Falling for the Wrong Twin (9 page)

“Don’t worry, Uncle Mike. Mom says shit all the time. Darla knows it always gets a reaction.”

Mike blinked at the little boy. “You sure?”

“Fuck, yeah.”

He jolted, horrified to hear those words coming out of a four year old’s mouth. “Where’d you learn that phrase?” he demanded.

The kid just shrugged and went back to his pancakes while Mike made a mental note to have words with his sister. That phrase wasn’t something Chrissy said, which meant the boy had picked up the language from someone else. And now that his dad was gone, it was up to Mike to keep an eye on just who was influencing his young nephew.

He glanced up to see Anna’s slight frown as well, her gaze catching on Mike’s. For a second, they shared total understanding. She was just as startled and horrified as he was. And then, just as abruptly, she flushed and looked away. Had the moment been too much for her? The sudden accord feeling like a punch to the gut? He sure hoped so because that’s exactly how it felt for him. And he wasn’t going to let her run from it.

“Hey, Anna,” he began before he could double-think himself. “The rain’s stopped for the moment. I know the road’s still blocked, but we could walk to the garage. I could take a look at whatever problem you have with your car.”

Her eyes abruptly narrowed and her mouth went flat. Not the reaction he’d been hoping for. And her next words confirmed that his intention had gone completely awry.

“I’m sure the mechanic is working as fast as he can. I’ll be out of here as soon as possible--”

“No, no! That’s not what I meant.” He floundered then, whatever charm he’d once had completely deserting him. “I meant that we could take a walk together to the garage. And that afterwards, maybe, um…” He glanced nervously at his family all listening intently as he made a hash of asking Anna out. “I thought dinner or something. Since you’re stuck here and I’ve been such a jerk.”

“Oh my!” Aunt Tilde cried with a clap of her hands. “He’s asking you out on a date, dear. The garage was just an excuse!”

Mike grimaced at his aunt. Whatever the hell had prompted him to do this in front of his family? “It’s not an excuse! I’m a mechanical engineer and any garage that says it’ll take weeks to fix a car is lying. There wasn’t any body damage, right?”

Anna shook her head. “Not that I saw. There was some debris that got kicked up and…” She ended on a shrug.

“No way does that take weeks to fix.”

“Are you sure? It’s an old car.”

He frowned. Depending on the make and model, that could make a big difference. “How old?”

“I-I don’t know, really. I mean I knew, but the manual and stuff is long gone. It was my mom’s car, and I kinda forgot.”

Ah. Not a car person, but he’d already guessed that. “So, what say we take that walk to the garage--”

“And then go to dinner. Don’t forget dinner,” interrupted Aunt Tilde.

“And then go on to dinner tonight. I’m pretty sure my family can spare me this evening.”

His mom piped up. “Absolutely. He’s free as a bird tonight!”

Anna laughed at that. Her lips curved up and her eyes seemed to soften.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’d like that very much.”

Aunt Tilde clapped. “Yeah!”

Darla did the same. “Yeah!”

Henry just rolled his eyes as he focused on his pancakes. And then--sadly--the day went from awkward to disaster in about fifteen seconds.

He’d just managed to take his own bite of pancake when his sister came tearing into the room. “Mike!
Mike!
”

He bolted out of his seat, spinning around fast enough to catch his sister who appeared to be half stumbling, half shaking with rage. She bolted straight for him waving her cell phone at him.

“Chrissy?”

“God, Mike, can anything else go wrong this year? How about a plague of locusts? Volcano? Maybe I’m about to turn into a pillar of salt?”

“How about a monsoon on St. Louis?” Anna’s dry voice cut through the room, like a knife through drama. She hadn’t spoken very loud, but Chrissy had been taking a breath, so her words came through loud and clear. Fortunately, it was exactly what was needed. Mike’s sister stopped cold and focused on Anna. Then her eyes widened a moment before she released a self-conscious laugh.

“I like that,” she said. “Monsoon in St. Louis. Sorry guys, apparently God has it out for me.”

Mike grabbed his sister’s still-waving arm, stilling it before she accidentally punched him. “What happened?”

