by Judy Corry
"Sorry about that." She glanced back to Elyse and me with flushed cheeks. "I forgot to put those away earlier." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, this is my closet."
I briefly wondered why she seemed embarrassed that we'd see she preferred Old Spice to Secret deodorant, but my attention was instantly drawn away from that thought when she opened the door to her closet and turned on the light to reveal the most gorgeous space I'd ever seen.
The ceiling was painted pink to match the color of her room, with white crown molding. There were white built-in cabinets with open shelving on top with racks upon racks of blouses and designer jeans that could have come straight from one of my mom's fashion shows.
There were shelves of designer shoes. Shelves of jewelry and bags. Several racks of cocktail dresses and evening gowns. Fancy coats. Beautiful hats.
Hiding off to the side in the back corner, I spotted a rack of our school-approved uniforms.
And as I took in what just might be the most magical room in the whole world, I realized that with a fashion sense and a closet like this, wearing the school's uniforms every day must be even more painful for Cambrielle than it was for me.
"I know it's kind of a lot," Cambrielle said, noticing the look of awe on our faces. "But, um, if you ever need to borrow anything, I'm your girl." She gestured at the haute couture around her. "I know the school doesn't provide much space for clothes, so I'm totally happy to let you borrow anything you like."
I looked at Cambrielle. She was probably barely five feet, so I doubted much of what she had in here would even fit us and our five-foot-nine frames. But it was super sweet of her to offer, so I said, "I may take you up on that some time because this is amazing. Even our mom would be jealous."
A little while later, Cambrielle continued the tour by showing us the rest of the second floor. While Elyse was drooling over the movie collection in the theater room, I decided that I might need to take a bathroom break before we continued since there was still a lot of the house to see. "Do you have a guest bathroom up here that I can use?"
"Oh, sure." Cambrielle looked away from what she was showing Elyse. "It's just down that hall. Three doors down and on the left."
"Thanks."
I hurried down the hall in the direction she'd pointed and after counting three doors, I opened what I assumed was a bathroom.
Only, I didn't see a bathroom at all.
Instead, the door opened to a bedroom about the same size as Cambrielle's. Rather than pink walls and gold curtains, the room had a much more masculine vibe with lots of blues, whites, and grays. The focal point of the room was a king-sized bed with a gray, modern-style headboard. And behind the bed was a wall painted to look like the night sky with various constellations that covered the entire space and all across the ceiling.
I was tempted to step inside for a moment to see if I could figure out whether the room belonged to Nash or Carter, when suddenly, a bare-chested Carter walked out from what could be his bathroom with a gray T-shirt in his hand.
14
Carter
"S-sorry," one of the Cohen twins yelped when I walked out from my closet to see who had come into my room while I was changing into my basketball clothes. "Cambrielle said it was the third door on the left, and so I opened it and I…" The girl—who I still wasn't sure was Ava or Elyse—rambled on anxiously, a vein in her forehead becoming more and more pronounced the longer she talked. "And I didn't realize anyone would be in here. And…I…um…" Her gaze traveled from my face and panned down my torso and arms, and when it seemed like she was having a difficult time finishing her sentence, I realized that I was still holding my shirt in my hand.
She was totally raking me in.
"Uh, sorry, I didn't know…" I started to apologize about my current state of undress before realizing I shouldn't be the one apologizing, since technically, I’d been changing in my own room and had shut the door before doing so. So, I'd just let her finish her apology.
But instead of picking up from where her words had trailed off, her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. Her lips moved like she was counting under her breath, and then she suddenly blurted out, "You have an eight-pack?"
And with that one sentence, the mystery of which twin had barged into my room unannounced was solved.
Because from what I knew of the Cohen twins, only Ava would say something like that.
Deciding to test my assumption, I said, "Yes, Ava, I have an eight-pack." I pulled my shirt over my head since obviously my body was more of a distraction than I'd thought. "Is that the real reason you barged into my room just now? Because you wanted to practice your math skills by adding up my abs?"
"What?" Her jaw dropped, and then she added, "How did you know it was me and not Elyse?"
I tugged on my sleeves so they rested more comfortably on my shoulders. "Elyse doesn't exactly seem the type to blurt out questions like that."
Or the type to blatantly count a guy’s abs in the first place.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ava put her hands on her hips. And when she did that, I couldn't help but give her an inspection of my own.
Aside from the day she'd arrived at our school, I'd only seen her in her school uniforms. So seeing her in her jeans and a T-shirt was different. And while I may have admired her long legs in those plaid skirts she somehow looked better in than all the other girls at school did, Ava in her jeans just might rival even that.
But since she didn't need to know that I too found her appearance distracting, I lifted my gaze back to her eyes and answered her question. "I just meant that Elyse is more reserved while you’re significantly less so."
I mean, she had signed a contract that said she wouldn't try to date me…only to immediately turn around a couple of hours later and convince me to fake a flirtation with her.
If that wasn't the work of a master manipulator, I didn't know what was.
I still couldn't believe that whole thing had happened, actually.
