Mina leaned against the doorjamb and tapped on her brother’s door. “It’s me. Can I come in?”

“When have I ever kept you out?”

“A valid point.” Growing up, they’d had connecting bedrooms, and they’d only ever shut the door on rare occasions. And since the idea of sneaking a date in under their strict father’s roof bordered on insane, they’d never been the kind of siblings who’d kept the other out with a ribbon tied on the doorknob or some other symbol.

She edged inside and found him sitting in his recliner with a book in his hand. She sat on the edge of the bed, then wondered what the hell she was doing there, anyway.

“Bored?” he asked as the silence lingered.

“I canceled Jeff,” she said, then added, “My date,” as if that wasn’t obvious. “But now I’m peckish. I keep thinking about those pancakes Cam suggested.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, and even though it was a perfectly tame comment, she had to bite her tongue to keep from asking what he meant by that. Instead, she calmly asked if he wanted to go to Magnolia with her.

Not that she needed a chaperone. She just wanted company. After all, it had been years since she and her brother had been able to simply hang out together. This was a perfect opportunity.

“Pancakes,” he said, shutting his book and looking at her intently. So intently it seemed as though he was looking straight into her mind. Hell, he probably was. Maybe it was a twin thing, but Darryl always had been able to read her.

Which begged the question of why she’d come here in the first place since Darryl was the last person she wanted to know about her lust-filled Cameron thoughts.

“Look, it’s a simple question.” She heard the snappishness in her voice, but couldn’t seem to dial it back. “Do you want to come or not?”

“If you’re looking for company, you know I’ll join you.”

Of course, he would. She exhaled, feeling both ridiculous and guilty. She knew damn well that he was beat and wanted to stay in and chill. She also knew that all she had to do was snap her fingers and he’d do what she asked. Their father, too.

That’s what came of being the sickly second twin. Her father pampered her to make up for not having spawned a perfect pair. And Darryl doted on her because he blamed himself for her rough beginning—as if a twin in utero could be culpable for taking up more than his fair share of their uterine condo and amenities.

And even if he had been intentionally hogging the amniotic fluid, she was fine now. All good. Time to move on.

But that went for her as well as him. If she wanted him to stop babying her, then maybe it was time for her to stop hinting that she needed to be babied.

“You know what? Never mind.”

He settled back in the recliner. “Never mind?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Besides, you should crash soon. Aren’t you having brunch with the judge and the other clerks tomorrow morning?”

“Not until eleven.”

“Still.” She shrugged. “Seriously. I’m good. I’ll just make some toast, then crawl into bed and read.” She flashed a sassy grin. “Just like my big brother.”

As she hoped, he laughed. She gave him a quick hug, said goodnight, then sent her dad a text message wishing him a good night, too. In the seventies, Bruce Silver had founded a local organic grocery store that had grown into a nationwide chain worth millions of dollars. Now, her dad tended to live on the road. Right now, she was pretty sure he was in Portland.

She hesitated, then sent her mom a text, as well. Alicia Silver had moved to Oklahoma right before the twins graduated high school. She’d never gone to college, and when the cost of living in Austin had gotten too high for her, she’d gone to work in her uncle’s feed store outside of Enid. She called Mina every week or so, then listened with rapt attention as Mina told her about the work she did for Griffin and his awesome web series, or about being an intern for The Business Plan at The Fix. Tonight, she texted her mom about her job offer.

The response came back right away—That’s my girl. You’re going to make me proud.

Mina smiled, but it was bittersweet. Never did her mom say that she did make her proud. Just that maybe, in some far off distant time, Alicia would look back at her daughter, nod, and think, that’s it. Now, she’s done it.

And she would, too. Dammit, Mina was going to make Alicia and Darryl and her father proud. She was going to prove that she wasn’t a fragile little thing any more. She was strong, and she was smart. Maybe she wasn’t a lawyer or a corporate big shot, but she was going to make it big.

