Famous by Association

by Leddy Harper

  I glanced at the back door, wondering when Jacoby would show up, or if he already had and noticed I had company. Either way, I wanted to hurry up and get this over with so I could see him. Normally, I would want to immediately tell Dave what all had just happened, but for some reason, Jacoby was the only person I wanted right now.

  And these morons were preventing that.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

  “As you know, there’s an event scheduled for tomorrow,” Ty said, taking over the conversation again. “It’s the grand opening of a local restaurant that Nicole and her husband, Trent, are investors in, and everyone has been invited to attend.”

  “What about Adam, though? Hasn’t he said that he doesn’t want any part in the show?”

  “Yes, but just stick to the narrative that Adam has managed to get the weekend off from training and came to surprise you. You don’t want to cancel on the girls, and he doesn’t want to give up what little bit of time he gets with you, so you guys decide to go together.”

  This plan was far from foolproof, but at least I wasn’t the one who came up with it. If it backfired, then someone else would have to deal with the fallout, because I refused to take on that responsibility on top of everything else that came along with being Tiffany. “Well, it sounds like you thought of everything. What can go wrong?”

  “Nothing. Nothing can or will go wrong.” The way Ty said that made it sound like a threat, except there was no way it would’ve been aimed at me. He couldn’t have possibly thought that I would be the one to expose Tiffany’s secrets. After realizing how much it would hurt others, not just my sister, I abandoned that ship.

  Not much else was said before Ty stood and made his excuses to leave. I got up to walk them to the door, but when Adam remained seated, I pointed to him and asked Ty, “He’s not staying here, is he?”

  “Well, it’s his house.”

  I opened my eyes so wide in shock that I could feel the air quickly drying them out. “Yeah, but… I’ve been sleeping in Tiff’s bed. I have all my things in there.”

  “I’m sure you’ll figure that out together.” We were talking about Adam like he wasn’t even there. Meanwhile, he continued to watch, as if we were talking about somebody else. It was very strange to say the least. “I suggest you take a little time to get to know him so that you don’t show up on his arm yet act like he’s a total stranger.”

  “I’m going to start demanding bonuses every time something else is thrown at me.”

  “Do I get to deduct from your pay every time you throw something at me?” Adam’s expression remained neutral, though his tone was light and teasing. Maybe this guy wasn’t as much of a box of rocks as I’d assumed.

  I walked Ty out to his car in the driveway, closing the door behind me so that Adam couldn’t overhear our conversation. It was clear that Ty was opposed to discussing anything while Adam was at the house, but unfortunately for him, he didn’t have a choice. I followed him to his car, which was parked behind a truck that I assumed was Adam’s, and cornered him.

  “This has got to be the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Worse than having me pretend to be my sister. Please tell me this wasn’t your genius plan.”

  He glanced over my shoulder at the house behind me, likely ensuring that we were completely alone before speaking. “It wasn’t. Tiffany came up with it. I told her my concerns, which I’m sure are the same as yours, but she assured me that it would be fine. I guess she thinks that Adam will blindly defend her, so even if something is said, he’ll stop it before it spreads.”

  “Wow, she’s an idiot.”

  He shrugged and raised his brows in a it is what it is expression. “Just do what you can and let whatever happens happen. If Serenity says something, let Adam take the lead; don’t get involved. Basically, let Serenity look like the idiot on camera.”

  Once again, I had to keep my mouth closed to make Tiffany look good. If she just stopped doing crummy things to good people, then no one would have to pretend otherwise. But no…that seemed to be an impossible request.

  When I returned to the living room, I wasn’t surprised to find Adam exactly where we left him. I wasn’t too sure about this guy. Aside from the one funny comment he’d made, he seemed to be a bump on a log. Maybe he’d suffered from too many concussions. That would at least explain why he was with my sister.

  “I’ll take the guest room; it’s really not a big deal where I sleep.” His voice was so deep it practically rumbled throughout the room.

  I didn’t know what else to say other than, “Thank you.”

  “You’ve got quite the arm…have you ever thought about playing baseball?”

  I wasn’t sure if that was a jab or a joke, but based on his smirk, I assumed it was the latter. “Nah. I wasn’t any good until I moved into this place. The amount of times I’ve had to defend myself against intruders is enough to make anyone good at throwing things.”

  His concern showed in his furrowed brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, between you and Ty, I really should look into self-defense classes.”

  “Yeah, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.” There was laughter in his words, yet his lips barely curled. I began to wonder if this man was even capable of smiling. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if he couldn’t. Maybe after being with my sister for so long, he’d forgotten how.

  Adam King puzzled me, and while he was upstairs putting his bag away, I spent the time analyzing everything I knew about him, as well as the little tidbits I’d seen today. Even though his voice had the potential to be menacing, he was very soft-spoken. Granted, he hadn’t said much, and it wasn’t like this situation was anywhere near normal. If anything, he came across as somewhat of a shy person. And since I’d never had so much as a conversation with him, I had no idea if he was always like this, or if it was because of the situation.

  “Have you already eaten?” he asked after returning to the living room.

  “Yeah, have you?”

