The Better Man (Chicago Sisters)

by Amy Vastine

  “Sure. Thanks, man.” Max let the door close and followed a grinning Charlie down the steps.

  Make friends, Max. Quickly.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  KENDALL POURED TWO glasses of wine with shaky hands as her sister sat at the kitchen table, watching and wondering. Lucy had no idea what kind of bomb Kendall was about to drop. Kendall’s older sister was a realist. She didn’t believe in things like fate or miracles, ghosts or doppelgängers. She was also the rock in Kendall’s life. Strong and sure. It was six-year-old Lucy who told four-year-old Kendall that the tooth fairy wasn’t real, but Lucy was also the first one to drop everything and fly to North Carolina the day the two marines showed up at Kendall’s door to inform her of Trevor’s untimely death.

  Lucy plucked the wine glass from her sister’s hand. “Okay, dish. What’s going on with you?”

  Kendall stepped out of the kitchen and tiptoed down the narrow hallway, allowing her a clear view of Simon on the couch in the family room, snuggling the snowy white stuffed seal his aunt had given him for making it through the entire school day. The television was a tad too loud, but she didn’t ask him to turn it down since what she had to say wasn’t for his ears, anyway. The little boy giggled at the antics of the cartoon puppies. It made Kendall smile to see him so content. His moments of peace were hers, as well.

  That warm fuzzy feeling didn’t last, though. As soon as she sat down across from her older sister, the ball of anxiety inside her chest pushed against her ribs and made it hard to breathe. “So, the guy Simon and I saw last week...” she whispered.

  Lucy leaned in. “The one who looked like Trevor?”

  Kendall nodded and took a sip of wine. “I saw him today.”

  “This is about seeing Trevor’s freaky clone?”

  The sound of his name scratched Kendall’s skin, leaving her feeling raw and vulnerable. Trevor, Trevor, Trevor. His name had run through her head all day, a distraction she couldn’t afford. “He works for Sato.”

  Lucy choked on her drink. She coughed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “What?”

  Kendall wished her thoughts weren’t so scrambled. It wasn’t Trevor. It was Max. Max, Max, Max. That name, associated with that face, felt so strange as it bounced around her head. “He’s the restaurant manager. I spent the whole day with him.”

  “Oh, honey.” Lucy grabbed and squeezed Kendall’s hand. “No wonder you were ready to fall apart when you got home.”

  Snatching her hand away, Kendall sat back in her chair. “I’m not falling apart. I can’t fall apart. This is the biggest job of my career. I can’t mess it up because this guy reminds me of...” She shook her head, unable to say his name aloud.

  Lucy frowned at her sister before getting up and grabbing the wine bottle off the counter. “How Trevor-like are we talking here?”

  “Very,” Kendall said. Almost identical from a distance. Up close, she noticed the subtle differences—his nose had a small bump, there was no scar on his chin, and his eyes definitely belonged to another soul. Max had brown eyes like hers. Brown with little flecks of gold. They were so warm compared to Trevor’s icy blue.

  “You freaked out when you saw him, didn’t you? Did you faint? Please tell me you didn’t faint. That’s so cliché.” Kendall didn’t answer, but gave a little shrug. Lucy’s mouth dropped open before she began laughing. “Oh, my God, you totally fainted!”

  Kendall’s foot connected with Lucy’s shin. “You have no idea what this is like.”

  Her big sister shook her head. “Oh, K. What am I going to do with you?”

  “Tell me I can do this. Tell me I’ll get this job done and not feel like I’m being haunted.” Haunted was exactly how Kendall felt. Her heart pounded in her chest. Had it always been this relentless? Maybe she was falling apart. This felt like some sort of sick cosmic joke. She had no idea how she was going to survive working side by side with Trevor’s double. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t him. This man would always be a ghost.

  Lucy moved her chair so it was butted up against Kendall’s. “You can do this. This guy is going to be in and out of your life faster than you think. Not to mention, the more you’re around him, the less he’ll seem like Trevor. What’s his name?”

