Corin

---

I’ve always had an issue with my mouth running away from my brain, but around Tate? I can’t seem to help myself, and I’m not talking about little slips, but majorly inappropriate innuendos.

The hell of it all was that she didn’t seem to mind.

Could it really be this easy? Like, the twins just show up and shit gets real? No way. Nothing is that easy.

Tate keeps glancing at me as I drive, cutting her eyes to me, and then when I meet her eyes, she looks away. Her eyes danced, glittering amber-green, traveling from my face to my arms, examining my tats, and then dropping to my crotch, and back up again.

As for me, I have to keep my eyes on the road. Not just for safety, because I was driving, but because if I let myself look at Tate Kingsley too long, I’d pop a boner. Legit, she was that damn sexy. That romper, though? Holy shit. Skin tight, sports-car red, the V-neck plunging down to her diaphragm, leaving a good quarter of the insides of her breasts exposed. I doubted she was wearing a bra, unless it was some kind of magical thing. Granted, I don’t know shit about bras, except how to take ’em off one-handed. The whole outfit was off the fucking charts, and the shorts part…holy shit. They just barely covered her ass and sitting in the truck, one knee hooked over the other, her thigh and ass were on display, wreaking havoc on my determination to control my hard-on.

Despite the sexy romper, her whole look was very natural. Honestly, I liked the minimal makeup look, it was a lot less than what they usually wore for their Insta pics—and yes, I follow them on Instagram. She was so fucking naturally gorgeous she didn’t need any makeup at all.

In fact, over the last few years Instagram has been the only contact we’ve really had with the girls, except for the occasional email or Twitter DM.

I cut a sideways glance at her and caught her just as she tore her eyes away from my crotch. I glanced down, and realized I hadn’t been entirely successful in keeping myself from getting a semi. Meaning, the front of my jeans were tenting, and she had noticed this. Her eyes were flitting around frantically, as if searching for anywhere else to look, and she was gnawing on the corner of her lower lip.

I tried to shift in my seat, but the tent remained. So, with nothing left to do to alleviate the growing pressure I tried, with as much subtlety as I possessed, to do a quick manual adjustment of the situation. When a girl has noticed your semi-erection, there’s just no subtlety to be had. She noticed; she bit down on her lip so hard the plump pink flesh turned white, and her thighs tightened.

Both of which only turned me on even more, which she then noticed…

It was a vicious cycle of sexual tension.

It was less than ten minutes from the ferry dock to our bar, but I swear to god that drive felt like an hour. I was excruciatingly aware of each movement Tate made, trying desperately to keep my eyes on the road and not on her tits, which jiggled and shifted and swayed with the turns and bumps in the road. I tried not to watch her hands as they fidgeted and her teeth gnawing on her lip, which made me want to gnaw on that lip too…

I was a seething mess of raging libido by the time we got to Badd’s, and I don’t think Tate was any better. It was midafternoon, so the bar was mostly empty, except for a few regulars taking up the stools on the end of the bar nearest the entrance, and a few scattered couples in the booths.

Luce was behind the bar polishing wineglasses while Brock washed them. Xavier was set up at the family booth with his laptop and robot-building gear out and two different textbooks in front of him, which he legitimately seemed to be reading simultaneously. Which, if you ask me, shouldn’t be possible, but with Xavier, just about anything went. Everyone else was gone, at the moment.

Bax, following my conversation with him a couple of days ago, had taken off on Xavier’s bike, tearing off after Evangeline. Zane was—as usual, these days—at home with Mara and their new baby, and Bast and Dru had taken a week off together and were who knows where, while Claire and Mara were probably working at their shared office space half a block away.

Brock and Luce both looked up at us as we walked in.

“Holy shit!” Brock tossed a rocks glass in the air and caught it. “The Kingsley twins are in the house! You guys just get in?”

“The boys just picked us up from the ferry, yes,” Aerie said.

Lucian was holding a wineglass up to the light, examining it for spots. “I thought you told Bax two days ago that they were already in town?” he asked, glancing at me.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Ah, yeah. Well, I had to lie a little, to get him off his ass. He was being a surly fuck-head.”

Lucian laughed. “I see.”

“You can’t deny he was being a douche,” I said. “Two and a half weeks, and he was fucking unbearable without Eva. Someone had to do something. I told a little white lie, so what?”

Lucian twitched a shoulder, his version of a shrug. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were doing that silent judge-y thing you do.”

He glanced at me. “The what?”

The four of us lined up at the bar, me on the left, Tate to my right, Aerie beside her, and Cane on the end.

“You do this thing where you don’t say anything, but you manage to convey a sense of superior disapproval,” I said.

He just shook his head. “You’re reading things into me that aren’t there. I’m not a judgmental person.”

“So you’re fine with me telling Bax a lie to get him off his ass?”

“He was being a douche. You got him to go after her. It worked, case closed.”

