Page 13 of Double Trouble
A few nerve-wracking seconds and she exhaled, “Whoa.”
The word went through me like a bird soaring.
She cast me an impressed sidelong glance, turning to look at the source, an unremarkable pile of rocks.
“The way you make it look…” she said softly, tipping her head this way then that, smiling again. “You find the beauty in simple things,” she concluded.
“I like to try,” I said.
Although right now, anyone could’ve seen the beauty in her. Her upturned lashes and downturned lips, the high Victorian plane of her nose. She was all graceful curves, her face, but her body especially.
“What’s your favorite color?” she asked suddenly, her gaze beyond me.
“Blue,” I said immediately. Then, joking, “Why, you going to wear that tonight?”
She raised her brows. “Maybe.”
“What’s your favorite?” I asked.
“Black.”
“That’s not a-”
“Color, I know. I’ve only heard that ten trillion times.”
“Listen, about me and Jake, I don’t want you to feel guilty about it.”
She turned to look at me head-on.
“I mean it,” I continued. “We’ve both talked about it, and we just want to see where this goes. So no pressure, if you decide to be with him.”
“If I decide,” she said softly.
It then occurred to me, looking at her, that we’d never considered the other possibility. The one where, somehow, we both won. It seemed impossible and wrong and I didn’t dare ask. But, standing there, watching her and wanting to kiss her and wondering about Jake, I entertained it for two-thirds of a second. Maybe it could work.
—
When I drove her home, there was less conversation. We’d made a good run of the nurse photos. She’d posed and sprawled and crouched and laughed as I flit about catching all of it. Every angle provided new evidence of her beauty.
Pulling up in front of her place, a glance at my watch had me chuckling. “See you in an hour.”
Cin grinned. “See you in an hour.”
And then I leaned forward and kissed her.
8
Cin
“You did what?” Penelope shrieked.
“I know, I know. But I had to kiss him back,” I said, my face still tingling from the contact. “We’d had such a nice day together, and I really do like him. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re the one who has the dilemma of a lifetime.”
I sighed. “Don’t remind me. Although I am sorry for being late.”
“It’s ok,” Penelope said. “I let myself in and examined your makeup cache.”
“Examined, huh?” I said, casting a dubious look at my vanity mirror and desk, which was a jumble of makeup, some so old I couldn’t even remember ever having bought it.
“Yep,” Penelope said, fluttering her blue-mascaraed lashes. “What do you think?”
“Very 80’s,” I said, not quite sure I had the right decade. “Are you sure you’re still ok with this? I don’t want you to feel obligated to go.”
Penelope pouted. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“No, but I was going to try and set you up with Owen, but now that he and I kissed…”
“Listen,” Penelope said. “I’m pretty sure things between you and the twins are a sure thing. But still, I don’t like the idea of it being just you and both of them. Especially when you’re not sure of what you want yet. So how about I come along as a chaperone?”
I grinned, and Penelope huffed. “Ok, maybe I’m not the ideal chaperone, but still.”
“Sure thing,” I said, grinning.
“First thing’s first,” Penelope said. “Let’s try a new makeup look on you.”
Penelope’s looked pretty good, so I consented, which, thirty minutes later, I realized was a very poor choice indeed.
“It looks like you were in a bar fight and lost,” even Penelope admitted with a sigh as she peered down to look at my two black-shadowed eyes that resembled, well, black eyes.
I could only gape dumbly at my expression before grabbing for the makeup remover. “I can’t go out like this.”
Not to mention that I still had an outfit to choose. So, completely bare-faced, I stood before my closet.
“It’s supposed to be pretty warm tonight, so you could totally go for a dress like I did,” Penelope said helpfully.
“It’s not that,” I said. “It’s just – Jake asked me to wear red.”
“So?” Penelope said. “Wear red then.”
“Yeah, but Owen asked me to wear blue.”
“Girl, you have bigger problems,” Penelope pointed out. “We have to be ready in three minutes!”
In the end, I threw on some old black dress, rubbed off the last of the black-smeared monstrosity that was my eye makeup, shoved everything in sight into my big purse and raced down the stairs with Penelope.
“Hey, only 10 minutes late,” Jake said from the driver’s seat with a smile. “Not bad.”
I smiled sweetly at him. “Want me to go and finish my makeup so you can wait longer?”
“Why ruin a good thing?” Owen said from the back. The intensity of his gaze indicated he meant it, too.