  “Max,” Kendall replied, still testing the name as it came out of her mouth. It was still strange no matter how many times she said it.

  “Max is just some guy. No different than the mailman or the guy at the art store you love to go to.”

  Kendall dropped her chin. “The mailman doesn’t remind me of my dead husband. The guy at the art store is close to Dad’s age. Max, on the other hand, could fool Trevor’s father into thinking his son was still alive.”

  Lucy blew her blond bangs out of her green eyes. “Any chance the Montgomerys had twins and gave one up for adoption?”

  “I seriously doubt it. There was no way Paul would give up anything that belonged to him.” Trevor was gone only because he had been taken. Kendall rested her head on her sister’s shoulder. “Every time I think I’m getting better, something like this knocks me back down.”

  “Stop it,” Lucy said sternly. “You are strong and you are my sister. This is nothing. There are setbacks, and there’s this. This is some weird coincidence, not some terrible twist of fate. Keep your distance from this Max, do your job and keep moving forward.”

  Lucy was right. This was why Kendall confided in Lucy. Her level head came in handy.

  Shuffling feet alerted the two women to Simon’s presence. The head of his stuffed seal was nestled in the crook of the little boy’s elbow. He gave them a closed-mouth smile and scurried around Lucy to Kendall’s other side.

  “I’m hungry,” he whispered in his mother’s ear. Simon didn’t speak aloud in front of Lucy or their other sister, Emma. He talked to Kendall’s mother, but not to her dad, and when everyone was around, he didn’t make a peep.

  “I’ll start dinner in a minute. Did you think of a name for your seal yet?”

  Simon shook his head.

  “Her name should be Lucy, don’t you think?” Lucy asked, petting the seal’s head.

  “How do you know it’s a girl?” Kendall questioned.

  “I adopted the real harp seal. I think I get to choose if the stuffed version is a boy or girl.”

  Kendall shook her head and stood up to start dinner. Of course the seal was part of some bigger cause. Lucy never did things the easy way, like go to a big box store and pick out something from their enormous toy section. In fact, Lucy refused to shop at most chains. She’d even participated in some big rally a couple of weeks ago, protesting against one company’s employment practices. Lucy loved a fight, regardless of whether it was hers or not.

  Simon pulled on his mom’s shirt, and she bent down so he could whisper in her ear. “I want to name him Seal Lo Green.” CeeLo Green, his cat and The Voice had been a big hit in the Montgomery house not too long ago.

  Kendall smiled. “Sorry, sis,” she said, patting Lucy on the shoulder. “Looks like it’s a boy!”

  Lucy scrunched up her nose and pouted. She playfully tugged on Simon’s arm. “You were the last hope I had for your gender, buddy, and you blew it.”

  Simon gave her a confused smile before darting back out into the family room. “I love you, Aunt Lulu,” he said when he was out of sight.

  Kendall’s eyes flew to Lucy’s. He spoke! He wasn’t in the same room with Lucy when he did it, but he spoke. Kendall was going to put that little nugget of positivity in her pocket and keep it. Any good that could come from today was priceless.

  “He is so lucky I love him,” Lucy said before downing the last of her wine. “Anyone else who called me that would be dead right now.” She wasn’t a fan of that particular nickname, even though Simon had been the one to give it to her. It was taboo because someone else used to
call her Lulu and that someone was no longer allowed to call Lucy anything.

  “Oh, I see how it is,” Kendall said, pulling some chicken from the refrigerator. “You say I need to suck it up and deal with the fact that I’m working with a man who strongly resembles my dead husband, but you’ll kill anyone who uses the nickname your ex-boyfriend stole from my son.”

  As strong as Lucy appeared, this subject always did something to her. Made her look more vulnerable than she ever allowed. Her arms crossed her chest and created a shield over her heart. “Your husband left you involuntarily. My ex had a choice, and he chose to walk away. I get to kill.”

  “I love you, but I’m not sure anyone has a choice once Lucy Everhart makes up her mind about how things are going to go down.”