Brock filled pint glasses with ice and cola, and set them in front of us. I stared at the cola, and then at him. “The fuck is this soda bullshit, Brock?”

He just grinned. “We’ve got customers, kids, and not one of you is twenty-one yet. Can’t serve you alcohol. Sorry.”

“Oh, come on, Brock,” Canaan protested. “We’re twenty-one in less than a week.”

“And I’ll serve you all day every day, in…” he glanced at his watch, “six days and nine hours.”

The shit of it was, I realized that when any of the older brothers ever served us alcohol, it was only ever at home upstairs, or when there was no one in the bar, never when anyone who was not family was around.

“You suck,” I said.

Brock just chuckled, and then went back to washing glasses. “But…if that bottle of Johnnie Black upstairs above the fridge happened to vanish for a few hours, I probably wouldn’t notice, since I’m going to be down here ’til close. You know, just saying.” He shot me a wink.

Nice.

Tate spied the small laminated menu stuck between a stack of napkins and a jar of bar pretzels. “Oooh, you guys serve food here. I’m hungry.” She plucked the menu up and studied it. “Damn, everything on here sounds amazing.”

Brock jerked a thumb at Xavier, who was completely oblivious to everything going on. “That menu is Xavier’s brainchild. The boy is a goddamned short-order wizard. Our food sales have skyrocketed through the roof since he took over the kitchen.” He tossed an ice cube at Xavier, nailing him in the skull. “Hey, egghead! Tate and Aerie want some food.”

Xavier rubbed his head where the ice cube had hit him, blinking at us as if realizing where he was, who he was, and what was going on. “Who?” His gaze went to the four of us, and his expression brightened. “Tate and Aerie? You guys are in town? Awesome!”

He left the booth, one of his odd little robot creations in his hand, and came over to us, giving both Tate and Aerie hugs. “Good to see you guys! How long are you in town for?”

Canaan and I exchanged glances. “I didn’t know you were on hugging terms with them, Xav,” I said.

“What? Oh. Tate and Aerie were in my advanced metalworking class during freshman year. They always stuck up for me when the other kids tried to start things.”

He set his robot down on the bar, touched a button, and it started rattling around like a toy soldier; it was a three-legged thing, the legs made of little spikes attached to an egg-shaped body, with a little light-up LED smiley face on one side and a frowning face on the other. The three legs didn’t quite provide enough stability for the thing to stay upright, so it tottered this way and that in drunken circles, always threatening to fall over but never quite doing so. It was a comical display, and even Cane and I, used to Xavier’s robots, couldn’t help chuckling.

Aerie clapped her hands. “OHMYGOD, that thing is the cutest! Where’d you get it, Xavier?”

He flushed a little. “Um, I made it? It’s just this little thing I do in my spare time.”

Brock snorted. “He’s being modest. He makes and sells dozens of those per week. They’re going for fifty bucks apiece, and he makes them for maybe five or ten bucks in parts. He’s making a killing on them.”

The robot finished its programmed circuit and went still, and Aerie pressed the button to make it start up again, giggling as it toddled around.

She glanced up at Xavier. “Seriously? You made this? That is so cool! I knew you’d do something amazing. You came up with some amazing stuff in metalworking class.”

“You were in advanced metalworking your freshman year?” I asked.

Xavier shrugged. “I got into it in middle school, and my teacher from the middle school transferred to the high school for my freshman year, so he let me into the advanced class, since he knew I was good enough for it.”

I then turned to Tate and Aerie. “And you guys stuck up for him?”

Tate tossed a peanut from the jar on the bar into her mouth. “We’ve known Xav since he was a baby. He’s the sweetest kid ever, he didn’t deserve to be bullied the way he was, and we weren’t about to let that happen if we could help it. So, yeah, we used our status as the cool kids to shut down the bullying.”

Canaan leaned forward to meet my gaze. “Did you know Xavier was bullied in high school? I didn’t.”

I shook my head. “News to me.” I glanced at Xavier. “How come you never said anything to us? We would have gladly kicked some asses.”

Xavier rolled his eyes. “You guys were completely oblivious to anything and everything that didn’t concern girls and your band.” He leaned between Tate and Aerie to snag a handful of peanuts. “Besides, it was just the way things were. If you guys, or Luce, or Bast, or any of you started stomping around like ogres, kicking the ass of everyone who bullied me, the whole damn town would have black eyes and bloody noses.”

“You make it sound like everyone bullied you,” I said.

Xavier outright laughed at this. “News flash, Cor: I kind of stick out, and always have. I was talking by eight months, and reading by two, but didn’t walk until I was well past one. I taught myself basic algebra in third grade out of Bast’s textbook while he was working for Dad. I memorized The Iliad in English in eighth grade, and in the original Greek in tenth. I also taught myself to read and write in Latin in tenth grade, and by ninth grade I was corresponding with an advanced mathematics professor from MIT so I could get access to equations that actually challenged me.

