by Jill Shalvis
her and not let it be the other way around.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” she said. “You’re leaving.”
True story. “What do you need?”
She hesitated.
“Talk to me,” he said.
“Well…that’s just it. I need you to talk to me. I need your deep, dark secrets.”
“How do you know I have any?” he asked.
“All men do.”
“Ah,” he said, not particularly thrilled to have been looped in with her ex and her dad but getting it. “All of us, huh?”
“Every last one of you,” she said, sounding very sure.
“Okay.” He nodded. “Where should I start?”
“Well…” She considered. “You could tell me what you think of cats, since I’m thinking of becoming a cat lady. There’s your favorite food. Your feelings on sexy undies. Things that make you homicidal,” she said.
The last part did something to him deep in his gut. She’d buried her lede, afraid to ask outright if he was a dick when he got mad about something. He got that too.
“And let’s throw in your worst sexual experience,” she said.
He went brows up at that one. “I don’t like cats,” he started.
“Why not?”
“They’re smug fuckers. I hope that’s not a deal breaker,” he said, smiling when she cracked up. “My favorite food is cereal. I can eat it three meals a day for long stretches of time without getting tired of it. As for sexy undies, I love them. But my favorite undies are no undies at all.”
Her eyes warmed.
“As for what makes me homicidal…”
She froze. “Yeah?”
“It’s people who wear flip-flops. I think it’s the toes.”
She sucked in a breath. “Toes.”
He gave an exaggerated shudder. “I have a toe phobia.”
She laughed. “You do not.”
He did not… “As for your last question…I had the worst blow job of my life on a heli, though I suspect it was because she was also piloting the thing while we were going at it.”
She blinked. “Wow. I can’t beat that. But…” She kicked off her sandals and waved her bare foot in his direction. “Do my toes wig you out?”
Her toenails had been painted bright blue and there was a white daisy on one of them. “Cute,” he said. “And since they make me want to start there and nibble my way up your mile-long legs and see what else I find, I can say on good authority that no, your toes do not wig me out.”
“You’re doing it again,” she said quietly.
“Annoying you?”
She shook her head. “The opposite.”
He smiled. “Good.” Leaning in, he lowered his voice to a bedroom whisper. “My turn. Tell me a secret so dirty it turns you on just to admit it.”
She choked on a laugh. “I…can’t.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
“Can’t.” She paused. “Because it’s about you.”
“Even better.”
She bit her lower lip and he went insta-hard. “Your secret would be safe with me,” he promised.
She pondered this seriously. “Something else to think about,” she said.
Chapter 19
They ended up in Jacob’s cabin, specifically in his bed where they spent several hours, but eventually Sophie left, claiming something about needing to take her vitamins and how she couldn’t sleep outside her own bed. He knew why she really left.
She needed some space.
He did too. Or so he told himself. But without her in it, his bed seemed huge.
The next day Soph flew to Dallas to spend a few days with her family and his bed got bigger each night. It was late on one of those nights that his phone pinged. When he glanced at it, he was surprised to find a…tweet? The only way that could happen was if someone had signed him up for Twitter.
Kenna, no doubt, the little brat. And she’d also apparently set his phone for notifications when someone tweeted about or to him. She would pay for that…
He accessed the notification and stared down at the message, which had come from someone called CedarRidgeNumberOneMom. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who that was.
I joined the Twitter, baby! What’s up?
He laughed in disbelief. Shaking his head, he backed out of the Twitter app—definitely going to strangle Kenna—and texted his mom.
You know that Twitter isn’t like texting, right? That everyone can see what you’re doing?
In less than a minute he got another Twitter notification.
So are you busy?
He had to laugh as he called her. “Mom, you can call me whenever you want. You don’t have to use Twitter to talk to me.”
“Oh, baby, I know that. But calling is passé. No one calls anyone these days. It’s all about social media.”
For the first time, he wondered just how much trouble his mom had managed to find over the years. He’d always assumed that he’d taken the much harder road than Hudson, being in the military, living that life.
But honest to God, he had to wonder if he hadn’t had it easy in comparison to his twin. “How about we keep things old-fashioned?” he asked.
“But, honey, you’re never going to catch a girl that way.”
He’d caught one fine. He just had no idea how to keep her. “I’ll manage,” he said.
“Fine, but you don’t have the best of tastes. You remember last year when you were into that Weston girl? She dumped you at recess and crushed your heart. I want to meet this next one and make sure she’s good enough.”
Kim Weston had been his sixth-grade crush. “Got it, Mom. You’re in charge.”
“I mean it. I’m watching you,” she said, a note of teasing coming into her voice.
His heart squeezed. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Good. I picked a girl for your brother and he’s going to marry her. So see, you can trust my judgment.”
When she disconnected, Jacob stared out the window at the lake for a long time.
He knew Hud was serious about Bailey, but only because he could see it with his own eyes and because Kenna had told him so.
He hadn’t known they were going to get married.
For some reason this hurt more than anything else, that they were so distanced from each other that Hud wouldn’t have told him such an important thing going on in his life.
Jacob was willing to take his part of the responsibility, and yeah, his part was more than fifty percent.
But Hud wasn’t giving an inch here. He needed an inch, dammit.
Ever think that maybe you’re projecting?
On that thought, he picked up his phone again and called the guy who’d leased him the cabin.
“When I first contacted you about renting this cabin, you asked if I was interested in buying,” he said. “I wasn’t ready then, but I’m ready now.”
Sophie’s visit to Dallas went predictably. It’d been great to see her sister. Good to see her parents. And bad for her mental health.
Par for the course.
As she got back to Cedar Ridge, she felt…like she’d come home.
The boat itself, not so much.
