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“I am not mad, Mariska.” She shook her head. “I was so scared something happened to you when I couldn’t find you. We’ve never left a place without checking in first. And then, when I asked Brianna where you were, she said that you came back here. But then I noticed that Pierce, had his arm snaked around her waist, and when I was taking that in, I knew that she lied because she didn’t look at me straight in the eye. Pierce was incapable of lying to me. Jake felt like they weren’t telling him something, so you know he told them just that.” I craned my neck in her direction, my eyes finding hers again when she paused. “And when Brianna said that you were fine, I felt like you replaced me.”
A sober expression grew over her face. I was filled with guilt over making Beth, who hadn’t had enough love growing up, feel like she was dispensable, when she was anything but. Cindy had put every guy she’d dated before Beth. I’d forgotten how that recurrent abandonment affected her to this day. Just like with Jake, my parents, and Pete, I couldn’t imagine my life without her.
“I couldn’t replace you. No one knows me inside and out, like you.”
The sad look on her face was replaced with a slight smile, an improvement from how she’d looked seconds ago. “I called it first, you know?”
I rolled my eyes at her, despite knowing that she’d probably known about my attraction to Hunter before I had. “Some part of me still wants to like a guy like Tom, but then, when I am with Hunter, I realize that I would’ve made a big mistake. I really get why you let Gregory go.”
She hauled herself up from her bed, walked over to her desk, and grabbed her satchel. “I hoped you’d understand eventually.” She put her hand on her hip. “And I forgive you for keeping me in the dark. Come on,” she opened the door, “the guys are probably wondering why we’re not out front yet.”
***
WE WATCHED RE-RUNS OF Friends, while Chase and Hunter put the finishing touches on dinner after we’d gotten into Hunter’s house. When Beth and I had begun reciting every line from each episode, Chase changed the channel from the kitchen. We decided to get up and see if they needed help with anything. Riley trotted right behind us, and watched all the activity going on in the kitchen. I think the smell of seasoned meat was making her hungry for our dinner, but she’d already been fed.
“That’s okay, Babe. Why don’t you and Mariska just sit down and relax?” Chase said, and kissed Beth on the forehead.
Beth and I exchanged a look. “We can do something, Chase. Mariska and I can bake the vegetables. I know that you’re working on the steak and Hunter’s doing the mash potatoes.”
Chase and Hunter started chuckling. They were hunched over, as if they’d been punched in their guts and their faces were red. At our expenses.
Shaking his head, Chase said, “I swore when Jake said that they would starve without him cooking, I didn’t believe it until now.”
“Nah, I think Mariska takes the cake. Does Beth make burnt pancakes and rubbery eggs?”
After Chase and Hunter were done laughing, they stood up at the same time and waved their fingers in front of their faces as if that would make the flush from their cheeks diminish.
“I guess someone doesn’t mind not getting lucky for a month,” Beth threatened, wearing a stern expression as she pivoted around and went to the couch, with Riley right on her heels.
I gave Hunter a slow smile that widened when I brought my mouth an inch away from his ear. “If you really don’t want me to give it up, you’re making it easier for me not to,” I whispered for his hearing only. Chase was bringing the t-bone steak out of his oven and my stomach growled in response to the now overwhelming smell of steak and stuffing.
Hunter reached for my wrists when I turned away from him, and my feelings of ineptness washed away from the disarming and scorching look his eyes held. They were just teasing us. And when people used to comment on our lack of culinary skills before, it hadn’t affected us. With these Lovell brothers, though, I knew that Beth and I wanted to please them.
***
HOURS LATER, AFTER SOME small talk and playing with Riley in the bark yard, I thought our bellies were still full from the d
inner Chase and Hunter had cooked. Riley couldn’t have been any happier if we’d given her more treats. She was licking Chase’s face as he ran his fingers from the top of her head down to her back. This was the greatest double date Beth and I had been on, and, yet, I wished that Jake hadn’t gone home this weekend. He would’ve liked cooking with the guys and making fun of Beth and I. When I thought about it, he had been going home more often than I had thought he would. He did like to be with his family, even when they irked him sometimes. He was used to seeing them everyday. Why wouldn’t he want to be home, when he was allowed to do whatever he wanted?
“That’s enough, Riley. You’ll see them again,” Hunter said on a laugh and shook his head.
Riley whined when Hunter gestured for her to sit. She followed his command and was rewarded with a rub to the head from him and some treats he gave her from his pocket.
Hunter locked the door after they left, and then he wrapped his arm around me. He smelled like detergent, and a little bit like steak. I nuzzled his arm and his chest vibrated with a chuckle.
“Are you sniffing me?” His deep hazel eyes ran over me, and I nodded my head against him. “Let me see about you.” He took a step and hooked his strong, wide hands around my waist and lifted me off the ground. As I held onto Hunter’s forearms, I watched with rapt attention as the muscles bunched together and seemed to look bigger. Wrapping my legs around his waist, Hunter peered at me like he was starving. We descended onto the couch and his mouth found mine in a ferocious kiss as a wave of heat blanketed me. The hard ridges of his toned stomach pressed against my navel. He turned his head to one side and sniffed me from the side of my neck down to the valley between my breasts.
“You smell good enough to eat,” he told me. Riley made a smooth jump onto the couch and he swung his gaze to her.
I rested my lips against his. “You’ve done enough of that this week.” I felt my face redden and I changed the subject, “You two looked inseparable tonight.” His nod was the only reason that I continued, “Could you sense how he was doing, even though you two weren’t always close? Like a twin thing?”
I started to stroke Riley underneath her neck and she rubbed the side of her head against me.
“I don’t think so,” he said thoughtfully. “Chase and I hadn’t spent much time together when we were little. And when we did, it was short, so I hadn’t felt like we had the time to click.” He raised a shoulder. “I know it’s different for other twins, but for us we just happened to live in the same house and we looked alike. We’d been taught that we shouldn’t be together a lot. You know, that we should do our own thing.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder and stretched Riley’s front legs to rest on my ankles. I stilled my hand on her neck and her breathing evened out. If I had a twin, I thought I’d try to be with him or her as often as I could. When I was younger, I’d tried to spend time with Beth and Jake every chance I’d had. They’d understood me. No one compared to Pete. Yet, he was so young and I’d looked after him for most of his life, so it wasn’t the same as what I’d shared with Beth and Jake. It saddened me that Chase and Hunter had lost all those years where they could’ve bonded.
“What are you thinking?” Hunter brought my head up and I wanted to kiss him again to make all of the loneliness he bottled up disappear. He wasn’t the cold, indiffererent, or calculating drug addict that I’d believed him to be weeks ago. He wanted love and he had platonic love for Beth. However, I didn’t want him to go her anymore when he wanted to talk.
