Two Much Alike

by Pamela Bauer

  “This business with my father…it’s not like running away from creditors. There’s a man in a uniform outside my father’s door.” His voice held a warning.

  “I know how serious this is, Joe.” She needed to let him know she wasn’t going to give up on him without a fight. “I want to be with you, Joe. What we have is special and I don’t want to lose it. But if you don’t want me to be here, just say so, and I’ll go back to Minneapolis.”

  His eyes probed hers. She could see he waged a silent battle within himself, his face reflecting his confusion. Then suddenly he opened his arms, and she didn’t hesitate to go into them.

  “Oh, Frannie, I’ve missed you,” he said close to her ear.

  “I’ve been so miserable without you,” she said, tears pooling in her eyes.

  They didn’t kiss, but simply stood comforting one another, saying without words how much they needed each other. Finally, he released her, wiping away the tears and then kissing each cheek.

  “I should have told you what you were getting into with me,” he said, his voice full of regret.

  “You did what you thought was best for your father,” she replied, still amazed at the sacrifices he’d made. “I’m the one who should have trusted you. I knew in my heart you couldn’t be a criminal, yet I was scared to find out what it was that had made you leave your past behind.”

  He outlined her lips with his thumb. “And now you know what it is.”

  “Yes, and I’m not afraid.” She placed a kiss on his thumb.

  “You should be,” he warned, again stepping away from her. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen here, Frannie. One thing I do know is that I don’t want you or the kids getting involved in this mess.”

  “You can’t expect me to leave you to go through this alone,” she said, although she suspected that was exactly what he wanted her to do.

  He confirmed her suspicions when he said, “Until this is cleared up, I want you to do just that.”

  She wanted to ask, “And if it isn’t cleared up?” but she didn’t dare voice her fears. Suddenly she felt as if she’d been given heaven only to have it snatched away again.

  “You understand why I’m saying this, don’t you, Frannie?”

  She nodded and managed to ask, “And after this is all over?”

  He smiled then, that special smile that made her think anything was possible as long as he was at her side.

  “Maybe we can finally get that weekend away. One thing I do know, Frannie, is that I don’t want there to be any more secrets between us.”

  “Me, neither,” she agreed.

  His finger moved across her jaw. “Don’t look so sad. We will be together,” he said with an optimism she knew he wasn’t feeling.

  She gave him a smile and hoped he was right, because if he wasn’t, Frannie didn’t think she could bear the consequences.

  WHEN FRANNIE SAW Lois making her way through the office toward her cubicle, she knew there was only one reason she’d come. She had news about Joe and his father.

  Frannie held her breath as she waited for her sister to reach her door. When Lois saw her, she smiled and Frannie’s heart began to race.

  “Well?” she prodded.

  “All charges have been dropped,” Lois reported with a victorious grin.

  Frannie grabbed her sister and hugged her, jumping up and down as she said, “I knew he was innocent. Thank you for everything.”

  “I didn’t do much. He had a very good team of attorneys working on his behalf,” Lois said, when Frannie released her.

  “I’m glad you were there. You said you thought the charges would be dropped.”

  “Considering the Admiral’s mental state and the fact that he would no longer be a credible witness, it wasn’t a difficult prediction to make,” she said, shrugging out of her coat. “Sit down and I’ll give you the details.”

  Frannie was an attentive audience as her sister relayed what the courts had decided and why. By the time she’d finished, there was only one unanswered question.

  “So when are they coming home?”

  “I believe they should be back in Grand Marais tomorrow night. Are you going to go up there to give them a welcome home party?”

  Frannie wished she could say yes, but the truth was that she felt she needed an invitation to go see Joe. “No. I’ll wait. I’m not sure Joe will want me there.”

  Lois rolled her eyes. “Are you nuts? The guy’s crazy about you.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Frannie said.

  And she found out how true that was, later when Joe called her from Washington.

  “I suppose Lois told you,” he said.

  “Of course. That’s wonderful news, Joe. You must be so relieved.”

