by Lindsey Hart
“Excuse me?” He pumped her hand once, then let his fall back to his side. “Your name. It’s Francis.”
“Martin, actually.”
“Okay, Francis.”
The guy’s bushy gray eyebrows knit together. “Why do you keep calling me Francis? That’s not my name.”
“Because you keep calling me Miss Underhill and that’s not my name.”
“Twin sister or not, your name would still be Underhill.”
“Ahhh…” she stalled for time, searching her sloshy brain for a way out of the hole she was digging herself in deeper and deeper by the second.
She still had no idea what she had done and thinking about it only amped her anxiety in a big way. It did nothing for her poor stomach, which twisted violently, threatening to upchuck some of the contents of drinks she couldn’t remember drinking. Maybe there had been a late-night poutine too? She and Jasmine had been known to go out and get some greasy, gravy-smothered fries after a night out.
“Well… you see, I’m afraid that used to be my name, but I’m actually married now. My husband is going to be down here any second and I’m afraid he’s pretty crazy protective of me and having guys show up on our doorstep won’t be appreciated. You get it. Uh- you should probably go. If you don’t want him to come down here and chase you back to your car.”
The guy, Francis, Martin- whatever… crossed his arms over his chest. A chest that was still surprisingly fit for an older dude. He actually made that black suit uniform looking thing look pretty good. All that he was missing was one of those conductor chauffer style cap things.
“You’re not married.”
“No? How the heck would you know?” This time it was her turn to cross her arms. She wished she could slam the door in his face, but his foot was still there.
She was growing steadily annoyed, and more positive by the second, that this guy didn’t have underworld ties. He wasn’t an undercover cop either, so she couldn’t have done anything illegal the night before. Which left the fact that he was some creepy dude looking for her for unknown reasons. That both infuriated and terrified her, and all she could do was produce a mental count in her hung-over, cotton thick brain and focus on breathing like a calm, rational person who had nothing to fear would do.
“I have it on good authority. Now. I want you to get dressed, pack whatever you need, and come with me.”
Sydney couldn’t keep her mouth from falling open. “Ex-excuse me? Who the heck do you think you are, just showing up at my house and demanding that I come with you? Does that work on other women? Are you secretly a serial killer who is going to bag me and tag me and uh- stuff me in your trunk? Does that actually work with the ladies, Francis?”
The guy took a step forward and muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, heaven save me from idiots. “Look, Miss. I have my instructions. They were to come to your house, which I know is registered to you because my firm never makes mistakes. I was given a list of places to take you to prepare you and then I’m to drive you to the airport where you will be put on a private jet and flown to Philadelphia.”
“What?” Sydney’s head already felt like a soupy mess, and this guy’s strange statement and freaky familiar confidence wasn’t helping. The fact that he was now standing inside her house was absolutely terrifying.
“I’m- I’m going to give you, like, ten seconds to get out of here before I call the cops,” Sydney said. She tried to force her voice to come out hard and commanding, but it shook like she was a scared little girl. Okay, so she was a scared not so little girl.
Francis not Francis rolled his eyes again. He muttered a few more choice words under his breath before he pulled out his phone again. He flipped to the camera roll and turned it around. He held it proffered there, outstretched between them like a gift. A gift of a rattlesnake that would strike, no doubt.
Still, Sydney couldn’t help herself. She’d never been able to help herself. Her mom always said that her wild spirit would lead her straight to hell one day. Or more like it would get her into trouble. That’s what her mom said, but at the moment, Sydney felt like she was going straight to hell.
Because there, on the guy’s phone, was a screenshot of her social media status, made sometime in the blacked-out hours, straight from a soul that was filled with regrets, pounded out by nimble fingertips known to make bad decisions from time to blacked-out time. That status was straight from the movie h-e- double hockey sticks.
It’s been ten years. You made me a promise. If the offer still stands, I’d like to take you up on it.
Sydney’s stomach sank straight to the bottom of her toes and she was pretty sure it was going to be a bloody miracle if she didn’t throw up all over the guy’s fancy, shiny black shoes and pressed dress pants.
Holy freakin’ guacamole, Francis not Francis was there to drag her off to get hitched.
CHAPTER 3
Jesse
“You’re whating what? Getting what? Married?”
Jesse winced as his mother swept into his office without bothering to knock. Of course, since she was his mom and his secretary, Crystal, a twenty-two-year-old who’d just graduated college and was thrilled to get a decent job with a decent company, was easily swayed with bribes of chocolate chip cookies, angel food cake, and cherry tarts. No matter how many times he told her not to let anyone back into his office without calling him first, she didn’t seem to understand that his mom was included in that category.
Even though he’d just had a conversation with her a few days before and specifically told her.
There his mom stood, in front of his desk, her hands at her hips. His mom was one of those cute old lady types, about five feet tall. She was a little on the rounder side, something she was always complaining about, but to him, she was cute. She was his mom. She was always perfect, no matter what. She had the kindest face, cheeks that were always flushed with life, brown eyes that always sparkled, dark hair she dyed each month, done in a chin-length bob that was oddly fashionable. She hadn’t given up her favorite jeans and those mom-type tops with the faded flowers on the front, even though when the company took off, he’d bought them a new house and gifted them a bank account to take care of it.
