“Oh no, you don’t.” Blake yanked him to a stop by the back of his collar. “First you tell me what this is all about, and then we’re going to settle any troubles you two have with me and Jaxi.”
Travis and Jesse exchanged angry glances, but neither of them spoke. Travis heaved himself to his feet and tried to staunch the flow of blood. He backed away to stand warily as Blake eyed Jesse.
“Me and Travis had a difference of opinion. We’re done.” Jesse spat at the floor, his tongue licking at his bruised lips.
“Nothing else to say?” Blake demanded.
“Travis is the King of the Assholes. Happy?” Jesse snapped.
Blake barked out a laugh, “We already knew that. Of course, it looks like we need to put your name up for the title as well. You think you could work a little harder to hurt Jaxi? If you tried, you might beat Travis out of his crown.”
“I don’t have an issue with Jaxi,” Jesse insisted.
“Well, it didn’t seem that way to her.”
Jesse bent his head against the wooden sidewall and stayed quiet for a minute. When he finally spoke it was toward the straw-covered ground at his feet.
“Blake, you need to back off on this one. I’m happy for you, I guess. But last night it could have been me making love to Jaxi. How would you have felt?” Jesse looked up at him, his blue eyes dark with emotion. “She’s been a good friend for a long time and I’m not about to stop caring for her but…I got a taste of something I’m not gonna be able to forget overnight.”
His whole body had gone rigid. Blake nodded slowly. He could sympathize with Jesse’s hurt. He waited patiently, letting the words come as Jesse found the strength to let them free.
“I’m trying to do right by her and you. Give me time.”
“I can do that.”
Jesse’s eyes flashed with one last burst of emotion. “But if you hurt her, you need to know I’ll take you apart, then I’ll take her away.”
Blake hauled Jesse into a bear hug like he was a kid again and held on tight. They clung to each other, two grown men both needing the reassurance of family. It took a while before Jesse relaxed in his grip, his short, angry breaths of frustration slowing. Finally, he slapped Blake’s shoulders and stepped away, head held high.
“I’ve never been so glad to head back to school as I am right now. It would kill me to watch the two of you spooning all over the house for the next couple months.” Jesse wiped his fingers over his mouth again before examining them closely.
There was no way Blake’s smile could look anything but forced. He was thrilled at having Jaxi in his life, but hurting his brother hadn’t been his intention. “This will last a little longer than that.”
Travis cackled, a harsh brittle sound. “Damn right it’ll last longer, if she’s got anything to say about it. Stupid, stubborn—”
Blake’s blood rose to a boil. “You stop right now or I’ll pick up where Jesse left off and pound you into the dirt. Whatever your problem is, you watch how you speak to Jaxi from here on. You got an issue, you tell me and we can take it outside. I’ll knock the shit out of you anytime you like, but you leave her alone, you hear?”
The final thorn in his side stood across from him in the form of one younger brother with a shitty attitude and way too much history with Jaxi. Right now swinging a few fists sounded like a fine way to work off some steam. But when he’d seen her in the kitchen before coming outside, she’d made him promise not to bash anyone.
Damn woman already had him tied to a ball and chain.
“You got something more to say?” Blake asked. Quietly. Dangerously.
Travis kicked a seed sack. His eyes flashed. “You’ve been so damn righteous the past few years it’s made me sick. Everyone knew Jaxi was setting her heart on you and yet you ignored her for some damn stupid reason, pretending she wasn’t the one you wanted—”
“I thought she was still in love with you,” Blake roared. “I thought she was trying to hook up with me because you’d broken up with her and I was the next best thing.”
Travis’s jaw dropped, his eyes black with anger. “You stupid son of a bitch.”
Jesse moved between the two of them, wary and watching.
Travis shook his head and spat to the side. “You deserve every bit of pain you’ve experienced. Both of you. You know, if it didn’t hurt so damn bad, that would be the funniest thing I’d heard in years. Jaxi pretending to be in love with you because she was still in love with me? Lord, listen to you. Damn.” Travis wiped at his eyes, his voice shaking as he spoke. “She couldn’t have done that, you ass, because the reason she went out with me in the first place was because she couldn’t have you. Every time she kissed me, every time she touched me, she was closing her eyes and pretending she was with you.”
“Stop. That’s enough.” Jaxi’s voice cut through the chaos.
Three heads whipped in her direction. She’d changed into blue jeans and a T-shirt, and she looked sad and broken.
She stepped toward Travis and stared at him for a long time. “I’m sorry. That’s not how it started. All the old-timers in town told me I was too young for Blake. That I should find someone closer to my age, so I tried. I thought that maybe if I was with you it would be enough. But it wasn’t.”
“I wasn’t enough for you,” Travis choked out.
Jaxi nodded slowly. “It was wrong, and I’m sorry I caused this wall to build between you and Blake. I should have known better. I should have just told you.”
“You did tell me, remember?” Travis spat the words. “You called out his name while I was touching you.”
Jaxi’s head snapped up, and her whole demeanor changed, her quiet expression hardening. She marched forward three steps to face Travis, pulled back her fist and decked him on the chin. Travis reeled backward but kept his feet.
Her response was a bare whisper in the open air of the barn. “Don’t you push me too far, Travis Coleman. You want to air dirty laundry in front of your brothers after all these years, then it’s all going to come out. Every last sordid detail. Be careful, or your secret life won’t be so secret anymore.”
Blake shifted position, getting between his brother and his woman. He didn’t know if he should assume control or let them work this through.
She continued talking to Travis, the tone of her voice all the more frightening by its softness. “You’re such a self-centered bastard. You twist the truth so far you forget where it started, and you’ve begun to believe the lies you’ve told. Face it—I wasn’t enough for you either.”
Travis glanced up nervously. Blake’s head pounded. Something was royally screwed here, beyond anything he’d imagined. “Jaxi? What the hell is going on?”
She tucked herself under his arm, burrowing her face into his chest for a moment before lifting her gaze to meet his. “It’s okay. It’s old business between Travis and me, and it’s water under the bridge. No need for you to worry.”
“Jaxi.” Travis’s voice shook as he spoke. “I didn’t want to give you up. It wasn’t you.”
She turned in Blake’s arms, keeping herself wrapped tight in him. Standing in the midst of the three brothers she had clearly chosen his protection, his comfort. Blake hugged her, his heart ready to burst. Travis had been a substitute for him, instead of the other way around. All this time he’d been worrying and picking at a wound that hadn’t even existed. He drew her closer.
“Travis, let it go.” Jaxi breathed out a long sigh. “We’ve both said enough, and it was never my intention to hurt you again. Let’s just agree to let it go.”
Jesse snickered from the corner where he leaned on the wall, watching the whole insane situation unfold. “Jaxi, you are one hell of a woman. You got three grown men tied up in knots ’cause we’ve all been head over heels for you at one time or another.”