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Chapter Six
Huxley
The way Shannon blinked up at him from under the startled slashes of her brows said she really had not known who he was. He could only hope knowing now didn’t ruin any chance he’d ever had with her. If Lo hadn’t gone and done that for him already. What a jackass.
“So…” Shannon said, drawing the word out as her hazel eyes got round and her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink. “The reason it was funny is that everyone here and probably everyone in the state of Connecticut plus like hundreds of thousands of other people know who you are, and it’s a pretty well-known fact that you have a twin brother?”
“That about sums it up, yes.”
He let the corners of his lips twitch up, letting her know he wasn’t insulted. While he’d loved it when constituents recognized him and approached him, it was refreshing to not feel like he had to have his public face on. That public face had cost him. It had cost him this, it had cost him his health, it had nearly cost him his life.
“Here,” he offered, “let me get my brother on a videochat. If that’s alright, Hudson?”
“Sure,” Hudson confirmed with a nod. “But only in this room. You’re familiar with the rules.”
“Of course.”
Huxley sure as hell didn’t want any cameras in other areas of the club either. As a private citizen, his life remained only so private. That was the price you paid for being a member of a political dynasty, and he’d paid it. Would continue to, to some extent, for the rest of his life.
“Oh,” Tamsyn said, shaking her head, mouth pursed in chagrin. “You don’t have to do that. I got this all wrong, and that’s on me. And Hudson’s vouched for you, so I don’t think—”
But if there was a chance to cement the idea in her head that he hadn’t been the man who blew her off in the grocery store—he was going to fucking kill Lo if his brother had ruined his chances with this woman—he was going to take it.
He’d already pulled his phone from his pocket, unlocked it, and started the call, careful to hold it at an angle so only he was visible. It would be possible for Shannon to see Lo without being seen herself if she didn’t want to be.
It was a matter of a single ring before Lo appeared on the screen, looking as though he was sitting at his desk in his office at Huxley’s house, reading glasses he was too vain to wear in public perched on his nose. Doing some work for their sister, maybe? Holland was planning to run for mayor of Clover City in the next municipal election, and would probably win. The Foster-Webb name had about as much pull in Connecticut as Kennedy did in Massachusetts.
He’d tried to convince Lo it was a good idea for him to take time off as well, but of course the man hadn’t. Didn’t know what to do with himself if he wasn’t scheming or strategizing or organizing. Wouldn’t be surprising if he had a coronary too with his workaholic habits. Although a local election like this was pretty low stakes so Huxley hadn’t fought all that hard from keeping Lo off Holland’s campaign which was still in its infancy.
Lo barely looked up from whatever he was scribbling on one of the thousands of legal pads he must’ve accumulated over the years. “Thought you were going to the club. Don’t you have something better to do than talk to me?”
“I ought to,” Hux told him. “But your piss poor manners have caused some problems. Again. Mother would be mortified. You really shouldn’t be allowed in public.”
“I’d be delighted to hunker in my office for the rest of my days,” Lowell muttered, still focused on the lined yellow paper. “If you people could learn how to behave I wouldn’t have to mind you.”
“Well in this case, you’re the one who needs to learn how to behave. Did you happen to go to the grocery store…”
He glanced over at Shannon who was looking back and forth between him and Lo like she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. He’d been told the resemblance was uncanny, although he could name a dozen plus ways in which his features and Lo’s weren’t the same. But he’d had a lifetime to make those distinctions and Tamsyn hadn’t known he was a twin until moments ago. To someone who hadn’t known there were two of them, it would probably come as a shock.
“Yesterday,” she said absent-mindedly, clearly distracted by what must looked to her like mirror images.
“Yesterday,” he repeated loud enough for Lo to hear.
“I did. We were out of that disgusting dairy-free creamer you have to use, and you get very grumpy without it.”
“And did you blow off a gorgeous blonde?”
“I was in a hurry,” Lo muttered into the legal pad he continued to scrawl over. “I have no idea what I did or didn’t do aside from get you your fucking creamer.”
“It would really be easier on me if you weren’t such a cad.”
“No it wouldn’t. You’d be a beloved adjunct poli-sci professor at UConn if it weren't for me.”
Hux didn’t bother to point out he may still end up there but slid a glance to Shannon who was still looking confounded.
“Satisfied?” he asked, and she nodded. Bit her lip.
Why was it so damn sexy when women did that? What was she thinking when her sharp little teeth sank into the pink flesh? She clearly wasn’t some sort of shrinking violet. Did seeing Lowell turn her on? And why? If she preferred his brother he wouldn’t love it but he wouldn’t stand in the way either. He’d like to see Lowell happy. It was so rare and fleeting. Or could it be—
