Page 4 of Dopplebanger

I tilted my head and took him in, from the blue eyes trained on me to that jaw I occasionally dreamed about, and then I got a wee bit lost in the undone buttons on his dark green shirt before returning my attention to his expression. Still amused, but something else was in the mix as well. “You seem different this morning.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m kinda hungover, to be honest. Partied it up a little too much last night.”

“Sounds like you,” I said, then immediately realized that didn’t sound very nice. He simply laughed, though, and when he aimed his grin at me, it kicked me right in the gut and made my heart beat out an erratic rhythm. “Sorry. I mean?—”

“Hey, don’t apologize. The great thing about being me is I don’t have any worries. I just live it up and go with the flow.”The way his fingers traced the lid, pressing and securing it on the rim, were at odds with his words and his usual quick, almost careless actions. Then he wrapped those long fingers around his cup—had I checked out his fingers before? If not, that was totally my bad, because there was something sexy about them, and I suddenly wanted them on me.

Whoa. This is… I don’t know what this is, but I want more.

As a chronic overanalyzer and overplanner, one of the first things that drew me to Evan was his carefree spirit and the fact that he seemed so unfazed when things totally went wrong. He was one of those life-of-the-party-guys, and he always had fun, no matter where we were. “Sometimes I wish I could go with the flow and live it up a bit more. It’d be nice if my brain would just, like, take a vacation once in a while.”

“That all-expenses-paid brain-vacation can be yours if you drink enough alcohol. But then you end up making dumb decisions, and the next morning you have to deal with what your brainless self did. While hungover, nonetheless.”

“Hmm. Maybe don’t put that in the brochure if you’re trying to sell it. And ‘all-expenses-paid’ is sorta misleading, because last I checked, alcohol costs money.”

One corner of his mouth twisted up, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen that particular smile before. Speaking of vacations, I kind of wanted to stay in the curve of his lips and live in this moment for a while. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, but it only added to the cute, disheveled look he had going on.

After another beat or two, I felt like I was taking the staring into the creepy-long range, so I bit off some of my muffin, and a moan slipped out.

Evan’s mouth hung open a few inches, and he was gaping at me, eyebrows raised, like he’d never seen anyone enjoy a muffin quite that much before. In my defense, chocolate had been mymain coping mechanism for a while, and Sacred Grounds took baked goods to the next level.

I tried to cover by taking a sip of my coffee. “The muffins are extra yummy this morning. Are you not hungry? Isn’t fatty food supposed to be good for a hangover?”

“Good point.” He lifted his muffin and took a miniscule bite.“Mmm.”He set the pastry aside, then shifted forward in his seat. “Gwen, I need to tell you something…”

It’s too bad I’ve decided we’re not destined to have an epic love story. He’s almost too good-looking to stare directly at. Like the sun.

“Isn’t it weird that looking at something that’s in the sky for most of our waking hours could burn your corneas right out of your head?” I risked a half glance, below where the sun would be but high enough to have to squint against the bright light. “It seems like something that dangerous should be… well,nothanging in the sky all the time. It’s like if I had a peanut plant in my apartment and occasionally inhaled really deeply as I brushed by it so I could see how many hives I could get.”

Crap. I just totally plowed right over what he was going to say. Why are my thoughts spinning so fast today?

“Sorry.” I placed my hand over his and turned my full attention on him, which wasn’t exactly a hardship. “You were saying…?”

THREE

I stared at her hand on mine for way too long. It wasn’t just the way her soft skin warmed mine, but how it’d ignited a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time.

When I’d woken up to find a Post-it note from Evan, reminding me of the time and location of this meeting, I knew I had to shut this whole thing down. I’d clean up yet another one of his messes—the last, I vowed—but not in the way he’d dictated. It was supposed to be quick and easy. Just tell her that I wasn’t Evan, and then explain she deserved a lot better than my brother. He was obviously stupid if he didn’t realize this girl was a catch.

But her mouth was off and running before I could make sure it was her. The more she said, the more I wanted her to talk. As I’d accidentally mumbled, I got why Evan had called her a sexy, redheaded hurricane of energy and brains. One minute she was spouting off advice on how to sell people on brain-vacations, and the next she was talking about the sun and a peanut plant.

The dots connected, my brain taking a few extra seconds in its sloggy state. “Wait. You’re allergic to peanuts? But peanut butter is amazing and pretty much my favorite food ever.”

She scrunched up her forehead. “Yeah. Remember how we couldn’t eat at that Chinese restaurant near the harbor because they use peanuts in a lot of their dishes and eating there might make me go into anaphylactic shock?”

“Right.” I took another gulp of coffee. “The hangover is making my thoughts… not so great.” For example, I’d just said that sentence. The truth was, the hand she still had on mine was messing with me. Along with her energy and the way her mind worked, andholy shit, she was pretty. Her long red waves gleamed in the sunshine, she had these full lips that my lips wanted to explore, and every time she smiled, two dimples popped in her cheeks.

Don’t even get me started about the way she’d moaned when she’d bit into her muffin. I’d neglected my personal life the past year or so as I’d worked to ensure my desired career path, and it’d been a while since… well, since I’d been this close to a girl this hot.

“It’s also making your voice sound a little different, I think. Rougher, maybe?” Her eyes went to the top of my head, and I froze in place, as if moving might make the truth of who I was show up in one of those thought bubbles. “Did you do something different with your hair?”

“Sure,” I said, not because it was a good response but the first thing that popped into my head as a possible answer.

That earned me the smile with dimples. “Are you positive you’re not still drunk?”

I nodded, although at this moment, I felt pretty damn buzzed.

She leaned across the table and pushed her fingers into my hair, and I forgot how to breathe. Tingles erupted as her fingernails dragged over my scalp, and I wanted to grab her wrist, haul her over the tiny table, and kiss the hell out of her. “Itlooks like it grew a couple of inches in the past few days. How is that even possible?”

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