AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And then there’s this.” Arlo held up a baby building set, with a toy hammer and a pile of bricks.
We’d woken up early, and after feeding Charlie and watching him play for an hour on the floor, we were taking advantage of his quick nap to sort through the piles of Christmas gifts he’d received.
“That was from me.” I smirked.
“Of course, it was.” He dutifully added it to the list that one day I hoped to give to Zach as a memory of his son’s Christmas.
“And this bear who looks like a Village People reject?” I waved it at him.
“Hey, that’s a construction bear,” he defended, and snorted a laugh. “If we added a teeny tiny leather harness…”
“We are not doing that to my nephew’s teddy bear.” I leaned over to kiss him.
His belly growled, and I patted it, then lifted his shirt to kiss all his soft bits, but when his belly made that noise again, I knew it was time for lunch, or at least a snack.
“My bear is hungry,” I deadpanned.
He rolled his eyes. “Your bear needs to head to the grocery store for milk and bread.”
“You want to make it a family affair?” I asked and pointed upwards to our bedroom where Charlie was napping.
“Nah, I’ll be five minutes.” He kissed me goodbye, then headed out, and I watched him leave. I was so staring at his ass.
He was everything to me—my best friend, my business partner all bar signing the contract, and my lover --, and after yesterday’s proposal between my sister and Ian, I had this insane urge to fall to my knees and beg him to never leave and let me put a ring on it.
It hadn’t been much more than a month of being together, but I knew.
Three years, we’d been circling this, me just stubborn, him confused, and now according to my nephews, we were JaxLo, and that was it, really.
Jax and Arlo. Forever.
The front door slammed open, startling me from my deep thoughts, wondering what Arlo was doing. But I scrambled to stand when someone called my name, who wasnotArlo. I was face-to-face with a man who looked… like me. It was like staring into a mirror, but seeing a reflection that was worn out, tired, and bloodied. His weight was supported by another man who seemed equally worn, but more collected.
“We need a bed for him!” the stranger holding up my doppelgänger barked at me. That was when it hit me—my twin was here.
Zach was here.
“Kai, stop shouting,” Zach managed, sounding weak.
Kai muttered something under his breath, then stared at me pointedly. “Bed?” he asked, but then ignored me and headed for the stairs. Zach wasn’t a small man, but Kai waved away my help and supported Zach’s weight up the stairs.
I guided them to the spare room. “Stay the fuck here!” Kai ordered, although the way he ,helped Zach to the bed was at odds with the angry, barking orders. “Do not fucking leave this fucking house!” he added. Then, he slapped a large bumpy envelope onto the bedside table and left before I could ask him anything, the sound of the front door slamming punctuated his exit.
He’d left me alone with Zach.
Silence settled for a moment as I sized him up, laying there with his left eye shut and swollen, his right half closed. It was uncanny how similar we were. His hair was shorter and neater, but he was slim like me, albeit with more defined muscles, and there was a thin scar running from his ear to his Adam’s apple. I shuddered to think what might have left that mark. The darkness under Zach's eyes spoke volumes. His right arm was in a crude sling, and his expression was a mask of pain.
Worse, there was blood on his shirt and jacket.
The world around me had narrowed to a still, silent point when I’d entered the bedroom where he lay. Zach was a living reflection of myself, sprawled on the bed with his face contorted in pain, his breathing labored. A pang of empathy tightened in my chest and a cold shiver traveled down my spine. It wasn't exactly the same as staring into a mirror, but I could almost imagine that I was the one lying on that bed, hurt and vulnerable.
"Zach?" My voice sounded foreign to my ears, thick with emotion as I approached him with caution, as though me moving any faster might make him vanish.
His eyes—my eyes—fluttered open, clouded with pain before focusing on me. Recognition, mixed with confusion, flickered in his gaze. "Charlie? Do you have him?" he whispered; his voice hoarse.
I nodded, swallowing hard against the lump forming in my throat. “He’s here; he’s safe.”
Zach slumped, and all the fight seemed to leave him in a rush.