  “I am. I’m bringing Dad home tomorrow.”

  She knew they’d be flying on a smaller airline that used the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport for its connecting flights, which was the reason she said, “Why don’t I come to the airport, and we’ll grab a quick drink to celebrate your homecoming while you wait.”

  “I don’t think there’s much time between flights,” he answered. “And I’d hate for you to have to drive through evening rush-hour traffic if we’re only going to have ten or fifteen minutes.”

  “It’d be worth it,” she replied.

  “I believe it would be,” he said in a voice that made her long to be in his arms.

  “Then, let me come. I’m so happy, Joe, I could jump over the moon. I need to share this feeling with you!”

  He hesitated, then said, “I think the celebration should wait.”

  Disappointment flowed through Frannie. “All right. If that’s what you want.”

  “It’s not really what I want, but there are some loose ends I need to tie up.”

  “Can you tell me what those loose ends are?”

  “I’d rather talk to you about it after I’ve taken care of them. You trust me, don’t you, Frannie? You know I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

  “Yes, I do,” she answered honestly.

  “It’s good to hear you say that, because I need to sort through some things and I really need to do it on my own.”

  Her intuition had her skin prickling. “This is about Dennis, isn’t it.”

  “Yes. Can you trust me to do what’s best for us?”

  Her first inclination was to plead with him to tell her what was troubling him, but she also knew that it couldn’t have been easy coming to terms with everything he’d discovered in the past few months. As much as she wanted to help him cope with the changes that had occurred in his life, she knew that only he could resolve the issues surrounding his newly discovered family.

  “I do trust you, Joe, but I also want you to know that I’m here for you,” she said.

  “Thank you, Frannie. Everything is going to be all right. You’ll see. Just have a little patience and faith, okay?”

  “Okay,” she told him, although it was easier said than done.

  When she had lunch with her sister sometime later, she received the same advice. She bemoaned the fact that Joe had been back from Washington for over two weeks, yet she still hadn’t seen him, and Lois looked at her and said, “He just needs a little time to adjust to everything that’s happened.”

  “How much time?” she asked, knowing she was sounding rather churlish but unable to stop herself.

  “Frannie! Look what he’s been through. Have you forgotten that he not only nearly lost his father, but discovered he has another mother?” she said in between bites of her salad.

  “And a brother,” she mumbled irritably.

  “He knows where Dennis is?” Lois looked surprised.

  “I didn’t ask him, but I have a feeling he does.”

  Lois jabbed at the air with her fork. “Now, that would be something, but I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. He did work in naval intelligence and he was able to stay underground with his father for two years. Is that what has you so irritable? The possibility that
he might see Dennis?”

  “It does make me nervous.”

  Lois chuckled. “He’s not going to see him and become his evil twin or anything.”

  “I know that,” she said impatiently.

  “He probably just needs to see for himself who his brother is.” She raised her brows. “Poor Joe. I sure wouldn’t want to discover I had a twin like Dennis.”

  “Thank you very much.” Frannie threw her napkin down in disgust. “As if I wasn’t worried enough.”

  “You still haven’t told me why you are so worried. Joe loves you. Meeting his brother isn’t going to change that.”

  Intellectually, she didn’t believe it would, but emotionally Frannie couldn’t seem to dispel the fear that somehow Dennis would screw up her relationship with Joe.

  “Frannie, have a little faith in the man,” Lois urged. “I do.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, because he’s important to me.”

  Now, all Frannie had to do was trust that she was as important to him.

  INSTEAD OF RETURNING to Grand Marais, Joe decided to go straight from Montana to Minneapolis. He didn’t want to wait one more day to see Frannie, and finally he felt as if he could go to her with nothing standing between them. He no longer had to worry about his father’s safety, and now he’d resolved the issue of his brother.

  It had all seemed rather surreal—the brother he didn’t know he had was the same man who’d abandoned the woman he loved. But it had all become very real once Joe found Dennis Harper.

  Now, as he landed the Cessna on the small airstrip in suburban Minneapolis, he contemplated how he would tell Frannie what had happened on his trip.

