Corin

---

“Holy shit.”

I turned to Canaan, who was leaning back on the couch, scrubbing his face with his hands. “Did that just happen?”

He nodded, acting shell-shocked. “I think it did.”

“Just to clarify exactly what just happened, Tate and Aerie Skyped us and said they were moving back to Ketchikan…and they flirted with us.”

“Flirted isn’t quite the word,” Canaan said. “That was…something else. I’m not sure if they did that wrestling thing on purpose or not.”

“They were both mostly naked.”

“Just shirts and panties.”

“And then they had serious wardrobe malfunctions.”

“There was full-on tit, right out in the open.”

“Very, very, very nice tit, I must say.”

Canaan glanced at me. “The nicest.”

“Big and round and juicy.”

“Delectable.”

“Delicious.”

Canaan sighed. “Now I’m hungry and horny.”

“Did you see their asses, though?” I palmed my face, groaning.

“Tight as a drum.”

“But not too small.”

“Nor too big.”

I frowned at him. “Not sure that’s a thing.”

“Is that a challenge?” Canaan said, smirking at me.

“NO!” I shouted, knowing he’d make it a mission to find a picture of the biggest ass he could, just to prove a point.

He laughed. “Now I’m curious.”

“Yeah, me too. Now I need to see both tits at once.”

“Both of both, or both of one?”

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Both tits of both twins, or both tits of one twin?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea how to even answer that.”

“I have a feeling that question is going to be answered, though,” Canaan said. “And soon.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right. There was very open interest from both of them.”

“That’s an understatement.” Canaan eyed me, then. “I have a question.”

“Okay.”

“Was it me, or were they sexier than they’ve ever been? And I’m not talking about the wardrobe malfunction, I’m talking in general.”

“They were definitely sexier than ever,” I said. “I mean, they’ve always been hot, but…damn.”

“But I mean, what if they were always that hot and we just…didn’t notice, or didn’t see them that way?”

I frowned, thinking. “Um. I don’t know. I mean, I always noticed how hot they were, but I never thought of them that way. They were more like friends when we all lived here in Ketchikan.” I hesitated. “But I did have a wet dream about them, once.”

Canaan stared at me. “You did?”

I nodded. “I did. Remember when we all went swimming, right before they moved to New York? They were wearing those bikinis and I fought a hard-on all day, that day. It was a weird boner then, because it seemed weird to be sexually attracted to my best friends. But I was. Then, that night, I had this crazy vivid dream about them.”

“What was the dream?” Canaan asked. “Do you remember?”

I laughed. “How could I forget? Hottest dream of my life. I dreamed we were at the beach again, but instead of the one right here, it was, like, far away. Just this feeling of…privacy, or isolation. We were alone, is what I remember feeling. And you and I were on the beach, and the girls were in the water. They both came up out of the water at the same time, and it was like a scene out of a porno, they were soaking wet and the water was sluicing down their tits and thighs and everything, and they walked right up to us, all sexy and looking at us like they wanted us. I don’t remember who did it first, but…one of them reached up and untied the top of her bathing suit, and the other did too, like at the same time, and they took their tops off.” I let out a sigh. “So fucking hot. And then it was…it was Tate in front of me, just me and her, like suddenly, you know? Just her, topless.”

Canaan shifted uncomfortably. “Then what?”

“Then I woke up, right as I was reaching out to touch her.”

“Shit, that must’ve been frustrating as fuck.”

I groaned. “You have no idea. I woke up hard as a fuckin’ rock.”

He eyed me. “What’d you do?”

I laughed awkwardly and reached up to rub the back of my neck, looking away. “I went into the bathroom and I yanked one out.”

“To a dream of the girls?”

I nodded. “I tried my damnedest to think of anyone else, but I couldn’t. I kept seeing them, the twins, shrugging out of their bikini tops. Over and over and over, and I felt so fucking weird about it, because they were our best friends from the time we were babies, but we’d spent the day with them in those bikinis and I just…” I sighed. “That’s why I never told you about that dream, because I felt oddly guilty about jerking off to a dream of Tate and Aerie. Especially that last part, with Tate? That image from the dream is still seared into my head.”

Canaan laughed. “In that case, I have a confession too.”

I stared at him. “You had the same dream?”

