“Good. We need you out there.”

“Don’t tell him things like that. He already has a big enough head.” Noah wrapped an arm around Cooper.

“Come on. You don’t want to complain about that, do you?” Cooper elbowed Noah.

“Hell, do you guys ever stop? I swear, Bradshaw, you’re asking for me to give you shit,” he teased. The two men laughed before saying their goodbyes and leaving.

Lydia approached him next. “My kids are getting tired, so I think Stan and I are going to go. Would you mind telling Wes goodbye for us?”

He held back his chuckle. The sparkle in her eyes said she hoped to be giving them alone time together. “No problem.”

She gathered up her clan to leave. Almost the second she had the door closed, Wes came out of Jessie’s room.

“She asleep?” Braden asked.

“Yeah.” His eyes scanned the living room.

“Everyone left. Your sister said to tell you goodbye, but I’m pretty sure she’d still be here if I wasn’t. I think she was trying to leave us alone.”

He wasn’t sure if Wes would be annoyed by his comment, but to Braden’s amusement, he just said, “I see you know Lydia well. She’s been doing this to me since she realized I would never hook up with her girlfriends.”

Braden suddenly wished Wes had another tie on that he could hold him with. “What?” he nudged Wes’s arm. “You mean I’m not special?”

Wes rolled his eyes. “Does that usually work for you?”

“Usually. I have a feeling you’re going to prove me wrong, though.” He hoped Wes wouldn’t, but there was a small part of him who hoped he would. He liked that about Wes. He did what he wanted and said how he felt, and he didn’t give Braden whatever he wanted, the way most people did.

“I just think it’s a waste of breath. Even if I planned to fuck you again, it wouldn’t be with Jessie in the other room.” He could tell Wes wasn’t trying to be a prick with his comment—just being honest, and worrying about his niece.

“I know. Doesn’t mean it’s not a whole hell of a lot of fun to see you fluster, though. I think you need the excitement of having Braden Roth as a friend. You have to admit, I keep things interesting, even if it is just by pissing you off half the time.”

He expected Wes to end the conversation there, but instead he crossed his arms and said, “You flirt and try to fuck all your friends?”

“Nope. Just you.” This time, Wes did pull back. The look in his eyes sobered, and he went toward the kitchen.

Yep, he screwed up again. Open mouth, insert foot. But then, from the other room, Wes asked him, “You want a beer?”

Braden exhaled a breath and realized he would have been upset if he’d fucked this up and had to leave. The fact was, he enjoyed being around Wes. Enjoyed shaking his life up a little. He liked the idea of being the man’s friend. “Sure.”

Wes emerged a few seconds later with two open bottles of Corona. “Come on,” he nodded toward the front door. “Let’s go outside.”

Jock followed them as they went to Wes’s mostly-enclosed front porch. It had a porch swing on one end, and two chairs close to the door. Between the chairs sat an outdoor heater, which Wes turned on.

“Can you just close the screen door? I want to hear Jessie if she gets up,” he asked Braden.

“No problem.”

Jock curled up next to the heater as the two men sat in chairs. He doesn’t want to be alone, Braden realized. Wes would never admit it, and hell, maybe he didn’t know himself, but he didn’t want to be alone.

Braden had never in his life known what it felt like to truly be alone. If he felt like being around someone, he called a friend up and made plans. He had a great family that he was close to. People who knew everything about him and accepted him for who he was. Wes had the family who loved him, but he had a feeling Wes struggled to accept it. Those thoughts made him sorry for the man.

“Thanks.” Wes took a drink of his beer. “For bringing Jock and for playing with her out there. She had a blast with you.”

Braden swallowed a mouthful of beer, feeling the warmth spread through him due to Wes’s words. “Eh. It’s just because I’m probably a bigger kid than she is.” He turned Wes’s way. “She had fun with you, too.”

“I need to do that more often.”

Did Wes not think he did enough? “Are you fucking kidding me? She’s probably the happiest kid I’ve seen, and my siblings are working on a football team. I’ve been around a lot of kids. You’re doing great, man. Especially considering everything that’s happened.”