by Liz Isaacson
Charlene and Helen rode their bikes in the driveway and down the street, calling to each other and then him when they spotted him. Their calls drew Maggie’s attention, and she waved him over.
“What brings you by today? I told you I wasn’t going to Vernal.”
Ed exhaled heavily as he sat on the bottom step in front of her. “Yeah, I know. Just bored, I guess.”
“Bored?” Maggie’s incredulity wasn’t appreciated, but Ed had shown up willingly.
“You’re never bored,” she said.
“Maybe today he is,” Tad said, and Ed was glad, grateful, that his brother-in-law was in a good place today. He could use an ally, and he hadn’t been able to go to Max the way he had in the past.
The silence went on a beat too long, which meant Maggie and Tad were communicating nonverbally, something Ed had seen them do in the past. Just not a conversation about him, and he didn’t like it.
He waved at Charlene when she called to him to watch her ride with only one hand, and then he said, “So I should probably call her, right?”
“If you like her,” Tad said at the same time Maggie said, “Who?”
“I just feel like….” Ed hated talking about how he felt, and he disliked even more that it was Tad who knew the town gossip and not his sister. He turned toward the pair of them. “How did you find out?”
“I went to Ruby’s for breakfast on Tuesday,” Tad said matter-of-factly. “Dawn and McDermott were there, and you know how news travels in Brush Creek.”
“I don’t,” Maggie said, her dark eyes flashing.
“Oh, I was dating Jazzy Fuller. But not really. It was really her twin, Fabi.” And I didn’t know, and I feel stupid about it.
Maggie pulled in a breath as her eyes widened. Ed turned away from her so he wouldn’t have to see her shock, experience her surprise. He watched his nieces circle each other, their high-pitched voices and childish laughter bringing him the comfort he needed.
“I can’t believe they’d do that,” Maggie said.
“Well, they did.” And by the slightly bitter note in Ed’s voice, he still wasn’t ready to call Fabi and talk it through. “How do you guys feel about Pieology tonight? My treat.”
“I feel great about that,” Tad said, as Ed had known he would.
“We don’t need pizza,” Maggie said, her typical response.
“Great.” Ed stood and walked across the lawn. “I’ll be back with pizza soon.” He was taking a chance going into town. After all, he could run into Fabi anywhere, as he’d learned that she usually had a date most nights of the week. He’d even entertained the idea of her going out with someone else during those long weeks when he hadn’t seen her until the weekends. But he’d dismissed the idea quickly.
She may be a flirt and date a lot of men, but she wasn’t a cheater. She’d seemed genuinely sorry about the switcheroo, but she sure hadn’t stuck around to talk about it much. Ed didn’t like that. If there was something he wanted to do, it was get everything out in the open. See what he was playing with. Make decisions with the whole picture.
“Which is why you should call her.”
Her sister’s words had been hanging in his head for days. The ball’s in your court. At least Fabi thinks it is.
So he knew she wouldn’t be calling him. He wasn’t sure why he was so hung up on this woman. He’d been out with her several times, over the course of three weeks. So they’d kissed a few times. It wasn’t like they’d talked about their future together, children, or marriage.
Maybe Ed had allowed himself to go too far down the relationship road, and now he was paying the price.
He pushed into the newest pizza joint in town to find a long line. Didn’t matter. He had nothing but time. He’d only been standing there, pretending to be completely absorbed in his phone, when he heard a terrifyingly familiar voice.
His head jerked up though he told himself to ignore the woman who’d been plaguing him since he’d met her in that one-bedroom apartment weeks ago. He found her easily, with her gorgeous face and straight, white teeth.
But this wasn’t Jazzy.
“Fabi,” he told himself, not caring that he was alone on a Saturday night in the Pieology line, surrounded by couples, and now apparently talking to himself. “You went out with Fabi.”
The blonde woman he saw every time he closed his eyes, the one with the A-line cut, was holding hands with Max. Not the woman he’d kissed.
