Then & Now (2 page)

If her sister knew the answer to that it would ruin their relationship.  Taking the easy way out, Ella lifted a shoulder. “Matt likes it up there.”

“Matt, huh?” Was all her twin could say.

“Amy…” Her sister never liked Matt.  She remembered the day Matt asked to her marry him, Amy all but punched him in the face.  Again on their wedding day, Amy stood there in her maid-of-honor gown ticking off the reasons why they shouldn’t get married on her perfectly, manicured nails.

“Oh, give me a hug!” Amy squealed while she pulled Ella into her arms.

“I might wrinkle you.”  She teased, hugging her back.

Linking their arms together, Amy began to guide them to the side garden. “Could you give me just a few more minutes of your time?”

“Sure.” It wasn’t that she didn’t wan
t to spend time with her sister; it was just that she didn’t want to hear about her perfect life, with the perfect man.

She walked along with Amy as she
guided her to a small garden just off the dinner. The weather was warm but not overwhelmingly hot, a nice cool breeze gently glided along with them.  It was nice.  Unfortunately, she knew her sister had something important to say, and nice was about to go out the window.

“Colin left for Egypt today.” Amy began. “He’s been in and out of that awful country for the last few months.”

“Egypt isn’t awful. It’s full of rich culture and its history—”

“Oh, stop.  I hear enough from him.” Amy chuckled.
“Any who. I was wondering, you know with Colin gone so often now, that you and me can hang out more.”

“Hang out?”  Ella asked unsure how to answer.

Amy nodded eagerly. “We don’t spend any time together any more.  I miss you.”

Realizing how unreasonable she had been acting, she let out a deep sigh and
turned to her twin. “I miss you too.” She had been pushing her sister aside all over a stupid crush.

“Oh, good!”
Amy smiled giving Ella another big hug. “I really need you right now.”

“Why what’s up?” 

“Colin wants to have a baby.”

A baby.
  The world could’ve caved in at that exact moment and Ella wouldn’t have even noticed.  A baby was everything Ella had ever wanted and Matt denied her.  He had denied her even before they were married. Unbeknown to her, Matt had decided never to have children. When the subject finally came up after a year of marriage he admitted to that he had had a vasectomy. He said it as if it was no big deal, as if her feelings didn’t matter.

“A baby…” She choked out. “That will be nice.” It took a moment before she realized Amy was staring at her. “What?”

“You look like you are going to faint.” Amy acknowledged slowly.

Waving her hand in front of her as she gave an unconvincing chuckle.
“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just everyone talking change and I’m stuck up a mountain.”

“You don’t have to be.”

Disregarding her sister’s comment, Ella couldn’t help but think that everything was about to change. How?  She didn’t know.  But change was definitely coming…

Madeline Turner stood in the back of the lavish party worrying her bottom lip.  She didn’t want to be here; the pins in her hair were driving her crazy, her dress’s straps were scrapping crudely against her skin, and to top it all off she hated parties of any kind.

Her mind whirled around ideas of how to get out of there, but she knew why she came, and that was reason enough to stay. 

Craning her neck
Maddie searched the crowed to find him.  She could actually feel the butterflies in her stomach as she thought of his eyes.  They were so beautiful that they actually made her weak.  They weren’t like his twin brothers, whose eyes were duller, almost lifeless.  Really that was the only way to decipher the difference between the two physically.  They could, quite honestly, be the clone of one another.

“Hey, babe.”
  Jordan’s strong voice came to her from the side.  “I’ve been looking for you.”  Kissing her cheek, he pulled her close.

Maddie
struggled to smile.  She really hated being called ‘babe’.  Babe was a famous pig that apparently herded talking sheep.  But her fiancé didn’t seem to catch that.  So instead she gave the best smile she could and kissed him back. 

“I’m so glad you came.”  He whispered in the shell of her ear.  “I almost thought you wouldn’t.”

“You knew I would.”  She grinned wearily.

He laughed hugging her to him.  “How are you going to get through
our wedding?”

Good question.

Pulling back slightly, Jordan gave her a crooked smile.  “Don’t hate me…”

“You’re leaving?”  She practically groaned.

“I’m sorry, babe.  It will only be for an hour.  My mother and father are here, and you know how much my mother loves you.  Go sit with her and I will be back before you even realize I’m gone.”  He promised as he bent his knees to look at her more directly.

She doubted it.  “I’m always aware when
you’re not around.”

“Oh, my sweetheart.”
  He cooed.  It was his job, and if he
had
to leave his aunts party to go entertain some client then he had too.

She took a deep breath.  “Go.  I’ll be okay.”

“You’re going to make me a very happy man when you marry me.”  Kissing the side of her head, Jordan turned walked away.  He didn’t turn back once as he left the crowed room and the woman he made such breakable promises to.

Justin Faris balled his fist as he watched his brother hang over the lanky blond that wasn’t his fiancé.  How in hell can that man get away with it?  He loved his brother, but his face still stung from being slapped by women who, he didn’t know, yet knew his brother.       

The crappy thing about being an identical twin was having the same face as a man who cared little about other people’s feelings, and getting the brunt end of it.

He just couldn’t understand it.  Madeline was so gorgeous, why did Jordan have to go after Kendra Ross?  Sure Kendra was beautiful too.  She was the typical blond haired, big breasted, bubble head.  But Maddie was…Perfect.

He remembered the first time he’d met Madeline.  She had
came for dinner and although he had no intention on staying at first—knowing his brother, Justin had figured she wouldn’t stick around—he ended up staying the moment he saw her walking up his parents drive.  Her amazing auburn hair hung down around her shoulders, with little curly tendrils that made his fingers ache to touch. 

