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“Drunken vows don't constitute a marriage, you know.” Darryl laughs. “Anyway, infidelity will look better on your petition for divorce.”
“God! I wish I'd never told you.” I glance at the bridesmaids again, but for some reason the hospitality team covering the simple chairs with ivory and tying enormous burnt orange organza bows at the back holds more of my attention. “Besides, tradition says I'm supposed to hit on the Maid of Honor, and I'm not going there with Mimi.” Darryl opens his mouth to argue. “Not a chance. And I don't care how good sleeping with the wife's twin sister looks on the divorce papers.”
Darryl lets out a long guttural laugh. I’m glad he’s enjoying himself at my expense. “C'mon man, just loosen up and play along.”
“Would you?”
“Hey, I’m a psychiatrist, remember? I don’t walk into loaded questions like that.” His brow lifts. “If I say yes, you’ll deck me because I'm marrying your sister tomorrow. If I say no, you might as well deck me because I’ll be unconscious by the time you finish a long laborious speech about hypocrisy. But you...” He wraps his arm around my shoulder and turns our attention back to the bridesmaids. “You my single friend, you can play until your heart’s content.” I roll my eyes as he adds, “What about the red dress?”
I’m not even going to reply.
“Hmm…” Darryl laughs. “Bringing back a few unwanted memories of the missus, huh?”
The memory of peeling away a fire engine red PVC from sun kissed and silken skin flashes through my mind. “I'm gonna hit you if you don't pack it in!”
“You wouldn't ruin Julia's wedding pictures, would you?”
“Oh no, Dr. Hawthorne.” I shake my head and give up what’s evidently a losing battle. “Emotional blackmail's a new low for you.”
“I know.” He grins like the cat that got the cream. “But it’s an advantage I'm going to exploit for the next forty-eight hours to keep my beautiful bride happy.”
Darryl’s elation radiates like sunbeams. I’m happy for him. Truly, I am. I couldn’t have picked anyone better for my sister. After that bastard ex-husband treated her like shit, knocked her around, and fooled us all into believing him over Ashleigh, I’m not sure I trust anyone’s judgment of character but Ashleigh’s. She’s known him for most of her life and trusts him with her innermost and darkest secrets. It’s more than she ever trusted me. He went to great lengths to protect my sister, jeopardizing his medical license, and for that I can never repay him.
Even if he is the reason I realized I was still in love with Ashleigh. And even if he is the reason I ended up back in an ill-fated love affair with her again. He’s not to blame for Ashleigh’s actions. He defends them, and even calls me an idiot for refusing to talk about her. She’s a… contentious subject that we don’t discuss anymore.
I know how the doctor feels standing in the function room waiting for his bride-to-be so the wedding rehearsal can progress. I wore the same smile only fifteen months ago. That self-assurance and confidence to know the person who would be waiting at the end of the aisle would always be there no matter what. She wasn’t.
“Okay, quickly.” I grin back, even though I don’t feel like it. “Give it your best shot before Jules gets here and I get slapped for encouraging you to look at other women.”
“All right, let me see. What about…the brunette in pink?”
I scan the crowd of bridesmaids again; I didn't see a brunette in—
Whoa! When did she arrive?
Even though she has her back to me, I know she’s a thousand times more stunning than any of the girls standing around her. Soft, slender shoulders, sun kissed skin accentuated by the soft pink shift dress, and legs that go on forever completed with simple elegant ballet style slippers. No heels? My heart thumps against the wall of my chest. She’s dazzling.
I doubt I’ll ever get over Ashleigh but by God, for this girl I’d try!
“Yes, absolutely.”
Julia and Mimi walk through the door and Miss Dazzling in Pink turns. The designers crowd Jules but the other two women remain. They’re almost identical. They match in height. The difference in their builds is barely noticeable to the untrained eye. To look at one face is to look at the other. They have the same high cheekbones, the same refined jaw, and the same full lips—but only one of them has the power to pull me in.
She calls to me.
Even the trained eye would miss the slightest of differences in the shape of their once identical noses. Mimi’s had a ridge that’s now absent in her twin’s mirror image. The only noticeable difference is their eyes. One is a shocking blue, like the strike of lightning against the midnight sky. The other’s an earth-shattering emerald with the power to stop everyone and everything in my universe. They do, frequently. Even from my memory.
“Fuck me!” I hiss and turn away. “You've got to be kidding me!”
Darryl bursts into laughter. A deep, up from the gut, belly laugh as he slaps me on the shoulder once more. “You want to see your face.”
“You set me up, you bastard!” I scowl, turning farther away from Ashleigh. “She is not that hot.”
“What are you talking about?” Darryl gasps for air. “She's on fire.” He grins as he looks over my shoulder. “If I didn't have Julia, I totally would.”
Is he checking her out?
The monster that favors the color green roars to life before my brain can shut it down. Darryl considers Ashleigh the little sister he never had. And considering he was once her doctor, he wouldn’t go there. He’d never go there.
