Love Song(100)

“Because those are actually the same shade of white.” She jams her finger on the swan, then the moon. “White and white.”

“Yeah. White with feathers. White with moon dust.”

“What the hell is moon dust? You know what? I don’t care. Fuck you.”

“Fuck you.”

“I said it first.”

“I said it second.”

“Ahem.” Gigi clears her throat.

We both glance toward her.

And my stomach drops. Because this is my twin sister, which means I’m familiar with every single facial expression she possesses, every glint in her eye, and right now…

“You’re hooking up,” she accuses.

Silence crashes over the dining room. Blake gets the panicky look of a deer that ran in the middle of the road and is seconds from smashing through a windshield.

Then, in the worst impression of a truth teller, she says, “No, we’re not.”

“Holy shit.” Gigi heaves a long, arduous sigh. “Oh man, you two are screwed. How long has this been going on? The whole summer? Or did it start recently?”

“Neither, because nothing is going on,” Blake says stubbornly. When I remain silent, she implores me with her eyes. “Tell her it’s not happening.”

Gigi’s lips twitch. “Yes, twin, tell me it’s not happening.”

I grit my teeth. “Are you gonna keep this to yourself, Stan?”

“Wyatt!” Blake says, looking betrayed. “Tell her it’s not true.”

I sigh. “Don’t worry, freckles. It’s between me and the twin.”

My sister takes an alarming amount of time to consider my question. But then she grins, and I realize she’s messing with me. “Relax. I won’t say a word to anyone but my husband.”

Blake’s eyes fill with panic again.

“Relax,” Gigi assures her. “Ryder doesn’t speak to anybody. Literally.”

I snort, because she’s right. My brother-in-law is not Mr. Chatty.

Accepting her fate, Blake searches Gigi’s face. “And you’re…cool with this?”

“I mean, depends on what this is. Summer fling, I can get behind.” My sister gives me a warning look. “Unless it’s more?”

“It’s a summer fling,” Blake answers immediately, and although that’s the rule we laid out, the conviction in her voice bothers me for some reason.

Still, I nod in agreement. “We’re just having fun till the end of the summer.” When Gigi’s skeptical gaze shifts between us, I roll my eyes at her. “Don’t make more of it than it is.”

When I scrape back my chair, Gigi frowns. “Where are you going?”

“Need a smoke.”

“Thought you quit,” she says in disapproval.

I ignore that and say, “Be right back.”

With casual strides, I head outside, but when my sister finds me on the dock ten minutes later, I’m already on my third cigarette.

Gigi marches toward me, her dark ponytail swinging. “Look, I didn’t want to say this in front of Blake, but…” She shakes her head in disbelief. “What the hell are you thinking?”

Yeah, I knew this was coming.

“It’s not a big deal,” I say, even as I suck nearly half my cigarette in a nervous drag.

It was easy to pretend I wasn’t doing anything wrong when it was our little secret, but now that someone else knows, all the reasons that caused me to deny my attraction to her come rushing back.

“She’s practically our sister,” Gigi scolds.

“Trust me, I’ve never thought of her as my sister.”

“God. Men will justify anything in their minds for sex.”

“Hey, don’t make this a gender thing.”

“If you hurt her, she’s not going away. You get that, right?” Gigi’s features are hard, but her voice is soft. “And you have a bad track record with flings. They always fall for you. Without fucking fail. If you break her heart, it won’t be like one of the girls you leave in the rearview mirror and never have to see again. You can’t just fuck off to Boston for a few months until they forget you. You’re going to see her, probably for the rest of your life, unless for some completely implausible reason, Dad stops talking to Logan.”

Which we both know will never happen. They’re brothers for life.

“When this ends, you’re going to see her next summer in Tahoe,” my sister continues. “You’ll see her for Christmas, on birthdays. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

I chew on my cheek, feeling uneasy. “I never know what I’m doing, Stan.”

Gigi shakes her head at me. “Yeah, well, maybe you should start figuring it out.”





My sister’s warning stays with me, yet it’s not strong enough to stop me from sneaking into Blake’s room every night for the rest of the week. I know it’s risky as hell with every room occupied, and when I sneak back into my own bed at dawn every morning, I try not to question why I’m taking such a huge risk for this girl.

All I know is that everything is quieter when she’s around. In a good way. She eases the chaos in my head, sometimes even silences it completely. When I’m curled up beside her, I don’t stay up all night, staring at the ceiling. I haven’t slept this well in years, not since I was a child.