“Can I ask where her dad is?” Braden leaned forward, rubbing a hand on Jock’s head before sitting back again.

“Died. She couldn’t have been more than a few months old. Life is really fucked up sometimes. She’s not even five and she’s lost both her parents.” He shook his head, set the bottle of beer down, then leaned forward. What was with their family and losing everyone who meant something to them? Alexander may not have died but he walked away from Wes and never looked back.

Wes tensed when he felt Braden’s hand at the back of his neck. “I work Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.”

Wes turned Braden’s way, the man’s rough hand still against his skin. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t.”

“You can’t want to. That’s a lot of responsibility every week.”

“Are you kidding me? She’s a blast. She just might be the only person who can keep up with me, anyway.”

Braden brushed his finger through the hair at the nape of Wes’s neck, and damned if desire didn’t make Wes’s cock start to rise.

“Say yes.” Braden’s voice went deep. “Don’t overthink it, don’t worry. I’ll take a background check for you if you need me to. I want to help. Just say yes.”

The word “no” sat uncomfortably on his tongue. They didn’t need to intertwine their lives like this. Jessie was his responsibility. But then he thought about how much fun Jess had with Braden. He trusted her with him. He didn’t know if that was the right thing. Would Chelle have trusted him?

He didn’t know about her, but Wes did. “Yes,” he said. Braden nodded. When Wes leaned back, Braden didn’t move his hand. And Wes didn’t tell him to.

“Did she ever watch the sun rise from out here?” Braden asked.

A smile suddenly pulled at his lips. “Yeah. Yeah, she did.”

“When was the last time you watched the sun rise, man?”

Hell, he couldn’t even remember. “I don’t know.”

“Then we’ll do it. No excuses, no reason. We’ll just do it because we can, and because we want to.”

It didn’t matter that he’d been tired earlier, or that they’d be sitting our here for more hours than he wanted to count. He wasn’t sure he’d ever really wanted to watch the sun rise before, but suddenly it was important.

“Yeah...yeah, let’s do it.”

There were long periods of quiet, but also talking, too. Wes made coffee, and Braden let Jock out to stretch his legs once or twice.

When the sun peeked out from behind a mountain, pinks and oranges in the sky, he realized why Chelle would sometimes do this. Wished he would’ve done it with her. And glad he’d done it with Braden. No one else would have thought to do something like this.

“Jesus, that’s fucking beautiful.”

“Yeah it is,” Braden replied, and then pushed to his feet. “Now you can say you spent the night with Braden Roth.”

Wes looked up at him. “More like you can say you spent the night with me.”

Braden winked. “Finally.” He turned for the screen door on the porch. “Come on, Jock, let’s go.”

The dog got up and followed him, and Wes watched. Watched until Braden’s truck drove out of sight.

Chapter Eight

Around five thirty, on the fourth Wednesday that Braden watched Jessie, his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket to see Wes’s name light up on the screen. He grinned and said, “You’re bringing us dinner, right? I’m exhausted, honey. I don’t know if I can handle cooking tonight. I feel like you’re never home anymore.”

Wes briefly chuckled. “Funny.”

“Made you laugh.” He took it almost as a personal goal to make Wes laugh as much as he could. The man didn’t do it nearly enough. And he was pretty good at it.

Wes didn’t reply to his comment, and instead said, “We’re crazy around here. We have a trauma ten minutes out. Anna’s working the ER tonight but she’s not feeling well. She said she could stay until seven when someone gets in to cover for her, but—”

“But you want to help.” He already realized that’s who Wes was. He’d do more for others than he’d do for himself. “It’s cool. We got this. I’ll order a pizza or something.”

“Yay!” Jessie screamed and Braden ruffled her hair.

“Are you sure? Anna can stay if you have somewhere to go. Or I could call Lydia.”