Cabs had been scooting through the circular entrance of the hotel all night, though most of them were leaving with guests headed for the airport, thanks to the tropical storm still making its way in this direction. No one working at the hotel seemed too concerned about it, and growing up in Miami, I had enough experience with hurricanes to not let the possibility of a tropical storm get to me. However, it was obvious plenty of other vacationers weren’t so copacetic with the weather forecast.
When a cab pulled up with someone in the backseat, I knew it was him. It was that twin sense, I guessed, the one that came from sharing a womb for nine months and every milestone in life since.
Jacob was here.
He was my brother, and I loved him, and I wanted him to have a good and happy life—I really did—but right then, seeing him crawl out of that cab, his gaze falling on the same woman I’d been staring at for the past hour . . . I kind of wanted to beat his ass right there on the sidewalk.
After paying the cabbie, he slung a small duffel bag over his shoulder and started up the stairs toward the lobby. He wasn’t staggering, but he was moving just slowly enough to give away that he’d been drinking. When he swayed as he reached the landing, I guessed he’d drank enough to be considered drunk by driving standards, but barely buzzed by Jacob’s.
When he moved through the sliding glass doors, he took a moment to scan the lobby like he didn’t have a fucking clue where she was. When he damn well did. The blood in my veins heated again. Jacob had been doing that to Cora forever, acting like he wasn’t as under her spell as I knew he was. Like he didn’t have a clue where she was at a party or what she was doing or who she was talking to. He did. He always did, but he didn’t want her to know it. He didn’t want her to know just how much he felt for her.
So, there. I guess there was one way my brother and I were alike—in our apprehension to make our true feelings known for the same woman.
Cora noticed him right away, rising out of her chair so quickly, it scooted back a few inches. She didn’t know what to do with her hands, and if she didn’t stop twisting them together, he would know something was wrong.
Like she’d had the same thought I had, her hands fell to her sides and she calmed her body. She opened her mouth, probably calling his name, before moving toward where he was still standing at the front doors, looking around like a dipshit.
He turned toward her after that, but I couldn’t make out the look on his face. They were some distance away and turned to the side, so I couldn’t tell if that was a smile or a frown on his face. With Cora, I could tell. She was smiling. At least the contrived version. She was nervous, and she had every right to be. The man she’d promised to marry had shown up on the same island where she and the twin she’d accidently married had spent the last twenty-four hours.
No wonder Jacob had sounded so anxious earlier. He had every right to be, although I knew Cora would do everything she could to convince him nothing had happened. Other than, you know, her and I exchanging vows and posing as husband and wife in front of hundreds of his friends and colleagues. That was enough to send Jacob through the roof without finding out about what else had happened.
Jacob started toward her, both of them moving toward each other until only a few steps separated them. They both rolled to a stop, Cora being the first to freeze. That, I hadn’t been expecting. I’d imagined her throwing herself into his arms, listing off a litany of apologies, then the two of them would go ride off into the gray and stormy sunset.
Not quite.
Jacob stood there, waiting for a moment, then he said something. I couldn’t read lips, and I couldn’t begin to imagine what my brother would think to say to the woman he’d pretty much left at the altar when he saw her for the first time.
Why was Cora looking like the only guilty one when Jacob had a shitload more guilt than she ever could?
He said something else, his arms going out at his sides. She was quiet, listening to him speak. He wasn’t yelling, like I’d expected. That might have been part of the reason I was hanging where I was, in case I needed to intervene if he flew off the cuff like Jacob had been known to do. I’d had to tear him off a guy at a college party once when he’d caught him checking out Cora’s ass. He’d practically turned the guy’s face into a science experiment, only to find out later that the guy was gay. If he had been looking in Cora’s ass’s general direction, he’d probably been coveting her designer jeans.
If Jacob found out what his own brother had done with Cora, he’d probably try to kill me. Which, at this present moment, I was good with. I wanted to kill myself for the way I’d let things get out of control.
Jacob kept talking, his hands and arms moving in sync with whatever he was saying. The whole time, Cora stayed still and quiet, listening. When he finished, he shrugged. Had he just told her why he’d missed the wedding? Had he just admitted what he’d been doing and who he’d been doing it with? From the way Cora was still standing there, I didn’t think so, but what else could he have said that took five minutes to get out?
After a moment, he opened his arms and waited. Cora didn’t go into them instantly, the way I’d seen her do before. She waited, staring at him like she was debating her next move. What was she thinking? What was going through her mind? Was I anywhere in there? Was I any part of the reason for her standing her ground when Jacob wanted her to come to him?
A moment later, I had my answer. She went from frozen to flying, practically throwing herself against him as she tucked her head below his and wound her arms behind him. Jacob’s arms came around her, his lips dropping to her head. He was touching her, kissing her. His hands were touching the same places I had earlier. His lips were brushing the same places mine had.
God, my jealousy was a living, breathing thing right then. I’d felt no shortage of it in my life—we’d been on a first-name basis for a while—but I’d never felt it like this. Like it was alive and capable of consuming me if I let it.
Why was I still sitting there? Why was I watching this happen?
Enough, Matt. Fucking enough.
Shoving up from the sidewalk, I glanced around, lost for what to do next, where to go. My whole life felt like it was gone, eradicated in a twenty-four hour period. Before I could move, I watched my brother’s mouth lower to her ear and whisper something that made her nod. Then he guided her out of the lobby, toward the row of elevators. I didn’t leave until I watched the up button light up. I didn’t leave until I watched them climb onto the next elevator that opened for them. I didn’t leave until I watched the woman I loved head up to her room with my twin brother.
The damn story of my life.
Me waiting and watching while she left with him. Me loving her every second of every day while she gave her love to him. Me willing to give anything I had for her when she didn’t want anything from me.
I needed to get off this island. Tonight. Even if it meant buying a boat and rowing my ass back to the mainland, I was leaving. I couldn’t stay. I’d finally accepted that Cora would never choose me.