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Double Take
S.E
Chapter One
Emery
“There she is. Our girl, home at last!” I hear him long before I see him—everyone on this so-slow-it-might-be-moving-backward escalator taller than me, blocking my view—but I’d recognize Cole Keller’s voice anywhere. I know it as well as I do my own.
He bulldozes his way through the crowd effortlessly, ready and waiting to lift me right off my feet, short of them descending the final, moving step. His massive arms of steel wrap me up in the familiar comfort that I missed even more than I expected, and he spins us around like nobody’s watching.
Not that I care if they are… I’d do anything, anyplace, with Cole.
“Woman, you’ve got no idea how good it is to have you back.” He brings us to a stop, kissing my forehead as he sets me to the floor, gently gripping my shoulders. He gives me a once-over, twice, making sure for himself that I am, in fact, home—safe and sound. “Week was way too long, Em. Felt like forever.”
Guilt jabs hard at my insides, but I paint a smile on the outside, running a calm, caring hand down his arm. “I missed you too, so much. Both of you…” my voice fades as I look around, coming up empty.
“Couldn’t find a parking spot,” he laughs knowingly and takes my hand. “He’s out there driving around in circles, probably cussin’ up a blue streak by now. We best get your luggage, and our asses, out there, before he causes a scene.”
I snicker, picturing just that, as he leads us toward baggage claim. Oh, Cabot… Not one to be told what to do or equipped with even a reasonable amount of patience, I can easily see him deciding he’s made the last circle he’s going to and slamming the truck into park—anywhere he wants—flipping off security as he comes storming in here, screaming our names.
It’s a very real possibility; I’ve seen him do much worse… many times.
Cole’s certainly not what anyone, who knows the definition, would call “mild mannered” himself. He did just part a large crowd as if non-existent, but his edges are a tiny bit smoother than his brother’s.
Those are my guys, though… Cabot and Cole Keller. My very best friends since junior high, identical twins—both rough, rogue, and irresistible—yet different in several ways... easy to spot, if your eyes are trained… like mine. And I wouldn’t change a single thing about either one of them.
Cole grabs my suitcase off the carousel, not needing told which it is, and again, finds my hand with his free one and weaves our fingers together. And as always, the gesture brings with it an ache of battle—one half of my heart beating faster while the other remains numb and neutral—a reminder that it’s for the best he doesn’t feel the same kindred, carnal, undeniable perfection that I do Every. Single. Time. he touches me. And though painful to accept, ignore, constantly shove to the very back of my repeatedly battered, split-down-the-middle heart, it is, in fact, an absolutemust… because Cabot dazzles andcripples me in the exact same way.
Identically.
And there lies the problem.
I could never choose between them, if it was an option afforded me; which it’s not. I’ve been madly in love with both Keller twins since… well, since the pivotal, life-changing epiphany of what being in love meant finally hit me.Like a Mack truck. Followed closely by the crushing realization that their love for me, while wonderful and boundless, is of a different kind. They think of me as a little sister, a best friend. And even when I’m alone with one of them, be it Cole or Cabot, they both, always, refer to me as “theirs”… just reinforcing the fact that only oneof them isn’t a possibility.
“Hey, you.” Cole jiggles my hand. “Awful quiet. Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I blow out a deep breath, and with it, my futile thoughts. “Just worn out from all the traveling, I guess.”
“See? That’s why you shouldn’t go leaving us.” He grins, squeezing my hand as we walk outside.
And sure as the sun will rise, there he waits… every bit as coolly confident as the day I left… Cabot James Keller, leaning against the side of his black Chevy pickup, parked in the clearly-marked yellow zone right in front of the main doors. With his ball cap pulled down low and arms crossed over his barrel of a chest, he’s asight straight out of the best kind of dreams.
Déjà vu… double vision… the same sizzle of excitement when my eyes found Cole in the crowd zinging through me once more.
“Minnow,” Cabot sighs the nickname he’d given me decades ago—refuse to bait your own hook one freakin’ time and you never live it down—his relief resonating. And for the split-second he sets them free, I’m captivated by his sexy smirk and the rare twinkle in his emerald eyes… until he tucks them away, remembering what he thinks he’s supposed to be—“the serious one.”
And here we go…
He clears his throat, prepping to toss out some classic “Cabot’s care and concern camouflaged in condescension” in a somber pitch, adjusting his expression to match. “Don’t see anything pierced, tatted, or broken on ya from here; helluva lot better than I was expecting. Guess I oughta be grateful, huh? What happened, somebody finally find sense enough to strap an ankle monitor on that friend of yours? Slow her sorry ass down some?”
In time-honored tradition, that I’m next to certain he enjoys as much as me, I don’t even flinch at his beat-a-dead-horse surliness, always more than ready to go head-to-head with Cabot Keller. “What, you don’t like Tracy? Why haven’t you ever mentioned it before?” I fight back my smile, batting my eyelashes in mocking, innocent ignorance.
Cole snorts, ever-amused by our tug-of-war, as he loads up my suitcase. “I’ll be waitin’ in the truck, you know, just twiddling mydamn thumbs, whenever y’all are finished.”
“Funny,” Cabot growls at me, ignoring Cole. “That girl’s a loose cannon, bad influence. Why you’d go visit her beats the hell outta me.”
“Because, she’s an old friend. And, guess you haven’t been keeping up, but I surpassed the age of being influenced into doing anything I don’t want to several birthdays ago. Besides, getting away from the same ol’ thing every once in a while is refreshing; good for the soul. Speaking of same ol’, didn’t we already have this exact conversation beforeI left?” I hitch up my brows in saucy challenge and jut out a hip while waiting for his counter.