Sylvia Samson never failed to have a perpetual smile on her face, so it was more than a little comical to see her standing there, trying to be stern. Her lips pursed and she gave him one of her toughest mom looks, a look that hadn’t worked on him since he was six years old.
Even when she threatened spankings, she was too much of a softie to really follow through with more than a slight tap or a swat.
“I see that Sam managed to keep his mouth shut for all of five minutes.”
“You told your brother not to tell us?” His mom’s mouth dropped open and hurt filled her eyes. Her lips wavered and those big eyes started to get shiny. He was pretty sure that at that point, she wasn’t going to be leaking tears of joy, no matter how close she was getting to marrying one of her kids off. It was only her lifetime goal. Those tears, if he let them fall, wouldn’t be tears of joy.
“Oh, no, mom, come on.” Jesse shoved back from his desk. “Please don’t do that.” He stalked over and took her warm hand in his. “I just- this isn’t… I have a lot of explaining to do and I actually wanted to talk to the bride first, before I said anything to you and dad. Sam worked me up to it last night and it just slipped out.”
Some of the hurt faded from his mom’s eyes, replaced with hope that was just about as hard to take. “But you’re… are you serious? You managed to keep this whole thing a secret?”
“Mom, it’s not what you think.” Jesse guided his mother over to his desk, where he pulled out one of the modern metal chairs in front and eased her into it.
He sat down on the edge of his desk in an undignified position hardly fitting the boss. He actually had lectured a few of his employees to treat their desks like desks and not like chairs in the past, so he hoped no one was heading towards his of
fice or walking down the hall for the next few minutes to see him winning the Hypocrite Boss of the Year Award.
“I don’t know what I think,” his mom sniffed. “Your brother came up for waffles this morning. I said that I was going to call you to come over for some and he said not to bother, that you’d be busy. I asked busy with what, and he said busy planning your wedding.”
“For Christ’s sakes,” Jesse muttered under his breath. Thanks a lot, Sam.
The thought of throttling his brother almost made up for the bastard giving away all of his secrets after he’d promised not to. Turns out all it took was the promise of home-cooked waffles.
“Maybe I should move back home so you can cook me breakfast every single morning, clean up after me, and wipe my ass too.”
“Jesse!” His mom chided. “No need to be crass about it.”
“Sam is my older brother. You shouldn’t have to take care of him like he’s five. He’s capable of looking after himself.”
His mom leaned forward like she was ready to let him in on a secret, but he already knew what she was going to say. “Between you and me, he’s not really.”
He rolled his eyes. “I know that, mom. Seriously. It’s not just between you and me. I think everyone who knows Sam knows it.”
“He’ll grow out of it. You’ll see.”
“He’s thirty-four!”
“Well, plenty of time. Everyone says forty is the new twenty, so I guess he’s more like a teenager still.”
“That’s not how that saying is used, mom.”
His mom blinked her long eyelashes. She had that doe kind of eyes that could turn even the hardest of hearts into a sopping mess. She’d done it to him over the years. The thing he hated most about screwing up when he was a teenager still living at home was the disappointing way his mom used to look at him. He hated seeing her look like that. Kind of how she was looking at him now.
“Mom…”
“Jesse.” His mom placed her hand above her heart. “I’m just sad that you didn’t think you could tell us. You kept this girl a secret. Your whole relationship a secret? From everyone. I mean, I can see that you’d want to keep it private, out of the media and whatnot because I know how much you hate when people dig into your business and put you into the papers and magazines and online and all that, but your own family? You couldn’t even tell us?”
Jesse sighed. “Seriously, mom, you don’t understand. This isn’t what you think. It wasn’t conventional. Even if it was, don’t you think Sam would have sold me out long before now?”
“Jesse!”
“I know, I know.” He put up his hands in a gesture of peaceful defeat. “I’ll admit that’s a low blow. True, but low.”
“It’s not…”
“Mom.” Jesse leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I couldn’t tell you and dad because I didn’t know until last night.”
“What?” his mom gasped. “Are you… like, doing one of those mail order bride things? You didn’t get everything confirmed until yesterday? Is that what you’re telling me?”
“First of all, I think the term, mail order bride, is a little outdated. Secondly, uh- not exactly.” Jesse closed his eyes and hoped his mom could wait until he was done before she jumped in with her two cents. More like four cents or eight cents. Heaven forbid it was ten because he’d be lucky if he got out of there in time for dinner before her lecture was done and it was just past ten in the morning. “I- well- of course, you remember Sydney.”
His mom’s face changed, blanking out. She didn’t understand. Sydney had been gone for nearly ten years and he hadn’t brought her up. She’d added her to his social media, but she didn’t say a word about it when she did it. She’d never mentioned Syd because she had enough mom sense to realize how painful that was for him.
“Of course I remember,” she said softly. “She was such a nice girl. It’s too bad she moved away to San Francisco and you guys lost touch. I thought you’d be friends forever.”
