1. Everly
Everly
Taking a last sip of my Diet Coke, I tossed the cup in the recycling bin close to where my Jeep was parked and wiped my hands on the soft white fabric of my pants. I’d thought the outfit was cute and chic, perfect for my job interview and Evie’s afternoon class.
I didn’t know how it was for other twins, but with my sister and me, we needed the connection of dressing like mirror images.
All our lives, we’d been forced to live completely separate, only getting to see each other once a year.
But thank fuck for the judge who’d overseen our parents’ messy, brutal divorce.
When our parents had signed off on the equal division of all their assets, that had included the babies that my mother was pregnant with.
It hadn’t sat right with the judge, though.
Whatever concern had driven him to make the stipulation requiring visitation for us on our birthday, I was eternally grateful.
If not for that small blessing, I was terrified to imagine what might have happened to my sister.
Evie’s dad was a controlling monster. He’d kept her locked away, isolating her from the world.
Shaking off thoughts of the man who was genetically my father too— I fucking hate him, hate him, hate him —I opened the door to the shop.
WomanLand was a popular boutique in the small college town, located beside a discreet-looking tattoo shop close to the prestigious college where my sister was enrolled.
As a brick-and-mortar store, it was thriving.
However, its online store was the true success.
I had an interview for the manager position, and I was nervous as hell.
It wasn’t so much that I needed this job financially.
After my mother passed, I inherited everything.
I’d only been seventeen at the time of her death, though, which had made things difficult at first. Once I’d gotten my hands on that money, I’d invested in a few lucrative endeavors.
It had taken some serious cash to extract my sister from her father, every cent well spent.
I still had a surplus of funds left over, even after buying two identical wardrobes, our cars, and relocating us to sweet little Creswell Springs.
Mom got half of her ex’s wealth in the divorce.
When I’d first realized what had garnered my parents their vast fortune, I’d considered burning every last dollar.
But then I realized that my sister and I needed that money if we wanted to have a life away from them.
We could live comfortably together for multiple lifetimes without needing to work.
It was more for Evie’s sake that I wanted this job. I had to show her it was safe to leave our apartment. Keeping the door open helped more than anything else we’d tried so far.
Shut, locked doors caused her major anxiety.
Baby steps.
Violin rock music played softly over the audio system when I entered the boutique, an oddly soothing yet rejuvenating melody.
WomanLand was aptly named. Everything any woman could want or need was on display.
Beautiful clothes, jewelry, accessories.
They had a maternity section catering to expecting and postnatal care.
According to my investigation, they even had a naughty section that was for the eighteen-and-older crowd only.
I’d prepared for this interview like it was the most important test of my life.
Please hire me. Please, please hire me. Evie needs me to have this job.
I kept the carefree smile on my face, and my gaze went straight to the two women standing by the customer care desk. My extensive research on the owners of WomanLand had led me to the pictures of the co-owners, Mila Thornton and River Masterson.
Mila was gorgeous with her black hair and gray eyes. She was a little shorter than the willowy blonde at her side, her curves generous. They were both older than me by more than a decade, their customer-service smiles perfectly in place as they greeted me.
From what I’d learned by looking at their website, Mila had a huge social media following.
Her husband was Lyric Thornton, the Lyric Thornton.
He was famous all on his own, with his wicked art inked into some of the world’s elite celebrities, athletes, billionaires, even freaking royalty.
On top of that, his dad was a rock legend and his twin brother a retired NFL defenseman.
His identical twin.
My attention had been piqued before, but when I’d read that, I’d known this job was what I wanted. What had convinced me that it was what Evie needed was that Mila herself was an identical twin. She was a triplet, with a brother thrown into the mix who was married to River.
If I hadn’t been convinced by that stroke of fate? Mila had four kids, two sets of twins.
It was meant to be. Evie and I were supposed to be here. Creswell Springs was destined to be our home.
But if I didn’t get the job, did that mean I was wrong?
