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Asher exchanged a secret look with Willow, and though she braced herself for him to share her story, he paced up the hospital hallway instead.
“Have you spoken with Jace today?” Ainsley asked him when he returned.
“He helped me fix the fence.” He lifted a shoulder and lowered it. “You know, I think he might be the real deal.”
“You mean the ‘real Ace’ like everyone keeps saying?” she asked. “I know I’m trained to look at the evidence, but I think you might be right.”
Ainsley began to pace herself and then spoke over her shoulder. “Jace is just so, I don’t know, different from the guy I thought was my big brother all these years.”
“If he is our brother, then it isn’t his fault that Luella Smith switched him and Ace. It’s not our Ace’s fault, either. Just dumb luck.”
“With a whole lot of human assistance.”
Willow shook her head. “Thanks for reminding me that I was lucky to be an only child.”
They chuckled at her joke and then quieted, probably as lost in their thoughts as she was in hers. The Coltons had always seemed to lead such a charmed existence, insulated with the cosmic protective dome of fat trust funds. It was clear now that they had as many problems as anyone else—more than some—and money only amplified them.
Ainsley startled her from her thoughts as she stepped in front of her and held out her hand.
“It was nice officially meeting you, Willow. I don’t think we were ever properly introduced in high school.”
“I’m pretty sure no one was.” She gripped her hand and smiled.
Ainsley’s gaze shifted to her brother. “Want me to tell the others about this?” She pointed her index finger and rotated her hand back and forth between them a few times.
“No, I’ll let them know.”
Asher’s sister was talking only about the possible switch of their babies and not anything specific between the two of them, but when his gaze snagged hers, the electricity that sparked inside her had nothing to do with their children.
Ainsley must have missed whatever had passed between them as she wasn’t smiling when she spoke to her brother.
“Thanks again for asking my opinion. Usually, we would have gone to Dad over a question about adding security.” She paused, sending a wistful look toward the hospital room door. “Or at least Ace. But everything is different now.”
“Yeah, as the second oldest, you get your chance to shine.”
She shook her head. “The biggest opportunity I never wanted.”
Chapter 13
“Have I told you recently how much I adore you?” she said as she applied a wicked red lipstick to the perfect bow of her lips. At least that was how someone had described them the other night.
Her caller chuckled on his end of the line, oblivious.
“As a matter of fact, you haven’t.”
“Well, let me begin now.”
She spent a few minutes puffing him up and getting him worked up as she carefully coiffed her hair for another man. It wasn’t wasted time, not when any means to this end would be well worth the investment. No one could take something that belonged to her. Woe to the few who’d tried.
The words came easier, anyway, as she pictured her man for tonight, someone who knew how to treat a lady. Unlike her caller, with his tape-repaired glasses and chronic halitosis. If not for his big, beautiful brain, she would have swiped left to make him disappear a long time ago.
“You’re going to love how I did this.”
While he blathered on about some technical nonsense that no one outside labs or computer companies cared a whit about, she applied quick bursts of hair spray. Was this supposed to excite her or something?
“You’re amazing,” she said when he finally stopped talking.
“Do you think we can get together tonight? I can tell you exactly what I’ll do to—”
