Second Chance Girl
Page 45

“That was my plan.” And to watch Mathias’s back.
* * *
SOPHIE TROTTED HAPPILY at Mathias’s side, stopping occasionally to sniff or mark her territory with a quick squat. When his mother had first dropped her off, he’d been convinced taking care of the dog was going to be a disaster. Instead, she’d grown on him and he had to admit, if only to himself, that he was going to miss her.
“You’re not half bad,” he told her.
Sophie looked up and wagged her tail, confirming what must be obvious.
“On the bright side, when you’re gone, I’ll get to eat my entire breakfast by myself.”
She gave a low woof, as if asking why he would want to do that, when sharing with her was so much more fun.
They continued down the road. Mathias told himself they had no destination, then thought it was dumb to lie to himself. It wasn’t as if he didn’t already know where he was headed. Because despite everything going on, or maybe because of it, there was only one place he wanted to be.
Five minutes later, he was on Carol’s front porch, ringing the doorbell. She answered a couple of seconds later.
She’d already changed from her work uniform into jeans and a T-shirt. Both were soft looking, kind of like her. She was barefoot. Unlike most of the women he knew, she didn’t paint her toenails. Funny how seeing them without any color made her appear more vulnerable somehow.
“Hi,” she said, stepping back to let him in. “How’s it going at your place?”
“It’s crowded.”
She laughed. “You only have Del and Maya to deal with. Okay, and the dress, but it’s pretty quiet. What are you going to do when the rest of the family arrives?”
“I have no idea.” Aidan and Shelby were getting a room in town, but his parents would be staying with him. A nightmare he would deal with when it happened.
She led him out to the back patio. “You two sit here. I’ll be right back.”
Mathias did as she requested, taking a seat at the table. After he unclipped Sophie’s leash, the beagle jumped onto the chaise and stretched out in the last rays of sunshine. Carol returned in a few minutes. She had two open beer bottles along with a bowl of chips and guacamole.
She set everything on the table before settling into the chair next to him, her foot tucked under her butt. She touched her bottle to his, then said, “What’s going on?”
“I’m good. How the countdown to the event?”
“I’m nervous,” she admitted. “There’s a lot on the line. Atsuko is confident, so I try to be, too. She’s handling everything—I just have to show up and talk about Millie.” She glanced at him. “You’re going to be there, aren’t you?”
“With bells on.”
She laughed. “Where, exactly, will those bells be?”
“You’re going to have to wait and see.”
He thought about the glass pieces in his studio. He’d completed the one of Millie but was still refining the Carol statue. If he got it right in time, he might bring it to the event...to continue the giraffe theme. It wouldn’t be for sale.
The late afternoon was warm, the breeze light. In Fool’s Gold fall would have arrived with cooler temperatures and brilliant colors.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I miss the changing colors of the leaves. The desert is beautiful in its own way, but there’s something to be said for the mountains.”
“Regretting your move?” she asked, her tone light.
“No. Coming here was the right decision. This is home now.”
“How did you decide to leave in the first place?”
“Ronan needed to get away and I needed to go with him.”
“For him or for you?”
“Both.”
“What was it like before?” she asked. “When you were twins?”
Her voice was kind, as was her gaze. He could feel her concern. Carol would never ask for the sake of knowing. She wasn’t like that. Funny how, at the end of the day, he trusted her. Whatever was going on, he knew that she would do the right thing, be it for him or someone else she cared about. Because he knew she did care about him. They were friends.
“I don’t remember not being Ronan’s twin and him being mine,” he admitted. “We shared everything. Mom used to talk about us sleeping in the same crib when we were babies. I always thought it was because we couldn’t be separated, but looking back I’m guessing it was because when she took Ronan in, she didn’t have another place to put him. She hadn’t actually been expecting another baby.”
“I’m still amazed she was willing to take him in the way she did. I couldn’t do it.”
“Not many people could. She’s the complete opposite of my father. He only thinks of himself and she only thinks of him. At the risk of being too cynical, I’ve never believed the story about her knowing the second she saw Ronan that she had to raise him. I think it was because he was a part of my father and Ceallach has always been the center of her universe.”
“But you said Ronan was her favorite. How do you explain that?”
“I can’t.”
All the brothers had known it. Mathias never knew how everyone else felt. Personally he hadn’t minded because he’d been a part of Ronan’s inner circle. The two of them against the world. Everyone else had come in second.
“We were in the same class at school, we played the same sports. When one of us got sick or injured, the other stayed home, too.” He smiled. “We never liked the same type of women, though. When we were in high school, we tried dating sisters. That didn’t go well.”
“Then it all hit the fan,” she said softly.
“It did.” He still remembered the shock—not wanting to believe the words. How could Ronan not be his twin brother?
“It was hard on me,” he continued, “but worse on him. I was still Elaine’s son while he wasn’t. We both had to deal with all the years of lies but he had to figure out who he was.”
“Has he?”
“Hell if I know. These days we barely speak. He’s pulling back more and more.” He reached for a chip. “When we first moved here I thought we’d figure it out. We still worked together in the studio. We’d even rented a house together. Then he found that place up in the mountains and once he moved, he started withdrawing.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. We’ll get through this.”
At least he hoped they would. Bad enough to have lost his twin, but to end up losing his brother...
“What can I do to help?” she asked.
Let me take you to bed. A phrase only to be thought, not spoken, because she would think he was trying to make up for what had happened before. Even though he did want a do-over, today wasn’t about that. Not that he could explain that to her.
Still, getting lost in Carol would go a long way to healing what ailed him.
“I’m good,” he said instead.
“Let me know if that changes.”
“I will.”
“Want to stay for dinner?” she asked.
“I need to get back to Del and Maya. Want to join us?”
“Sure.”
He didn’t care if it was a mercy agreement—he wanted her with him. “Weren’t you over earlier today, helping her with something?”