“I’m not normal. I can do all that, read and write and speak fluently in classical Greek and Latin, do advanced math that ninety percent of the world can’t do, but dealing with people? Forget about it. I don’t know what to say, or how to act. I still miss basic social cues all the time. I copied you two—” he gestured at Canaan and me, here, “—in the way you dress and your haircut so I’d stand out less in terms of appearance. I even got these tattoos because I thought yours were cool. But I’m still hopelessly clueless. And that’s after living on my own down in Cali, learning to take care of myself. In high school? I was so caught up in teaching myself things even the teachers didn’t know that I’d forget to shower, forget to eat. Getting bullied was…god, it was inevitable. Especially in a tiny little town like this, where the only way in or out is by boat or seaplane. I’d stand out growing up anywhere, but here?” He waved a hand.

“Tate and Aerie were literally the only people who ever stuck up for me. And I never told anyone about it because it was just my burden to bear. You couldn’t be there to protect me all the time, so I figured I might as well just get used to dealing with it on my own.”

I shook my head. “That makes me feel like a shitty brother.”

“I made it. I’m fine.” He patted me on the shoulder. “I hid it so you wouldn’t know. All of you.” He laughed. “Funny thing is, since we’ve all moved back to Ketchikan, I’ve had similar conversations with just about everyone. I guess I was pretty successful at hiding it, huh?”

I glanced at the girls. “Well, thank you for sticking up for him back then.”

Aerie waved a hand dismissively. “No one deserves to be bullied, but especially not sweet kids like Xavier.”

“Plus,” Tate said, “He always helped us with our math homework.”

Xavier laughed. “By helped, you mean I did it for you.”

Tate shrugged. “You were the only reason we passed tenth-grade math. Honestly, Mrs. Hendersen couldn’t figure out why we’d do so bad on tests, but our homework was always perfect.”

“She had to have suspected,” Aerie said. “It just doesn’t make any sense. It seems so obvious.”

“Without solid proof, though, what could she do about it?” Tate said. “He would talk us through the answers so we could write them down ourselves, so the handwriting was always ours.”

Xavier shook his head, chuckling. “You guys really did suck at math.” He glanced at Tate and then Aerie in turn. “So. You guys want some food, huh?”

“YES!” Tate and Aerie shouted simultaneously.

Xavier laughed. “Wow, okay. So what do you want?”

“Deep fried fatty goodness. The most unhealthy food you have,” Tate said.

Xavier laughed. “It’s bar food, so it’s all unhealthy, I’m afraid. Typically, drunk people don’t tend to go for quinoa salads and sprouted wheat bagels.” He headed for the kitchen. “So, burgers, chicken strips, mozzarella sticks, chili cheese fries? I just made the chili this morning so it’s nice and fresh.”

“Yes to everything,” Tate said. “Especially the chili cheese fries.”

Xavier laughed again, shaking his head as he entered the kitchen. “One vacation indulgence food spread coming up.”

“It’s not a vacation,” Tate shouted after him. “We’re here indefinitely!”

“That’s awesome!” he shouted back. “I’ll make you both personalized robots as welcome home gifts!”

Aerie was examining the robot. “He seriously creates these? This thing is truly amazing. I can see why people pay fifty dollars for them.”

Brock watched the thing toddle around again. “It was Mara’s idea for him to sell them, I think. Until then, it was just hobby he had, something to occupy the rest of his brain and his hands while he studied. He had an entire fifty-gallon tub full of them. He literally puts one together in, like, an hour, and then starts on another one. After Mara suggested he sell them, he put up a website, shot some photos and videos of them, and it all just took off from there. Now he collects all the robots he makes during the week, takes photos and videos of each of them, uploads them to his website, and people can claim them. He even has this thing where you can pick from a list of parts and design your own and he’ll make it for you.”

“Impressive,” Tate said.

Brock blew a raspberry. “This is idle-hands stuff for Xavier. The programming is so basic he could do it in his sleep, one-handed. I think he has plans to expand into more advanced stuff, but he needs an actual lab space and better gear and parts, so he’s saving every dollar he makes here and from the robots.”

Just then a group of people came in, fresh off a cruise ship, and Brock went to take orders, leaving Canaan and the girls and me to ourselves once more.

Tate kept munching on peanuts. “So. How about after we eat, we abscond with that bottle of whiskey and find somewhere to get into trouble?”

“We should probably stop into Grandma and Grandpa’s before we go anywhere else,” Aerie said.

---

After eating a ridiculous amount of greasy fried food, we piled back into the truck and headed for the Kingsley’s B & B. I’d already run up to grab the whiskey, which was now hidden under the rear bench seat, along with a six-pack of beer and some snacks, and a blanket. The plan was to swing by the Kingsley’s so the girls could say hi to their grandparents and drop off their luggage, and then we’d head somewhere out of town to hang out.