I desperately hoped I wasn’t.
“Hi, you must be Everly,” River greeted, walking out from behind the counter. She extended her hand, her smile going from professional to a softer, more natural one. “I’m River. This is my business partner and sister-in-law, Mila.”
River was easy to talk to, and soon, my nervousness vanished.
It felt more like old friends catching up than a job interview as she asked me about my background.
I had a business degree with a focus in marketing.
School was the only thing that had kept me sane while I’d fought to find a way to get my sister away from our father.
Mom’s sudden death had thrown our lives into tailspins.
Not only had I lost my only parent, but since I’d still technically been a minor at the time, I’d had to move from Washington to California, where my mother’s aunt lived.
My sperm donor had emphatically refused to consider my living with him for the few months it would have taken for me to turn eighteen.
As the second-born twin, I’d been unwanted by him.
I was nothing more than a cheap replica, the unnecessary spare.
He’d used those exact words the very rare times we’d had a conversation.
It might have hurt if I hadn’t already known what a monster William was.
Mom’s drunken rants were good for a few things—getting intel on my sperm donor being one of them.
An hour later, I was signing a contract with River while Mila helped a customer. As soon as my signature was scrawled across the last document, I felt as if a hundred pounds of stress had been lifted from me. I had to rein myself in and not hug the life out of River.
Stepping out of the office, River gave me a thorough tour of the store.
Once Mila finished with the customer, she joined us by the fall collection at the front window display.
For the most part, she’d stayed quiet during my interview but had thrown in a few questions of her own.
She wasn’t prickly, just more guarded than River was from my perspective, and I could respect that.
“I was waiting for you to be an official employee before I said anything because this will sound creepy and maybe a little stalkerish,” she said as she glanced out the window. “Your eyes are beautiful. I just want to look at them for hours and hours.”
Laughing, I shook my head at her. “We get that a lot, actually. It’s central heterochromia, which is a mutation in our genes. It’s not as rare as having the type of heterochromia with two different eye colors, but it still freaks some people out.”
“We?” River asked with a curious frown.
“I have an identical twin sister. You’ll see her around since she’s a student at Trinity.”
“Christ, I’m not even surprised,” River snickered. “Creswell Springs is starting to be full of twins. When Luca and his family visit for holidays, we are overrun with twins everywhere you turn.”
Mila stuck out her tongue at her friend. “Only cool people have a twin, and I’m the coolest because I got a brother and a sister out of it.”
“You didn’t think it was so cool when you were bitching about being pregnant with twins. Twice,” River reminded her with a laugh.
“Speaking of which, I have to go. It’s my day to pick up the girls from school and scare all our boys into walking home straight after football practice.
Otherwise, they conveniently forget and always find themselves on the wrong side of trouble.
” Mila rolled her eyes before turning to River.
“You good? Need me to bring anything back after I drop the girls at Mom’s? ”
“We’ve got this. Love you.”
“Love you!” She gave me a wave as she walked toward the office and, I assumed, the back entrance.
For the next few hours, I got lost in work and getting to know my new bosses.
Day one and I was already loving the energy.
I was well aware that not everyone could have that first-day experience.
While I was in college, I worked part time at my great-aunt’s store on Melrose.
It was a different chaotic headache every other day there.
I hadn’t hated it, though. Customer service wasn’t for the weak, and I kicked ass at it.
That was why I thought WomanLand was the perfect job for me.
Aunt Mildred had offered me the chance to take over her store full time when I graduated, but I wanted a fresh start with Evie. Somewhere we could put down roots without overwhelming my twin.
Glancing at my phone, I saw that I had missed a few texts from my sister.
Evie: Made a friend in class!
Evie: She invited me out for a girls’ night. I think I want to go.
Hope and excitement raced through me. Creswell Springs must have had some kind of magic in the air. I wasn’t surprised Evie was making friends so quickly. People gravitated toward her. But that she was coming out of her shell so easily convinced me yet again that we had found our forever home.