Granted, plenty of things had led up to that little debacle, but ultimately, Sawyer wanted to point out that Jessie hadn’t just showed up out of the blue. Sure, they’d been introduced to Kylie briefly thanks to that questionable stunt Gage had pulled by bringing her to confront Travis without telling anyone. But Sawyer actually remembered being introduced to both Kylie and Jessie officially at the same time.
“Technically, yes,” she said firmly. “But that’s not the point.”
“Then what is the point?” he asked just as sternly. “If you’re gonna sit here and try to take the blame for Brendon acting like an idiot, I’m gonna stop and you can walk the rest of the way.”
He did peek over at her then to see that she was staring back at him with wide eyes.
“I’m kidding, Jess. But seriously, I don’t want you to try to take this on yourself. I’m not gonna pretend to know what the hell goes on with those two, but I can tell you, this isn’t your fault.”
“How do you know? Like you said, you don’t know what’s going on with them. And yes, Braydon left because of me. Does that make it clearer for you? Brendon told me that Braydon loves me. So he left.”
Sawyer laughed harshly. “Bullshit.”
He darted his gaze to her and grinned when he saw that she was looking at him indignantly.
“That’s absurd. Maybe men aren’t the smartest fools on earth when it comes to women, but we don’t run away just because we love a woman.” Not that he’d know, because he had never truly loved a woman.
“So now you’re an expert?” she asked incredulously.
“Nope,” he said quickly. “Not saying that, either.” Sawyer took a deep breath. “Look. Brendon did something really stupid tonight. Aside from drinking himself into oblivion, he got behind the wheel of a truck. That’s something we’ve grown up knowing is not even an option. You don’t drink and drive. No matter what.”
“I agree, that was stupid,” she said softly. “But—”
“No buts, Jess. Not in this case. It’s inexcusable. You see, my mother . . .” Sawyer peered over at her briefly to make sure she was listening. “My mother tolerates a lot from us. She’ll be the first to tell you that the seven of us made her crazy growing up. I won’t argue with her, either. But see, there were plenty of times she and my dad talked to us. We listened just like most kids, in one ear, out the other. But there was one specific point that she was insistent we pay attention to. I can remember her talking about it with one or all of us since we were kids.
“The point is, if you’re me or one of my brothers, you’ve heard the devastating story that my mother has to tell. You might not know this, but my mother had five sisters.”
“Had?”
“Three of them are still alive,” he answered. “Two of them died. In a car accident. Together. My aunt Kathy was nineteen when she died. She had been at some college party. Well, my aunt Celeste, who was a couple of years younger, had needed a ride home from a friend’s house. Before she went out that night, Celeste had asked Kathy if she’d pick her up on her way home.”
“Oh, God,” Jessie whispered.
“Exactly. Kathy was well past the legal limit when she drove over to pick up Celeste. On their way home, just a few blocks away from their house, Kathy crashed her car into a tree. According to my mother, Kathy died on impact. Celeste suffered from fatal injuries. She died in the hospital a few days later, never waking up. My mother was barely a year older than Kathy, but she was already married to my dad, so she didn’t live at home. To hear my mother tell that story, I don’t care who you are, you feel her pain.”
“I can only imagine,” Jessie whispered.
“And tonight Brendon got behind the wheel of a vehicle. He risked his own life and the lives of innocent people. There is no excuse. No one but Brendon can accept responsibility for that. He’s just damn lucky he didn’t kill someone. Or himself.”
Jessie nodded, her eyes focused straight ahead. Sawyer let the silence linger for a moment as he pulled onto the back road that led to his parents’ land.
“Jess, I don’t know what’s going on with the three of you,” Sawyer said when he pulled up in front of Jessie’s. “I don’t want to know. I just want you to think this through.” He contemplated what he would say next. He was tempted to leave it at that, but something spurred him on. “I’ve seen the way Braydon looks at you. I’ve never seen him look at another woman like that before. And I’ve seen the way you look at him. It surprised the hell out of us all when he left town. It was bad enough that he left the rest of us like that, but he also left Brendon. They’ve got to work this out between them. In my opinion, it’s about damn time they grew up. They’re thirty years old, Jess. They can’t keep doing this forever. It was bound to happen that one of them fell for a woman sooner or later. I had suspected it would be Braydon, too.”