Shortly after Zander came back from the kitchen, he told me that it was time to leave. I didn't mind, really. His sister had tried to drag me into a conversation and she wanted to know all sorts of things about modeling and whether I'd ever thought about being an underwear model (no). I'd enjoyed some wine with my dinner as well, but she'd definitely had a bit too much.

Even her boyfriend was keeping his distance. Poor guy.

When Zander came to get me, my relief must have been obvious on my face.

“You don't have to look that happy to get away from my family,” he said grabbing our coats. “Not that I can blame you.”

I took my coat from him and put it on. “I'm sorry, but I'm glad that this night is over.”

“At least it went over well.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I opened the front door and stepped outside to a gust of wind. Ugh, Maine weather. But then I looked up and stopped.

“Is something wrong?”

I took another step forward and turned to beam at Zander. “It's snowing!”

“Uh-huh.” Zander closed the front door behind him. The porch light came on and illuminated the questioning frown on his face. Well, he'd never left Maine. No way could he understand my excitement at snow.

“Try living in LA for a while. You'll be excited about snow then!” Walking off the porch, I raised my arms to the sky as the white flakes danced around me.

“Aren't you getting cold?”

“It's fine! Come join me!”

The house was at the end of the road, but there was a small footpath that led into the woods. We used to play here all the time when we were young. In my excitement, I grabbed Zander's hand and dragged him toward the trees with me.

“Where are we going?”

“Just for a walk, come on! It's beautiful.” And it was. The air was cold, but Zander's hand was warm in mine and the moon shone nearly full in the night sky above us. “There's so many stars out here. I miss the stars when I'm in LA.”

“Are the stars the only thing you miss?”

“Aw, don't be jealous.” I turned to Zander. “I'm sure I'll miss you too when I go back this time.”

An unspoken emotion passed over Zander's face. It was gone before I could decipher it. Suddenly I couldn't help but think of the way he'd kissed me during dinner. But that hadn't been real, had it? This whole evening, everything was fake. I couldn't read anything into it, even if it had been... exhilarating.

For a book nerd, Zander was a damn good kisser. All soft and firm at the same time, with just a little tongue, just enough to make me want more—which was odd because I'd never wanted more before.

Things were different with Zander, though. Maybe he'd learned something from all those romance novels he'd read. Maybe I should read some too. Starting perhaps with the one Zander had given me.

For now, though, I needed to stop thinking. Thankfully, I had a snow-covered forestscape to distract me. It must have been snowing for a while already. Zander and I left footprints in the white, powdery stuff as I led him along the path with me. Genius that he was, Zander had turned on the flashlight app on his phone so we could see where we were going.

“Remember when we used to come here to play?” I asked because my friend had grown even more quiet than usual.

“I remember how you tried to roll down a hill and almost broke your neck.”

“The key word being almost,” I pointed out. “I knew exactly what I was doing.”

“I'm sure.”

“C'mon,” I squeezed Zander's hand. “Sometimes you just gotta live a little.” Letting go, I ran toward a small clearing and let myself fall on my back into the snowy grass.

“What are you doing?”

“Having fun! Watch this!” As I spoke, I moved my arms and legs up and down, feeling only the littlest bit silly. Laughter bubbled up in me at the way Zander was just staring at me, absolutely transfixed. I got up again. “Don't look at me like that. It's a snow angel, you dummy. Did you forget how to make those?”

He shined the flashlight on the figure I'd made in the snow.

“Believe me now?” I asked walking to him and peering over his shoulder at the angel.

A disbelieving chuckle escaped Zander.

“Hah, I got you. You laughed.”

“Okay, you win.” Zander moved the flashlight away from the angel and pointed it at me instead. Then he reached out and brushed the snow out of my hair. “You must be cold.”

“It's not so bad,” I lied. I'd forgotten all about the cold while rushing into the woods, but my coat was starting to soak through. It wasn’t made for this kind of weather.

Zander shook his head, and without another word, he took his coat off and draped it over my shoulders. When I opened my mouth to protest, he laid a finger over my lips. “I'm way better adjusted to this weather than you are. Let's just head back to the car now.”

That last part I could agree with. Maybe if the snow kept up, Mary and I could build a snowman tomorrow. For now, I wanted to get inside somewhere, even though I didn't really feel cold anymore. Not when Zander was acting so warmly. Almost as if we were a real couple. Didn't he know that he didn't have to do that? No one could see us out here.

If he did it because he wanted to, what did that mean?

“You're being oddly quiet,” Zander noted when we were nearly back to the car.

“Just wondering if your parents bought our story,” I lied.

“We were being pretty convincing, I think.”

“Yeah, that kiss was a nice touch,” I agreed.

Nearly convinced me too.

“Let's hope our visit to your brother's community goes just as smoothly.”

“Heh, yeah. Did you know my brother immediately believed me when I told him about us?” We'd reached the car now and I was looking at Zander over the roof of it.

“Just like that?”

“Well, he was a little skeptical at first when I said I was getting married, but when I told him it was to you, he didn't have any more questions.” I wasn't sure why I was telling Zander this or how I wanted him to respond. I wasn't sure of much at all, but I needed to see his reaction.

It was difficult to make out Zander's features in the dark, but I thought I saw a look of surprise flit over his face before he opened the car door and got inside. “Oh?”

“My siblings had some sort of bet going, you see?” I said, climbing into the car as well. “About whether or not we were gonna get married someday. Kind of makes me mad.”

“The thought of us marrying makes you mad?”

“No.” I rubbed my hands, trying to shake the cold. “I'm only mad that they were running this bet behind our backs.” Surprisingly, I wasn't mad about the bet's content so much. I didn't know what to think about that.

