Page 6 of Truck Off

It’s an innocent enough mistake. And one that makes her behavior toward me make so much more sense.

Here I thought it was my lucky day. No matter how much I wished she’d look my way, Lina Lange has never paid attention to me. Her eye has always been on Christian.

I can’t help but wonder if she would have said something to Tanner if I had looked more like myself. Christian and I are identical twins. Even with the differences in how we dress, most people struggle to tell us apart. The easiest differentiation is the fact that he never smiles, and I always smile.

I may not be dressed like me, but I sure as hell am acting like me. I’ve smiled and winked at her more than once. Christian would never do either of those things. Not even to his girl.

I run my fingers through my hair, smoothing back the messy locks. I know I should correct her. It’s not like I intentionally set out to deceive her or anyone else when I borrowed Christian’s jacket and bike to run to town.

We’re doing construction work to convert the large room above the stables to a private apartment for me. His bike was parked right outside, whereas my truck was in the garage. Borrowing his bike was convenient. Nothing more.

When I meet her gaze, she must sense something’s off because she takes a step back. “Is everything okay?”

I hesitate for a moment, internally yelling at myself to tell her the truth. Instead, I say, “Yeah, everything’s great.” I give her another one of my big, charming smiles. “I just landed a date with a beautiful woman. Why wouldn’t I be great?”

She gives me a nervous shrug. “Maybe because you’re acting weird now, like maybe you regret asking me.”

I take a step closer to her and drop my voice to a whisper. “No regrets. Friday can’t come fast enough. In fact, that might be too long. Maybe we should move the date up.”

She sucks in a breath, and I fight the tug of a smile that pulls at my lips. She may think I’m Christian, but her physical reaction is to me.

“I can’t.” Her response comes out breathy and needy. “I work every night this week. Friday is my only day off.”

“Damn.” I glance toward the counter where Tanner is distracted by waiting on someone. Feeling daring and so unlike myself, I reach for another Snickers bar and slide it into my pocket. “I guess I have no choice but to wait.”

Her jaw drops, but I see the hint of the smile she’s trying to hide. “You’re such a bad boy,” she whispers.

“You know it.” I waggle my brows and move to walk past her. “Gotta buy some beer. Meet me outside?”

I feel her eyes on me as I walk toward the beer cooler and grab a couple of cases of Bud. Knowing my brothers, they’re getting impatient that I haven’t returned yet with lunch.

In exchange for their help, I offered all the pizza and beer they could drink. They would have helped me regardless. That’s the kind of family we are, but I like to give back to my brothers.

By the time I turn around, Lina has moved to the cooler on the opposite wall. She’s grabbing herself a root beer and one of the iced coffee drinks.

I use this opportunity to get a better look at her.

Lina Lange is hands down the most beautiful woman to ever come out of this small town. She’s got an exotic beauty that makes her look a little out of place in Beaver, Ohio. Her long black hair and darker skin tone are the opposite of the rest of us from mostly German descent.

I never met her mom before she skipped town, but rumor has it she’s part Native American and was quite the looker. It’s also where everyone says Lina gets her looks.

She’s taller than the average woman, with long legs, curvy hips, a round ass, and tits to die for. I can’t stop picturing my hands wrapped around them. They’re so full they would spill out between my fingers when I squeezed them.

Feeling a twitch in my dick, I pull my eyes away from her before it turns into a full-fledged erection. I don’t need that level of embarrassment.

Avoiding any more small talk with Tanner, I pay for my beer and head toward Christian’s bike. I already picked up the pizza and strapped it to the back seat. I stuff the beer in the storage compartment on the bike. It barely fits and I can’t get it closed, but it’ll be fine for the short drive home.

Lina still hasn’t exited Kochs, so I head toward her car to wait for her.

Despite my nerves and heightened anxiety over the mistake in my identity, I maintain a calm demeanor. I’ll figure out how to tell her the truth about who I really am. I just don’t want to lose the chance to take her out.

If I tell her now, would she back out of the date? I’ve been waiting for a chance to take her out for so long and I’d hate to lose that chance before I got to see it through.

But then how pissed will she be if I wait until we’re out on the date before I tell her? Would she storm out of the restaurant and vow to never speak to me again? That would suck. Probably be worse than telling her now and having her back out.

But what if she doesn’t get that mad? Maybe she’d be fine with the misunderstanding once she sees how much fun we have together. And I would definitely make sure we had fun.

I scrub my hands over my face. Both scenarios sound shitty and could potentially end badly for me. I should have corrected the mistake the moment she said Christian’s name. At this point, I’m going to look like an ass regardless of when I tell her.

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