  Lucy frowned. “Everyone has a choice.”

  Kendall couldn’t argue with that. Everyone did have a choice. Trevor had one. He’d made several before he even left for Afghanistan. “Well, be that as it may, I’m pretty sure I won’t have enough money to bail you out if you commit murder,” Kendall teased. “So don’t.”

  When Lucy gave in and cracked a smile, Kendall invited her to stay for dinner.

  “Is that free-range chicken?”

  “No.”

  Lucy got up and opened the refrigerator. She pulled out the gallon of milk. “What did I tell you about this stuff? It’s chock-full of hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and pus. Plus, do you have any idea how they treat the cows on these dairy farms? It’s horrific. And what is this?” She pulled out a package of pudding in a cup. “Don’t you know what the preservatives in this stuff are doing to Simon’s growing body?”

  Kendall snatched them away. After their mother’s breast cancer diagnosis, all three girls had been forced to pay closer attention to their bodies. Lucy was the most diligent of all three of them, yet she was the one who’d found a lump in her breast two years ago. That should have pushed Kendall to make better decisions about what she ate, but buying and cooking all-organic was also another luxury this single, working mom couldn’t afford. Not to mention that some things were just too tempting. Comfort food was all she had to make her feel better some days.

  “Those are for me, thank you very much. Preservatives hopefully won’t hurt my already-grown body. The worst these can do is make my pants tight, but I’m fine with the fact that I don’t have a size 4 butt like some people.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes and shut the refrigerator door. “I think I’ll go home and treat my body, including my size 4 butt, like the temple it is.” She pulled Kendall in for a tight hug. “You can do this,” she said, then kissed her on the cheek.

  It was exactly what Kendall needed to hear.

  * * *

  LUCY WAS RIGHT about one thing—the best plan of action over the next two weeks was to steer clear of Max Jordan. Not only did he physically resemble Trevor, but he also knew how to give orders like him. The man acted like his life depended on being the bossiest person in the room.

  Kendall hadn’t been a fan when her husband forgot he wasn’t her sergeant. She certainly didn’t like it when Max did the same. Every time she stepped foot in Sato’s to check on the construction progress, he was telling her what to do.

  “You need to call the flooring subcontractor and get him back out here,” he said, blocking her path. “I asked him three times to fix the tile in the bathroom and he didn’t do it.”

  This guy was quickly becoming a giant thorn in Kendall’s side. He might be a great restaurant manager, but he had no idea how to manage a remodeling project. She took a deep, cleansing breath instead of pushing him out of her way. “Once we get the west room finished, we’ll put together a punch list and the flooring guy will come back in and make everything right.”

  “I thought we agreed that your redesign in the west room took away necessary space for the waitstaff to get to and from the kitchen.”

  “I’m not sure agreed is the word I would use.” They hadn’t “agreed” on anything. In fact, she recalled telling him she’d change the design when she heard from Mr. Sato and only Mr. Sato. She stepped around him and set her laptop bag on the main bar. “You know what I remember? I remember discussing it wasn’t necessary for you to be here every day.”

  Max followed her. “Well, I remember telling you Mr. Sato left me in charge of overseeing this remodel, and I will be here every day to make sure this restaurant opens on time.”

  Kendall placed both hands on the granite counter, letting the coolness of the stone combat the heat of her temper. Max stood behind her. His reflection in the mirrored wall across from her was glaring at the back of her head. His eyes were narrowed and his five o’clock shadow emphasized the tension in his jaw. Like Trevor, Max was all hard, sharp lines, a perfect contrast to her soft curves. The facial hair made it easier to think of him as Max instead of Trevor, who was always clean-shaven.

  She turned to face him. The brown eyes were still hard to get used to. They always caught her off guard. She struggled to regain focus, blinking and probably looking a fool. When she regained her composure, she attempted to appease him. “I have every intention of making sure this restaurant opens on time. If you let me do my job, we won’t have any trouble meeting our deadlines.”