Canaan and I carried the girls’ luggage inside for them, with the girls preceding us into their grandparent’s place. Richard and Ellen Kingsley were in the formal dining room, working together to set the table for the upcoming dinner.

When we walked in, Ellen peeked her head out of the entryway of the dining room to see who was coming.

Her entire face brightened when she saw Tate and Aerie, and she bustled toward the foyer, a stack of cutlery clutched in one hand. “My goodness! Is it really my granddaughters, come to visit?” She pulled both girls into a giant hug, all three of them laughing, and when Ellen finally pulled away, she swiped a finger underneath both eyes, sniffling. “Oh, look at me. I’m just so happy you’re here!”

Richard came out when he heard Ellen’s exclamation, and took his turn hugging the girls, kissing them each on top of their heads.

Ellen was small, short and thin, and somewhat frail looking, but vibrant and lively, with silver hair, and eyes that matched Tate and Aerie’s: amber and wise. Richard was tall, head and shoulders taller than his wife, razor thin and wiry, with silver hair as well, and dark brown eyes and a stern expression to go with his quiet demeanor.

“Good to see you, girls.” He eyed Canaan and me, and the pile of matching sets of luggage. “How long are you girls in town for?”

Tate and Aerie exchanged glances.

“Um.” Aerie stepped forward. “That’s the thing, actually—”

Tate moved up beside her sister. “We’ve taken an indefinite leave of absence, Grandpa—”

I realized they were doing the back and forth twin-speak thing to charm their grandparents.

“So we’re here in Ketchikan for at least the near future. We don’t have any set plans—” Aerie continued.

“Which is the entire point of coming here, to figure out what we’re doing next.” Tate took Richard’s hands in hers. “And we were hoping to be able to stay with you for a while.”

“If you have a room we can take over,” Aerie said.

“We only need one, we can share.” Tate bounced up and down, which for sure caught my attention, even from behind. “It’s okay, right? Say it’s okay, Grandpa.”

Richard glanced at Ellen, and then sighed. “What does your mother think about this plan?”

Aerie answered. “Well, that’s another tricky aspect to this—she doesn’t know we’re here. She absolutely hates that we’re doing this, and if she knew where we were, she’d show up and try to make us go back to modeling. And we just need a break.”

“We need to reassess,” Tate added. “The modeling thing was Mom’s idea, and we’re not sure we want to continue with it. Plus, we’ve been on the go nonstop for so long we’re just burnt out and we need a nice long vacation.”

“And we thought, what better way to decompress and relax than to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa?” Aerie said.

Richard sighed. “Rachel is probably apoplectic about this.”

Tate smiled. “You should see the email she sent us. It was in all caps. She’s pissed.”

Ellen tisked at her granddaughters. “She really does mean well, you know, girls.”

“We know, Grandma,” Aerie said. “It’s just that what she wants for us and what we want for ourselves doesn’t always match up, and she insists she still knows what’s best for us, and refuses to take no for an answer. She won’t even have a conversation about this. We’re old enough to be able to make decisions about our futures ourselves.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” Richard said. “Your mother has always been…rather strong-willed. Bullheaded might be a better term.”

“Richard!” Ellen scolded. “Don’t talk about your daughter like that!”

He huffed. “Am I wrong, Ellen? I love her, but I’m also able to see the reality of her character.”

Ellen shook her head. “No, you’re not wrong. But she really does mean well.”

Richard took a moment to think. “I won’t lie for you, girls. If your mother calls us asking if you’re here, I’m going to tell her.”

“We know, Grandpa,” Tate said. “Of course you’re not going to lie. We’d never ask you to, you know that!”

Richard quirked an eyebrow. “What about when you girls were fourteen and I caught you sneaking out to go to the movies with your boyfriends? I never said anything then, did I?”

“That was different,” Tate said. “That’s not lying, that’s just not tattling. A lie of omission, if you want to be a stickler about it, but it’s not an outright lie. Plus, those weren’t our boyfriends, they were just boys…who were friends.”

Aerie snorted, attempting to cover up a laugh. “Um, I hate to break it to you, T, but they were our boyfriends. Why else did we always sit at the very back of the theater?”

Tate stomped her foot. “Aerie! You are such a blabbermouth!” She huffed, and then patted her grandfather’s chest. “All we ever did was make out, Grandpa, I promise.”

Aerie ducked her head, and I think I heard her mutter sarcastically, “Yeah, whatever.”

And, knowing how the girls were as teenagers, there probably was a tiny bit more than innocent kissing happening in the back of that movie theater. I mean, I know Canaan and I got into way more than that in those very same seats.

Ellen cleared her throat. “Yes, well. Regardless, if she asks, we’ll tell her. If she doesn’t ask, we won’t volunteer the information. We understand and respect your need for privacy, and to make your own decisions.”

