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Trent straightened. She kept saying that like it was an accusation. “Yeah, I expect there are a lot of things you don’t know about me.”
Wrong thing to say. She stood and stepped away from him.
He smiled and beckoned to her. “Come on out and meet Travis.”
She kicked a pair of jeans at him. “He can get dressed first.”
Trent gathered up Travis’s clothes. He took them out and threw them at his brother. “Get decent, dammit. I’m making coffee.”
When Travis had put his jeans and T-shirt back on, Trent called out, “Okay—it’s safe.”
She came out slowly, her face red, eyeing the two of them like they were the vipers in the pit she’d fallen into.
Travis held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.” Trent slapped his hand down.
Chloe wrapped her arms around herself. She glanced from Travis to Trent. “Any more of you at home?”
Trent shook his head. “Just the two of us.”
He took hold of Travis’s shoulder and pushed him to the door, handing him a travel mug with coffee. “See ya later. Call Slade for me. I’m going to be off duty for a couple of hours.”
Travis glanced back at Chloe. “Don’t be too hard on him. He’s only mostly a dummy.”
Trent pushed his brother out. He waved at the kitchen. Jealousy was clawing at his gut, and he had to take a breath, slow down.
He looked at her face and his gut tightened. “So are you going to tell me to get lost, or what?”
14
Chloe sat with a cup of coffee nestled between her hands. It was going cold. Trent had sat opposite to her, then stood, sat down, and stood again. He couldn’t seem to stay still.
She was still fighting her embarrassment and trying to reconcile the fact that she knew nothing about this man. Watching him, she asked, “Why don’t we know more about each other?”
Trent stopped in front of her. “I aim to fix that oversight.”
Chloe nodded. She leaned back. “Okay. Start.”
He shrugged, rubbed the back of his neck, dropped his hands to his side. “I have a twin brother. Travis. He’s actually older by two minutes. Most people can’t tell us apart.”
“That much I do know.” She turned the coffee mug between her hands. “How did he get the scar?”
“Uh, well, Travis and I were part of a Navy SEAL team. We had a mission in South America, and Travis forgot to duck.”
Chloe shifted in her chair. “Why were you in South America? I take it this means you’re not really a surfer.”
“Oh, no, I surf. Any time I can. But, South America, can’t really talk about it. I shouldn’t have told you that much.”
“Your surfer…I don’t even know what to call it…lingo? Accent? I’m assuming it’s fake?”
Trent plopped into a chair. “To the extent I was using it, yes, it’s put on, but having grown up near the ocean and with some of my friends, it wasn’t all fake. More like exaggerated.”
“When there were things you were excited about or really liked, it tended to disappear.” Chloe’s throat tightened. “You didn’t just wander into Guardians, did you? You lied to me.”
“I work for a private security firm. Slade, the person I mentioned to Travis, he’s our boss. And—”
“Stop.” She held up a hand. “I’m not sure—”
“Please, Chloe…”
