Page 16 of Valentine Dare

“It’s funny you say that I’m direct. Trent tends to say that I have no tact. Mom says that it’s the start of me making a good lawyer.”

“You want to be a lawyer too?”

“Yeah, I want to be badass like mom. Dad was too, but I’ve seen mom in court. She takes no prisoners.”

She agreed. “Yeah, I saw her up against Dad’s lawyer, Russell, the other day, and she was like that.”

I was just about to ask if she wanted a sandwich as we talked, and I finished making mine, when the name she’d just said rang a bell.

“Russell?”

“Yeah,” she said and then she stood up, getting ready to leave.

“Oh that a-hole, excuse my French. Mom says that they’re always in the courtroom together. He’d the typical lawyer that tries to get the rich off for doing everything they get caught doing. She’s beaten him a few times. The problem is that he’s done the same to her.”

She sighed as she put her hands on the stool.

“I can imagine. I could tell they knew each other, but I didn’t realize they knew each other well.”

“You want one?”

She giggled. “I must admit, I wasn’t hungry, but watching you make that sandwich, well, it did wake up my taste buds.”

“If you think it looks good, then wait till you taste it.”

I turned, and everything I’d put in the fridge I took back out again, from the mustard to the homemade bread that Prent made - he’s the cook of the family.

“Prent made the bread. You can give him your take on it in the morning.”

“No way!”

“Yeah, he’s pretty good. I’ve had a few dates, and they always want to come back for the one dish I can make well. There’s only one. I’m not that much of a hand in the kitchen.”

She propped back on the stool, as if she was intrigued by my revelation.

“But you all look different and even wear your hair differently.”

I shrugged. “Now, but not all the time.”

She giggled. “You guys ever swapped girlfriends at some point? I mean, pretended that you were another brother.”

I confessed. “Well, when I had my dates over, he would cook. Start the conversation, take the glory and when it came to dessert I would take over.”

“The dates never knew? They never noticed?”

I tried to think back. “Only one time. She did say that I smelled differently when I came back in.”

“Ah, she caught you.”

I passed the plate with the sandwich. Jenny bit into it without hesitation and then hummed as she took another bite, then another.

“This really is so good. The bread is soft, even though it’s cold, and the texture, hmmm. Prent is really talented.”

I changed the subject, thinking to get back to the topic at hand. “I suppose she did. It did freak me out. I mean, who the hell knows what their date smells like?”

She put her hand up.

“Guilty.”

“Really? We even use the same aftershave. Well, we do most of the time.”

“Yeah, but a scent is a scent.”

I lifted my arm up, silly I know, and between each bite said, “Wish I knew what I smelled like.”

She laughed. “I’m surprised you just did it on dates. Nothing else. I always think of triplets tricking people and pretending to be another brother.”

I shook my head, “Nah, we’re not jerks. We would never do that. If we did have a girl, we would want her to know who is who. Only unless it came to cooking, nothing else. There has to be a line.”

It was as if she’d put a thought in my head. No more were we talking, but the room filled with silence as we ate. I was lost in the idea of us sharing one girl and letting her know we were three brothers. Jenny, on the other hand, was no longer sad like she’d been when I came home. If anything, she had a smile on her face as if she’d had an idea, and it was a very dirty one.

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