One minute I was planning to ignore the entire female population at our school, and then before I knew it, I was purposely faking a romance with this girl I barely knew just to make Sofia think I'd moved on.
Insane, right?
And yet, I was still doing it.
I was even enjoying it a little because Sofia seemed to believe it all and hadn't tried to approach me since the first day.
"Well, I may be the more impulsive twin," Ava admitted. "But I promise I didn’t just pretend to get turned around in your family's massive mansion just so I could catch you without your shirt on. I really thought this was the bathroom."
"So let me guess." I cocked an eyebrow. "You were just counting my abs for research purposes?"
"For research?" She furrowed her brow.
"Well, yeah." I grabbed my basketball shoes from the loveseat in front of my bed and sat down to start putting them on. "If we keep pretending like we're doing less scholarly activities during our tutoring sessions, it makes sense that you would want to know something like that to make our little charade more believable."
I tied my right shoe, but when Ava didn't make a sound, I looked up to see if I'd said something wrong. Her eyes were wide and her mouth had gone slack as if I'd just made her speechless.
"W-why would us dating have anything to do with me knowing how many ab muscles you have?" she asked after regaining her composure.
My eyebrows knitted together, and I was legitimately confused at how she couldn’t see the correlation between the two things.
"You've had a boyfriend before, right?" I asked, slipping on my left shoe and tying it. Because there was no way in the world that this girl didn't have experience playing with guys’ minds.
"Well, yeah." She shrugged. "I mean, I've dated a few guys. But, um, it wasn't ever serious. And it's not like we went hot tubbing or swimming all the time."
Okay, so maybe she really didn't know what I was getting at. Maybe she was less experienced with guys than I'd assumed.
Whic
h was totally fine. Not all people my age took their romantic relationships to a more physical level.
And now that I was on this side of my relationship with Sofia, our breakup probably would have been a lot easier on me if we hadn't ever brought sex into the equation. I didn't necessarily regret it since we'd dated for two years and at that time, I'd thought I loved her. But it did add some complications and a bigger sense of betrayal when she left me for another guy.
So, instead of pushing the topic with Ava, I just said, "Yeah, I don't go hot tubbing on all my dates, either."
I finished tying my shoes and stood up, ready to get downstairs to the basketball court. But just as I was about to walk past Ava and through the doorway, she grabbed my forearm. "Wait, were you just hinting that people at our school—" She shook her head before staring at me with her big, golden-brown eyes. "T-that Sofia’s going to think that we're…that we're hooking up during our tutoring sessions?"
And the look of shock and terror on her face at the thought told me that what I'd assumed about her dating life was probably right.
Spending the night with guys wasn't an extracurricular activity for Ava.
But since I couldn't resist being the one to keep her on her toes for a change, I stepped closer. She retreated. With her back pressed against the wall, I bent down so my lips were next to her ear and whispered, "With two people as hot as we are, I would almost bet on it."
Her whole body went still—her breath seeming to catch as she took in what I'd just said. Then after a moment, she asked, "Y-you think I'm hot?"
I couldn't help but chuckle at the way this girl's mind worked. Because even though it was apparent that she was also overwhelmed by my close proximity and the thought of people assuming we were hooking up bothered her…my saying she was hot was the thing she wanted to address first.
In a low voice, I said, "I guess I did say that."
Which was true. I liked what I saw whenever she was in my view.
Probably liked it a little too much, considering I was her math tutor and the only kind of relationship we'd be having this year was of the professional…or fake kind.
She braced her hands on my chest. Even though I'd just reminded myself of the boundaries our relationship would have, my heart didn't seem to get the memo since it pounded against my ribs at her touch, my whole body acutely aware of just how close we stood.
Crazy as it was, I had the strange urge to close the rest of the distance between us—to do something so impulsive and so out of character for me—and just kiss her right then and there so I could find out if she tasted as good as she looked.
My gaze fell to her mouth which was parted slightly, so soft and supple-looking.
She pressed her lips together. When I lifted my gaze back up to her amber eyes, I imagined there was some sort of anticipation in them—like she was as curious as I was about what it would be like to kiss each other.
I could imagine worse ways to spend an afternoon.
I was about to slide my hand up to cradle her neck when Nash's voice suddenly sounded from my Apple watch. "Carter, are you coming?"
And just like that, I was jolted back to reality.
Ava jumped at the sound of Nash's voice as well and immediately removed her palms from my chest, as if we'd just been caught in a compromising position.
Which yeah, it would have seemed compromising…if anyone was actually around to see it.
After taking one last look at Ava, I pushed the button on my watch to respond to Nash. "I'm on my way." Then after standing straighter, I cleared my throat and said to Ava, "Sorry. I, uh, forgot what I was doing for a minute." I stepped back to give us both some much-needed space.
"Yeah, I did, too." Ava tucked some of her long hair behind her ear. "I was trying to find the bathroom."
"The bathroom is right there." I pointed to the door straight across from my room, fighting the urge to run my fingers through her hair so I could discover if it was as silky as it looked. "Cambrielle is always getting her directions mixed up."
