I have a habit of it, but we have a lot of shit going on right now. She lost her mom. I don’t know the first thing about raising a kid. I don’t have time in my life for anything else.” All the truth, but what Braden didn’t know was that he never had time for anything else. Lydia had been right about that.
It took a minute for Braden to reply. He stepped close to Wes and fingered his tie. Heat scorched through him that easily. Damn the man and the physical response he had over Wes.
“I know I gave you hell before, but I get it. It’s never really happened to me before, but you apparently have more important things in your life than fucking me.”
Wes laughed. “Always joking around.”
“Not when it’s important. I know the difference. Just friends.” He held up two fingers. “Scouts honor.”
“Don’t they hold up three fingers?”
“Don’t know. Never was a scout.” He grabbed Wes’s tie again and yanked. Wes went easily, cursing himself the whole time. His body lined up flush against Braden’s. He smelled the man’s soap again and felt Braden’s body heat seeping into him.
He lowered his lips so they were close to Wes’s ear, and damned if his cock didn’t start to stir.
“Sorry. That fucking tie was killing me. Just wanted to do that once. Now just friends. Scouts honor.” He let go and stepped back.
A small tingle of anger formed in Wes’s gut, but it wasn’t stronger than his amusement. “You would have made a shitty boy scout.”
Braden winked. “For more than one reason.”
Wes had no doubt about that.
Jessie slept on and off all afternoon. Braden made chicken soup, something Wes never would have expected, before getting sent back to the store for popsicles.
Jess drank a little of the broth but that was all. Mostly she and Braden ate popsicles all day and watched cartoons. Hours passed, and Wes expected Braden to leave at any time but he didn’t.
The afternoon flew by faster than he expected. By seven that evening, Jessie was ready for bed.
It didn’t take Wes long to get her ready. He slipped her bedroom door closed and went into the living room to hear the water running. “Hey. You don’t need to do the dishes. You cooked.”
Braden shrugged. “I get antsy if I’m sitting around too much. It’s no problem.”
“That go for your personal life, too?” he asked, not sure why he did. To distract himself, he went over and started filling the dishwasher as Braden rinsed.
“I guess. I get bored easily. Always have. There’s a big world out there, and I don’t want to miss anything, ya know?”
No, he really didn’t. He’d never had his head in the clouds, never really wanted a whole lot. They hadn’t had much growing up. As long as he had his family, he’d been okay. His dad had been like that, though, which was why he left and never came back.
“So that’s why you swing both ways. Just one bores you?” Wes turned off the water and leaned against the counter. It was another question he shouldn’t be curious about.
“No, not really. I mean, in one way, you could look at it like that. If something feels good, I do it. Why not? But then, it’s not like I get bored of a woman so I go in search of a man, or the other way around. I’m attracted to people because of how they make me feel. I’m attracted to who they are—the person, and not their gender.”
Wes nodded, though he didn’t really get it. It wasn’t as if they should be talking sex anyway, so he said, “Thanks for cooking. I’m shit in the kitchen.”
Braden winked. “I’m a man of many talents.”
Yeah, he remembered.
“What do you do?” Braden asked, leaning back on the counter as well.
“What?”
“For a job. I don’t even know what you do.”
Damn, this whole thing was ass backward. They’d fucked, and now Braden spent the day cooking and helping him take care of his niece, yet he didn’t even know what Wes did for a living?