Page 32 of Misadventures With The Mistaken Twin

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack glance at me.

“No. My parents bailed. My uncle's all I've got,” he replied.

“You left him after graduation and haven't been back,” I countered.

Jack's face got hard. “I brought him to Florida, and other places, to visit. We see each other a couple times a year. But coming back here? Bozeman holds too many bad memories for me.”

“Including me.” Looking back, the high school dating fiasco held bad memories for me, too. But I had loving, kind parents and a sister, whom I supposedly still loved. They'd all been there to help me through the heartache of Jack's supposed rejection. Jack hadn't.

Sighing, Jack added, his voice low, “Yes, you were part of the bad memories.”

I felt tears well up in my eyes, the road getting a little blurry. A lump formed in my throat and I worked to clear it before Icould talk. “Oh, God. I feel so terrible about being one of the reasons you stayed away.”

Jack shook his head, raised a hand to my cheek as I kept driving. His touch was light, soft, gentle. “Not anymore.”

I smiled wanly. “Maybe I can be one of the reasons you stay.”

There was a whole lot of hope in that statement. I focused on the road, imagining him back in town on a permanent basis. I felt Jack's hand brush the edge of my jacket, his fingers tickling against my bare skin beneath the loose edge of my sweater.

The sensation was somehow erotic, having him find a small patch of skin beneath the layers and layers of clothes. His fingers were cool against my warm—and getting warmer by the moment—skin. “Jack, I'm trying to drive,” I said, smiling. I liked his teasing fingers.

“What?” he asked.

“I can't concentrate on driving when you...touch me that way,” I replied back, a little breathless by how just the tips of his fingers could turn me on.

I darted a glance to Jack. He looked at me as if I were crazy, his hands up in front of him like a doctor before surgery. “I'm not touching you,” he replied, his voice calm, serious.

“Then what...”

I looked down, screamed bloody murder and slammed my foot on the brake. Jack whiplashed in his seat belt, pipes went flying.

He hadn't been fondling my side. Jasper the snake had. With his beady eyes and little forked tongue tickling my hip.

I screeched like a banshee and wanted to get out of the van more than a house on fire, but the snake was thickly coiled around the seat belt buckle and I wasn't touching it. “Get it off! Get it off! Holy shit, get the fucking seat belt off!”

I was in full fight or flight mode, but I wasn't going to fight a snake, so I was trying for flight. It wasn't working. I flapped myarms in the air, screaming as Jack attempted to uncoil Jasper and undo my buckle.

“Jesus, Miller, I'm going deaf over here,” Jack said, struggling to separate Jasper from me and my seat belt. “Hang on, he's moving up.”

If I hadn't had a snake up my shirt I might have enjoyed the moment as Jack reached with one arm down into the wide neck of my sweater. Now, he definitelywasfondling me, his palm warm against my breast, struggling to grab the wriggling snake.

“Reid!”

“Sorry, but he's all over the place!” Jack was breathing hard, wrestling inside my clothes for Jasper.

His lower hand tugged down, Jasper pulled free, and after a few more seconds that felt like hours, I heard the click, felt the release of pressure on the seat belt. Jack's hands slipped out of my sweater, and I practically ripped the door handle off getting out of the van as if the very demons of hell were after me.

I didn't care if a car was coming or not. I had snake spit and cooties on me and being run over wouldn't be as bad as that. I paced in front of the van, wiggling my arms, shrugging my shoulders and shivering—not from cold—from my near death reptile experience. Sure, I wasn't going to be bitten and die a slow venom-induced death, but with the way my heart was beating practically out of my chest, a heart attack would not be a surprise.

15

Jack joined me by the hood. “Are you all right?” he asked as he placed his hands on my upper arms.

I wasn't finished having my little panic attack.

“Miller, snap out of it.” He gave me a little shake. “It was just a snake.”

I looked at him, “Just a snake? Just a snake?” My voice went up a whole octave. “You didn't have a reptile start to make out with you!” I shouted with all the venom I had.