Twinsequences (Twisted Twin #1)(8)
Author: Jennifer Foor

He squeezed my hands and looked right at me. “The past four years haven’t been easy for either of us, but I can assure you, we are definitely on the same page, babe.”

Every time he said something nice, I had to remind myself that he was speaking it to my sister and not me. Still, hearing it made me smile. Knowing that I was going to get to spend more time together made me even more happy. “I’d love to go on the boat with you, Stosh.”

He seemed so happy as we walked back to his place. For me, well, I was living a fantasy. When they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, I think they meant it. I was every bit in awe of this man, as I was when we were in high school. I wanted to be around him, spending every second watching him smile and enjoy himself. It made me happy to see him happy, even if that happiness wasn’t really because of me.

Since I’d not known about the boat, I had no idea what to expect. When he started to tell me about how his dad had repaired some things, I remembered that they’d had a nice size boat. They use to take it out and spend the night on it.

I was going to be alone on the water with Stoshua Wheeler. It was horrifying.

I hadn’t signed up for this.

As panicked as I was, I couldn’t just jump out of a moving vehicle to avoid the elephant in the room. I had to stay focused and remember that I was Ivy, not Willow. “So, I’m sorry if I’ve been kind of distant lately.”

“Lately? Try the whole time since the wedding.” I wondered what he meant.

“Surely, I haven’t been that awful to be around. Have I?”

He didn’t answer as we pulled into the marina, but I wanted to know what he would have said.

His parents boat was nice. It wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either. When you went down underneath, it had a galley kitchen, with a table. A compact bathroom followed and then there was one bedroom. After looking around, I leaned back on the bed and saw him looking at me. “Did you bring me here to seduce me, Mr. Wheeler?”

He took one step forward, but stopped. “What if I did?”

I was at a loss for words.

What would Ivy say? “Are you hungry? I’m starving.”

Yeah, I changed the subject. After I’d sampled his kissing, I knew talking about sex was going to cause me to crumble at his feet. I had to keep my composure.

Stosh made us a picnic top-‐side and we sat on the boat floor facing each other. He leaned over and fed me a grape. “You look so beautiful, sitting there across from me.”

I could feel myself blushing. “Maybe it’s the new haircut.”

“No, you could be bald and still be as beautiful. It’s not the hair, I can assure you.” I think I saw him blush before he bit down into a sandwich.

“So, should I be worried you’re going to throw me overboard in the middle of the night and leave me to the sharks?”

“Babe, there’s no sharks in this river. You know I’d never hurt you like that anyway. I love you.”

As much as I liked the way it sounded coming from his mouth, I felt repulsed.

He should have loved me. This should be my life and not hers. My next sentence escaped without me being able to rationalize it away. “What ever happened between you and Willow?”

He shook his head and started laughing. “I’m not going to discuss that with you, babe. Not here. Not now.” He leaned over and tried to kiss me, but I instinctively pulled away. “What’s wrong?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I just feel like I want you to answer.”

“After all this time? What does it matter? Why do you even care?” He seemed like he was getting annoyed.

“Never mind. You’re right. It isn’t important.” Yes it was!

We finished eating in silence and he got up to start the boat’s engines. I felt relieved that the conversation was over, but scared that we were going out into the open water alone.

Don’t get me wrong, if I died at any second, I’d die a happy girl. He was here with me and not Ivy. Temporary or not, he was mine.

Here was the biggest problem with pretending to be my sister. I envied her life so much, that I was starting to consider what it would be like to take it for myself. I wanted to know what it would feel like to touch his naked skin, to lay naked in bed next to him and to make love with him.

Maybe my time away had changed me from a caring person to the devil himself. At any rate, the more I thought about walking away, the more I wanted to stay.

We spent the day heading out to sea. It wasn’t hard considering we lived right outside of Middletown Delaware. We were practically surrounded by bodies of water. It took us about two hours to get to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Large cruise ships and shipping freighters shared the water with us.

We spent the day fishing and bathing in the warm sun. It was the perfect day, and as the sun started to set, he wrapped us up in a blanket and watched it go down with me in his arms.

How could I not be in love with this man? He was damn near perfect.

Did I feel bad for pretending to be my sister?

I was starting not to.

“This is amazing. Thank you for bringing me out here.”

“I used to like it when we hung around and watched movies all day. Things were easier back then. There was no work and no drama. Now, I go to work and come home. My days are busy and I spend my nights trying to forget about my days. After a while the monotony drives you insane. I tell you, I just need a damn break from it all. I want to do something different than what I’m doing. I don’t want to rent a pool house for the rest of my life. I want a house full of kids and to be able to coach them in sports and take them to Disney World.”

I heard everything he said, but only one sentence stuck in my head. I remembered watching movies with him. It hurt to think that my sister took that spot next to him on the couch. She’d taken everything we ever did and made their memories better. I was always pushed to the side, with everything I tried to do. Maybe that was why I took the academic route. It was the only thing she had no interest in. I couldn’t blame her for falling for Stoshua. He was an all around amazing guy. He was into sports, but equally into academics. He was brilliant and gorgeous. I couldn’t have been the only one to notice.

Shouldn’t I be glad that he was somehow always going to be in my life? Had I wasted so many years of being a part of their lives over something that was just an adolescent action?

I looked over at Stosh. He took his arm and pulled me closer. We stared into each other’s eyes. As much as I wanted to be the better person, I couldn’t imagine not having him for myself. In one selfish move, I leaned up to his mouth and kissed those perfect lips. While our physical contact became downright involved, I had not one single regret. In fact, my sister never even crossed my mind.