“No, Lacie. I love you. I always have.” He blew out a breath. “Stupid cunt that she was, Mikaela knew that, at least. She came to me one night after I’d been drinking heavily in yet another attempt to get you out of my mind, at least for a little while.” He smiled sadly. “She was wearing that pink sundress – the one that you always wore. The one that drove me fucking crazy.”
Pink dress? Lacie remembered that dress. It was one of her favorites – a soft checked pink and white gingham of light, airy cotton. It had a long flowing skirt, cinched waist, and a halter top with a low-cut sweetheart neckline. She always felt like such a princess in that dress. And Mikaela had asked to borrow it – the night she was planning on seeing Craig.
Craig dropped down into a chair, putting his head in his hands. “I... I thought she was you.”
What?
“I was.. ah, hell, there’s no other word for it. I was drunk, Lacie. Way past my limit. It was the night you were going out with that tool, Gabe something-or-other.”
Gabe? It took her a few beats to place the name. Given that she didn’t go on that many dates, it shouldn’t have been as hard to remember him as it was. Oh, yeah. Gabe. Not exactly a tool, though he was a bit on the intellectual side. They’d had a nice, pleasant dinner and seen a movie. Apparently he hadn’t felt any sparks either. He never called again. She wasn’t disappointed.
“God, you looked so beautiful. You wore black jeans and strappy little silver sandals that put you up to chin height with me, and that navy silk top that made your eyes sparkle like sapphires. I thought he was the luckiest son of a bitch in the world.”
Navy silk? Did she even have a navy silk top? Corinne did. Maybe she’d borrowed it – Rinn was always trying to dress her up, even back then, chastising her for having the most awful fashion sense. How could Craig remember what she was wearing so clearly? She couldn’t even recall what she wore yesterday.
He paused for a moment, shaking his head. “I made the mistake of telling Brian what I thought about your dating that idiot, and he got all weird. We got into a huge fight, came to blows.” He smiled ruefully. “He kicked my ass. Told me to stay away from you. As if I could. Christ, I wish it could be that easy.”
Now that was news. Yes, Brian had been acting strangely the last time he’d been home on leave, but she’d assumed it had something to do with his first tour overseas. She never would have guessed he and Craig had a falling out. And over her, no less.
The ache in her head increased; it was a lot to take in, especially feeling as lousy as she did. She blinked several times and tried to stay focused while Craig continued.
“So I took my beaten ass home to lick my wounds and grabbed a case of my closest friends to keep me company. And then... there you were...at my door! At least I thought it was you in my fucked-upedness. A vision in that pink dress, your blonde hair clipped up on your head, looking like a fucking angel and smelling like sunshine and flowers. You came to me, took care of me. Cleaned me up and held me. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”
Oh my God. Mikaela! Lacie’d been so flattered when Mikaela said she’d wanted her hair cut and dyed to look like hers. She’d said it would be a blast when they took their annual trip down to the shore, they could tell everyone they were twins.
He exhaled heavily. “But it wasn’t you. It was Mikaela. And the next morning, when I woke up and saw her in the cold light of the morning, I realized that. God, I was so pissed. She’d tricked me, Lacie. Made herself up to look like you, knowing I wouldn’t be able to resist.”
Mikaela knew? Brian knew? How was that possible?
He’s starting to give me the creeps. Have you seen the way he looks at you sometimes? There’s nothing brotherly about it. Corinne’s words from only a few days ago came rushing back into her mind. Was there anyone besides her who didn’t know? Her subconscious laughed at her. Of course she knew. She’d just chosen to hide her head in the sand like an ostrich and ignore it.
It had been so easy to deny those niggling warnings in the back of her mind, especially once Mikaela and Craig hooked up. There it was – definite proof that Craig was nothing more than an affectionate big brother. She could lay all of her fears – the ones she refused to recognize – to rest. But this... this made a mockery of what she realized now had been nothing more than self-effacing rationalizations on her part.
Not all of it was a farce, though. Mikaela had very real feelings for Craig, Lacie was sure of that. She was forever talking about him, trying to find some way of gaining his attention. “She loved you.”
“Yes,” he admitted heavily. “At first, anyway. I think after a while she began to realize I could never feel the same way about her. That realization was probably what drove her to do something so monumentally stupid.”
Cold, icy dread trickled down the back of her neck, momentarily overpowering the horrible ache. In her mind, she was running around, closing all the doors and windows as if a storm was coming, not wanting to hear what came next. The communication link between her brain and her mouth was still lagging behind, though, and the words came out before she could stop them.