Not Jazzy.
Fabi.
Jazzy and Max crowded around a table with a couple of other people Ed couldn’t quite see. And he didn’t want to see who they were. He didn’t want to be there at all. The line went right past their table, and he’d have to talk to them.
His feet itched to turn and go, but his phone chimed, showing him Tad’s preference for the shepherd’s pie pizza. Made with a mashed potato crust, it really was one of the best pieces of food Ed had ever put in his mouth.
His phone sounded again, and Max lifted his head as if he’d heard it. But in this crowded restaurant, surely he hadn’t. They did sit across from one another for hours and hours on end, and Ed would certainly recognize Max’s notification noises.
Sure enough, his bus partner scanned the crowd until his eyes landed on Ed. He said something to Jazzy, who whipped her attention down the line too, but only Max came toward him.
“Just getting dinner,” Ed said before his friend could say anything. “For me and Mags and her family.”
Max nodded and stopped, sticking his hands in his pockets and watching Ed in that annoying, older brother way he had. Jazzy drifted closer, and Ed almost bolted. She looked exactly like Fabi, and though Ed knew intellectually that it wasn’t her, he didn’t want to talk to her. Surely Max could understand that.
“Just wanted to say hello,” Max finally said. “We—I stopped by earlier, but you weren’t home.” The questions came through loud and clear: Were you home and ignoring me? If not, where were you?
“I took the girls out to the bluffs today.” And it had been windy and hot, and Ed had to keep a vigilant eye on everything from the weather to the girls to which step he took next. The activity had left no room to think about Fabi, which was why he’d suggested it.
Max nodded, and ducked his head when Jazzy approached and touched his arm. She leaned in close to whisper something to him, and he nodded. Everything happened in slow motion, giving Ed the perfect picture of their easy relationship. He wasn’t sure how, but he saw something in those few moments that revealed how much Max and Jazzy got along.
Jazzy met Ed’s eye, an apology in hers. Ed took it though he certainly didn’t need it, and she left.
“Fabi’s on her way,” Max said.
“Ah, my cue to leave then.” Ed could pick up something else. There were plenty of choices in Brush Creek, and Tad liked a lot of them.
“You don’t have to go.”
“I’m not talking to her here.” He swept his gaze around the restaurant, which was easily filled to capacity. “I’m fine, Max. Really.”
His best friend stepped closer, preventing Ed from moving forward in the line. Maybe he could put his order in and wait for it outside, around the corner, out of sight.
“Anyone with two eyes can see you’re not fine.”
“I went out with her a few times. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“When did you know?” Ed challenged his friend. “Why didn’t you feel like an idiot? Like you couldn’t show your face to her again?” Better question was, why did Ed feel like that? He’d dated other women, some a lot longer than a few weeks with a few dates on the weekends. But none had given him the charge Fabi had. None had made his heart leap at the simple thought of seeing her. None had invited him to their family’s barbecue.
Everything with Fabi had been different, and Ed had allowed himself to get wrapped up in her quickly. Why, he still wasn’t sure. But he didn’t want to apologize for it. He didn’t want to overan
alyze it. He just wanted to figure out how to stop feeling like he’d been duped by the town flirt.
And she wasn’t even known as the flirty one. Fun was what two guys in the office had said. Non-committal another had told him. Flighty. Forward, but not too forward. Likes to laugh. A good cook. A hard worker. Faithful. Hardly any of the adjectives other guys had given him painted her in a bad light.
In Ed’s mind, he’d placed her on a pedestal, and everything she’d done had been perfect.
Instead of answering his questions, Max nodded his ball cap toward the doorway. “She’s here.”
As soon as Fabi spotted Max—which honestly wasn’t hard. He was tall, standing a head above most people in Pieology—she froze. He faced her, but he was talking to Ed, who had his back to the door.
Her wonderful, strong, kind Ed.