He laughed again and shook his head. “Not…exactly. We were over at their mom’s house once; I think it was that same summer before they moved. We’d just gone to the mall and we were going to be going to a movie next. The girls went to change, and I had to pee. You were in the bathroom down by their kitchen, so I went upstairs, thinking I’d use the one up by their bedroom. My phone rang right then, and I got distracted. You know how they always kept all the doors closed, right? Well I went to see who was calling and accidentally opened the wrong door. I opened their bedroom door by mistake, and ended up catching Aerie in nothing but her panties. Like, she was just standing there, naked, about to step into a dress. She just stared at me, and I stared at her, and there was this…moment, I guess. I don’t know. I’ve thought about that moment almost every day since. Not because I saw her all but naked, and not just for like a split second. It was a good full thirty seconds that we stared at each other. It was incredible, but…it was the tension in the air in the moment. The way she looked at me, like…I’ve always wondered what she would have done if I’d gone in. But then Tate came out of their walk-in closet saying something, and I turned around and left.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me about this?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It felt weird. Like, I thought I was imagining the way she’d looked at me, and I didn’t want to read anything into it. I kind of thought I was going crazy. Like, no way they think about us that way, no way Aerie thinks about me that way. I was always closer to Tate anyway, which is what made it that much weirder.” He glanced at me with a sheepish grin. “I’m not gonna lie, though—those thirty seconds I spent staring at Aerie wearing nothing but a black thong? Best thirty seconds of my life.”

I laughed. “Canaan, did you masturbate in Rachel Kingsley’s bathroom?”

He laughed, nodding. “I was sixteen, dude—if you’d just seen what I saw, you would’ve too.”

“Wow, man. We’re kind of messed up.”

“No kidding.”

We stared at each other for a long moment, and then I shook my head. “And now they’re moving here,” I said.

“And unless we’re totally crazy, they’re interested in us.”

A long pause then, each of us lost in our own thoughts and memories. Eventually, Canaan glanced at me. “So…how are we going to handle this, when they show up?”

I shook my head. “I have absolutely no idea.”

“Yeah, me either.”

Another long silence.

“I have a question,” I said.

Canaan quirked an eyebrow at me. “Okay?”

“You think Tate and Aerie are possibly interested in taking our relationships to a new level?”

“Honestly, I have no idea, but why call us while they were half-drunk, just to tell us they’re moving back.”

I let out a breath. “Tate was acting pretty obvious. I mean, ‘fuckin’ T’?” I laughed. “That was all but an invitation, if you ask me.”

“Can I make a suggestion, though?” Canaan said.

“Sure,” I answered, “don’t mean I’m gonna listen, but you can try.”

“Let’s not rush this, when they get here. Let’s lead in slow, take time to read them, make sure they’re into us like we’re thinking, before we go too crazy.”

I rolled my eyes. “What do you think I’m gonna do, tackle her the second I see her and try to fuck her right then and there?”

“You’ve done it before.”

I laughed, punching his arm. “That was different. That was Rania, who was a self-proclaimed ho. She sent me a pic of her tits from the airplane bathroom, asking if I wanted to join her. Pretty damn straightforward.”

“Look, bro, this could be a lot of fun…but it’s serious, too. We don’t want to act like a couple of horny teenagers. While it might not look like it, we’re supposed to be grown-ass men and we need to remember that.”

“It’s okay, Princess, I’m with you. But I will say one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Thems just might be into us,” I said.

“Yessir, they do seem to be, Brother Corin,” he agreed.

“Which means, if we’re lucky, we just might be seeing more of those fine-ass titties.”

“A whole lot more.”

I held up my hand. “High five for seeing the Kingsley girls’ tits!” I snorted. “We’re major dorks, you know that, right?”

He playfully clapped his hand over my mouth. “Hush, you idiot! We have a reputation as rock stars to uphold! Don’t blow our cover!”

I laughed as I knocked his hand away, and then he slapped at me, which then devolved into to kicking and punching, which led to wrestling, and that was how Brock and Claire found us: shirtless and wrestling on the floor of the den.

I rolled away from Canaan, and caught up against Claire’s legs, and she stared down at me. “I don’t know whether to be turned on or weirded out by you two right now,” she said.

Brock, behind her, snorted derisively. “Turned on? By these punk-ass dweebs? Hardly.”

She winked down at me. “I dunno, Brock. They’re pretty sexy.”

Brock growled, grabbing at her waist. “I’ll show you sexy, woman.”

She jerked away and ran, letting him catch her just as she reached their bedroom door.

“Ha ha.” He twisted the doorknob and they fell backward into the bedroom. “Start getting naked, woman, before I rip the clothes off you.”

“Where’s the fun in doing it myself?” Claire asked, giggling. “I like it when you rip the clothes off me. That way, I get to go buy more.”

I missed Brock’s response, because I was busy hauling Canaan toward the stairs. “AND THAT’S OUR CUE!” I shouted, to cover the noises now coming from the bedroom.

Canaan followed me down the stairs. “Do they have to be so damn loud?” he complained.

“I think Brock’s made it his life’s goal to prove exactly how loud he can be during sex,” I said.

“Him? I’m talking about her. Jesus. The woman shrieks like a damn banshee.”

I laughed. “I don’t mind that as much as him going ‘UUUGH-UGH-UGH-UGH-UGH-UUUUGHH!—UH!—UGHHH!’”

With that we entered our little home studio downstairs.

