She nodded. “He’s aware. During the campaign he said that was why we couldn’t be seen around town together, and we went to Sarasota.”
I licked my lips. Something seemed odd about her story, but maybe it was my overprotective attitude when it came to my twin. We’d both gone to colleges in Boston—me at BU, her at Boston College—and I recalled how she’d dated a really sketchy older disc jockey. I’d hated him, and she’d gotten defensive. This situation was reminding me of that debacle; the DJ had ghosted her after three months.
She was so stubborn that if I pushed her now, our conversation would end in a fight. “Hmm.”
“See, I can tell you’re judging him already,” she cried.
“No. I’m not. Honest. Now that he’s been elected to office, I assume you two are free to be seen around town, right?”
She sighed. “I thought so, but we haven’t gone out in public together since the election. Sometimes he texts and I go to his house at night. After his mom’s asleep.”
“He’s an elected official who’s texting you for a booty call while he lives with his mommy? Vera, what the hell?” My lip curled. I could no longer tamp down my dislike of the guy.
She let out a strangled groan. “Here we go.”
“He should be proud of you. You are brilliant and beautiful and accomplished. There’s no man in this town who’s worthy of you. Tyler should want to show you off. He should worship at your feet. He should wake up and thank the universe every day that you exist.”
“Well, now with Gene’s murder, he sure as heck doesn’t want to show me off. He was just elected to office and doesn’t want it getting out that he’s dating a murder suspect.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ass clown. He should be over here helping us clear your name. Our name.”
“He wants to stay out of it.”
“Yeah, that’s marriage material right there, he’ll stick by you through thick and thin,” I spat. Maybe he wasn’t helping Vera out of this situation with the gun because he knew a little too much about Gene. A frisson of fear lodged in my gut.
“All I’m asking is that you don’t mess this up for me,” she said, her voice quivering.
“I’m happy to keep ignoring him, like I’ve done since our high school graduation day.”
“Well, actually...” She stared at me with pleading eyes.
“What?”
“We’re supposed to go out tonight and I was wondering if maybe you’d join us. You know, to get to know him. I want you to like him as much as I do. We’ll have so much fun, you’ll see. Please?”
She was looking at me in the same way as when she was ten. Back then, she’d had an idea to hitchhike to Orlando so we could buy new Beanie Babies with our birthday money. Her logic seemed so solid, and she’d been so convincing, that I eventually said yes. Our plans were foiled when Dad drove by as we stuck our thumbs out on State Road 19.
“Don’t make that face,” she whined.
“What face?”
“The one where you look like you’re going to pass gas.”
“Spending an evening with Tyler Carr isn’t high on my list of pleasurable activities. Passing gas is a party, comparatively.”
She let out an impatient groan. “You don’t even know him. The last time you saw him was when he was seventeen. No one is at their best as a teenager.”
“No, the last time I saw him was the other day at Cheesy Does It, and I know that he wasn’t gentleman enough to come over and defend you against Gene.” Perhaps because he and Gene were buddies, if that photo was any indication. I was seconds away from telling her.
“I don’t expect a man to defend me,” my sister said, her tone haughty.
“You know what I mean. Plus, I’ll feel like a third wheel.”
“I spent several nights with you and Literary Fiction Larry. Don’t you think I felt left out?”
She had me there. I blew a sigh out of my nose. “OK, fine. I’ll meet you guys for a drink. One.”
Vera clapped her hands together and squealed. “And changing the subject, what did you and Jack do last night?”