  By the time he’d called a taxi to take him to Frannie’s place, it was after ten. The tiny house was dark except for one light in the kitchen. Joe paid the driver and went up to the door.

  Just seconds after he rang the bell, the porch light came on. Frannie’s head peaked through the square pane of glass in the door, her mouth dropping open at the sight of him. She yanked open the door.

  “Joe! Is something wrong?” she asked as she pulled the edges of her robe together to ward off the cold air.

  “No, everything’s right,” he said, stepping into the house. He closed the door behind him and stared at her. Her face had been scrubbed clean, her hair pushed away from her forehead and secured with a headband. She looked ready for bed, which made him ache with longing—a longing that grew more intense each time he saw her.

  He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she moaned with pleasure. He didn’t. He simply said, “I love you, Frannie.”

  She looked a bit taken aback by his declaration, but said, “That’s good because I love you, too, Joe.”

  “You do?”

  She nodded and grinned. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her until she was breathless. “My God, I’ve missed you,” he said, inhaling the fresh scent of her shampoo.

  When he gently eased away from her, she asked, “Where have you been?”

  He led her by the hand into the family room, where he pulled her onto his lap as he sank down onto the sofa, planting several more kisses on her lips before saying, “I need to tell you something. I found Dennis, Frannie.” He watched her face closely to see her reaction.

  “Where is he?”

  “Do you really want to know?”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t think it matters anymore.”

  Joe felt a huge wave of relief. “I think you’re right about that.”

  “Why didn’t you call to tell me you’d found him, Joe?”

  “I think you know the answer to that,” he said softly, but he could see by the confusion in her eyes that she really didn’t. “He’s my brother and your ex-husband. I wanted to keep the two things separate.”

  “And can you?”

  “Yeah, I can,” he said, still a bit amazed that it was true. “It felt really weird, Frannie. I mean, this person I’d never met before and yet I had this connection to him. You were right. We are alike in many ways, yet we don’t share the same goals, the same values.”

  “Did you tell him the whole story of how you found out he was your twin?”

  He nodded. “I didn’t see any point in lying.” He fingered her hair. “He knows I’m in love with you. I told him he didn’t need to worry about taking care of his children. That I’d do it…that I wanted to do it.”

  Her eyes darkened with emotion and she kissed him deeply. “That’s for being such a wonderful guy,” she said, her expression full of the love she felt for him. Then she asked, “Did he say anything about seeing the kids again?”

  He shook his head. “He’s remarried, Frannie. In fact, his wife is pregnant.” He watched her to see what reaction the news would produce, but there was no anger, no pain.

  She simply said, “I guess that doesn’t surprise me. Did you tell him about Arlene…how she misses him? I hope you told him he should contact her even if he wants nothing to do with us.”

  “It wouldn’t bother you if they had a relationship again?”

  She didn’t answer immediately, but finally said, “No, it really wouldn’t. I can imagine how I would feel as a mother if I couldn’t see one of my children.”

  He kissed her again, a tender brushing on the mouth that told her how much he admired her. “I don’t know what the future will bring, Frannie. I only know that I want you in it.”

  “I want that, too, Joe, but there are obstacles.”

  “You mean Dennis?”

  “No, I mean you live in Grand Marais and I live in Minneapolis,” she said, slipping her fingers inside his jacket.

  He grinned. “That’s not an obstacle. My home can be anywhere you want it to be,” he told her, his body heating up at the touch of her fingers.

  “Then, I guess there’s nothing standing in our way now, is there?”

  “Not a thing,” he agreed.

  A tiny voice interrupted their kiss. “Mommy, I need a drink o’ water.”

  “Just little obstacles,” Joe said with a twinkle in his eye. When Frannie would have gotten up to get Luke a drink, he stopped her. “You wait here. I can handle this one.”

  Frannie simply smiled and said, “I believe you are just the man I need.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-5176-5

  TWO MUCH ALIKE

  Copyright © 2001 by Pamela Muelhbauer.

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