Page 25 of Finding Their Place

“Gotta shit.”

“Ew!” She leaned away and backhanded me again. “TMI. Seriously.”

Maybe, but it got her off me so I could hop up and escape before I sported a boner I couldn’t reason away since the TV’s screen sat black and silent and there were no men around to blame.

Shit, showered, shaved, and balls emptied, I closed myself in my bedroom on a mission—find a reason to escape our apartment that night.

Fuck knew I couldn’t deal with jealousy over Wyatt touching the body I longed to love on more than I wanted another dick.

9

Wyatt

I’d woken up Sunday morning with butterflies like I was in middle school again and crushing on a girl for the first time.

Was it possible to be smitten with someone after only two conversations? Sure she had some issues in her life, unresolved shit, but who didn’t? It was like a part of her reached out through cyberspace and through the phone line, snagging hold of my heart. I wanted to clasp her hand tightly in mind. Give her the support she needed while facing down her demons.

Haley had managed to make my head spin internally, and I couldn’t keep from getting my hopes up that we had serious potential. While leaning against my kitchen counter drinking my first cup of coffee, I opened the app to stare at her picture again.

A little red heart in the app’s notifications let me know Missing Link had found me another match. Since there was nothing wrong with having a backup plan, I decided to just click on the profile and take a peek.

I choked on my coffee as the woman’s picture showed on screen.

“The fuck?” I set my mug aside and zoomed in closer at the smiling dark-haired woman with blue eyes. “What the actual fuck?” I burst out again, my tone high like someone had squeezed my balls.

She was me—but with longer hair.

The same cowlick I had swept hers to the side. An identical dimple on one cheek. Her slightly off-center nose and the arched upper lip, fuller than the lower…

I rubbed my eyes, sure they played tricks on me.

A mirror image of me still smiled when I opened them again. Zooming in revealed the same golden ring around our pupils—and the tiny mole at the corner of an eye.

Scrubbing a hand over my mouth and scruffy jaw, I considered the implications. While I’d heard the myth every person had a twin on the earth, our similarities were…uncanny. Like we’d been cut from the same cloth…

I poked to open the lines of communication between us, because what other choice did I have? The green circle above her name let me know she was scrolling the app—and she poked back within seconds, a message popping up immediately afterward.

@RiverAngel: Rowan?!?

Wyatt, I replied, my forehead dented. Who’s Rowan, and why the fuck do I feel like I looked into a mirror when I checked out your profile pic?

@RiverAngel: Shit. I can’t believe this. Okay…so…were you adopted by any chance?

A fucking elephant sat on my chest as my mind raced. Mom and Dad were both fair-haired, one with dark eyes, one with hazel—but I’d never questioned the fact that I was their opposite looks-wise. I’d never been anything but their son, no question from friends or other family members, since half of Dad’s relatives tended toward dark hair like mine.

My hands shook as I struggled to reply. Not that I’m aware of, but I’ll be honest—I look nothing like my parents.

“Fuck.” I rubbed at my scruff again, curses spilling from me. Mom and Dad hadn’t called me anything but son, hadn’t suggested a single time that we didn’t share blood.

But as my heart thumped, I realized they might have lied to me. I freakishly towered over everyone in my small-statured family. Not a single aunt, uncle, or cousin had blue eyes either.

I hit the video option for the woman who’d opened up my mind to what I’d never given too much thought before.

“Answer…please fucking answer.” I whispered, hoping and dreading she did.

The call went through, and I sank to the floor, my cell clutched in my hands. There was no denying the woman on my screen could be my identical twin was as her eyes filled with tears.

“My brother and I were in the system and separated when we were two,” she stated in greeting, the words barely escaped her trembling lips.

---