“Yeah- well- uh- okay. So- in college, the last day of college actually, we went out to celebrate. We took a taxi home since we lived in the same place. Um… things got a little out of hand. Okay, more than a little.”
His mom’s lips formed into a round O of shock and her eyes went wide. Like, really wide. Wide enough that her whole face looked like eyes. Eyes the size of basketballs.
“Okay, mom, I’m not having that conversation,” Jesse rushed on. “You’re my mom and it’s just too weird. So, don’t even try. It was a mistake, what happened. She packed up and left the next day.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. But the night before- well- after it happened- er- I thought it was pretty good for her even though it was the first time for the both of us and I was-”
“Overconfident?”
Jesse nearly choked. “No! God, mom! I was going to say drunk. I was pretty drunk. I told her that we had a bunch of life to live and this was the start of it all, seeing as we were both graduating and that if she was still single in ten years, I’d marry her myself.”
“And yesterday was…”
“Her thirty-second birthday.”
“And it’s July. It’s been ten years since you graduated.”
“More than ten years,” Jesse agreed. He watched as the light of understanding finally lit up his mom’s eyes.
“Oh. Oh… Jesse… what have you done?”
“What have I done?” he asked, open-mouthed himself. His eyes were probably bigger than basketballs. “What do you mean? She’s the one who wrote it as her damn status. She was calling me out where everyone could see it.”
“But I’m sure not everyone knew what it meant.”
“No, no one did, but it was up there, flashing like a damn billboard for me to see. What was I supposed to do? Just ignore it?”
“Well… maybe. I- well- it’s been ten years. She’s moved on. You moved on. You both had a lot of life in there and now- now you’re telling me that you’re getting married to someone you really don’t even know anymore?”
Jesse was glad he was sitting down. All the wind rushed out of his sails and damn, those sails had been flapping in the breeze of his ungodly optimism. He was pathetic. That was the truth. Moved on? Fuck, he didn’t even know what that felt like. He still felt like that kindergartener who breathed in the sunshine hair of the girl he was completely enamored with. He couldn’t even conceive of a world without Syd in it. He’d lived that world for ten years. He’d always held out hope that one day Syd might move back, or something might work out somehow. It was a one in a million shot and he knew it, but hey, so had his company taking off.
He’d hoped when he started getting all the media attention, that Syd might hear about him and give him a call. A text. Reach out on social media, but she’d been radio silent.
Nothing.
For years.
Ten years.
“Look, mom, I know this is crazy. I know what it sounds like, but the truth is-”
“You love her.”
He stared at his mom for so long that the silence got uncomfortable. He stared at her until his eyes dried out and he remembered that he had to actually blink.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’ve known that you’ve been in love with that girl since you were old enough to know what that means. I figured that after she left, you’d either go and get her back one day or you’d stay single for the rest of your life.”
“Mom!”
“What? That’s not a bad thing, honey. I’m just saying. I’m your mother. I know you. You might think you’ve hidden it all these years, but I knew. Your dad even knew. Sam probably knew.”
“No! Not Sam.”
“Well, I’m not going to tell him, if he doesn’t know.”
“He used to call her Skydney.”
“He does it just to bother you. He’s always loved you and I think he feels that because he’s the bigger brother, he had to be something you wanted to live up to. It was a lo
t of pressure for him.”
Jesse, through some galactic sized miracle, managed to stay quiet and not voice his thoughts about how badly Sam had screwed that up. His mom would only sit there and defend him until she sucked up all the oxygen out of the room and they both got blue in the face from lack of air.
“I don’t know how this is going to work out. I sent someone for her this morning, to pick her up and- uh- take her shopping then bring her here.”
“You what? Oh my god, Jesse, that’s not the way to go about it! Throwing money at her.”
He found himself shrugging. “Yeah, well…” he stared down at his hands, which were clasped between his legs. “I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t sure how to take that after ten years of silence. I thought maybe just showing up on her doorstep would be too much.”
“But wining and dining her and giving her a ride in the company jet might what? Soften her towards you? Impress her? Give her a taste of what her life with you could be when she’s taken care of? She’s not exactly that type of woman.”
“Ugh mom!” Jesse pushed off the desk and started to pace the room anxiously. At this rate, he was going to be the one to use up all the oxygen and they hadn’t exactly installed those masks that came down from the ceiling like they did on planes to rectify the problem.
His mom just stared at him with those huge brown eyes. She blinked a few times. Rapidly. A sheen of moisture misted them over and he groaned.
“Please, mom. This is going to be fine. I just need you to keep it under wraps until I get Syd here and I talk to her and find out what she meant. That message could have just been a joke. I don’t think so though. She wouldn’t find that overly funny. I just… I need to get her here and figure it out before I can tell you anything else. I didn’t even want to tell Sam, but I was so shocked last night and he was being an asshole, as usual, so I threw it in his face and then I promised him to secrecy, but he couldn’t even do that for more than a few hours.”
His mom stood slowly and stalked over. She wrapped him up in a tight hug that he had to stand there and take, and eventually reciprocate since he didn’t want her to burst into tears. He just hoped no one was walking by, because seriously, how much would anyone respect him then?