“That being said, you can stay here, of course. We can only spare one room for you, since the rest always sells out at this time of year.” Richard lifted an index finger. “And, again, we respect the fact that you’re adults, but we must set some basic ground rules.” He glanced at Canaan and me meaningfully. “This is called The Kingsley’s REST, so you can’t be loud at all hours. What you do and with whom is your business, but just be…discreet, all right?”

Ellen frowned up at her husband. “Richard!”

He shot his wife a look. “What, Ellen? They’re twenty years old—nearly twenty-one—and they travel the world alone. We’re their grandparents, so it’s not our place to try and police their behavior. I’m merely asking them to be discreet about…things.”

Ellen frowned even more deeply. “Tate, Aerie, I’m not going to mince words with you. No loud noises when people are trying to sleep in the other rooms, no smoking inside, and no obvious and disruptive intoxication. You’re good girls, and I know this, but these are the basic rules we apply to all our guests, and they apply to you as well.”

Tate and Aerie both wrapped Ellen up in a hug.

“Of course, Grandma!” Aerie said. “We came here to get away from the craziness. We’ll be good, I promise.”

As Richard and Ellen led the twins upstairs to show them their room, Tate twisted around and winked at me.

“Come on, boys,” she sang, “the luggage isn’t going to carry itself upstairs!”

Canaan shot me an eye roll, and I just laughed.

“Yes ma’am! Right away, ma’am! Would you like beverage service as well, ma’am?” I teased.

“That would be mah-velous, dah-ling,” Tate said, playing along, using an arch, aristocratic voice. “A dry vodka martini, Grey Goose, extra olives. And a bottle of your best champagne.”

“Apologies, ma’am,” I said in a drawling Jeeves the butler voice, “but I’m afraid we’re out olives.”

“Well, I never!” Tate huffed. “I simply shan’t be able to stay at this establishment if you can’t get a simple thing like a martini right!”

Richard barked a laugh. “You two are funny.” He shot her a look over his shoulder. “But, not being twenty-one for another two weeks, I assume you’ve never had a martini, right?”

Aerie just chortled, and Tate playfully tossed her braid from one side to the other. “Of course not, Grandpa! That would be illegal!”

“In the States, at least,” Canaan put in. “Let me just say, our European tour was lit, man.”

“You were lit, you mean,” I said.

Tate twisted to grin at me. “Did you get a chance to play Amsterdam?”

I cleared my throat. “Um. We…may have, yes.”

“Did you go to De Wallen?” She pronounced it with an impressively convincing Dutch accent.

Canaan and Aerie both coughed to cover laughs—De Wallen is the local word for Amsterdam’s infamous red-light district.

Richard snorted derisively. “A tip from an old man? You’re not the only ones who have traveled the world you know. I have been to Amsterdam, and I am actually familiar with what De Wallen is.”

“Richard!” Ellen hissed. “They’re just children!”

“Oh, they are not. Not in any sense of the word, dear.” He winked at Tate as they entered the bedroom the twins would be sharing. “My point is, you’re not pulling anything over on me by using that term.”

Aerie frowned up at her grandfather. “You’ve been to the red-light district?”

He laughed. “Bananenbar? Casa Rosso? Yes, my dear. I have.”

Tate tried to cover her laughter, but couldn’t, and devolved into hysterics. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! I do not need to know about you and Grandma visiting the red-light district.” She cackled, and then feigned gagging, collapsing onto one of the beds. “Can we please change the subject?”

Ellen whacked Richard across the shoulder. “I can’t believe you!”

He just shrugged. “We weren’t always boring old innkeepers. And we do go on vacation once a year. What do they think we do? Sit around watching Jeopardy all day?”

“RICHARD!” Ellen shrieked.

Canaan and I were losing it at this point, unable to cover our laughter any longer.

“Damn, Mr. Kingsley,” I said. “Well played, sir.”

“Thank you, son.” He shot us a look. “Now. If you’ll excuse us a moment, I’d like a word alone with my granddaughters.”

We piled their suitcases in one corner and exited the B and B, dropping the tailgate to sit and wait outside. While we were waiting, my phone rang, and the screen showed a picture of Bax giving a cheesy grin and two thumbs-up.

I slid my thumb across the screen to answer it. “Yo, Bax. How’s it going on the East Coast?”

I heard chatter in the background, placing him at a bar or mall or something. “Corin, my favorite brother. How are you, kiddo?”

I laughed, putting the call on speaker so Canaan could hear. “I’m just your favorite brother because I convinced you to get off your ass and go find the woman you love.”

“Exactly! And that’s the reason I’m calling, F-Y-I. I figured I’d update you. I crashed the wedding like we talked about, and lemme tell you, it was even more epic than I could have imagined. Best part is? I got the whole crazy shitshow on GoPro.”