Ava stepped out of the doorway, and it might have just been me projecting my own feelings onto her, but I imagined she didn't seem in any hurry to leave quite yet.
But since I had people waiting for me downstairs, I came out of my room, closing the door behind me, and said, "I'll see you later, Ava."
"Yeah, see you, Carter."
And then I hurried down to the basketball court, wondering what in the world had just happened.
15
Ava
I was distracted for the next hour as Cambrielle showed Elyse and me the rest of her house.
I barely saw the various rooms we walked through. Barely noted all the people buzzing around on the main floor as they prepared food for the back-to-school barbecue that Cambrielle said about fifty of our classmates had been invited to attend. Barely heard the music the hired DJ played as he set up and tested his sound system.
I barely registered anything Cambrielle and Elyse chatted about as we moved from gorgeous room to gorgeous room, because all I could think about was the way my heart still felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest a full fifty-five minutes after standing with Carter in his doorway.
It was crazy. I knew it’d all just been his way of playing with me, and yet, my whole nervous system had gone haywire from our brief encounter.
I flexed my hands as Cambrielle showed us a library on the main floor that looked just like the one from the movie Beauty and the Beast, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a wooden ladder attached to a metal bar at the top to access the high shelves.
And even though I'd flexed my hand several times, I still remembered the way the thin fabric of Carter's T-shirt had felt against my palms and how his heart had pounded when I'd touched him.
I couldn't have imagined how fast his heart had been beating, could I?
We finished our tour of the upper and main levels, so Cambrielle showed us the way to the basement. After we’d gone down the wide staircase, Cambrielle gestured at the double doors to our right. "We have a workout room right through those doors." Cambrielle turned to me and said, "But you’ll probably be interested in this one, Ava, since you said you play basketball."
We followed her to a different door, which had a narrow staircase that led down to the basketball court where Carter and Nash were playing a game with Mack, Mr. Hastings, the older brother Ian I'd seen in the family photos, and another guy I didn't recognize who was probably Ian's age.
The guys continued their scrimmage game as we walked by. From the way the ball was passed between Mr. Hastings, Ian, and his friend, it looked like the teams were separated into older guys versus my schoolmates. Mack jumped up to rebound a missed shot from Mr. Hastings and then made a fast pass to Carter who, currently unguarded, dribbled the ball down to the other end of the court and shot a lay-up. The ball hit against the backboard and then went through the net with a swish to score two points for his team.
Nash and Mack cheered and gave Carter a high five.
"Okay, guys," Mr. Hastings said, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "I need to call it quits for the day. I can only keep up with you young bucks for so long."
"Oh, come on, Mr. Hastings," Mack called to the middle-aged man, spinning the ball on his middle finger. "You sure you don't have time for a game of Knockout?"
Mr. Hastings shook his head, sweat dripping down from his blond hairline. "If I were twenty years younger, I might say yes, but since I'd like to walk up and down the stairs tomorrow, I'll have to pass."
"Anyway, this is the sports court." Cambrielle gestured to our surroundings as we walked across the floor toward the guys. "We mostly play basketball in here, but we're also set up for racquetball, volleyball, and basically whatever game you can think of."
"The twins are here. Nice." I heard Mack say to Nash as we approached, like he’d been too involved in the game to notice our entrance earlier.
"I picked them up before the game," Nash sa
id before stealing the ball from Mack and dribbling it over to where Ian and the other guy stood under one of the baskets, waiting to shoot more hoops.
"So, what do you think of the Hastings mansion?" Mack asked, leaning an elbow on Carter's shoulder after he took a pull from a gray water bottle. "I'm guessing Cambrielle has been giving you a grand tour?"
"It's beautiful," Elyse said, her cheeks glowing as she looked up at Mack.
"I've never seen anything like it," I added.
Which was true. Even though I'd been walking around in somewhat of a daze, I had caught enough of my surroundings to know that this was probably the nicest house I'd ever step foot in.
"Yeah." Mack shrugged, looking up at the windows at the top of the court that let in the afternoon sunlight. "My dad’s only a neurosurgeon, so our house looks like a shack compared to this."
Everyone laughed at Mack's joke, and I had to assume that his house was probably super nice as well.
Carter looked like he was about to say something about Mack living in a shack when Mr. Hastings joined us after getting a drink at the water fountain in the corner.
"Hi, I don't think we've been acquainted yet," he said, holding out his hand to me. "I'm Joel Hastings, Cambrielle, Nash, and Carter's dad. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ava." I shook his hand briefly, and then pointed beside me. "And this is my sister Elyse. We're Ava and Elyse Cohen."
"Cohen?" Mr. Hastings's eyebrows shot up, like he recognized our last name for some reason.
"Yeah, our mom is the fashion designer, Miriam Cohen," I said. His wife and daughter wore designer dresses, so maybe that was why our last name sounded familiar to him?
"Miriam Cohen is your mom?" Mr. Hastings’s blue eyes went wide, and his expression was one of surprise. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time."