  “I grabbed something on the way into town, just wanted to make sure you weren’t hungry.” So far, he appeared to be a good person—which still didn’t explain why he was with my sister. “So, what do you suggest we do to get comfortable with each other?”

  “You could start by telling me about yourself. As much as I hate to say it, I don’t know anything about you other than you play professional football.” The moment those words came out of my mouth, I felt awful. “Don’t take that personally, though. It has nothing to do with you. As I’m sure you know, my sister and I don’t really speak.”

  The fact that all communication between us while I lived her life went through Ty was proof enough of that. Here I was, pretending to be her, and she still couldn’t pick up a phone to at least text me. Although, no one would hear me complain about that. Being her was enough; I didn’t care to add talking to her to the list.

  After the first ten or so minutes, things became rather relaxed between us. It made it much easier to talk and get to know each other. On one hand, it almost felt like a first date. He shared stories from his life, and I shared some from mine. We laughed and made fun of things that had happened to us in the past. It did exactly what it was supposed to…it made us comfortable around each other. Even if we never spoke again, at least tomorrow would go smoothly.

  “I can’t get over how much you look like Tiff.” He laughed at himself beneath his breath and shook his head, obviously aware of what he just said. “I realize you’re identical twins, but I guess I didn’t expect you to look exactly like her.”

  “Well, not anymore, though. Am I right?” I couldn’t resist a good dig at Tiff.

  He was quiet for a moment before taking a deep breath and shrugging. “I told her she didn’t need it, but she didn’t want to listen to me. I finally gave up arguing when it was clear that she was going to follow through with the surgery no matter how I felt about it.”

  “So you told her not to go?”

  “I never objected to
the Botox, because I figured it’s not invasive, and if she needs to do that to feel good about herself, then who am I to tell her she can’t get it done. Then she started with the lip injections. I put up a little bit of a fight with that, but only because I didn’t see anything wrong with her lips before. But when she came to me and said she wanted her nose done, I vehemently objected to that.”

  “Wait…all she went to get done was her nose?” I thought about the image of her on FaceTime when she’d called to beg me to do this for her. Either she’d gotten more than her nose done, or they had used a baseball bat to break the bone.

  “I don’t know if that’s all she went for and they talked her into more, or if she only told me about the nose, knowing there was nothing I could do about it after the fact. Which would’ve been ridiculous considering she did what she wanted anyway.” He gestured to my face and added, “There was nothing wrong with the way she looked to begin with.”

  While most would likely see that as a come-on, I didn’t. He was making a point and using my face to prove it. “Well, I personally agree with you, but then again, I’m a little biased.”

  “I just hope that after all this, she realizes how stupid it is. She could’ve died.” Sadness cloaked his words, proving how much he cared about her, which shocked me to the core.

  “What do you see in my sister?” I realized how bad that sounded, so I decided to reword it before he had a chance to speak. “I mean, you have to know what kind of person she is and how she treats others. You seem to be a pretty nice guy, which makes it hard to comprehend why you’d want to marry someone like her.”

  “Yeah, I see how she can be toward other people, but she’s not like that with me. I know I just said that she never listens to me, but that’s never stopped her from loving me or taking care of me when I need it.”

  I believed him—well, more like I believed that he thought that to be true. Tiffany was really great at being whoever she needed to be to get what she wanted. And when she’d set her sights on Adam King, she likely saw dollar signs and a chance to become more famous than she already was. I didn’t doubt for one second that she pretended to be exactly what he wanted to secure her place on his arm. The fact that she was messing around with other guys behind his back was enough to prove that. If she truly loved him the way he thought she did, then she wouldn’t have even entertained the thought of cheating.

  The longer I lived my sister’s life, the more I hated her.

  The bodies of her victims continued to pile up at my feet.

  16

  Jacoby

  I was surprised that I hadn’t worn a hole in the floor with how much I’d paced over the last couple of hours. I was too anxious to sit and far too angry to sleep. And the longer it went without hearing from Tasha, the more anxious and angrier I became.

  It’d gotten so bad that by the time my phone finally rang, I was fuming. I couldn’t even speak to answer it. I just accepted the call and held the receiver to my ear, waiting for her to say something.

  “Hello?” she asked, sounding almost confused. “Jacoby? Are you there?”

  “Yeah. What’s up?” I knew I was being ridiculous and dramatic, but I was too far gone to rein it in. I’d had a lot of time to overthink and come up with every worst-case scenario I could imagine. I’d even gone as far as to believe that the whole thing had been a lie, that there was no Tasha, and this whole thing was nothing more than a game to Tiffany.

  No amount of logic could’ve saved me from my paranoid thoughts.

  “Is everything okay?” Her worried voice flooded my ear and created a whirlwind of conflicting emotions inside. And because of that, the only response she got was uh-huh, followed by more silence. “Are you sure, because you don’t sound like everything’s fine.”

  “I’m just tired.” I wanted to add that I’d stayed up waiting for her call, but I felt like that would be too much, so I dropped it.

  Her heavy sigh broke the silence. “Well, from your short answers and the fact that you never came over, I assume that means you know about Adam being here?”