Hell, yeah, she would.

Inside the guest house, she hesitated by the door. Why shouldn’t she go to Magnolia and have pancakes with Cam? They were friends, weren’t they? And since all she’d had this evening was popcorn and Chinese, she really was hungry.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she grabbed her purse and keys off the small table by the front door, then headed for her car.

It only took a few minutes to get to Magnolia, but as she searched in vain for a parking space, her nerve faded. She told herself she wasn’t nervous about seeing Cam—why on earth would she be?—she was just frustrated by the lack of parking. But, honestly, she should have known better on a Friday night.

Maybe she should blow off pancakes and go to The Fix instead.

After all, if company was what she craved, she’d find it in spades there. And since she knew Cam was elsewhere, it would be a totally distraction-free evening.

She’d get a drink, grab a bite, maybe hang out with Brooke, who Mina had really come to admire. And she wanted to ask Brent how he was doing with finding a babysitter. She knew his regular sitter had quit unexpectedly just yesterday, and she wanted to tell him that she’d help out whenever she could.

The thoughts zipped through her head as she drove downtown, then walked the short distance from the parking lot to The Fix, the Friday night crowd on Sixth Street jostling around her.

The irony was that she’d never been big on babysitting. But her offer wasn’t about Brent or even about his daughter, Faith. It was about the atmosphere at The Fix. She’d known when she begged for the internship that she’d like the television work, but she hadn’t expected how much she’d love sliding in as a regular at the bar. But she did. It felt good there.

Hell, it felt like a home. Like family. A place where she could kick back and completely relax. And tonight, that was exactly what she needed.

Then she tugged open the door, stepped inside, and realized that was bullshit. There’d be no relaxing for her tonight. Not here. Because there was Cam, sitting at the bar and laughing his ass off while Eric poured him a fresh drink, and Matthew Herrington banged his hand on the bar as if to emphasize a punchline.

For a moment, Mina considered just backing out the door. Then she mentally shored up her big girl panties, pushed her way inside, and marched straight toward Cameron.

“Hey, Loser,” she said, giving him a light smack on the shoulder.

“Ow.” He twisted around, his smile widening when he saw it was her. “What was that for?”

Because I can’t get the memory of the way your skin felt against my fingers out of my head.

“Because you’re supposed to be at Magnolia Cafe. Good thing I didn’t go in search of you and a pancake,” she said.

“Pancakes and coffee felt too tame. I decided I needed a drink.” He held up what looked like bourbon and water. “What can I say? I was in the mood to get a little buzzed.”

“Not too buzzed,” Matthew said as he slipped off his stool. “I’ve got you in my book for noon tomorrow.”

“His book?”

“Personal training,” Cam said.

“Tomorrow,” Matthew said, pointing a stern finger at Cam before nodding to Mina and disappearing into the crowd gathered in front of the stage where a local band was about to start another set.

“I’ve seen him around the bar dozens of times,” Mina said. “I never thought to ask what he does.”

“He owns the gym over on Lavaca,” Cam said, pointing roughly toward the west. “I’ve been working with him for a couple of months now.”

“I can tell,” she said, then immediately regretted it when his brows rose.

“Yeah? Guess it’s good to know I’m getting my money’s worth.” He nodded toward Matthew’s recently vacated seat, and she climbed up on the stool, happy to have been invited.

She hesitated for a second, then decided to face the elephant in the room head-on. “If what I touched was any indication, your money is very well spent.”

He looked up, his head slightly cocked and his blue-gray eyes locked on hers. For a moment, time simply froze. Then he reached for his drink and took a long swallow. “What happened to your date?” he finally asked.

She lifted a shoulder. “I canceled. I wasn’t in the mood.”

“And yet here you are.”

She swallowed, her mouth going dry as a shiver rippled up her spine. “Here I am.”

“Are you in the mood for a drink?”

“Yeah,” she said, matching his smile. “I think a drink sounds like a really great idea.”