Chapter 30
ELIZA
Ilost Jesse almost immediately after the toast. One second, he was there, and the next, he was gone, pulled into a sea of people, all of whom seemed eager to speak to him. The way they were acting, it was like they hadn’t seen him for years.
“There you are,” Kate said as she appeared next to me. “We just saw Jesse and I was wondering what had happened to you.”
“We thought you might’ve cut and run,” Jane said, one hand resting instinctively on her very swollen belly. “You should be proud of yourself for surviving Douglas’s toast.”
Kate smiled her agreement. “After this, it should just be people, champagne, and dealing with opinions. The worst should be over.”
I huffed out a small laugh, grateful for the ease in her tone even if I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I was being assessed.
Ever since we’d arrived here, these two had made a point of taking me under their wing.
I’d been introduced to Jane earlier, and though I’d been intimidated by the knowledge that she was Alex’s wife, she’d been nice enough so far.
Both of them had, treating me with kindness and including me in their conversation, yet it definitely felt like there was something they weren’t saying. Like maybe they weren’t quite pleased I was here.
“We should get you another drink,” Jane said smoothly, drawing my attention back to her. “What’s your poison?”
“Sparkling water,” I replied immediately. “I’ve had a glass of champagne already. Any more and I won’t be functional for much longer.”
Jane chuckled. “Let’s save not being functional for when I can become nonfunctional with you. God, I’m looking forward to a glass of good red wine.”
Before I could stop myself, I glanced at her stomach, unable to not notice that it looked like she was due any minute now. “You must be exhausted. How long do you have left?”
“Another month,” she said, sighing.
My eyebrows arched. “A month?”
“I know,” Kate said to me. “Personally, I’ve accepted that the baby is impatient to get out of there and start taking over the world.”
“I heard that,” Jane muttered.
Kate grinned at her. “You were meant to. Seriously, it doesn’t look like you have a whole month still ahead of you.”
I laughed, but I was also sort of jealous of how comfortable they were together. Familiar in a way that made me feel like I was standing outside of something I didn’t quite belong to.
Honestly, I couldn’t even tell if they liked me.
Sure, they were polite and friendly, but there was something underneath that I couldn’t quite name.
I stayed with them for a few more minutes of conversation that was easy on the surface but left me feeling slightly off balance. Then I excused myself.
“I’m just going to find Jesse,” I said, smoothing my dress unnecessarily. “We should probably make the rounds together.”
Something flickered in Kate’s eyes for just a second before it vanished on a warm smile. “Good luck, Eliza. We’ll see you later.”
They exchanged a glance as I turned to leave, but I caught it from the corner of my eye, and once again, I wondered what was going on with them. I didn’t really know either of these women but my gut was telling me there was more they weren’t saying.
More to this arrangement or perhaps my relationship with Jesse. Whatever it was, it definitely related to me. As I moved through the room, scanning faces, I tried to ignore the way my chest stung at the thought of that look they’d exchanged.
Mercifully, it didn’t take me long to find Jesse, my safe space in the sea of judgment and unfamiliar faces. He was at the bar, turned slightly away from me, with one hand resting on the counter. His shirt was different though, darker than the one he’d been wearing earlier.
I smiled to myself, weaving through the last few people until I reached him. Once I did, my fingers brushed the back of his shoulder to get his attention. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Why did you change your shirt?”
As soon as he turned, I knew it wasn’t him and I jerked my hand back immediately, heat rushing to my cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were your brother, but you must be Will.”
The resemblance between the two men was undeniable, but Will was looser somehow. Slightly more rumpled and less polished than Jesse. He seemed much more laidback.
As I looked at him, he did the same to me, his gaze raking across the length of my body in a way that wasn’t inappropriate, exactly, but slower than I was comfortable with. More deliberate.
When his eyes came back up to mine, his lips pressed together briefly, like he was holding back a reaction before he nodded. “You’re right, and you must be Eliza.”
“I am. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s totally understandable,” he cut in smoothly. “We get that a lot. It’s nice to meet you.”
There was an edge to his tone I couldn’t quite place, but that certainly made me suspect that he wasn’t terribly pleased to meet me despite what he’d just said. It was strange, though. He had no reason to dislike me and yet, something about the interaction felt slightly off already.
“It’s lovely to meet you as well,” I said. “I’ve heard so very much about you.”
Before I could figure out what was bothering me about him, a familiar presence settled behind my back. He was close enough that I didn’t need to turn to know who it was and relief streaked through me.
“Found you,” Jesse said, one of his hands immediately reaching for my waist and settling there, warm and heavy. “Kate said you were looking for me?”
I turned to look up at him but immediately realized that despite the fact that he’d been speaking to me, his attention was on his brother. The two of them were looking at each other, not speaking, but it seemed like they were having a conversation nonetheless.
While neither man seemed hostile, there was a definite tension between them that didn’t make sense. Like something unspoken was making both of them want to lash out at the other. I stepped in before the odd, loaded silence could stretch any further.
“Jesse’s spoken so highly of you,” I said to Will, glancing between them and hoping to ease whatever that quiet standoff had been about.
