Busted

It was like seeing double.

But then her brain kicked into action and she saw the differences. They were slight, but they were there. Trey was observant, something she’d already noticed.

His twin left him in the dust.

In the seconds it took her to sum up the man on the porch, he’d already taken her measure and was probably already at work forming an opinion. She wondered what it would be. Those eyes—they were the same lovely blue as Trey’s, but so different. They held a hardness.

“My brother,” Trey said. “Travis.”

“Thanks for telling me. I wouldn’t have figured it out on my own,” she said dryly as he led her up to the porch.

“Yeah, well. He’s the ugly one,” Travis said, moving forward with slow, easy grace, those eyes still resting on her face. It was like he wore a mask, though. He watched her with good humor and curiosity and maybe that wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t altogether real, either. There was somebody else below that expression—that mask.

“Trey tells me you’re a librarian,” Travis said as he shook her head.

“Yes.” She smiled. She could almost bet what he did. The look in his eyes was a dead giveaway. She’d never seen anything about him mentioned—he was the only Barnes sibling who had absolutely no public persona at all.

Trey had a good-humored sneer on his face. “If we didn’t look so much alike, I’d swear he was a changeling or something. He went and ended up in the most boring job imaginable.”

Yeah, she mused, remembering now. Trey had already told her that. But . . . an accountant?

Ressa looked back at Travis, listened as he exchanged what sounded like well-used jibes and insults. That shrewd look he’d given her suddenly made her feel more than a little nervous, though.

She had to fight the urge not to look over at Neeci, not to place herself protectively between her and her cousin.

It was practice that let her smile at him, practice that let her keep herself from tensing up under that all-too-keen gaze.

An accountant? Like hell. The only place she’d ever seen anybody with eyes that watchful was when she’d been forced to talk to cops.

If he was an accountant, then she was Marilyn Monroe.

*   *   *

“I like her.”

Trey hefted a bucket filled with ice from the counter and headed for the door. He didn’t look back at his brother. “You just met her.”

“Talked to her for a while already. That’s enough,” Travis said. His voice was carefully neutral, but the message was there. An apology underscored every word. “I like her. And I was an ass. You going to stay mad at me all day?”

Trey shrugged. “Who says I’m mad?”

“Well, since we’ve kinda known each other for . . . I du

Now Trey had to look at him.

Once their eyes locked, Travis said, “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I can’t help but worry . . .”

“That’s a fucking joke, coming from you,” Trey snapped. “You have more secrets than the CIA, don’t think I can’t tell. But you worry? Give me a break. Look, I’m not mad. I’m just . . .”

He stopped, eyed Travis. “What?”

There was a faint echo of surprise in the back of Trey’s mind, there for a blink, then gone. Travis hadn’t expected Trey to pick up on so much.

Trey almost snarled.

“Look . . . it’s . . .” Travis was staring off into empty air. “I . . . son of a bitch. Look, yeah. I hold stuff back. I guess I never realized how easy it would be for you to pick up on it. But you don’t have to worry, and I’m sorry about last night.”

His twin meant it. Trey could tell that much. He was sorry, and . . . yeah. He didn’t think Trey should worry. There was a sincerity there that Trey could feel. But what did any of that mean? Trey had no idea.

Blowing out a breath, Trey said, “Open the door, would ya?”

“Should I go?” Travis continued to stand there, watching him. “I can crash at a hotel.”

“Like hell. Just stop being such a dick, okay?”

The door opened and he cut past his brother. Some of the tension that seemed to wrap around them both dissolved, like sticky threads of cotton candy caught in a rainstorm. But it wasn’t gone. Sooner or later, they’d have to have this out. He was tired of Travis hiding away like he was.

But all that could wait.

*   *   *

Both of them swam like fish.

Ressa smiled to herself as Clayton and Neeci chased each other around in the shallower end of the big pool. So far, Ressa had managed to stay out of the water, and even mostly dry, although every few minutes, a giant splash would come her way. She didn’t know how long she would be able to evade them. But she had every intention of doing so for as long as she could.

“I like your suit.” Trey’s voice was soft and low and he laid a hand on her hip, the warmth of it almost shocking even in the heat of the day. Because he was there, because it was too tempting not to, she let herself lean back against him, and the solid wall of his chest against her back was a delight that she’d remember for a long, long time.

Even if—

If—

Broodingly, she made herself silence that if. For some reason, that if had been whispering through her brain a lot today. Ever since she’d met the too intense gaze of Trey’s twin.

Maybe those thoughts weren’t fair—hell, she knew they weren’t. Not to her, not to Trey. Maybe not even to Travis, even if he did have cop’s eyes.

As his thumb stroked over the ruby red retro suit she’d pulled on, she forced herself to focus on Trey and not the worries that had chased her over the past hour. “The suit? This old thing?”

This old thing—she’d spent about thirty minutes debating on the right swimsuit and had ended up going with the red because it highlighted her breasts, her hips and her butt and she liked how it showed off her ink, too.

“Yeah.” Trey stroked a finger down one of the tattoos on her arm, smiling. “This old thing. Although you could be wearing sackcloth and I’d still be intrigued. I think I’d like nothing best, but . . . not a good idea right now.”

“No.” She turned her head up and met his eyes. “Probably not.” She glanced across the pool where Travis lounged on a chair, gaze shielded by a pair of dark sunglasses, his face supposedly relaxed. But he was watching every damn thing. She could feel it. And there was a weird tension between the brothers. “Seems like there’s something going on between you and your twin. Everything okay?”

“It’s fine.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “You got family, right? You know how it is. We just bumped heads last night. The jerk has a hard one.”

“Oh, I got family. I doubt we’re as close as y’all are, though.” She covered his hand with hers and looked back at the pool. “The way those two play, you’d think they were born joined at the hip.”

Trey chuckled. “When I told him you two were coming over, he all but bolted out the door looking for you. Then I had to tell him it wasn’t until this afternoon. You’d have thought I told him the world’s candy supply had disappeared overnight.”

“Likes his candy, huh?” She slid him a look.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” His lips brushed against her shoulder.

That light touch sent a shiver through her. “Trey . . .”

“Sorry.” His hands tightened around her waist and then he stepped back. “Damn if you don’t go to my head, Ressa.”

Slanting a look at him, she said, “Now it wasn’t like I told you to stop.” She already missed the feel of him standing there so near she could feel his body heat.

“Standing that close makes it hard for me to think.” He shook his head and instead of moving back to where he’d been, he moved around and cut behind her, settling onto a tall stool sitting at the nearby bar. His gaze settled on the pool where Neeci and Clayton had decided to play an enthusiastic, but slow, game of water tag. “Do you realize I don’t even know all that much about you?”