Page 3 of Kaden & Keegan
“Talk to you later,” he said into the phone, then hung it up and set the cordless receiver near the charging base.
“I’m not good at math?” Kaden grumbled.
“Hey, I coulda told her we’d come over and you coulda watched her paw at me like a cat toy. Which way’d you rather have it?”
“Whatever.” Kaden marched to the fridge, yanked open the door, stared inside.
Before they could rummage through the kitchen for some after-school snacks, the doorbell rang. Footsteps sounded overhead, then trampled down the stairs.
“I got it!” Eve shouted.
What was it with twelve-year-old girls having to be the first one to answer the phone and the door? Eve had certainly mastered the art of getting there first.
From where he leaned against the kitchen counter, Keegan heard a soft female voice. “Are your brothers home?”
Keegan glanced at Kaden, cocked an eyebrow in question, and got a shrug for an answer.
“I’ve got five,” Eve said snidely. “Which one?”
“The twins.”
Okay, that piqued his curiosity, had Keegan marching through the house toward the front door, Kaden right on his heels.
“Who’re you?” Eve asked the woman.
“Shauna Whitley. Your next-door neighbor.”
“Really?” Eve didn’t sound impressed.
“Eve, don’t be rude,” Kaden said, stepping in front of Keegan as they reached the door. “I’m Kaden. This is my brother Keegan. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Whitley.”
Shauna Whitley smiled, and Keegan was almost positive she radiated.
That was the day they’d been introduced to the woman who would forever change their lives. It would be months of manual labor—mowing her yard, cleaning her pool, tending to her flowers—before Mrs. Whitley finally got around to her real reason for introducing herself that day.
By the time they were seventeen, they would and did consider themselves men in every sense of the word, thanks to the sassy, sexy, suburban housewife whose husband spent a majority of the year away on business. Or with his mistress, if Mrs. Whitley was to be believed.
They had whiled away many afternoons over at Mrs. Whitley’s, and as the months passed, after she’d taught them things that would last a lifetime, they continued to show her all they’d learned. After all, practice made perfect, did it not?
Turned out, Mrs. Whitley was the woman who had sealed their fates, made them realize their idea of sharing one woman between them was exactly what they wanted in life.
And one day, like the ranch, Keegan was damn sure they would finally find exactly what they were looking for.
***
Twenty years later…
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Keegan Walker grinned over at his brother as he lifted his hand. “Last chance to back out.”
He waited for Kaden to change his mind, something his twin was prone to do.
“She told us she’d meet us,” Keegan reminded him. “True gentlemen will check on a lady, right?”
Before Kaden could say a word, Keegan dropped his knuckles to the door. Three quick raps and he was stepping back.
Kaden sighed. “She’s probably as—”