“No way! You GoPro’d yourself crashing the wedding?”

“Sure as fuck, bro! I clocked that fucker Thomas right in his pretentious mouth, too. Knocked him the fuck out.”

“And Evangeline? How’d she react when you showed up?”

“Well, we’re taking the long route home, if that tells you anything.”

“You’re saying she’s coming back to Ketchikan with you?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Awesome! Congrats, Bax. For real. That’s great. Hopefully you’ll be less of an angry douche-canoe, now.”

“I wasn’t that bad.”

“While Eva was gone? Yes, you were. You were a straight-up cave troll, man.” I laughed. “Why do you think I staged the intervention? I couldn’t handle you being such a love-sick pussy anymore.”

Canaan leaned close to speak into the phone. “You really were pretty fuckin’ awful, Bax.”

“Well, shit. Sorry, I guess. Women’ll do that to you.” He said something muffled, ordering a drink it sounded like. “Speaking of women, how’re the girls? They’re in town for a minute, right?”

“Yeah, they just got in,” Canaan answered, “We’re about to go hang out with ’em now.”

“Just got in?” Bax said. “I thought they were already there?”

I slapped Canaan across the back of the head. “I, uh, may have stretched the truth a little. You would never have sat still long enough to listen to me if I’d just shown up alone like hey bro, I’m worried about you turning into a grumpy old lonely fuck, not without some kind of story to go with it.”

“Oh.” He laughed. “I think you’re right. So…the business about Aerie telling you about the wedding?”

“Oh, that was real. I really did talk to her on the phone about that, which is why I brought the information to you. Figured if anything could get you off your ass, it’d be that.”

“I mean, obviously the information was good, for which…” He paused, sounding like he was taking a drink. “I owe you, Cor. For real. Thank you.”

“Maybe you can start paying me back right now…with information. When Eva was here, you took off in the truck with her and didn’t come back for quite a while—”

“We gotta have the talk about the birds and the bees, Cor?” he teased, laughing.

“Yes, Baxter,” I said, oozing sarcasm. “I’m a virgin. Please describe for me the workings of human mating, oh great mighty sex lord.”

“Well, you see, Corin, when a man and a woman like each other a lot—well, they don’t have to like each other, and it could be a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, if that’s what you’re into—”

“Baxter.”

“No?”

I laughed. “No, bro. Just…no. What I was gonna ask was where you went with her. We’re looking to chill for a while, away from the bar and away from both apartments.”

Baxter was silent a moment. “Dammit, I’m not sure if I’m ready to reveal my secret just yet.”

I glanced at Canaan quizzically, and he just shrugged. “What secret?”

He sighed. “So, I actually own a little cabin about thirty minutes outside of town.”

“You…what?”

He laughed. “Yeah. When I first started the fighting thing, I took some fights on the payroll of this bigwig from the Bay area. He ended up going under because the IRS had him by the balls, but not before he traded me a fight for the deed to this little cabin he had. So then I became the owner of the cabin. I never had any reason to use it, since most of the time I was just bangin’ chicks in their rooms on the cruise ships, or in their hotels or whatever. I got it cleaned up and stocked and mostly forgot about it. Then when I met Eva, I knew I needed somewhere more special and private to take her than a shitty hotel or the apartments, where we had, like, zero privacy.”

“And you never thought any of us might like to know about this cabin?” I demanded.

“Well fuckin’ obviously you guys would want to know, thus the reason I didn’t share. It was my little thing, and I wanted to enjoy it at least once before you guys all started whining at me to use it.” He snorted. “I mean, come on. Try and tell me you wouldn’t do the same.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” I left a long pause. “So, Bax, buddy…”

He cut in over me. “Head north on Tongass toward Ward Cove. There’s a little two-track road on the right side as you’re heading north, about…eh, a couple of miles north of Clover Pass…” He gave me more detailed directions on how to find the particular little road. “There really ain’t much out there, and that shit is remote, son. Like, I’m not even sure how he managed to get plumbing and electricity to the place. The key’s under the mat. Make sure everything’s shut off and locked, put the key back when you leave, don’t break anything, and for fuckin’ real, don’t drive home if you’ve been drinking.”

“Yes, daddy,” I joked.

“Hey, you’re my little brothers, it’s my job to at least act like I give a shit,” he said. “Don’t tell anyone about it—I want to dole out the existence of that place on my own terms, okay?”

“Easy enough,” I said. “So, you and Eva, you’re taking the long way home? What’s that mean?”

“Heya, babe, your ass looks amazing in those jeans. Come here and gimme a kiss,” Bax said, his voice distant as if he was holding the phone away from himself to speak to Eva. I heard some kissing noises, and then Bax’s voice got louder. “It just means we’re not in a hurry to get back to Alaska. We’re taking a lot of little highways and side roads, kinda just seeing the country from the back of the bike, you know?”