  He mirrored her movement to keep her from escaping and put a hand on her arm when she tried once more to move around him. It was the first time he’d touched her since their disastrous introduction. Kendall couldn’t stop the déjà vu that it prompted. The last time she saw Trevor alive, she’d been storming away and he’d tried to stop her. The memory jolted through her like an electrical shock.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Max said firmly. “I will be here. Every day. Whether you want me here or not.”

  It was the exact opposite of what Trevor said in her memory, and what she had so badly wanted him to say back then. Hearing those words now, from this man with her husband’s face, was too much. She bit her lip to keep it from trembling. Max seemed to pick up on her emotion and released her from his grasp. He apologized and dashed away.

  Kendall took off for the restroom and locked herself in the first stall. Fat, round tears rolled down her cheeks. Was it wrong to be this angry at someone who was dead? Was it worse to resent someone who was alive simply because he looked like that person? She just wanted Max to go away, to stay clear of the restaurant until the remodel was finished. It would make things so much easier on her, not only because he was annoying, but also because her heart couldn’t take much more abuse.

  “K, you all right?” Since Kendall was the only woman in the restaurant while it was under construction, Owen had no qualms about walking right into the women’s restroom.

  She wiped her cheeks and turned the lock. “I’m fine,” she lied, hoping Owen would at least pretend to believe her. She exited the stall and avoided eye contact until she could check her reflection in the mirror and be sure there was no sign of those tears.

  “Why do you insist on getting here before me? Let me deal with Mr. I-Have-A-Million-Issues Jordan,” Owen said, holding out a paper towel for her while she washed her hands.

  “My chairs are supposed to come in today and I wanted to see if they finished taping the new wall yesterday. I want to get started on the mural as soon as possible.”

  Owen’s expression was full of nothing but concern. He was more than a business partner; he had been her friend since they met at the Art Institute. They were design soul mates, but their dreams of starting their own firm had been dashed when Kendall met Trevor one Christmas break.

  Trevor had been a senior at the Naval Academy back then, and he’d swept her off her feet. When he asked her to move to Virginia after graduation to be close to him while he trained at Quantico, the decision had nearly torn her apart. Leaving her family and friends terrified her. In the end, she’d chosen Trevor. He had this way of making her question herself b
y being so sure they were meant to be together. His confidence had convinced her that the right thing to do was walk away from one dream and toward another.

  Owen considered going with her, but it wasn’t meant to be. He never lost touch, though. He knew the day would come when they would make KO Designs a reality. While she’d been off getting married and starting a family, Owen had spent the past eight years working hard to make a name for himself in the Chicago design world. When Trevor died, Owen had given her the courage to get back into a career she’d set aside.

  The only reason KO Designs had any clients when they first started a year ago was because of Owen. She owed him so much, and here she was thanking him by having a breakdown on the job.

  “He’s getting to you.”

  “It’s less about him and more about my issues with my husband.” Kendall checked herself in the mirror one more time. “Stop looking at his face,” she told her reflection, then turned to Owen. “Maybe if I stare at his shoes or the buttons on his fancy shirts when he makes ridiculous demands, I’ll get less rattled. Trevor never wore shoes like that.”

  “He does have impeccable fashion sense, doesn’t he?” It was a trait for which Owen had great respect. “Let me handle him, okay? You take care of the other details.”

  “Deal,” she said thankfully.

  Unfortunately, even without Max’s interference, nothing went smoothly. The chairs were delivered, but instead of sending her forty chairs, the vendor sent her a hundred and forty chairs. The delivery guys kept unloading them even though she told them she hadn’t ordered that many. The customer service representative from the furniture company put her on hold for fifteen minutes, then told her someone would have to call her back. To top it off, in their attempt to fit a hundred and forty chairs in a restaurant that only needed forty, one of the stacks of chairs fell over and damaged a freshly painted wall.

  All the while, Max felt the need to remind Kendall over and over that Mr. Sato would not be covering the cost of her mistake. “If this sets the project back—”