Page 50 of The Brothers Next Door

In my excitement, I didn’t bother to look through the peephole. Opening the door, my breath caught in my throat as I stared at my ex-fiancé, Craig Vance.

“Hello, Layla.”

~*~TT~*~

Nate

“How much longer are we going to do this to ourselves?”

Looking up from my steak dinner, I stared at Darrin a moment before answering. “I don’t know. Until she’s out of our system.”

He laughed. “It’s not going to work.” Swirling his spaghetti on his fork, he brought the fork to his mouth and sucked up the strands of pasta.

“There hasn’t been a woman I’ve never been able to forget.”

“She’s not just some woman,” he pointed out.

He was right. She wasn’t. Normally, I’d be already on the prowl for my next conquest. But not this time. Not with her. Every minute that went by confirmed it. I truly was in love with her.

“That doesn’t change the issue. We’re both in love with the same woman. She won’t choose and neither of us can take her without feeling a lifetime of guilt knowing we had what the other loved and wanted as well.”

“We are at a stalemate.”

“We are.” I cut another piece off my steak, with a little more force than necessary, scratching the plate beneath. Normally, I loved the steak at Tucker’s Point Restaurant, but not tonight. My mind was numb and my dick was sore from the excessive masturbation. A part of me hoped I could masturbate her out of my system. Fucking stupid idea that was. All I got for my troubles was more fantasies of her to draw from and a chafed cock.

“I think we need to take a step back from this—”

“I thought that’s what we were fucking doing?”

Darrin gave me the look he normally gave me when he thought I was being an unreasonable idiot. “I mean, I think we need to rethink sharing her. Come to new terms.”

“Like what.” Sighing, I placed the knife and fork down and sat back in the chair staring at an identical copy of myself—physically, anyhow.

“Like we go to her and give her what she wants. Both of us. We remove the rules. We both love her and we know she loves us. Don’t tell me you can’t feel it when she looks at you. The other night wasn’t intentional and it wasn’t to keep you out, I was grieving and she was there for me.”

“You had no right—”

He held a hand up stopping me, knowing exactly what I was about to say maybe even before I knew it. Though we’d had this exact conversation several times already. “I know I shouldn’t have spoken for you, and I should have discussed my feelings about her with you as soon as they began to develop. But let’s be honest, you didn’t say shit to me either. We were keeping those feelings locked up because we didn’t want to have to get to this point, but we’re here now and we have to deal with it.”

“There’s so much that could cause friction, brother. Who marries her? Who gives her a baby?”

He grinned. “Does it really matter who gives her a kid, since we’re identical twins?”

“Fuck you.” Despite my words, I had to laugh. Picking the knife and fork back up, I cut another piece, this time without cutting into the plate.

“Before Layla, children were the furthest thing from your mind.”

“I know.”

“We’re brothers. Twins. We can make this work, Nate.”

“Maybe.”

~*~TT~*~

Layla

“What in the hell are you doing here? How did you know where I live?”

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