My twin thought I was going to marry Zander. That didn't mean anything, though. After all, I could never have predicted Rhys' marriage either. He stood no better chance at predicting mine.

* * *

When Zander dropped me off at my cousin's place that night, I expected to find the family passed out on the couch in a blissful food coma. As I walked into the living room, though, I spotted only Shane, with Mary sleeping on the couch beside him and Hope passed out in his arms. At the foot of the leather furniture, I saw the dog, as dead to the world as the children, but no sign of Kade, Conner, or any of the guests they'd had over for the night.

“Where is everyone?” I asked Shane, who looked up at me as I came in.

“Everyone?” He yawned. “Kade and Conner are upstairs. Everyone else left.”

I glanced at the clock. Zander and I had left his parents' place pretty early, so even though we'd taken a stroll in the woods, it wasn't too late yet. I'd expected to see my brother Dean still here, at least.

Shane gave me a half-shrug. “Conner threw a bit of a tantrum and people decided it might be good to call it a night.”

A tantrum? Conner? My disbelief must have been clear on my face, because Shane elaborated.

“Griff had some news for us.” He grinned. “Dean and he are expecting another baby.” Shane let his head fall back into the leather of the couch and stroked his daughter's fine hair with his thumb. “This family is getting bigger all the time.”

“Oh, that's... great.” I tried to work up some enthusiasm.

“Anyway, for some reason, my son decided that he had to be rude about it.”

“What did he do?” I asked, but at that point Mary stirred next to Shane and distracted him.

“Hey there, sleepy-head. Time to head upstairs into your real bed.”

Mary shook her head. “The couch is comfy!”

The two were still squabbling while I left the living room. Voices were coming from upstairs--Kade and Conner, no doubt. When I reached the second floor, I saw Kade come out of Conner's room.

“Go away! You're not my daddy!” Conner yelled before slamming the door shut.

Ouch.

I cringed on my friend's behalf, but he seemed surprisingly unflustered. Glancing at me, he shrugged in a what can you do? sort of manner.

“What's going on?” I asked.

He gave me a pained smile. “I guess even Conner acts like a child sometimes.”

“I can hear you!” It came from Conner's bedroom.

“What?” Kade shot back. “Suddenly you wanna listen?”

I suppressed a laugh.

“C'mon.” Kade gestured me to follow him. “I hope your evening went better than mine.”

“Marginally, I guess,” I replied as Kade led me to the guest room, where we could talk without any eleven-year-olds listening in. “You go first. What did Conner do?”

“I guess I might as well start.” Kade flopped on the bed and I sat beside him. “It's not easy being a parent, you know? Especially when you're not actually the parent. Conner and I get along most of the time, but there's days I swear I want to shake him. I'm sure he feels the same way about me.” He laughed a little to take the edge out of that statement.

“Don't you feel the same way about the kid you gave birth to, though?” I asked, remembering some of the conversations we'd had.

“You're right about that.” Kade let himself fall back on his bed. “Hope threw all her carrots on me just yesterday. I guess it's not so different after all.”

“What happened tonight? Is Griff really pregnant again?”

“Seems that way.” Kade's eyes lit up. “He looks so happy too! Both of them do. I'm kind of glad you made me sing at their wedding. They're such good people.”

I boxed his arm. “You're glad because you got to know Shane that way.”

“Well, maybe that too.” He grinned. “So anyway, Griff makes his big announcement and what do you know? Next Conner walks up to him and goes all isn't that hurting your career? Basically, asking Griff if he really wanted to get pregnant. You could have sliced the air with a knife after that, it was so thick.”

“Ouch. I can just picture it.”

“Yeah, so I tried to tell him that he can't go around saying things like that.”

I nodded. “I guess he didn't take it too well.”

“Nope, he's on his way to becoming a teenager.”

“Joy.”

Kade chuckled. “Yeah, I agree with you there. But really, I don't think Griff's announcement is what's making him so cranky. He was in a bad mood all day and I can guess why.”

“Yeah? Why's that then?” I leaned back on the bed, wondering if Conner's mood might get even worse if he knew that the owner of his favorite bookstore kissed me earlier. Or how much I'd enjoyed it.

“He and Jake barely spoke at all during dinner.”

Oh. Jake was his best friend, wasn't he? The alpha? That explained his rotten mood then. “They're fighting?”

“Looks like it.” Kade sat up straight again. “Honestly there's been some tension ever since Jake became popular at their new school. You know Conner isn't exactly running with the cool kids.” He sighed.

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“I hope they make up.”

“I'm sure they will. I fought with all of my friends too, growing up.” One time, I had taken Zander's book and thrown it into a lake. I couldn't remember now why I'd done that. All I remembered was that Zander hadn't spoken to me for a week. In those days, that felt like a lifetime. We made up in the end, though. We always did.

Until I moved, anyway.

Kade nudged my shoulder, pulling me out of my reverie. “So how did your evening go? Did they buy it?”

“Oh, I think they did. Let me tell you, the way he kissed me was very convincing.”

“So he kissed you.”

“Not like it was the first time,” I waved Kade off, trying to make the whole thing appear like it was no big deal, even when it was. Not the fact that he'd kissed me, no, that was sort of expected, considering the whole fake relationship thing. Just the way it made me feel—and I had no idea how to tell my friend or what to make of it.

Kade must have seen something in my eyes, though. “You liked it, didn't you?” He tried to contain himself, but I could see him celebrating on the inside.

“Don't get ahead of yourself,” I warned him. “Just because I like it when he kisses me doesn't have to mean anything.”

“Oh, but what if it does?” Kade grinned as if he already knew the answer.

What if it did? That didn't change anything about my situation. I didn't know how to have a relationship. I sure as hell didn't know how to have a long-distance relationship.

Worse than that, I didn't know if this was anything more than show to Zander.