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With a sigh, I walk around to the front of the house and take a seat on the porch steps. It’s quieter here. Nicer, too, since there’s no one to bother me.
“Hey, are you okay?” a male voice asks.
I look up from my shoes to see a young couple and two kids. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just needed a break.” I give my best reassuring smile.
“You must be Collin’s girlfriend. Sylvia got to you, didn’t she?” the girl asks with a shake of her head.
“Where’s Collin?” the guy asks.
“Brayden has him in the house somewhere.”
The guy transfers the little girl to her mom and bounds up the stairs. The woman sits next to me with the girl resting on her knees and the baby nestled against her chest, asleep.
“I’m Sydney. That was my husband, Ian. This is my little girl, Savannah, and my baby boy, Andrew. He’ll get Collin for you. I hope they weren’t too bad. I know it can be hard meeting the spouses for the first time, especially if your situation is anything but ideal. They mean well, they really do, but it’s a hectic time and they often forget their manners. The best thing for you to do is find your voice. Learn how to tell them to back off.” She shrugs. “It’s helped me.”
“Telling them to back off is smart?” I ask with surprise. I wouldn’t think they would like that.
Sydney laughs a little. “Sylvia has no boundaries, so if you don’t want her in your relationship entirely, you have to tell her to butt out. It’s the only way to stop her. She will respect your wishes, but only if you make them known. Otherwise, it’s free game.”
“Jules,” I hear my favorite voice along with a few sets of footsteps. “They ran you off already?” he asks with disappointment.
“Pretty much,” Sydney answers for me. “You shouldn’t have left her.”
“It’s okay,” I quickly say, standing and plastering on a smile. I don’t want Collin worrying about me right now. Not with this. “We should get back to the party.”
Collin eyes me carefully before holding out his hand. “Do you want to go home or head back out?”
“They didn’t scare me off.” That’s the truth. It’s also the absolute right answer because Collin grins before tugging me through the house and back to the swarm of people.
It seems the women aren’t congregated together anymore. Not without their men by their sides at least. When we approach the group I not long ago left, the man with Sylvia speaks to me.
“She’s uncontrollable a lot of the time, but she’s worse right now from where she was on bedrest. Ignore her or tell her to shut up; she won’t be offended.”
I glance at Sylvia who nods and shrugs.
“There’s only one question we’re all dying to ask you now.”
Great. I’m still the topic of discussion. “What is it?”
“How did you know it was Cal and not Collin a while ago?”
Collin looks at me with a curious expression, obviously having no idea that I’ve interacted with his brother. I mock Sylvia’s shrug and reply, “I told you they aren’t identical.”
They all stare at me dumbfounded now. I’m telling them identical twins aren’t identical and they don’t understand how. That’s not my problem, though.
“How can you easily tell them apart?” Brayden asks with genuine curiosity.
“Spend enough time with them and it’s easy.”
“How are we different?” Cal asks, catching onto our conversation and sitting on the edge of the table. His eyes hold a bit of a challenge, but his tone tells me he doesn’t care about this answer at all. His brother, on the other hand, stands next to me with bated breath.
“Aside from physically?” I perk an eyebrow and smile because I know the girls already think one of them is different than the other in this particular area. Cal stares and waits. “There are subtle but obvious differences, even in your voices. For example, if I was behind a closed door and you tried to get me to open it, pretending to be Collin, I can tell it’s you by your voice. Not just based on how you talk to me.”
Cal’s eyes squint a little, but Collin chuckles. “And one of you obviously has a better personality.”
The people at the picnic tables laugh. Lucky for me, a kid runs up to the table and distracts everyone. Being part of Collin’s world in this way never really occurred to me. It’s been the two of us for so long. Just us as we hide away from Cal and the rest of the world for one reason or another. I almost miss that. I miss having him to myself and not having to share. I could care less if he shares me with anyone, shows me off. I’m much more selfish about my time with him.
Now that we are dating and it’s not a secret, selfishness will have to be a thing of the past. He has too many people who care for him. Who need him around. Those people want to drag me into their world too and I don’t know if I want it. Can I have Collin without hockey sucking me in as well? It does enough to Collin. I don’t want it taking me in too.
