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“Yes, but Braden’s only been here less than one.”

He raised a brow at her.

“Okay, fine. I know who he is. Why was he watching you? Are you dating him?”

Wes groaned. “Do we really have to do this today?”

Lydia smiled. “He’s hot. If I wasn’t married, I’d like to date him. Did you see the way his muscles pressed against his shirt? Delicious.”

Hearing his sister call a man who Wes spent a night with
delicious
—a man who’s muscles he’d bitten his teeth into—was something he could do without ever experiencing again. “I’m not dating him.”

“You could, you know.” She pushed her hair behind her ear. “I mean, if you’re going to be living here, you need to be comfortable. Have a life. You know we support you. Chelle always taught Jessie that love is love.”

Wes closed his eyes again, as though that would block out the memories. She’d been just as supportive when he’d come out at sixteen.
It doesn’t matter who you love, brother, as long as you love them with your whole damn heart.

His eyes popped open again. “No offense, but dating is the last thing on my mind right now.”

“Don’t pretend it’s just right now. You haven’t dated anyone seriously in years. Don’t put it on Chelle’s death, or having Jessie.”

That was the last thing he wanted to talk about right now. Wes picked at the paint on the table. “I’m not going to do this with you. Braden is...” What was he? He couldn’t even say the man was a friend. He’d known him for a couple hours when he went home with him. Then they’d hardly said another word to each other until Cooper got hurt, or rather, Wes had hardly said a word to him. Then it had been all about Cooper and Noah.

But the lack of friendship hadn’t stopped Braden from calling him up twice in the past couple weeks. From asking Wes out, and then showing up here today.

“Braden is...?” Lydia asked.

Wes’s mind flashed back to the little girl he’d been pushing on the swing. To the niece that he was supposed to raise. To his sister who died, and... “No one. Braden is no one.” Those words made him feel like an asshole.

“Fine. I’ll drop it. But what about Jessie? She wanted you to have her.”

His heart both swelled and broke at those words. “I don’t know the first thing about raising a kid, Lydia.”

She rolled her eyes. “Who does when they become a parent? It’s never what you thought it would be. And you know we’ll help you. We’re family. We’ll do this together.” Lydia paused a second before continuing. “You know Jessie can stay with me, but you’ll regret it. If you walk away from that little girl, you’ll regret it.”

“I’m her uncle. I wouldn’t be walking away. I’ll always be her uncle.” Even to his own ears, the excuse sounded weak.

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

Wes pushed to his feet. “I know. And I’m here, aren’t I? You know me better than to think I could ever say no to what Chelle wanted, or to Jessie.”

His sister threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “We’ll figure this out, brother. We’ll do it together. It’s been too long since you lived close to us. I’m so glad you’re here to stay.”

And though he loved being around them again, his gut filled with dread. He couldn’t let himself screw this up. Couldn’t.

––––––––

T
he fire chief eyed Braden from the other side of his desk. He leaned back, trying to decipher what the smirk on his face meant.

“I can’t say I’m not disappointed,” Bridges raised a brow. “You’re a damn good fireman, Roth.”

Braden winked at him. “Well, no shit. That’s obvious.”

The chief laughed. “Which is a little surprising considering that big head you carry on your shoulders. I’m surprised you can hold it up.”

Braden stood and held out his hand. “You’re a damn good chief, too.” He liked working for Bridges. That didn’t mean he never wanted to advance, though. Hence the reason Bridges had been looking around a little for him.

Bridges stood, too, and they shook. “Just because this promotion didn’t work out doesn’t mean the next one won’t. I’ll let you know if something else comes up.”

He nodded. “I know. I’m not in a hurry. Everything’s good.” They said their goodbyes before Braden walked out. He tossed his bag in the cab of his truck before climbing in and listening to the thing rumble to life. His muscles were dead-tired but his eyes wide awake. He’d always been able to go off not much sleep, probably because he had too much energy for his own good.

Oh, and he hadn’t been out in much too long. Cooper used to be his go-to guy when he wanted to go out and find a good time, but now Coop would much rather be home with Noah than anywhere else. Not that Braden could blame him. Well, that was a lie. Braden didn’t envy Cooper’s situation. He didn’t really work that way. He took life as it came to him, too excited about what was to come to want for things he didn’t have. But then, sharing a bed with a man like Noah Jameson or Cooper Bradshaw couldn’t be a bad thing, either.

