Aston: Change of plans. Ace will be staying at my place tonight for some brother time. I’ll make it up to you.
I set my phone face down in my locker, then I walk into the shower room.
After I shower and dress quickly, we’re on our way to my place. Ace spends the first thirty minutes replaying every defensive series as he saw it from the box, his hands waving wildly in the passenger seat of my truck. I just listen and drive.
By the time we step through my front door, it’s getting late. My house is freezing when we walk in, so I walk over to the fireplace and stack some oak until the flames catch, spreading heat into the room.
Ace walks out of the kitchen with two longneck Lone Stars and hands one to me.
“I haven’t been here for a while. I forgot how big this place is,” Ace says, leaning back against the leather couch, taking a long pull of his beer. He looks around the room and up at the high ceiling, nodding. “It’s a great place. Quiet out here too, just like you like it.”
“Yeah, I like my privacy,” I mutter, sitting across from him, stretching my tired legs out in front of me.
Ace sets his beer down on the coffee table and leans forward. His expression shifts into something that makes me uneasy.
“Hey, seriously though,” Ace says, his eyes locking on mine, his signature smile spreading across his face, “why didn’t you tell me Eva was working your games? Man … seeing her out there tonight? I’m telling you, it did something to me.”
“You were pretty upset when y’all broke up, if you remember.” I keep my face completely blank. I don’t even blink.
“Yeah, but I just can’t help thinking I saw her for a reason,” he says, shaking his head with a low laugh as he stares into the fire. “You know, I ended things with Soleil last month. That was just too much drama. But Eva is different. She was always easy to be around. Then seeing her tonight, looking like a boss, handling her crew … fuck, she looked hot. And when I hugged her … I swear to God, Aston, I felt like the same spark was still there. I think she was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her. The smile on her face …” He smiles and shakes his head.
The guilt turns in my stomach, and I feel like I might throw up. He’s my twin. My blood. We’ve shared everything since we were born, and now he’s sitting here, pretty much telling me he’s going for her.
“She was working, Ace,” I say, my voice flat. “She doesn’t like to be bothered with outside noise on the job.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not outside noise. We have history.” Ace shrugs, missing the steel in my tone. “Do you think she’s changed her number?”
Her number is the same as it was in college, but he doesn’t wait for me to reply.
“I’m gonna see if she’ll let me take her out while I’m in town. I just think this could be a sign or something, you know? It’s not like we ended on bad terms. We just kind of drifted, and I was getting ready for the draft and all the craziness of that. But now I want to see if there’s something still there.”
“Drifted, huh? I recall you being pretty torn up about the breakup.”
I take a drink of my beer, letting the cold liquid burn its way down my throat to keep from saying something that could change our family forever. I need to tell him. I should look him in the eye right now and tell him she’s mine.
But the words don’t come.
He shifts his head side to side. “I mean, yeah. It was the hardest breakup I’ve had. You know how I felt about her. But I think she did us both a favor by ending it when she did, even if I didn’t see it then. Things are different now. We’re both in our careers. I’m telling you, this could be it.”
“I think she’s pretty busy with work, Ace,” I mumble, looking back into the fire. “From what she’s said, the network keeps her on a tight schedule.”
“And how do you know that?” He tilts his head, looking at me.
“Because we’ve been friends for a long time, and since she started working my games, we’ve chatted here and there. They’ve interviewed me a lot this season, and I’ve had the chance to catch up with what she’s been doing since Walker.”
He waves me off. “Well, whatever. I can handle a schedule.” He grins, leaning back against the cushions. He pulls out his phone, and his thumb flies across the screen. “Okay, I texted her. Guess I’ll find out if her number is the same. Anyway, enough about that. Let’s talk about home. Dad says Aiden’s thinking about buying that land down by the river …”
We spend the next hour talking the way brothers do. We drink the Lone Stars and talk about our parents and the trouble our two younger brothers are giving them. Like sneaking girls into The Shack—a guesthouse on our ranch that we’ve all used for partying, and I think we’ve each lost our virginity in there too. And we talk about the holiday schedule and who will be able to make it home. It’s easy. Normal.
Ace stands and tips his empty bottle of beer toward me. “You want another?”
My phone vibrates in my pocket. “Uh, yeah, sure.”
He takes my empty and walks to the kitchen.
I pull my phone out and see a text from Eva.
Eva: Just got home. Long night tonight and I have an early morning tomorrow.
