Page 19 of Misadventures With The Mistaken Twin

I sighed, and then nodded. “Fine, get in.”

I rolled the window back up while Jack dashed around the hood, climbed in the passenger side. He picked up the gnome and placed it on his lap.

“What's this?” he asked. Our breaths came out in fluffy white air about us. Jack smelled clean like Violet's soap, but also something spicy and manly.

“That's George the Gnome. Jane West's son, Zach, wants him to go to work with me.”

Jack eyed the ceramic gnome, contemplated it. “Huh.”

I put the van in gear and drove off. Little did Jack know we were both headed to the same place.

“We're going to have to work on the sleeping arrangements,” Jack said, filling the silence between us. “I'm surprised you're throwing yourself at me like you are. You weren't interested in high school.”

I swiveled my head to look at him. “What?” Had he slipped and hit his head again? “Throwing myself at you? What woman in their right mind wants to sleep with a complete jerk?”

Jack crossed his arms over his chest with a rustle of nylon coat. “You were the one lying on top of me, sweetheart. If you want to sleep with me, just say so.”

“That's it!” I shouted, looking in my rearview mirror before pulling off to the side of the road with a slam of the brakes. Tools in the back rattled around. I put the van in park and turned to look at him. “Let's get the air cleared now, shall we? Why should I”—I pointed myself—“want to sleep with someone who's already been with my sister? Myidentical twinsister. I'd think it would be a case of been-there-done-that. Or do you just want to compare?”

Jack's head jerked back as if I'd punched him in the face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I waved at the air between us. “You know,Reid,that time in high school when you slept with Violet?”

“I never slept with Violet.” Jack's voice was flat and cold. “You sent Violet on your date with me.” It was Jack's turn to point. “You sent your sister as a trick,” he spat out the words. “Youridentical twinsister because you didn't want to go out with me.”

My mouth fell open. Nothing came out for a few seconds. “I never did that!”

“Then who the hell did?” Jack's voice was as loud as mine in the confined space.

The answer hit me like a ton of bricks, or a Triple Smacker paddle. “Violet. That little?—”

“Bitch,” Jack answered. The look on his face changed from anger to something else entirely. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew he wasn't upset with me anymore. “Let's take a stroll down memory lane. I asked you out about a month before graduation. That was you, right?”

I nodded at the memory. I'd been so happy, over the moon thrilled that a guy like Jack would be interested in me. “Yes. But the night before the date, Violet told me you asked me out by mistake, that it was her you wanted to date. Not me.”

“Violet?” He shook his head and looked as if he thought the very idea insane. “Hell, no. I wanted to go out with you. The girl in my science class, the one who always twisted her hair up in a pencil.”

I smiled at that memory. “My hair always got in the way in Biology and Mr. Blonsky made me put it up so it wouldn't catch fire from the Bunsen burner. I'd forgotten about that.”

Jack's eyes moved to my hair, most of it tucked up underneath my winter cap except for a long braid down my neck.“I haven't. You wanted to go out with me. I wanted to go out with you. Violet got in the way.” His voice was much calmer now.

“I thought you wanted Violet instead of me. My feelings were crushed when she told me,” I said, my voice soft. I remembered the horrible feeling, the rejection. A young girl truly devastated by her first crush.

“The date was really weird.” He looked out the front windshield through the frozen ice and foggy glass. “You weren't acting anything like yourself. I didn't even want to kiss you. I'd dreamed of it all year long and when the time came, I didn't want to do it.”

“You didn't sleep with her?” I crossed my mental fingers. I didn't sleep with anyone who'd been with Violet.

“I didn't even kiss her.”

I beamed, inside and out. The weight from the past ten years had been lifted. He hadn't wanted my sister instead of me. He'd wantedme.

“You didn't change your mind and send your sister to mess with me.” It wasn't a question, but a statement. Jack's gaze moved to my mouth.

I shook my head. “Never,” I whispered.

He leaned toward me. I leaned toward him, closing the cold space between us. Our lips met, gently, tentatively as if not believing the moment was real. My eyelids drifted shut at the pleasure. Jack's mouth was incredibly soft against mine, his breath minty from toothpaste. He brushed his lips back and forth, ever so sweetly as if learning me. It was like we were both savoring the moment. I'd longed for his kiss since I was sixteen. It was a surprise it was actually happening.

“Miller,” Jack whispered. Now, the nickname sounded endearing.