Then when she smiled at him with those adorable, heart shaped lips, he found himself hoping she would stick around, for him anyway. His thoughts had been on her every day since. 

His heart nearly bottomed out when he had found out about their engagement.  Hell, Justin couldn’t believe that his brother had that much time to get to know her.  Two months, and suddenly a wedding is on.

His mother claims ‘when you know you know’.  Well he knew
Jordan was up to something.  Maddie’s family was rich, not that Justin cared, but his brother always wanted to stay financially in the green.

Seeing him now all over Kendra he would bet his left arm that was exactly what his sorry excuse for a brother was doing.

Just then his brother spotted him.  Taking in three deep breaths, Justin tried to cool himself down before his twin approached him.  Thankfully he left his
backup
girlfriend by the elevators.

“Hey, man.” Jordan greeted as he came to a stop right in front of Justin.  To anyone walking by they might have thought it was a three-dimensional mirror.  It was then he noticed
Jordan’s hair was parted the same way his was.  Why?  Jordan loved his just-out-of-bed head.

“What the hell are you doing?”  Justin demanded looking over at Kendra, who had the nerve to wave.

Jordan shrugged.  “She’s in for the weekend.”

Taking in another breath, Justin wanted to pound some sense into his dimwitted brother.  How in the hell did these two share the same womb?  “She was in last weekend.  I know
this because she kept climbing into my lap thinking I was you.”

His brother had the audacity to roll his eyes.  “Look, I’m not going to do it after I get married.”

“You shouldn’t be doing it at all!”  He growled.

“Oh, calm down little bro.”

Justin’s laugh held no humor.  “I think something happened to you in the eight minutes I was still in the womb.” Folding his arms over his chest, he tried even harder to breathe even. 

Jordan flashed a smile back at Kendra before he continued.  “Okay. Okay.  I’ll go talk to her.  Could you go sit with
Maddie while I do it?”

“Do what?”  He cocked an eyebrow, already knowing the answer.

His brother’s smile was almost enough to start a punching fight that would surly get them kicked out of the fancy hotel.  “Just talk.  I’m sure once she finds out about Madeline it will be over.”

Yeah right.  Kendra was just as morally challenged as his brother.

“Scouts Honor.”  Jordan smirked, as he held up his fingers in a mock sign of the Boy Scouts.

Walking away from him, Justin flipped off his brother over his shoulder.  Of course he will
go sit with the most amazingly, beautiful woman he had ever seen.  She didn’t deserve this.

Stopping dead in his tracks, his eyes landed right on her as if she was the only one in the room.  He hadn’t seen her yet tonight.  Now
that he was taking in her hair, her dress, her cute little strappy sandals, he honestly thought his heart was going to explode.  He watched her for a moment as she spoke with his parents.  She was uncomfortable, it was written all over her face.  Not with his parents, with the party.

God, he would give anything to be with
Maddie.  To feel her, taste her, make her feel as if no one else in the world could mean more.  He could imagine what it would be like to just spend one night with her.

Could he?  Would she even notice?  His brother and he were too identical.  Their own father even had a hard time telling the difference.  Growing up they would play tricks on their teachers, girlfriends, and even their poor grandmother who didn’t visit enough to tell the small differences.

What in the hell was he thinking?  It was bad enough that her fiancé was cheating.  Now here he was willing to trick her into spending the night with him.  That was a disaster waiting to happen.  So why couldn’t he stop thinking about it?

Madeline desperately wanted out of her dress and the pins out of her hair.  This was supposed to be a birthday party for Jordan’s ninety-nine year old aunt.  Only it seemed more like a grand gala, where no one wanted to step out of line.  In other words, she was board out of her mind.

Her eyes darted around the room on occasion looking for him.  She was becoming impatient and she feared it would offend his parents.  But she badly wanted to see him.  No, she wanted to touch him, smell him, and get lost in him.  Wow, she was
distracted.

Then her eyes caught him, and her heart leapt up into her throat.  He was so beautiful it nearly hurt to look at him. She had to curl her hands around her seat in order to stop herself from leaping off and attacking him.  Which would be humiliating for both of them seeing his entire family was there.

Trying to calm her heart down she watched anxiously as he talked with someone, who had stopped him on the way over.   Both of his parents excused themselves and arose from the table.  She was barely able to exchange pleasantries with her future in-laws, while his blue-green eyes held her from across the room.

She wasn’t sure how she was able to maintain control as she continued to observe him greet his parents.  While his mother lightly kissed his cheek, and his father patted him on the back, his eyes stayed locked on hers.

The chairs hard, plastic edges bit into her fingers making her aware of her grip.  Releasing her hold, Maddie smiled—in what she hoped was casual—as he approached.

“Hi.” She swallowed in embarrassment when she heard her voice shake on the one little word.

He cocked up one side of his mouth.  “Hello.”

She blinked twice.  “
Jordan?”

Without saying a word he took a seat next to her.  His eyes
sparkled a little, which caused the butterflies in her stomach to go berserk.

Oh, man!  This man could wrap her around which ever finger he wanted.  Resting her elbows on the table, she leaned more into him. 
“What took you so long?  I mean…”

He smiled that adorable smile that hooked her from the first time they met.  There was slight confusion on his face.  Then like a flip of a dime the confusion was gone, and a wild flame ignited in those beautiful eyes that roomed over her face.  He leaned closer to her, “You want to get out of here, don’t you?”  His voice was low and husky, which didn’t help the butterfly problem.

“With you?”  She wanted the question to be flirtatious.  Hoping it came off that way, she rushed forward.  “I would love to.”