Chapter Seventeen

A couple of days later, Spencer was back to full strength after his brush with the plague and back to training, and Sullivan was back to working solo and hanging out at the house.

But neither one of them could get their mind off Lucy – but for very different reasons.

Spencer, because of how bad he felt pulling a twin switcheroo on her, and Sullivan because of how much he’d enjoyed talking to her, and wishing he could hang out with her again.

But he knew that couldn’t happen – Spencer would put a stop to that since she was a client.

Figures, Sullivan thought, drinking his coffee and staring out the window, I finally meet a girl who’s interesting and funny, months after the whole Jewel debacle, and she’s one of Spencer’s clients… and with that ‘no fraternization’ rule, his chances of seeing her again were pretty slim because Spencer wouldn’t like it.

Unless they told her about themselves…the fact they were a duo…

No, Spencer wouldn’t like that either, since it was his idea to hoodwink her in the first place.

Sullivan sighed, taking another sip.

Sometimes it sucked being the more passive, peacemaking twin.

Spencer banged the front door open, making Sullivan snap out of his reverie. “You’re home earlier than I thought,” Sullivan said, watching as his brother tossed his jacket and workout bag in the corner.

“My last appointment cancelled – something about a death in the family,” Spencer said. “I haven’t had a free afternoon to play hooky in ages.”

“What are you going to do?” Sullivan asked.

“I don’t know,” Spencer admitted. “Something totally brainless, I think.”

“Sounds good,” Sullivan said evenly, trying to decide whether or not to bring up Lucy.

And then deciding to just go for it.

“How’s…” he cleared his throat. “How’s Lucy?”

“Good,” Spencer said absently, rooting around in the refrigerator. “She hit a new top speed on the treadmill today, and I moved her up a couple of pounds on free weights.”

Sullivan nodded absently. “That’s… that’s good. Good for her. Maybe you should, um…”

Spencer turned to look at his twin expectantly. “What?”

“Maybe you could ask her if she wants to go on a walk, maybe at the beach or something,” Sullivan said, swallowing thickly. “With us.”

“Us?”

Sullivan shrugged. “You know, tell her about us, then we could… walk. You know, just… walk.”

Spencer leaned back against the counter and eyed his twin skeptically. “I’m not supposed to hang out with clients.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean I can’t.”

Spencer worried at his bottom lip, his eyes still on his brother. “You like this girl?”

“I… I liked talking to her, yeah,” Sullivan admitted. “And it’s be cool to maybe talk to her again,” he said, trying for nonchalance.

“I kinda feel bad about sending you to the farmer’s market,” Spencer said. “She made some reference to some joke between you guys, and I felt awful because I didn’t know what she was talking about, and I could tell she was trying to figure out why I wasn’t laughing. If we tell her now we switched, it’ll really hurt her feelings.”

“What was the joke?” Sullivan asked quickly, eager to hear of their private connection.

“Something about fruit,” Spencer said, and Sullivan smiled, thinking it must have been piked fruit.

“I just wanna hang out with her,” Sullivan said. “Besides, you went to the farmer’s market with her. You aren’t supposed to hang out, but you did that.”

“That was like grocery planning, not consorting with a client.”

“I don’t want to consort with her, I just want to hang out with her, talk to her some more,” Sullivan said, trying to control his tone.

Spencer considered it for a long moment. “I know it would boost her confidence,” he said slowly. “And I think she could use that. Plus, if it’s a walk, it would be exercise, which isn’t totally off the books with her being a client and all.”

“So you’ll set it up?” Sullivan asked. “Should we tell her there’s two of us?”

“No,” Spencer said, imagining that this interest Sullivan had in Lucy would wane pretty quickly. He would hate to hurt her feelings, or lose her as a client, just because they confessed needlessly.

There’s no way Sullivan was going to be into this girl, he thought evenly. She doesn’t seem like his type at all. Jewel had been tall and willowy, with long blonde hair and was full of confidence, biting wit and a razor sharp tongue.

Lucy was none of those things.

Sullivan would lose interest soon enough, he was sure of it.

“No,” he repeated firmly. “Don’t tell her. Just… try and be me a little, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sullivan said glumly, not at all convinced he could.

Spencer dug out his phone and dialed a number from his list of contacts. Sullivan watched him as he put the phone to his ear.

“Lucy? Hi, it’s Spencer… Good, good… no, nothing is wrong… Listen, the weather is supposed to be pretty nice tomorrow… how about instead of the warehouse, you hit the beach for some sand cardio walking? What? Sure, yeah, I’ll be there,” he said, his eyes flicking to Sullivan, his heart clenching a bit at the deception. “Sure, on Seventeen Mile Drive? I know where it is, yeah… okay, that sounds good. What time? Okay, cool. See you then.”

He rang off, and looked at his brother. “You’re going to meet her at the China Rock turnoff on Seventeen Mile Drive tomorrow at four.”

“China Rock?” Sullivan asked. “That’s the first turnoff when you come in from the gatehouse, right?”

“Right, I think so,” Spencer said. “Before you get to Bird Rock Road.”

Sullivan let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “Cool,” he said, going for indifference. “That’s cool. Thanks. Four tomorrow,” he said, more to himself.

Spencer watched his twin for a long moment, noting the faint blush of his cheeks and the small smile on his lips.

Maybe Sullivan had it for this girl after all, he thought, turning back to the fridge.

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