“Shit, man, that sounds pretty fuckin’ amazing,” Canaan said.

“It is, bro, it is.” He laughed. “You know, I gotta admit, even as your brother, I can’t tell you guys apart on the phone. I can tell a difference in your voices, but not which is which.”

Canaan and I both laughed. “Well, we are identical twins,” I said, “so that’s understandable.”

The girls emerged, then, both having changed into jeans and T-shirts, with hoodies draped over their arms, wearing sturdy, sensible shoes—bright red Pumas for Tate, bright yellow, blue, pink, and green Asics running shoes for Aerie.

“We gotta go now, Bax,” Canaan said. “Have fun and be careful out there, yeah?”

“Sure thing. Say hi to the girls for me.”

The girls arrived at the tailgate at that moment, and Tate heard Bax’s last statement. “Hey, Bax, it’s Tate.”

“Tate, how are you, sweetheart?”

“Glad to be back in Alaska,” she responded.

“Bet you thought you’d never say that, huh?”

Tate laughed. “Honestly, I loved growing up here. I was pissed when Mom told us we were moving to Manhattan.”

“Weird, I couldn’t wait to get out of there,” Bax said. “Although now that I’m back living there, I love it. I just needed some time away to appreciate it more, you know?”

“Bax, this is Aerie. Did you manage to stop Evangeline from marrying that asshole Thomas Haverton?”

Evangeline answered that question. “Aerie Kingsley? This is Eva du Maurier. I understand I have you to thank for sending Bax my way and stopping that disaster.”

“Actually, babe, it was Corin,” Bax said. “Aerie told him about the wedding announcement, and apparently I was kinda difficult to be around without you, so Cor took it upon himself to light a fire under my ass to get you.”

“Well, both of you, thank you,” Eva said. “You honestly saved my life. If I’d gone through with the wedding…” she trailed off uncertainly. “I don’t know what my life would look like.”

“I’ve only met the man once, but everyone I know who knows him at all says Thomas Haverton is a horrible human being,” Aerie said.

“Ugh, you have no idea,” Eva said. “He’s vile.”

“Well, I’m glad Bax showed up to stop you from marrying him, then,” Aerie said.

“Bax is…he’s everything,” Eva said, her voice tender.

“Yeah, I’m all right,” Bax joked.

“Except when you’re hungry, so eat your damn cheeseburger,” Eva teased. “It was nice to sort of meet you, Aerie, and I assume Tate is there too? Corin, Canaan, hi guys.”

“We’re all here,” I said. “You guys have fun on your cross-country tour. We’ll see you when you get here.”

After a bit more back-and-forth, the call ended.

“It feels good to be wearing more casual clothes,” Tate said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Well, I mean, that romper was pretty fuckin’ sexy,” I said, “but jeans and a tee are probably a bit more practical.”

Aerie clapped her hands together. “So. What’s the plan? Where are we going?”

Canaan hopped off the tailgate and opened the driver’s door. “It’s a surprise.”

Aerie took the front passenger seat, which left Tate and me in the back. I opened the door for Tate and, for reasons I’m not quite sure of, I pinched Tate’s ass, getting a nice thick fold of denim and flesh and squeezing hard enough that she’d feel it, but not hard enough to really make it sting.

She shrieked in surprise, hopping into the truck, jabbing a finger into my face as I laughed. “Whoa, buddy, we are not there yet!” she snapped, but her eyes were twinkling and she seemed to be fighting a grin.

“What’d he do?” Aerie asked.

“Pinched my butt.”

Canaan cackled as he started the truck and headed for the North Tongass Highway. “Nice one, bro. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because I’m smarter than you, that’s why,” I said.

Aerie shot Canaan a warning glare. “Don’t you dare get any ideas, Cane. I’ll punch you straight in that pretty mouth of yours.”

Tate laughed. “You sound like me, now, A,” she said. “I must be a bad influence on you, inciting you to violence.”

“Especially over an innocent thing like a little butt pinch,” I said.

Tate snorted. “There was nothing innocent or little about that pinch, Cor.” She shifted her weight so she could rub her butt where I pinched it. “It still stings a little.”

“Awwww, I’m sorry,” I said, reaching over, my eyes on hers, sliding my hand between her butt and the bench to caress the spot I’d pinched. “I’ll rub it all better.”

She quirked an eyebrow up, allowing me to rub her butt for a moment before lowering her weight to pin my hand. And then, without warning, she reached out and pinched my nipple, hard. “I can pinch too, you know.”

With one hand still pinned, I used the other to try to get a grip on her breast, but only managed to pinch her padded bra, before Tate knocked my hand away.

“Damn!” I said, “Foiled by the bra.”