Her heart gave a little twist in her chest, and Fabi wanted to turn and leave. She didn’t need a scene in a public place. And she didn’t need to eat another slice of pizza after all the sweets and treats she’d been consuming since making that fateful phone call almost two weeks ago.
Ed spoke with Max for a few seconds, then he turned and came her way. How he could move with so much grace and power was beautiful. He paused a healthy distance from her, making her muscles twitch as though he contained a powerful magnet and some metal shavings had been inserted into her bloodstream.
“Wondering if you’d like to take a walk with me.” His voice was gruff, torn along the edges, but at least he’d spoken. Fabi couldn’t even get herself to do that.
She nodded, and he waved for her to go first. Jazzy knew what Fabi liked, and she’d bring something back to the apartment. The evening air still held the heat of the summer’s day, and the smell of tomato sauce and roasting meat made Fabi’s mouth water.
Pieology sat on the edge of town, where trees grew as tall as giants. Instead of walking back toward town and maybe into Oxbow Park, Ed chose to go west, up toward the canyon. That would become a hike if they went for long, and Fabi was wearing the wrong shoes for such a thing.
“Look,” she finally said when it was clear he wasn’t going to do any talking. “I’m sorry.” With eight brothers and sisters, she’d learned that an apology was always a good way to start a hard conversation. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know that,” he murmured. “And you didn’t hurt me.”
His words stung, but Fabi wasn’t sure why. “All right, then.” They made it to the end of the block, the scent of lumber heavy in the air from the expansive yard in front of them.
She paused, sure things could end right here. She could hug him and scamper back to her sister. She’d avoid him for a few weeks and then someone else would ask her out, and—her heart rebelled at the idea of going out with someone else.
In fact, she’d already told someone no, she couldn’t go to dinner with them. She didn’t want to start again, make the small talk, any of it.
“Why didn’t you call?” she asked, deciding on the spot that she wanted to push this conversation, push him.
He sighed, the sound full of frustration—and whether he wanted to admit it or not, hurt. “I felt…I feel….” He didn’t finish, but Fabi didn’t really need him to.
“Duped,” she supplied.
“Betrayed,” he said, looking right at her. His eyes were dark, and hard, and Fabi hated the danger she saw in them.
“Like you should’ve known.”
“Like I started to fall for someone I didn’t even know.” His words flew like straight arrows, piercing her in the softest parts of her chest.
“I started to fall for you too,” she managed to say, hoping it would be enough.
It clearly wasn’t, because Ed stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned north. This new path would at least keep them on semi-level ground, and Fabi went with him because she didn’t want to be left alone in the IFA parking lot.
They circled the block, approaching the red brick church where Fabi would hopefully find some relief the following morning. An idea landed in her mind as if someone else had stuck it there.
“Do you want to come to church with me?” she asked.
Ed’s steps slowed, then picked up again. He didn’t glance at the red brick building across the street. He edged closer to her, his hand brushing hers on one step and taking hold on the next.
“Can I bring my nieces?”
Surprise shot through her. “Sure. Yeah, of course.”
“Can I hold your hand during the sermon?”
Warmth filled her whole body, though they’d left the trees behind and the evening sun was scorching hot. “I don’t see why not.”
He stopped, squeezed her hand, and looked right into her eyes. His other hand came up and cradled her face. Fabi couldn’t help leaning into his touch, a sigh passing her lips as her eyes drifted closed.
“Maybe can we start over?” Ed asked. “Maybe we can go on back to Pieology and have our first date there.”
Fabi’s eyes shot open, and she easily got lost in the dazzling depths of his dark eyes. “Yes, let’s start over. I’m Fabiana Fuller. I’m five minutes younger than my twin, Jazzy, who’s still a bit peeved with me that she has short hair.” A smile flitted across her face. “She hates short hair.”
Ed tucked one of Fabi’s long ends behind her ear, the touch simple yet sensual at the same time. “I like yours.”
Fabi, who had kissed men on the first date many times before, lifted up on her toes and said, “I like you,” only a moment before kissing Ed.
