“Might set off the alarm.”
“What?”
“In security.”
“Oh, sure.” He doubted that very seriously, but he didn’t want to belittle her fears. “Good thinking. It might.”
She grinned, and her pretty face set off some kind of weird alternate-reality kick. He’d know that gorgeous profile anywhere, but in a strange way, it seemed alien.
Not entirely alien but distant. Like he knew it, of course, only not intimately.
This was nuts. He was psyching himself out. “I kind of got used to seeing you in it.”
“Oh. Did you?” She smiled, but her smile looked a little tight. “That’s nice.” She craned her neck to see up ahead of them beyond the throngs of passengers streaming out of a hallway leading to the gates. “It’s crowded. It’s a good thing we’re going on through.”
“Wait!”
Brent froze in his tracks, and a cold shiver darted down his spine. The woman shouting behind them sounded just like Jackie. Only Jackie—was here. He stared at her as the voice called again.
“Brent! Jackie!”
The color drained from Jackie’s face, and he had a really bad feeling something terrible was going down.
He slowly turned around to find Jackie’s mirror image staring at him. The only difference was she was dressed in other clothes and wore her hair down. “What?”
“Hope!” Jackie yelped, startled. “What are you doing?”
“What I should have done from the start,” she said on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry, but this has to stop. And it stops right here—with me. All my life, I’ve been the big sister, but I’ve let you push me around. But not anymore. There’s too much at stake. I’m no longer covering for you or fixing your stupid mistakes. I’m done.”
Brent’s gaze swept over her and then over Jackie. Then did it again. Had Hope come to see her sister off at the airport? In Boston? No, wait. That didn’t make sense. And why was she so incensed? “Are you—?”
“Hope, yes.”
“Hope.” Jackie shook her head emphatically. “No.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Jackie shot her sister a pointed look and grabbed Brent’s arm. “We’d really better go.”
“And just leave your sister? Here?”
He gazed into Hope’s eyes and then down at the necklace.
Brent’s heart thumped, and then it thundered.
“You’re not Jackie,” he said in measured tones.
“No.” Her voice warbled. “I’m not.”
“But I am,” Jackie said, waving her phone in his direction. “And there’s still time to catch our plane.”
His head spun, and then his stomach flipped in the worst possible way.
For a fleeting instant, he was positive he was going to throw up.
“Are you telling me,” he asked quietly, “that the two of you—”
“Swapped places,” Hope said miserably. “Yes.”
Brent stared off into the distance. Through one of the airport’s plate-glass windows, he saw a plane taxiing out to the runway. “For how long?” he asked, unable to look at either of them.
“The whole week,” Hope said.
Brent caught his breath and held it as his pulse thrummed in his ears.
“The whole week. I see.” He turned his gaze back on Jackie. “So, you were never there?”
“I could…couldn’t,” she stammered. “The Martin wedding—”
Brent gaped at her. “You’re kidding me?” Then he laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Okay, where are the cameras? You ladies have got to be punking me, right?”
When neither one responded, he knew that they weren’t.
“For the love of everything holy.” Brent blew out a hard breath. “So you weren’t sick?” he asked Hope.
She hung her head in shame. “I was there with you the whole time.”
He glared at Jackie. “And you were in Boston?”
“No. Nantucket.” She reached for him, but he pulled away. “It’s not as bad as it soun—”
“Not as bad?” he asked, his voice rising. When onlookers turned their way, he made an effort to tamp things down. “You let your sister pretend to be you,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “And not just for any old thing. For our wedding. Wow.”
Everything was starting to make sense, with lots of pieces falling into place. No wonder he’d discovered a whole new side of Jackie. That whole new side was linked by DNA. “Jackie” hadn’t been Jackie at all, but Hope, her twin.
“Listen,” Jackie said gently. “It’s not like we’re really not married. We are. From the courthouse in Boston.”
“Yeah? How can I be sure that was you and not”—he sent Hope a dismissive look—“her?”
“It was stupid, I know,” Jackie said feebly.
“Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
“Brent, there’s still time,” Jackie said. “Time for us to salvage this thing.”
“Oh no, there’s not.”
“But what about your grandfather? His business?”
“Great.” Brent angrily pursed his lips. “This is all really great.” He set his eyes on Hope. “You know what you’ve done is going to devastate my family.”
Her chin trembled. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m afraid, this time, sorry’s not good enough.” He wheeled back on Jackie. “When were you planning to tell me?” When she didn’t answer, he added incredulously, “Never?”
Brent had faced a lot of intense situations, but none of them were as wretched as this. He felt like someone had poured gasoline all over his soul and then set a match to it.
“You know what?” He held up his hands. “I’m done. You two ladies go to Bermuda together, if you want. Live it up. Have a great time scamming the locals.” He grabbed his suitcase handle. “Oh. And don’t forget the tourists. They’re easy game.”
“Great, Hope. This is just great. Thanks one whole heck of a lot.” Jackie’s whole body shook, and it looked like she was about to break down crying, too. But they would be crocodile tears, as far as Brent was concerned. She was already walking toward security.