I really fucking need to get laid.

Man or woman, he didn’t much care about that. Like he’d told Cooper when Cooper first started falling for Noah, the human body was a beautiful thing in all its forms. Braden enjoyed it all.

He glanced at his cell to see it was only 4:30 pm. It wasn’t as though he had a whole lot of options to go out this time of day anyway, so he headed to the grocery store to grab a few things.

He made it down two aisles when he noticed a headful of blond, messy curls sticking out from behind a display. Braden felt his lips stretch into a grin as he left his cart next to the meat case and ducked behind the display with her. “Are we hiding?” he asked.

Jessie looked up at him with wide eyes and said, “Uncle Wes is going to put me in karate, that way I can karate-chop strangers if they try to talk to me. I saw you watching Uncle Wes at Mommy’s funeral, though. Does that mean you’re not a stranger?”

It was Braden’s turn for his eyes to go wide. Holy shit. He hadn’t even thought about that. “Your uncle is right. You shouldn’t talk to strangers.” He didn’t want her to think he was a stranger. He also didn’t want to say he wasn’t one, because he sort of was. To her, at least. So what the fuck
did
he say?

Braden settled on, “I wasn’t
watching
him.” That made it sound like he was panting around the man like a dog or something.

“Yes you were.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were.” Her curls flopped when she nodded. They weren’t tied back like they had been when he’d seen her two weeks before.

Jesus, how old was this girl? She argued as well as any woman he’d ever met, and none of his nieces or nephews would notice if a person watched someone or not.

“I was worried about him. That was very nice of me, if I do say so myself.” What the hell? How old was
he?
“Are we hiding?” he asked again, trying to change the subject.

“Yep! Uncle Wes doesn’t—”

“—Jessie! What are you doing? You can’t sneak away from me like that.” Wes seemed to pop out of nowhere, grabbing Jessie and pulling her to him. He hugged the little girl tightly.

A heavy weight made Braden’s gut sink. Here he’d been trying to play around and hide with her and Wes hadn’t known where she was.

“I’m sorry. I was
bored.
” Jessie stepped away.

“It’s okay.” There was a slight waver to Wes’s voice as he tried to smooth her hair down, which just popped back up again.

“Do you got a dog?” Jessie asked Braden, pointing to the dog food in his cart. Wes stood from his kneeling position, unease rolling off him as though he just noticed Braden was standing here.

Braden nodded at him. “I saw her standing here and stopped.”

“Thanks...thanks for waiting with her until I found her.”

Ummm, or not. He hadn’t thought of waiting with her. “No problem.” He looked down at Jessie. “I do. He’s a chocolate lab, and about as crazy and wild as they come.”

“Oooh! I want a puppy. Can we get one, Uncle Wes?” And then to Braden, she asked, “What’s his name? Mommy says a name has to mean something.”

Wes paled. He briefly closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Jessie didn’t seem to notice, but Braden did. Jessie had said Mommy
says
, not said. His chest ached for the man.

Wes ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes again, obviously wishing he could disappear.

“His name is Jock.” Braden bent down to look Jessie in the eyes, hoping to give Wes a minute.

“What does it mean?”

That he has a fascination with jockstraps...
“I’m not creative enough to come up with a name that means something. If I ever get another dog, you can name him. What would you pick?”

She spoke without hesitation. “Uncle Wes.”

Above him, he heard Wes chuckle at that. “You can’t name a dog after me.”

“Why not?” Braden asked at the same time Jessie said, “How come?”

Braden stood. “Personally, I like the name.”

Wes crossed his arms. “Nobody asked you.”

Jessie pulled on Wes’s T-shirt. “That wasn’t very nice.”

Braden crossed his as well, cocking a brow. He could see the fire in Wes’s hazel eyes. He’d seen the same fire the night they’d spent together.

“Yeah, that wasn’t very nice.” Braden grinned, and Wes’s fire blazed even fiercer.

“Mommy says you have to say sorry when you do something that’s not very nice.” Jessie’s big, chestnut eyes looked up at Wes, and Braden knew the man was so incredibly screwed. How would he ever be able to say no to the little girl? And he had to admit, this was a little fun.