His sister shoved her phone at him, but then started gesturing with it before he could take it. “I’m being audited! Jeez-louise, haven’t I suffered enough? Don’t they know my husband was a war hero? I haven’t even gotten his Purple Heart yet, and they think I’m cheating on my taxes? What the--”

“Stop waving that thing around and let me see!” he snapped. Then he blinked. Hell if he hadn’t sounded just like his father right then.

Then he saw why his father had used that tone of voice because his sister immediately snapped to attention and slapped the phone into his hand. Sadly, the thing was locked with a code. He turned it to her, and together they fumbled a bit before he finally got to see the email message.

Yup. She was being audited. Of all the shitty luck.

“What the hell am I going to do?” she wailed.

He gave his sister an impatient look. “You’re going to get your documents together and go to your appointment just like it says.”

She rocked back on her heels and gave him an impatient look. “Michael Smithson, you’ve known me all your life. Think about this for a moment. Do you seriously believe I kept all those documents? That I can find any of this shit in between peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pre-school? Not to mention the fact that I have a job! It’s not easy raising two kids alone, you know. Now I’m going to have to take time off to deal with this, not to mention clean my office. God, the last time I picked up in there was when the dog threw up on the carpet!” Then she gasped. “Oh shit. What if he threw up on the documents? I threw all that stuff out!”

Mike re-read the email, letting his sister rant as much as she wanted to. He knew from experience that she had to get her emotions out before she calmed enough to deal with the situation. Truthfully, she was holding up really well considering everything. Thankfully, this was something he could help with.

“You brought your laptop with you, right?” he asked when she paused for breath.

“Yeah, it’s upstairs.”

“You filed on-line, right?”

“Yeah, I used that tax program you said I--”

“Great. And that’s on your laptop, right?”

“Of course it is.”

“Good, then how about you get some breakfast while I check things out, okay? Now do you want to grab your computer or should I--”

“It’s right beside the crib. Can’t miss it. In fact, Henry here has kicked it half a dozen times just to hear Mommy scream.”

Mike smiled and squeezed his sister’s arm. “I’ll find it, and we’ll figure things out, okay?”

His sister pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You’re the best.”

“Damn right I am.” He started to head out of the dining room when he chanced to look at Anna. It’s not like he’d forgotten she was there. Nor had he forgotten that he’d just asked her out on a date. But she’d slipped into that background place in his mind where she continued to burn like a pilot light, keeping his blood hot and his body primed.

But it’s not like he could indulge in that with his mother right there and his sister having a morning meltdown. So when he looked at Anna, he wasn’t surprised that she was there so much as jolted back into awkward awareness of her. And his thick dick. That happened whenever she was around.

“Um, Anna--”

She smiled at him. “We’ll go this afternoon after you’ve defeated the evil IRS. It’s not like my car is going anywhere.”

He nodded, but glanced out at the overcast sky. “It might be raining later.”

“And it might be rainbows and unicorns. Relax. We’ve got plenty of time.”

He laughed, startling himself again. What she said didn’t even make sense. The forecast called for more rain, and yet, she made him smile. Which made the coming morning of tax questions a little bit brighter.

“Thanks,” he said.

“De nada,” she answered, the Spanish words sounding much too intimate the way she said them. He looked at her--or rather, he found himself unable to look away. Her skin was flawless, her eyes large and beautiful. And the way she smiled at him, made his brain short circuit.

God what if it were possible? What if she was the woman for him? What if she had the same hungers he did sexually? That’s where most women went running from him. He wasn’t a deviant or anything. He just liked a certain measure of control--dominance--and finding those bed partners was hard.

But it might be possible. She might be open to the kind of sex he liked. He felt his lips curve into a hungry smile. Whatever type of woman she was, he was going to test her limits tonight.

Chapter 7

Anna saw the expression that flashed on Mike’s face just before he left. Dark, intense, and with a slight smile. He’d looked just like the vampire from her dream and the thought trilled her down to her toes. She knew she was being silly. It was all too clear that Mike was the glue in this family. He took his niece and nephew to breakfast every morning, he was the one Chrissy ran to when she got the news of an audit, and his mother turned to him when she wanted to make a silly, expensive purchase.

She frowned a moment, realizing that he hadn’t stopped his mother from that purchase, so she leaned over to the woman. “Will you show me what you want?”