We had a pretty nice setup, if I do say so myself. We had a small but quality mixing board, a soundproof, professional-grade recording booth for tracking individual instruments, top-of-the-line mics and headphones, plus a practice space jam-packed with our amps, racks of electric and acoustic guitars, a couple cajones, a full drum set, another guitar stand with a mandolin, ukulele, banjo, dobro, and my twelve-string acoustic. We’re both multi-instrumentalists, and we like variety. We had broken our contract with our label, which meant we were, once again, unsigned indie musicians. We’d toyed with the idea of working on getting our own label up and running, but so far hadn’t done anything with the idea besides talk about it.

“I think it’s time to write a song that is a thinly disguised homage to Tate and Aerie,” I said.

“I agree. But before we do another thing I gotta get something to eat. That work out was a killer and my body is screaming.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s take a break, get cleaned up and get something to eat and then come back here and work on that tune.”

---

I played a riff I’d had rattling around my head lately, and Canaan listened as I repeated it and messed around with it, trying to find the rest of the tune. Then I picked up the mandolin and played a sequence that circled around my riff, which led to several hours of jamming, figuring out the rest of the song, and then we retreated to opposite corners of the studio to work on the lyrics.

Typically, we write the music together, and then work separately on the lyrics, and then join together again to weave our separate ideas into a single unit. This works for us, since being twins we can sort of read each other’s minds to some degree, and we always understand where the other is coming from.

By midnight, we had a complete song, which we then played through a few times, until we were sure we had it down.

Canaan set the mandolin back on the stand and collapsed onto the couch along one wall of the practice space, rubbing his face with both hands. “Are we crazy to write a song about the girls like this? We agreed not to jump into anything, yet here we are writing a song about them. Do you really think this can be a thing with the girls, Cor, or are we acting like horny teenagers? I mean, if we were gonna hook up with Tate and Aerie, wouldn’t we have done that already, way back when?”

“Canaan, we wrote a song, not a marriage proposal. Besides, I think something like this might be kinda of fun.”

“Yeah, I hear you, but just humor me for a minute. If we got serious with the girls and they get serious with us—and that’s all a big if—how is it gonna work? Who’s with who? I mean, we’ve never really talked about this seriously. You and I have double-teamed a couple of times, but something tells me that’s not how this is going to work.”

I winced, trying to picture a multiple-partner situation with my brother and the Kingsley twins. “Yeah, that’s not happening—not ever.”

Canaan shook his head. “Ah, no. Definitely not.”

I shrugged, lifting my hands in the air. “I have no fucking idea, bro. Back in the day, we kind of did everything together, but I guess I did spend more time with Aerie. But on that Skype call, I felt more of a connection to Tate. But things could be totally different when they’re here in person. I just don’t know, man.”

“Me neither.”

“We’re just gonna have to wing it, Cane.”

Canaan scrubbed his face again, and then abruptly burst out laughing. “Love is in the air in Ketchikan, huh?”

“That’s what we said. Are we wrong?”

“No, but now I’m wondering if you jinxed us to be next in line in the Badd family.”

“There are worse ways to go than ending up with a Kingsley twin, Cane. Just sayin’.”

He stood up and headed for the stairs. “Very true, but I’m just not sure I’m ready to settle down yet. Bast is married, Brock and Claire are serious, Bax is all still fucked up over Eva, Zane has a wife and baby…we’re all gonna be tied down to this place, and as much as I’ve had fun being here these last few months, I’m not sure I want to be here forever.”

I let him go up alone, because I needed time to think. I still had my guitar on my lap, so I plugged a pair of headphones into the amp and let my hands work the strings absently while my mind wandered.

For once, I wasn’t sure if I agreed with my twin. I liked it here in Ketchikan. I liked the slow pace, the quietness. I liked not being on a tour bus with a bunch of dudes. I liked not being on tour in general, being in one place rather than traveling constantly. I liked being in control of our own music, doing it our way. I even liked working at the bar. It was fun, challenging, and never boring, and Cane and I got to hone our stripped-down sound.

When we were touring as Bishop’s Pawn, we had a bassist and a drummer, and both of those guys were, like Canaan and I, multi-instrumentalists, so we’d switch instruments from song to song. I’m more of a rhythm and percussion guy, so I end up on the cajon or drum set more often than not, but I also do okay on guitars, whereas stringed instruments are Canaan’s real forte, even though he does okay on percussion. And Brett and Toby were both able to pick up other instruments, acoustic guitar, bongos or whatever, and Brett was a killer on the upright bass while Toby was a whiz with the drums, where I’m better at hand drums.

Yeah, it’s complicated.

Point being, I like the stripped-down set, just me and Canaan, like in the old days.

I’m not sure I want to go back out on tour, back to the chaotic whirlwind and the groupies and a new city every day and living out of a suitcase on a tour bus.

Canaan and I have always been together, always agreed on what we wanted out of life and how to go about getting it. We’ve never even had to really talk about our plans out loud, we just instinctively knew what we wanted and how to get it.

This…

Hmmm.

Seems like it ain’t just love in the air, but change, too.