Will’s gaze finally slid back to mine. “He has?”
There it was again, the faintest edge of something sharp in his voice. He wasn’t being rude, but I couldn’t help feeling like he was brushing me off.
“Yes,” I said anyway, determined to prove that whatever he thought of me that was making him act this way, he was wrong. “I’ve heard only good things.”
“Hm,” he hummed, not agreeing or disagreeing as his gaze flicked back to his brother’s. “That’s interesting. Good to know.”
I smiled, but it felt a little more forced this time. While Jesse felt familiar, easy in a way I was starting to understand, Will had an odd presence about him. I couldn’t quite put my finger on this either, but he seemed just… not quite right.
The thought came and went so quickly I almost didn’t register it, but the feeling lingered as I turned my attention back to Jesse, instinctively gravitating toward him.
“Have you met everyone yet?” he asked, his tone light, but a tension in his posture that hadn’t been there before.
“I’ve met most, I think. Kate and Jane found me before I could get too lost and I chatted to them for a bit before I set out to find you.”
“I’m glad you got to spend some time with them. Although I can’t believe Jane is still on her feet. I kind of thought she would’ve taken off by now. She should. She needs to rest, whether she wants to or not.”
“Apparently, she still has another month to go,” I said. “Perhaps she just doesn’t want to rest quite that long.”
“Another month seems optimistic,” Jesse said, the corners of his eyes tightening slightly. “I actually thought there was less time than that.”
I shrugged. “Perhaps there is. It’s not an exact science, as far as I know. No one can predict exactly when the baby will come.”
“Yeah, I guess, but considering that the baby in question is a mix of Alex and Jane, it’s probably going to be more unpredictable than most.”
I smiled, but my awareness kept snagging on Will and the fact that he hadn’t moved or disengaged. He was still watching us as I nodded at Jesse. “Kate said something similar. It looks like everyone is expecting this particular baby to be rather impatient.”
Jesse hummed his agreement. His hand brushed lightly against my back, but his attention had returned to his twin. “Eliza and I need to leave now. We have plans tomorrow, but I’ll see you at the office on Monday morning.”
“Sure, that sounds like a plan,” Will agreed immediately, but the moment Jesse stepped closer to me, something passed between them in yet another exchange that I couldn’t quite read before Will glanced down at me. “It was nice to meet you, Eliza. I look forward to getting to know you.”
His voice was even and polite, the words perfectly normal, but the delivery was none of those things. He looked wildly uncomfortable saying it, like someone had handed him a script he didn’t believe in.
“You too, Will.” I made my lips form the shape of a smile, but I was quite sure it probably looked more like a grimace. “I suppose I’ll see you soon.”
We were living in the man’s house, after all. Jesse’s hand returned to my back before I could ask if he would be joining us there tonight, the touch light but insistent. “Come on.”
I glanced between them one more time before letting him guide me toward the exit, the tension of their unspoken conversation following us out to the car. We drove in silence for a few minutes before I finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“Your brother is interesting,” I said.
Jesse huffed out a quiet laugh, but he still seemed pensive. “That’s one word to describe him.”
“I might have embarrassed myself slightly,” I admitted. “I thought he was you earlier. I even asked him why he’d changed his shirt.”
“That sounds like something he probably enjoyed.”
I glanced over at him. “He looked incredibly uncomfortable when he said goodbye.”
Jesse’s mouth curved faintly, but he was definitely distracted. “Will is just a strange guy. You’ll like him once you get to know him.”
“Maybe.” Although I already knew I would never get comfortable with Will while it seemed like he and Jesse were on the outs. Or something. “You two seemed a little tense.”
“We’re brothers,” he said. “It happens.”
That was probably true. The good Lord knew that when my sisters and I got together, things weren’t always easy or even cordial between us.
I would not have expected such a strange tension between identical twins, however, but perhaps that was simply because I couldn’t quite fathom the kind of bond they must have.
Either way, by the time we pulled up to the house, Jesse had grown completely quiet again, following me in without saying a word.
I turned toward him once he’d shut the door behind us, but before I could ask if he wanted to talk about it, he suddenly stepped closer and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered quietly, his breath warm against my skin.
My heart stuttered. “For what?”
He pulled back slightly, like he hadn’t meant to say it out loud. “For—”
His phone rang in his pocket, the shrill sound slicing straight through the tenderness of the moment. Jesse took a step back and pulled it out of his pocket. His jaw tightened when he looked at the screen.
“It’s work,” he said. “I have to take this.”
“Of course,” I replied despite feeling—once again—like I was missing something. “I’ll go get ready for bed.”
He nodded, already answering as he spun and strode away, his tone brisk and controlled now, so entirely different from what it’d been just a moment ago. He left me standing in the entryway, alone with the warmth of his kiss still lingering on my forehead.
More and more, I had the uneasy feeling that I might’ve stepped straight into the middle of some kind of messy family drama I hadn’t been told about, and judging by the way the twins had looked at each other tonight, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know exactly how complicated it really was.