“Oh my, yes!” the woman exclaimed. Then she proceeded to show her all the details of a new multi-function, sub zero refrigerator/freezer unit.

“Quite the appliance,” Anna agreed as she pulled out her smart phone to make notes. “But I have a suggestion.”

“Yes?”

“Tell me everything you love and want about this thing. I’ll write it down and give it to one of your kids. The holidays are just around the corner, you know and--”

“Give it to Mike. Rick’ll pay for whatever I want, but he doesn’t research it like Mike does. And Chrissy’s got her hands full.”

Anna nodded, knowing it was true. The woman in question was right now deep in an insect discussion with her son while peeling grapes for her daughter. Who peeled grapes? And though everyone was at the same table, they might have been in different parts of the state. Chrissy was that occupied just managing her two kids.

Meanwhile, Dee sat back with a satisfied smile even as her sister leaned forward. “That’s all well and good, but let me tell you where to go eat tonight. Mike loves Italian food, though no one makes lasagna like I do. I know the roads are blocked, but there’s a nice little restaurant not far from here…”

Aunt Tilde went on while Anna twisted uncomfortably in her seat. She’d known from the beginning that the two sisters were doing their best to matchmake her and Mike. But it wasn’t until this moment that she saw the depth of their desire to see the two of them together. In the end, she couldn’t keep silent any longer. When Tilde paused to draw breath, Anna held up her hand. “What aren’t you two telling me?”

Both pulled up with identical expressions of shock on their faces.

“What?”

“What do you mean?”

“There isn’t anything--”

“Mike’s a fine man! A good job and a strong family sense--”

“A smart woman would see his worth!”

The ladies continued to gasp and exclaim while Anna folded her arms, her certainty growing by the second. Something was off, and these women were terrible at trying to hide it.

In the end, they sputtered to silence. All Anna had to do was cock a brow at them, and Tilde blushed a bright red. Dee, apparently, was a bit stronger. Must be her maternal instinct because she stuttered into an explanation, worry creasing her brow.

“He’s a fine man, but the women just don’t seem to stick around. I don’t understand it.”

“What do you mean?”

Tilde huffed into her coffee. “There haven’t been a lot of women. We don’t hear much, especially now that he’s working in Peoria. He’s at the Caterpillar factory there. You know, the one that makes tractors and stuff.”

“Yes, I know,” Anna said, but she wasn’t going to let the women distract her. “But you guess something’s odd because the women keep disappearing.”

“He used to work closer to home. A place in St. Louis. A machine shop and Sammy there told me last week that he was going to contact Mike again. Maybe offer him a job.”

“Really?” Tilde gasped. “I had no idea. Mike used to work with him before he left–”

“Ladies,” Anna interrupted. “You can’t distract me.”

Both women turned and glared at her. Anna didn’t so much as blink. Honestly, these two had nothing on some of the caterers she’d managed over the years. Finally the two women huffed, and Tilde folded her arms.

“We don’t
know
anything, but we saw the same thing over and over. He’d show interest in a woman, they’d date for a bit, and then…”

Dee sighed. “And then she’d disappear. Mike never explained except to say it didn’t work out. He’d seem depressed for a bit. It’s hard to tell with him, but a mother knows.”

“And then nothing for months until there would be another woman.”

“For a few weeks.”

“Then it would be over.”

Anna shrugged, her thoughts spinning with possibilities. “It sounds like he knows when it doesn’t work and cuts the women off when they don’t fit.”

“Maybe,” Dee said, but Tilde’s mouth tightened in disagreement.

“What?” Anna asked.

Tilde shrugged. “Sometimes that’s true, of course. But more often…”

Anna picked up the thread. “You think the women run from him for some reason.” She glanced at Dee. “You’re afraid there’s something off about Mike that scares the women. Why? What would make you think that?”

Dee bit her lip. “There was this girl in high school. She and Mike dated for a while and then she… then…”

“She tried to kill herself.”

“Oh my God!” Anna gasped.

“She’s fine,” Dee rushed to say. “Her name is Susie Whalen and she’s got a husband and a kid now. Mike helped with her bills and got her into therapy. It was all teenage stuff, you know. He stayed by her side the whole time until he went to college, but it changed him.”