She got back just in time to take an afternoon shift at the assisted-living center attached to the hospital. A flu had knocked out the girls at the front desk. Sophie sanitized the entire place and then got them all caught up on paperwork.
While on break, she wandered down to the residents’ social room to see if she was needed. It was here that the residents watched TV, played games, or just sat around and talked.
Her gaze was immediately drawn to the chess table, where Carrie was currently in the middle of a game.
With Jacob.
She’d missed him.
Carrie made a move, beamed, and then rose to her feet. Leaning over the table, she cupped Jacob’s face and kissed him on the top of his head.
Sophie froze for a beat, torn between not wanting t
o intrude on what was clearly a private moment and melting into a pile of goo at the sweetness between Jacob and his mom.
But then Jacob’s gaze slid to hers and he, too, rose to his feet.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to—oh,” she breathed when he smiled and she realized her mistake.
Not Jacob, but Hudson. He’d cut his hair, and she hadn’t immediately seen the difference in his eyes and smile—which were friendly and warm but not…Well, she wasn’t sure she could accurately describe the way Jacob looked and smiled at her. Mostly it was with the heated, personal knowledge that came from having been as intimate with her as a man could get.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “You two look so much alike…”
He smiled. “Twins.”
“Maybe.” She laughed a little self-consciously. “It’s hard to get used to.”
“I know. But maybe as the woman helping us keep Jacob in Cedar Ridge, you’ll get used to it?”
She stared at him. “Oh, I’m not—we’re not—” She shook her head. “I think you’ve overestimated what Jacob and I are to each other.”
“Oh,” Carrie marveled, coming closer. “You’re the one my Jacob’s seeing, aren’t you?” She took Sophie’s hand, her smile bright. “Look at you. I just knew you’d be pretty. He always did like the pretty ones.”
Hud grimaced. “Mom—”
“Oh, I know, he’ll kill us, blah, blah. Might as well make it worthwhile, yes?” She smiled at Sophie. “Where did you two kids meet? School? A football game? Oh, I know! You’re his English tutor?” She shifted in close and spoke in a stage whisper. “Listen, honey, I read his essay and I know you must have written it for him. No way did he read enough Shakespeare to write that on his own. I realize he’s charming as all get-out, but you’ve got to encourage him to do his own work, okay?”
Sophie glanced over at Hud, who stood there at his mom’s side, tall and broad like Jacob, eyes still warm but also something else now. Challenging? Waiting for her to react to his mom’s jumbled ramblings?
Well, what he didn’t know was that Sophie had been judged before and found wanting, and she no longer did anything for approval. Turning her back on him, she smiled at Carrie and squeezed her fingers gently. “I’ll do better next time. I promise,” she said. “And are you done kicking your son’s butt in chess? Because I’d love a game.”
Carrie clapped in glee and gave Hud the brush-off with a wave of her hand.
He started to object. “Mom—”
“Baby, it’s okay. I know you only came by because you’re feeling guilty over how busy you are lately, but as you can see, I’m busy too. Run along now. Mama’s gotta kick your twin’s very pretty girlfriend’s tush in chess.”
Hud shook his head but pulled Carrie in for a hug. This time when he turned to Sophie, the warmth was back in his eyes, along with a grudging respect. “She cheats,” he warned her.
“What?” Carrie said, hand to her heart. “Well, my goodness, I do no such thing, Hudson.”
“Hand to heaven,” Hud said to Sophie, and to her shock he gave her a good-bye hug as well.
“What was that for?” she asked when he pulled free.
“For giving him a challenge close to home, for putting a smile on his face.”
“And how do you know that was me?” she asked, a little flustered with the praise she wasn’t sure she deserved.
“A twin knows.”
She wondered what else he knew and felt her face heat.
He chuckled, for a minute the sound so much like Jacob that she blinked. And then he was gone.
Chapter 20
Jacob sat on his porch watching the sun set over the Rocky Mountain peaks and Cedar Lake. It was his first break in days. Kenna had been saying she’d been sinking, drowning in all the prep for their upcoming events.
He’d honestly believed it was her way of forcing him to interact at the resort, to be near everyone.
Including Hud.
But he should’ve known better. Kenna was about as up-front and frank as a woman could be. If she had a problem, everyone knew it. There was no hidden agenda with her, no pretending to be something she wasn’t. She was truly overworked, and once Jacob realized that, it was easy to jump in and help her.
As it was, they’d been working night and day to pull off the Wounded Warriors weekend, which would provide a day of water and land sports for injured veterans and their nondisabled family and friends from all over the country. It was a hell of a lot of work, and he was good with that.
But for now he sat there watching the deep, dark night sky, his brain tired.
“You okay?”
Sophie. He’d heard her coming. She had a fondness for high-heeled sandals that made her legs look like they were ten miles long. Smooth, sleek, toned—
Don’t go there, soldier.
He stood up as she came into view, standing before him with a soft smile. “Hey.”
He found he couldn’t talk, couldn’t breathe until he’d pulled her in and buried his face in her hair. The feel of her, warm and soft in his arms, felt so fucking right. Able to breathe again, he finally said “hey” back.
She’d burrowed in as well, setting her head on his shoulder and letting out a little sigh like maybe he was her happy place.
With her curvy, warm body pressed up against his, he realized she was most definitely his. “Missed you,” he said.
“Me too.”
“You missed you too?” he teased.
She pulled back to look into his eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“Maybe I want to hear it spelled out.”
Her smile faded. “I missed you, Jacob.”
He let out a rough breath. “Scared me there for a beat.”
She stared at him. “If you knew how much I missed you, you’d still be scared.”
Knees still a little weak, he sank to the porch swing.