His First Choice

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “I’d love to have an Uncle Bob’s sandwich,” Kacey blurted just a little too loud. “I’m starving. We haven’t had lunch yet, either.”

  “We had a late breakfast,” Lacey said, looking at her sister.

  “I’m starving,” Kacey said again.

  And then the strangest thing happened. Lacey Hamilton stared at her sister. Her shoulders straightened. And she agreed to have lunch with them.

  If they weren’t intruding, of course.

  Of course he had to say they weren’t.

  And tried not to feel like he should be adding a fifty-thousand-dollar deposit to his son’s college account.

  * * *

  SHE’D HAVE TO have lunch. Kacey had figured out that Jeremiah Bridges was the client Lacey had mentioned. She knew it the second she’d met her twin’s gaze. Probably based on some unconscious reaction Lacey had made. She never had been able to hide anything from Kacey.

  Which was both good and bad.

  “I apologize,” Jem, as he’d told Kacey to call him, said as he walked behind Kacey, who was being led by Levi, and next to Lacey toward a table out on the patio that overlooked the beach. “If you had plans...”

  “We really didn’t,” Lacey told him. The only way she was going to prove to her sister that Jem Bridges meant nothing to her was to make it so.

  Clearly she wasn’t going to be able to hide.

  “Your sister seems nice.”

  “She is. She’s my best friend.”

  They were through the restaurant and almost outside. Another few feet and she could grab a chair next to Kacey and across from...

  “I want to sit next to Lacey and you can sit there,” Levi said to Kacey, pointing to the seat directly across from him. “We can play the peg game.”

  There was a triangular board with holes in it that held golf tees, and the object was to jump tees until there was only one left. It was harder than it looked.

  “Have you ever been here before?” Jem asked as he took the seat across from Lacey.

  “No.”

  “Lacey’s only been here a year and a half and she works all the time,” Kacey said. Lacey would have kicked her under the table if she hadn’t been afraid of catching Jem’s ankle in the process.

  Pulling her hair back, she took the elastic she’d slipped around her wrist as they’d headed out and used it to secure a ponytail. There. At least she could be somewhat business-minded.

  “Where did you live before you came here?” Jem asked, looking like he might grin again as he watched her secure her hair.

  “With me,” Kacey piped in. And then, with a pointed look at Lacey, proceeded to become absorbed by the golf tees Levi was putting in and out of holes with no rule following whatsoever.

  “You lived with your sister?”

  “While I was in college,” Lacey said. “And then I just stayed.”

  “I’d rather see my sister...never,” Jem told her with an unapologetic air that she kind of liked. “A phone call every few years would do me fine.”

  She looked over at her sister, sure that Jem really just wanted to hear about her. And knowing she could comply.

  Knowing, too, that the surest way for her to convince Kacey that she had no interest in Jem Bridges was to see him go gaga over her sister. It worked every time. If her goal was to never have a boyfriend.

  Which, this time, it was.

  “Kacey really is my best friend,” she said now. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

  “Where is she visiting from?”

  “She owns a condo in Beverly Hills.”

  That was a sure head turner.

  “Really.” Jem nodded, glancing at Levi and then back at Lacey. “I like the city, but I’d never want to live there.”

  “You’ve never been to Kacey’s place. The pool alone is on half an acre of paradise.”

  “So why didn’t you stay there?”

  “I wanted...”

  To be out from underneath my sister’s shadow.

  “A home.” Lame, Lacey. Really lame. “A house, I mean.”

  “So you have a house here in town?”

  “A couple of blocks over.”

  “You walked here?”

  “I do most nights. Even in the winter. It’s one of the reasons I bought the house. It was close to the beach.”

  He wondered where she lived. He wanted to know about Kacey—that internal reminder put a stop to her wondering.

  “Kacey’s a movie star, Dad! On TV like Whyatt Beanstalk!” Levi’s voice boomed over several tables as he named the star of Super Why!, one of his current favorite videos.

  “Inside voice, son,” Jem said while people all around them turned to stare.

  “Don’t worry, they won’t know me. Not without my wig and pounds of makeup,” Kacey told Jem. She didn’t lean over, didn’t make eye contact. But it wouldn’t matter.

  He’d be leaning in her direction any second now.

  “Tell him,” Levi said. “You said you’re on TV...”

  “I said Lacey and I both were on TV.”

  Lacey could feel the heat creeping up her skin. Kacey knew she hated to be outed.

  “But you aren’t anymore.” Jem’s half question was aimed at her.

  “Kacey is. She’s Doria Endlin from The Rich and Loyal.”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t watch daytime television.” He smiled at Kacey.

  That was that. Lacey glanced at Levi, then prepared to relax and enjoy lunch with the little boy.

  “What show were you on?”

  It took her a second, and a miraculously well-placed kick from under the table, for Lacey to know that Jem had been directing the question at her.

  “Me? I wasn’t ever on a show.”

  “We did commercials mostly,” Kacey said. “From the time we were two. Mom cashed in on the whole blonde twin thing.”

  “She never pushed us, though,” Lacey quickly pointed out.