  “I did come over, but I quickly turned around when I saw that you had company.”

  “Why are you mad? It’s not like I knew he was coming.”

  “Well, I didn’t know it was Adam at first. Jessa was the one who suggested I look him up to see if it’s the same person. After that, I didn’t know what to think. And to be honest with you, I still don’t. For all I know, you’ve been lying to me this entire time.” Now that I’d said it out loud, I had to admit how ludicrous it sounded.

  “I was on the couch, playing my game and waiting for you to come over when Adam and Ty walked in. Unannounced, may I add.” Her words were fiery and stern, like a boulder wrapped in flames. “Having Adam here for the weekend to tag along with me while I filmed was Tiff’s idiotic solution to the issue I’ve been dealing with on set. They didn’t tell me ahead of time because they knew I would never agree to it, so they ambushed me instead.”

  The anger that flooded her tone had completely silenced me. No longer was it my own emotion that had held my tongue but hers. Guilty people became defensive when faced with the accusation of their crimes. But that wasn’t the case with Tasha. Her ire wasn’t born from guilt; it was created by the lack of trust that I’d shown her. This was her verbally giving me the middle finger.

  “I literally just got to my room. I called you the first chance I got—before I even washed my face.” She paused to take a deep breath, and when she spoke again, she sounded calmer, more defeated than angry. “I don’t know what I’ve done to make you question me. Obviously, if I had some hidden agenda, I wouldn’t have invited you over knowing that Adam would be here.”

  “Where are you now?” It was the worst question to ask, but it was burning my tongue, so I had to get it out.

  “In my room.”

  “Which is Adam’s room, right? Haven’t you been sleeping in your sister’s bed?”

  “Yeah, Jacoby. And he’s right here with me, listening to everything I’m telling you.” I knew right then and there that I’d royally messed things up with her. And that was proven when she added, “I don’t have time for this. I have an early morning followed by a long and busy day, so I should get to bed. I’ll talk to you later.”

  And with that, the call ended.

  Ten minutes ago, I was angry with Tasha, but now, I was furious with myself. I should’ve never accused her of anything. All I had to do was hear her out, and everything would’ve been fine. But I was guilty of having moments of being a hothead. This happened to be one of those moments.

  It was definitely not my finest hour.

  I thought I couldn’t sleep before, but that was nothing compared to the insomnia I suffered from now. I ended up lying in bed for over an hour, berating myself for being so hard on Tasha. The fear of being in the spotlight again had blinded me from reality. Had I spent ten seconds thinking about it, I would’ve been able to see that Adam randomly showing up at his own house was more plausible and made more sense than Tiffany fabricating a twin sister just to mess with me. I seriously was an idiot sometimes.

  It was late, almost midnight, and I knew that Tasha had an early morning, so the last thing I wanted to do was wake her up. But I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, so I got my phone and spent nearly half an hour typing out a text.

  I told her how sorry I was, and that she didn’t deserve my anger. Then I explained the thoughts that had gone through my head between the time I saw her and Adam on the couch and when she finally called. Without excusing—or attempting to excuse—my reaction, I tried to explain that my past was riddled with people who had lied to me. People I’d looked up to, people I had trusted with my life. And they weren’t little lies, either. The lasting effects of those deceptions were lifelong. Again, I reiterated that I wasn’t excusing my behavior, but she had asked what she had done that would cause me to distrust her, so I wanted to give her that answer—she hadn’t done anything, the ones befor
e her had. And she didn’t deserve to pay the price for their dishonesty.

  After sending that message, I set my phone on the nightstand and tried to fall asleep, hoping it would be easier now without that weight sitting on my chest. But before I could get comfortable enough to drift off, my phone chimed with an incoming text. Instantly, my chest tightened. I knew it had to have been from Tasha, which gave me conflicting emotions—worry that I’d woken her up, and anxiety over what she had to say.

  Tasha Lewis: I realize we haven’t known each other long, and considering this strange situation we’ve found ourselves in, our time together is limited and in secret. I also understand that trust is earned, not freely handed out to everyone you come across. I can’t say “you should know me better than that” because that’s unrealistic. Neither do I expect you to immediately trust that it wasn’t what it looked like. But that doesn’t mean you should’ve DIS-trusted me. That’s what I have a problem with. Not trusting is one thing, but immediately assuming that I am a liar is completely different.

  I understood where she was coming from, and I hated myself for the way I’d treated her. Just reading those words broke my heart. I had two options in front of me: concede and walk away or fight.

  Me: You’re right…we’re in a really weird situation. So with that in mind, I would like it if you could put yourself in my shoes for one second. This isn’t to deny that it’s all my fault or make any excuses, I would just like a second to explain the distrusting aspect that you pointed out. Is that ok?

  To my surprise, she immediately responded with a thumbs-up emoji.

  Me: I distrust your sister. This evening, I wasn’t accusing YOU of being a liar. I was accusing your sister of lying about having a twin just to mess with me. Not once did I ever think that you, Tasha Lewis, had done anything to hurt me. The whole time, I assumed Tiffany had. Does that make sense?