Page 70 of Twins For My Bestie's Brother

Carina is married to a resort mogul and a ski fiend and does not ski. I guess she’s hot enough not to indulge her husband’s hobbies. I have my judgments, I’ll admit. They’re exactly as I pictured them. The age gap, the expensive taste in everything from fashion to cosmetic procedures, and the clear give and take, to put it lightly.

But they’re both kind people. And in this moment, they’ve proved handy in getting Jackson to listen to me.

I squeeze Jackson’s hand. “I’ll be fine. I’m already feeling better.” True. His face isn’t blurry anymore. So, it’s not a lie.

He sighs and looks to Carina. “If it happens again, you call me.”

Carina has already perched on a small puffy stool beside the chaise, filling two champagne glasses with champagne I’m sure I’d nearly faint at the price of. “Mmhm, we’ll be fine. Have fun you two.”

Jackson gives me a kiss on the forehead before getting up and shuffling out of the lounge in all his layers with Danforth. He gives me a parting look over his shoulder before disappearing out of sight.

“God, he’s obsessed with you, isn’t he?” Carina says before handing me a glass of champagne.

The last thing I want is a headache from sweet champagne. I’ve gotten to that age where drinking is a roll of the dice. I’ll get some water once I . . . get the energy to get back up. “I like to think so.”

“No, heisobsessed with you,” Carina says, flicking back her perfectly waved hair with an overly ornate acrylic nail. “How did you snaghim? The young ones are impossible to settle down.”

I raise an eyebrow. “The young ones.”

Carina giggles. “I take it you don’t run into many of our kind in Michigan.”

I still don’t follow.

She rolls her eyes, though a smile plays upon her cherry red lips. She rubs her forefinger and thumb together.Money.

“Oh. No. I mean, Jackson and I have known each other our whole lives, but—”

“Ugh, no wonder. Billionaires of his age and . . . physiology hardly ever settle down until later,” Carina says before swigging down some of her champagne. She leans in close to me and smiles. “You have to get a ring on your finger ASAP.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that . . . ”

Carina giggles. “You’ve known each other your whole lives. Don’t tell me you think you’d be moving too fast. Besides, when it comes to money, it talks, and it tells us girls, ‘Hurry the hell up!’ I mean, I got Dee to pop the q in four months.”

Dee to pop the q?I have to keep from laughing. “Well, we’re just about to hit month four, so . . . ”

“Perfect timing. We can brainstorm how to lock him down.”

I don’t have the heart to tell her my mind isn’t even close to marriage right now. I’ve got the shop to worry about and surviving this trip too. Marrying Jackson, while absolutely on my to-do list, is not the top priority.

“I mean, you’re both young. Baby shouldn’t be hard,” Carina goes on.

I jerk upright. “Huh?!”

“You know . . . accidental pregnancy never hurt anyone,” Carina says, then hides her smirk behind her champagne glass.

It’s not her suggestion of baby trapping that puts me on edge though.

“I mean, I’m trying to get the ball rolling with Dee, but it’s going to take a bit more work than cycle tracking since his swimmers are getting a little slow, you know?” she says, with a lowered voice, narrowed eyes, and a scrunched nose like we’re somehow old girlfriends that would ever be talking about our partners’ fertility.

Again, though. This is all beside the point. “You said people don’t get altitude sickness here, right?”

Carina rolls her eyes. “We’re only at four thousand feet. That’s like the La Croix of altitude.”

I gnash on my lower lip and pull my phone out of the pocket of my ski bib. Would I feel dizzy if I was . . .

Oh, my God, I’m feeling dizzy again.

“I mean, it can happen!” Carina says, clocking my unease. “But you don’t strike me as someone with a poor constitution. “Besides dizziness could be any number of . . . ”

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