“Babe, you okay?” I can hear Jake call out before he, too, joins the call.
Perfect, another witness to the shit-show.
“Jase.”
“Jake.”
“What’s up with these two?” he asks me instead of addressing the two hyenas.
“Ja—Ja—” Maddey struggles to speak through her laughter, clambering back onto the couch. “Jase’s girlfriend thought I”—a hand flattens on her chest—“was his girlfriend.”
“His girl—” Jake spots Melody amongst the chaos of the two blonde she-devils. “Oh. Hi.”
She gives a half-hearted wave, confusion written all over her face and still fucking tense.
“I don’t know if I should be offended or not by how hysterical you find the idea of me being your boyfriend to be,” I grumble. “I’ll have you know I make an excellent boyfriend.”
Any girl would be lucky to have me as their boyfriend. I earn expert-level achievements when it comes to the whole significant other thing. Not really the point here, Donnelly.
“Oh yes, we know. Rocky sings your praises.” Sarcasm practically pools on the floor Maddey’s words are so heavy with it. “The idea of us being a couple is just even funnier to me since I almost married your brother.”
“Yup.” JD finally has her own laughter under control. “That’s a little too incestuous, even for our group.”
“Family,” the girls say in unison as Jake says, “Coven.”
“These are the Covenettes you talk about?” Melody asks as her eyes dart between me and everyone else in this ridiculous conversation.
“Two of the eight,” I answer reluctantly.
“Okay, okay.” My sister settles herself on her husband’s lap. “Before you go off on one of the Coven tangents you and Vince love so much, how about you tell me why you kept the fact that you have a girlfriend from me, oh wombmate of mine?”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” Melody says.
“We’ll see about that.” I give her knee a squeeze, trailing a finger down to rub inside the bend of it, a tremble finally breaking her rigidity. “And you.” I bring my attention back to my twin. “Hi Pot, I’m Kettle, nice to meet you. Or did you conveniently forget you kept your relationship a secret from me when you two started dating?” I point to the couple on the screen.
For months, the two dated behind all our backs. It was the only time either of us had kept something from the other. There was a point I thought I was going crazy as the secret messed with our twin connection. It doesn’t happen often, but I do enjoy when I get to use it against her.
What? Trust me, JD is the queen of revenge plots. I have suffered quite a bit at her hands.
“He’s got a point, babe.” Jake buries his face in the crook of JD’s neck.
“Whatever. That was only because Tweedledee and Tweedledum made me promise not to date one of their teammates.”
“And look how well that turned out.” I smirk. I couldn’t be happier for them, but I’m not going to sit here and take shit in front of the woman I’m trying to impress.
“Oh wait—is that a baby crying?” JD cups a hand over her ear as if trying to hear better. “Gotta go. Love you Jase.” She jumps from Jake’s lap and runs away like a coward.
“Love you too, JD,” I call to her retreating back.
Conversation pauses as Jake turns to watch his wife walk away, and I bite back the urge to gag over him checking out her ass. He’s lucky he loves her unconditionally, otherwise I’d be kicking his ass, especially with how blunt my sister tends to be about their sex life.
There are just some things a brother doesn’t need to know.
“Well, seeing as you have your hands full there”—he gestures to us—“I’m going to go take advantage of my wife. Gotta stock up before the next road trip.”
See what I mean? T-M-fucking-I.
“Oh, wait.” Remote in hand, Jake pauses. “Bro code mandates I give you a heads-up.”
I groan. “I don’t need to hear about whatever new position you found that helps you do my pregnant sister, thank you very much.”
Jake’s emerald eyes flash with humor. This, this right here is the side of him that chose Tucker as a childhood friend. It’s trouble. Trouble, I tells ya.
“As much fun as it is for me to watch you squirm when I do”—I want to take shots at him without his goalie gear for the grin he shoots me—“that wasn’t what I was gonna say.” He points to Maddey. “And don’t you start with it being research.”
She holds up her hands in surrender. We are all accustomed to seeing parts of our lives show up in her books.
“Pregnancy brain may have made her forget to say anything, but earlier Jordan was cursing you from here to LA for your Throwback Thursday post.”
I shrug. Personally, I think my post was awesome. Who doesn’t want to see an Olympic gold medal? So what if I tagged Bastard Bishop in it and went all Borat on him saying, “You’ll never get this. You’ll never get this.”
“Look, bro, it doesn’t matter to me either way. You piss her off, I get the perk of angry sex.” Gag me. “But she was muttering stuff about changing your passwords so you can’t ramp up the beef between you and Bishop before the All-Star Game.”
Melody is still fucking tense under my hold and I fucking hate it.
“All right, I’m out for real. Deuces.” With a two-finger salute, Jake ends the call.
With one half of the inquisition gone, I rearrange Melody, draping an arm over her shoulders, tucking her tight to my side, letting my thumb drift along the skin of her upper arm exposed by her slouchy sweater. She resists the embrace at first, but eventually she nuzzles in. Right where she belongs.
“Not that I’m not happy to see you or anything, Madz, but what are you doing here?”
“I’m doing a popup signing at an indie bookstore here tomorrow, and if I didn’t get out of Jersey, there was a very real chance you would no longer have an older brother.”
I bury my face in Melody’s bubblegum hair at the laughable suggestion.
“What did Ry do now?”
“He’s just being his typical overprotective self. I keep reminding him we are no longer a couple and he needs to stop worrying about me.”
Over the last couple of months, she has received a handful of odd “gifts.” Ryan isn’t the only one concerned; he’s just the most vocal about it.
“Madz, you and I both know that will never happen. It may not be in the romantic sense anymore, but he still loves you.”
“I know.” Like a deflating balloon, Maddey sags, running a hand through her hair and sending her long blonde curls tumbling in disarray. It’s not discussed often, but even years later I can see how she still feels the weight of the three-carat diamond.
“And I love him too, but man…you alpha men are exhausting.”
This time I laugh hard enough to shake Melody, who’s watching us like a soap opera. At least the veil of mistrust seems to have lifted from her eyes.
Why, oh why, isn’t Jordan my evil twin? All we need is that and one of us to end up with amnesia and we could make it official. Move over Days of Our Lives, the BTU Alumni are about to take your crown. Joey Tribbiani taught me a lot. I could totally be the next Dr. Drake Ramoray.