  “Nope, we loved it and wanted to do it,” Kacey said.

  Jem was studying her. “I find it hard to picture you loving being in front of a camera.”

  “I loved playing make-believe with Kacey,” she said, shocked that she’d been quite that open. “I loved the different places we got to go and the things we got to do...”

  “Lacey got to be on a race car one time, Dad,” Levi said.

  While Jem cocked his eyebrow at her, Lacey noted that Levi had remembered a minor detail from weeks before. Not normal developmental stage for a four-year-old. Usually their memories didn’t stretch back much beyond a week or so, if that. They were too busy moving forward to hang on to what was behind them. And...

  “Lacey,” Kacey said, laughing. “Tell him about that commercial...”

  They’d burned their fannies on the hot metal, sitting on the hood of that car. Lacey had quickly figured out that if they took the labels off the cans of motor oil they were there to sell, they could sit on them. Only problem had been when the prompt came to hold up the cans in front of the camera and all they had to sell was blank tin cans.

  “You’re the one who got to ride in the car,” she said quickly and turned to the child at her side. “Remember, Levi? I told you my twin sister got to ride in the car...”

  Because Kacey had asked; Lacey hadn’t wanted to be a bother.

  “What happened at the shoot?” Jem was half grinning as he watched her across the table while Kacey told Levi all about her trip around the track in a real race car when she wasn’t much older than him.

  Just to kill time, Lacey told Jem about the short little dresses and Mary Jane shoes they’d been given to wear. About the hot metal on the hood of the car. And taking off the labels to save their backsides. When he
laughed out loud, drawing attention to their table again, she ducked her head.

  Because she’d wanted to laugh right along with him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “KACEY’S PRETTY LIKE MOMMY, and Lacey’s nice like Amelia.” Levi’s words blasted into the silence that had fallen when their food came.

  Tressa and Kacey were pretty and Lacey was nice? Implying that Lacey, who was identical in looks to Kacey, didn’t appear pretty to a four-year-old?

  Jem had taken a bite of burger when Levi’s voice first hit him.

  And then Jem blurted, “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” His own words didn’t do much better, following a full twenty seconds behind his son’s.

  It was, by far, the most embarrassing moment of Jem’s entire life. And considering how many times his older sister had tried to humiliate him when he was growing up, that was saying a lot.

  “Well, thank you for the lovely compliment, Levi.” Kacey recovered first, leaning forward to smile at the boy and hand him another French fry. Probably in an effort to fill the little mouth to prevent it from uttering another word. Jem figured she was onto something.

  And that his son absolutely was not. Lacey was far more beautiful than either Tressa or Kacey.

  Wait. Lacey and Kacey were identical twins. Both of them were far more beautiful than Tressa.

  But then when Jem looked at his ex-wife he saw the sense of entitlement that had her walking out on perfectly good jobs because things weren’t going the way she’d deemed they should. The drama that made life’s challenges so much harder to handle than they had to be.

  “I’m sorry.” Jem leaned over to say the words quietly to Lacey. He couldn’t just let his son’s misspoken words hang unaccounted for. “He...”

  Shaking her head, Lacey smiled at him, taking another bite of her grilled turkey and tomato sandwich. “He thinks I’m nice,” she said. “You have no idea how much of a compliment that is to me, considering how we met. A lot of my kids hate the sight of me.”

  Yet she obviously cared so much about them. She had about Levi. And he wondered again about her job. About her. How did she do it? Giving her all to people who didn’t want her around?

  Why did she?

  “It’s just the clothes,” he said and then wished he’d bitten his tongue instead. Literally. “You probably noticed that Tressa puts a lot of emphasis on fashion...”

  “She told you I went to visit her?”

  Right, because all he’d heard from Lacey after that was that the case had been dismissed. Jem had no idea what all Tressa might have told her, which was why his usual way—to tell the truth—just worked best.

  “I was on the phone with her when you pulled up out front of her house.”

  “Did you tell her who I was?”

  “No.”

  She took another bite of sandwich, seemingly unaffected by Levi’s unintentionally hurtful comment.

  “Why not?”

  He’d just reminded himself that he was a truthful guy. “Because I didn’t want her to freak out on the phone.” He popped a French fry into his mouth. The mushroom burger was good today. Talking to her was better, even if he was having to make up for his son. “The whole drama thing I told you about,” he continued as she chewed.

  “And also because I figured that if she had been the one who called you, she’d already know who you were. I kind of wanted to see how she handled you coming to the door.”

  “To see if you could figure out if she knew me?”

  “Something like that.”

  “What was your conclusion?”

  “Tressa didn’t call you.”

  He watched her carefully—very carefully—and still couldn’t discern if he’d hit on the truth. He was sure he had, but not because of any indication he’d gathered from her.

  “So what do you think?” Lacey nodded toward Kacey’s half of the sandwich they’d shared.

  “Really good,” Kacey answered. “You?”

  It was as though something tangible passed across the table. Jem almost felt as though he was intruding as he sat there.

  “Fine. Good. I’d order it again,” Lacey said. And Jem knew they weren’t talking about food.