What made it better was the small smile threatening to break free across Wes’s face. He fought it, that much was obvious, but it wanted to be there. Braden wondered when the last time he smiled was. The night they’d spent together, the only ones he’d shown was when he gave Cooper a hard time about Noah, and he wondered how real those had been.

So this time, he didn’t even try and find his filter. Who the hell needed one, anyway? “Apologies go a long way, Uncle Wes. I’ve been nothing but nice to you.” More than once that night, before Wes had bailed on him.

***

J
essie standing next to him was the only thing that kept Wes from strangling Braden. He didn’t even care that they were in public. The jail time would be worth wiping that cocky smile from his full lips. Not that his lips were any concern to Wes.

“You’re right, Jess. That wasn’t very nice of me.” His eyes met Braden’s, the words much harder to push from his mouth when he did. “I apologize.”
I’m going to kill you.

“I forgot what you said? Why are you sorry?” Braden smirked. Was everything a game to the man?

Wes bit down, trying not to tell Braden what he really felt. The prick. “I apologize for being rude.”

Jessie’s thin arms wrapped around his waist. “Good job, Uncle Wes.”

His heart thudded, suddenly the fake apology becoming worth it. “Thanks, kiddo.”

Braden’s forehead wrinkled slightly, but then he found his ground. “Yeah, Uncle Wes. Good job. And I forgive you. What are friends for?”

“Stop calling me that. Please.” He added the last part so Jessie wouldn’t give him hell. She was just as strong and opinionated as her mom had been.

“Oh, can I pick some fruit snacks?” Jessie pointed to the aisle behind them. Wes turned so he could keep an eye on her and nodded. Two seconds later she already ran over, scanning the five million shapes of the same thing.

“You’re right.” Braden stepped closer to him. Wes stood his ground, not moving backward. That didn’t stop Braden from leaning forward, his mouth close to Wes’s ear, and whispering, “Considering I’ve been inside you, that’s probably not the best thing to call you.”

He tried to pull back, but Wes grabbed his arm and held him there. “I know you’re bi, but don’t forget who you’re talking to. Don’t try and flirt with me like you would a woman, because you’re not going to get the same response.”

With that, Wes walked away. Jessie grabbed her snacks, and when he got to the far end of the aisle, he glanced back. Braden still stood where he’d left him, watching.

Jessie didn’t stop talking the whole drive home. When they got to the small, three-bedroom house she’d shared with her mother, they went straight for the kitchen and started cooking tacos, one of the few things he knew how to make. He had a feeling they’d be eating a whole hell of a lot of tacos.

While they cooked, and then through dinner, he searched for the words to talk to Jessie about her mom. Each time he opened his mouth, nothing came out. His chest ached. How was he supposed to do this?

He and Chelle had talked to her before she passed. He and Lydia talked to her after. But she was young. He didn’t know if she really got it. Wes wouldn’t rely on Lydia every time they needed to have a talk. Jessie was his responsibility, and he damn sure took that seriously.

That didn’t make the ache go away, though. Didn’t make the words he wished weren’t true fall out of his mouth.

“Hey, Jess?”

“Can we watch TV? I wanna watch TV. Will you watch it with me?” she said, her mind always on the go.

“Yeah, yeah, we can watch TV.”
Coward.

They watched a couple episodes of cartoons before he ran a bubble bath for her. One a week, Chelle had said, no more than one bubble bath a week, though he didn’t have a clue why. He just knew that her other baths had to be without her favorite part of the whole thing.

He put her in pajamas with feet in them after she finished bathing. She got a package of fruit snacks for her snack, and then Wes said, “It’s time for bed, kiddo.”

“What ‘bout my hair?”

What was wrong with her hair? “Your hair?”

“It’s still wet. Mommy says I’m not supposed to go to bed with wet hair when it’s getting cold.”

“Oh.” Wes scratched his forehead. “Okay.” He searched the hall bathroom for a blow dryer but couldn’t find one. He knew he sure as hell didn’t have one in his room, so he checked the hall closet next. It wasn’t there, either. Wes looked toward the other end of the house. Toward the closed door he didn’t want to go into.