Tate leaned hard to one side, pinning my hand even more tightly between her butt and the bench—I could probably have yanked it out easily enough, but hey, my hand was touching her butt, so I didn’t bother. It did leave me with only one useable hand though, and, as I discovered, Tate was strong. She grabbed my free wrist and wrestled my hand toward the roof of the truck, laughing breathlessly as I fought her grip, and then, with her other hand, she gave me a full-on titty-twister, hard enough that I shouted in pain.

“Ha! Gotcha!” she yelled, excited. “Pinch me, will you? I don’t think so, buster!”

I cackled, enjoying this game immensely. “Oh-ho, is that the game we’re playing? All I did was pinch your butt, T. You just escalated this into a titty-twister war, missy.”

I swiveled my wrist to break her grip, reversing positions so I had her wrist in my grip, now, yanking my hand out from underneath her ass. She fought me with everything she had, thrashing and trying to knee me, cackling and grunting in exertion as I tried to get her other wrist locked together in one hand. We ended up horizontal on the bench, both of us laughing, breathless, as I wrestled Tate into a helpless position, her wrists pinned over her head, her lush body beneath mine. I was fighting a hard-on, unsuccessfully, because now that she was pinned beneath me and laughing, writhing, her eyes on mine…I realized how insanely sexy she was, how crazy attracted to her I was. How badly I wanted…just her, everything she was.

She was still fighting me, but not as hard as she could. Canaan and Aerie were watching and laughing, Canaan taking glances as he drove.

“Come on, T!” Aerie encouraged. “You’re not going to take that laying down, are you?”

Tate and I both broke out into laughter, and Tate shot her sister a glance. “Poor choice of words, A!”

Aerie covered her mouth to muffle her squeal of laughter, realizing the innuendo in her words.

I reached with my now-free hand, slid it under Tate’s shirt, cupped one of her breasts and then found her nipple and gave it a nice hard pinch, clamping down until Tate started writhing wildly and gasping, laughing, trying to squirm away.

“Okay, okay, okay!” She gasped. “Let go! Let go!”

I let go immediately, but not before rubbing my palm over her breast again. “Gotta rub it all better,” I murmured, pitching my voice low.

She sat up, pulling out of my reach, but slowly, not taking her eyes off of mine. “You suck,” she mumbled.

“Hey, you’re the one who turned it into a titty-twister war,” I said. “My little butt pinch was playful. You pinching my nipple actually hurt. You didn’t think I’d let you get away with that, did you?”

She shrugged. “No, but I didn’t think you’d take it that far.” She leaned close, putting her lips to my ear. “I have very, very sensitive nipples,” she whispered. “Like, crazy sensitive.”

“Oh really?” I whispered back. “How sensitive?”

“I almost had an orgasm from playing with them, once,” she said, her voice so low I could barely hear her, meaning, only I could hear her.

“Only almost?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t quite get all the way there,” she said, staring into my eyes.

“Challenge accepted,” I said, hooking my pinky finger around hers in a ploy to see if she wanted to hold my hand.

It felt weird, being so nervous and excited just to hold her hand, especially considering I’d just brazenly groped and pinched her breast, but that was wrestling and playful—hot and erotic, yes, but still more playful than anything. This, going for holding her hand, was an attempt to take things between us out of being playful and fun and into more…serious territory, you might say. Some people may call handholding a juvenile move, but there’s something intensely personal and deeply thrilling about it, threading your fingers together. Her palm was cool and small against mine, and it felt great.

“That wasn’t meant to be a challenge,” Tate murmured to me. “But…I wouldn’t mind finding out what it’s like.”

I’d forgotten where we were, that we weren’t alone, until Aerie spoke up. “Damn, kids, you’re not wasting any time, are you?”

Tate sprang away from me, sliding across the bench to the opposite end of the truck. She didn’t tear her eyes off of mine, though, and I saw speculation and desire and lust in those amber-green depths. She also, after a moment of silence, slid back to a more moderate distance from me, buckled her seatbelt, and left her hand on the bench between us, cutting her eyes to mine and then away.

I took that as a signal, and buckled up too, and then casually slid my hand over hers.

Tate twisted her head to watch the forest zipping past out the window, one hand over her mouth, which, I realized, was meant to hide her grin. A moment or two of my hand resting on top of hers, and then she twisted her palm upward and our fingers tangled, and my heart rate thundered through the roof.

Don’t think, though, that because I was so focused on Tate, I missed the fact that Canaan and Aerie were also holding hands, right there on the console between their seats, casually, as if it was nothing.

It was a thing, though. A big thing.

In the years we’d all known each other, growing up, the four of us rarely touched. Not even Canaan and I ever talked about it, but once we hit puberty, we just…never touched the girls, at all. We barely even hugged them, except on special occasions like birthdays. Our relationship was close, intensely close, sharing just about everything in our respective lives, talking about everything, doing everything together, but physical contact wasn’t part of it.

Maybe it was because, instinctively, we knew that touch would change everything.

And, indeed, it had.

A lot.