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Another terrible Valentine’s Day. At least this one isn’t in an emergency room with a busted face like last year.
I wandered around the city, passing couples holding hands and men carrying flowers or boxes of chocolates. I stopped in a coffee shop to warm up. Every table had heart-shaped balloons attached to remind us it was a day for love. The ridiculous thing was that today Iwasin love.
How, in all those days, did I never hear anything about an identical twin brother?
Gunner had called in between everyone else in the family that tried to reach me, but Gunner was the only one I wanted to hear from. He told me to wait at the coffee shop and that he would pick me up in thirty minutes.
“Alone, Bond,” I requested.
“Solitaire, you can trust me. Don’t move. I’ll be there,” he stated, and disconnected.
The cute little dress boutique where Poppy and I had shopped days before was next door to the coffee shop. I’d found the perfect red dress for Valentine’s. I was supposed to pick it up to wear tonight, before everything blew up. I didn’t need to get it now, but I went in anyways. I stood there looking around the boutique. I didn’t know why I bothered to go inside, except to maybe visit the stunning red dress they had altered for me for this special occasion. I didn’t need the dress anymore, but I still found myself there holding it in my hands.
“That color red is perfect with your hair color,” the boutique assistant had gushed over it.
“Thank you. My friend said the same thing when I bought it days ago. I do love it,” I said, running my hand over the material. “She said my red stilettos would be a perfect match.”
“I still think it,” Poppy said from behind me. “Put the dress on, Imogen.”
“Why? I don’t have a reason anymore.” I swiped at tears pooling in the corner of my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“How could I when I didn’t know? No one knew but them,” Poppy explained. “We started to be suspicious when pictures hit the tabloids and Asher looked different somehow, but none of us could believe they would switch as adults.”
“They’ve switched before?” I shook my head in disbelief. “This is not a new thing?”
“Apparently, they switched often as kids because they are so identical, even their parents had trouble telling them apart. Kellan says it was always Asher in trouble and needing August to fix it,” Poppy said. “So, you see, this wasn’t something done to hurt you, it was more for him to help Asher and the family.”
“But I got hurt anyways.” I flopped down on the couch in the dressing area then stood back up to pace.
“Sadly, this time in his attempt to help everyone else, he hurt you and he hurt himself.” Poppy stood face to face with me. “I came to find you to help you understand it wasn’t personal and it wasn’t meant to be harmful. August is beside himself.”
“Thank you for finding me.” I hugged her.
“There is one more person who wants to talk to you.” She waved someone over. “Let him have his say. You owe it to yourself.”
The man walking toward me looked so much like the man I fell in love with, but I could see the difference. I knew immediately it wasn’t my Asher, it was the real Asher. The one with the cocky smile and playboy life that caused this whole mess. My head screamed to run away, but my body refused to go.
‘Finally, we meet.” He put his hand out to shake as if we were meeting for a business deal. “I’m Asher Hawthorne, twin brother to August Hawthorne, the man that is back at his penthouse falling apart without you.”
He doesn’t even remember meeting me before.
“Why?” I took a deep calming breath. “He did this for you, the big switch and trick everyone. It was all a ruse.”
“It wasn’t ever meant to be that. I begged him to give me a chance with the woman I’ve loved for years,” the real Asher said. “I begged and pulled on his twin strings to get my way, like I always do, and now I see what I’ve done to the best brother possible.”
“Did he send you here?”
“No, he kicked me out of his suite. He doesn’t want to speak to me, and that has never happened.” Asher shifted on his feet. “He wanted to tell you a week ago when he knew he was falling for you, but I did what I always do. This time it wasn’t my usual self-destruction, it was his destruction, and I need to fix this.”
Poppy walked back over to where we stood talking. She pointed to the dressing room and ordered me to put the dress on.
“Your shoes are in the box in dressing room one.” Poppy turned me around to face the dressing rooms. “I’ll take care of this guy.”
“Thank you for coming to speak with me, Asher Hawthorne. You owe your brother a lot,” I vocalized. “Whatever happens with him and me is just as important as you and him. Go fix that relationship. It sounds like he needs his brother, for once.”
I walked over to Asher and handed him the ten-carat engagement ring. “I think this is more your style. I don’t want it. I never did want something like that.”
I turned and went to the dressing room without looking back. Gunner would be on his way to meet me at the coffee shop soon enough. I texted him that I had gone next door to the boutique, and now I was a few minutes behind, but to meet there anyways. Then I sent another text.