Chapter Eleven
Jazzy enjoyed a week of normalcy. No worries that someone might call her the wrong name in front of the wrong person. No drama over a fall. No pain, either, thankfully. No more watching Fabi drift around the apartment aimlessly, starting one task only to leave it unfinished.
They worked through their homes with the precision and efficiency they’d long ago perfected. They met up with Max and Ed in the evenings. Fabi claimed to have started over with Ed, but Fabi saw them kissing under the trees behind the apartment complex. Of course, maybe that was Fabi starting over.
They didn’t double again, and as another week went by and July marched toward August, Jazzy started to toy with the idea of inviting Max to the weekly Fuller family dinner.
She entered Ruby’s one Tuesday afternoon to meet him for lunch, determined not to go to her next job without inviting him. Fabi hadn’t seen what the big deal was, but Jazzy knew it was something. Just because Ed sat beside her every week in church now didn’t mean Fabi thought that was unimportant or had somehow trivialized it. She knew people had seen them. She knew bringing a man to church was a declaration of something serious.
Jazzy knew too, which was why she hadn’t done any of those things. She scanned the crowd at Ruby’s and didn’t see Max. They’d gone a little slower, spent more time talking than anything else. She sensed he still had a few things to tell her about his ex-wife, but he hadn’t brought her up since their breakfast weeks ago.
Jazzy suspected he still wasn’t over Irina. The whole house screamed of her, from the plants to the rug to the fact that Max hadn’t let anything go except the woman herself. In fact, Max had a very hard time letting anything go, as testified of by the cockatiel he hated but kept for his sister.
Her mouth pinched into a tight line at the thought of the bird. She really didn’t like it, from the way he made such a ruckus, to the heaps of birdseed strewn all over the floor. The maid in her had wanted to tidy up before eating, but she’d refrained.
She wanted to go back to Max’s often, because that kiss in his kitchen had opened a door to a new life. One Jazzy wanted to experience daily, with Max at her side.
The bells on the door jangled, and she turned to find him there, a wide smile on his face. “Hey, beautiful.” He wrapped her in a hug that made her feel loved and accepted. Max had a special way of looking only at her, even in a crowd, and it was something Jazzy was still getting used to after so many years of bein
g passed over.
“Sorry I’m late. Did you order already?”
“I’ve literally been standing here.” Thinking. Too much thinking. Jazzy needed to get out of her head—something Fabi was forever telling her—and just let herself live.
“Well, let’s go sit. I only have forty-five minutes.”
“Busy day.”
“Meeting with the shift supervisor.” He flashed her an easy grin and followed the hostess to a booth against a wall of windows.
He’d barely sat when he said, “So I have something I’ve been wanting to ask you.” His blue eyes bounced around the diner now, seemingly unable to settle on hers.
Jazzy’s heart did cartwheels inside her chest. “All right.”
“I was thinking maybe it’s time to take you home,” he said. A blush filled his face instantly. “Wow, that came out wrong. I’ve been tellin’ my family about you for weeks, and I’m wondering how you feel about going to Vernal with me to meet them.”
Jazzy reached across the table and covered his hands with hers. “I was going to invite you to the Fuller family dinner tomorrow night.” She grinned. “So yeah, I think it’s about that time.”
Max swallowed, the hesitation right there on his face. “The Fuller family dinner?”
“Every Wednesday, at my parent’s house. People come if they can. It’s casual.”
“Will everyone be there?”
“Probably not. The only time everyone is together in one place is when my mom mandates it. The family dinner is more relaxed than that.”
“Sounds great.”
“I’ll let her know we’re coming.” Jazzy caught Max’s panicked look and added, “Just so she knows how much food to prepare.” Not like that really mattered. Her mother cooked for an army no matter how many people were coming. She didn’t know how to make a meal for only two, which was why Jazzy’s parents went out to eat most evenings.
“So what about this weekend? Want to go to Vernal then?”