  Which meant what? That Kacey was asking her sister if she was okay?

  He hoped so. Because based on Lacey’s answer, she wasn’t as bothered by Levi’s comment as he still was. But he was still rational enough to realize he was stretching things. She’d probably just liked the sandwich.

  And really, what woman could take offense at someone saying her sister was beautiful when she was an identical twin?

  Kacey and Lacey were still speaking. Silently. But it was palpable.

  “So, I was thinking...” Kacey said, swinging her head from Lacey’s direction to his. “You said you’re in construction, right?”

  This was in answer to a question she’d asked while they’d been waiting for their waitress to take their orders.

  “Right.”

  “Is that the bill?” Lacey asked, turning as their waitress approached. “I’ll get this.”

  “I’ll get it,” Jem said, already reaching for his wallet. “A gentleman doesn’t invite pretty ladies to eat with him and let them pick up the tab. Even when he’s only four.”

  Their waitress passed them by without stopping and Jem looked up from his wallet to see Lacey giving her sister a steely-eyed stare.

  He had to admit, he was curious as hell. So he said directly to Kacey, “You were asking about my business...” Just because... Well, he wasn’t sure why.

  “That’s right, I was,” Kacey said, turning so that she faced him completely. Body and all, giving her sister her right shoulder. “Our birthday’s coming up in another month and I’ve already decided what I want to give Lacey.”

  “Kacey...” Lacey sounded pained now.

  “What’s that?” he asked. Somehow the woman of his fantasies was getting hot about something. He had to pursue this.

  “An enclosed sunroom and garden,” Kacey said. “She’s got this piece of land off the side of her house that’s virtually unusable. Wasted space. She’s always loved fountains and flowers and loves to read. And now that I’m going to be visiting on a regular basis, I’ll use it, too.”

  “There’s no way in—” Lacey glanced at Levi “—no way you’re going to pay for an addition on my house.”

  Kacey shrugged. “I can always just transfer the money into your account...”

  “And it will sit there unspent.”

  Chins were jutting. Jem sat back, fascinated. Even Levi, who’d been eating French fries and playing with the golf tee board, stopped to watch.

  “I’ll call Dad and tell him—” Kacey started.

  “Stop right there.” Lacey spoke sharply enough that once again their table got a few looks from patrons at other tables. “Seriously, I’m not going to let you do this, Kace.”

  “You were just saying a couple of days ago that a sunroom would be the perfect use for that space.”

  “I know, but I wasn’t being serious.”

  “You don’t want a sunroom?” Jem did his part to keep the conversation going.

  “No!” Lacey looked back at Kacey after a brief glance in his direction. “At least, well, yes, I’d love one, but you are not paying for it.” That last bit was directed at Kacey.

  “Then I’m giving the car back to you,” Kacey said, and there was no doubting that she meant business.

  “What car?” Jem asked, enjoying himself far too much.

  “We did a shoot three years ago,” Lacey said, looking at Jem again briefly. “It was for a major car manufacturer. The commercials aired for a full quarter and they wanted us to be seen driving in the car.”

  “A red convertible sports ca
r,” Kacey told him. “Lacey said she couldn’t possibly drive to work in a car like that and my car had just been totaled, no fault of mine, so I ended up with the car. We were both in the commercial and people can’t tell us apart, anyway, so it didn’t really matter which one of us was driving it.”

  “You did a car commercial when you were little, too,” Jem mused, fascinated by the turn the day had taken.

  “That was for motor oil,” Lacey said. “And you are not giving me the car.”

  “Then I’m giving you a sunroom with a garden. Or calling Dad.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “I think you know I would.”

  Another stare-out ensued. Levi was playing with the tees, but Jem could tell his son was getting restless. Instead of putting the little wooden pegs in and out of the holes, he was lining one up and using another to kick the first one off the board. If they didn’t end this, tees could be flying soon...

  “Let me get this right,” he jumped in, because a guy knew that when he had a possible opportunity at his door that he didn’t want to miss, he should reach out and grab it if he could. And a dad knew when he had to move quickly. “You want to pay me to build a room on Lacey’s house?”

  “And a garden,” Kacey said, looking only at him now.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Jem saw Lacey reach over and put all the pegs back in their holes, putting the board in front of Levi so that he could jump pegs again. Expecting his son to push the board away, he was surprised to see Levi turn back to his task.

  “I think she means hire your company,” Lacey said. “And it’s not going to happen.”

  Kacey reached for the small pouch she’d unclipped from her waistband and put on the table, pulling out a cell phone.

  She pushed a button. “Hey, Dad!” she said, her expression completely serious as she looked at her sister.

  “Hang up.” Lacey’s words came out with a bite. And a look that he was pretty sure could mean that he’d just won himself an excuse to be around his fantasy woman for a good part of the summer.

  Lacey filled Levi’s board again, this time leaving a different hole empty from which he had to start.

  After a few minutes of chatting about the weather, the shopping she and Lacey had done, what they’d eaten and what they’d watched on television, Kacey asked after her mom and dad, talked about an ankle brace and the broccoli they’d left in the fridge at the cottage and rang off.