He turned around, his eyes lighting up when he saw her. ‘Well, hello to you, too.’ Then he saw the scar and his face changed, as everyone’s always did. Everyone’s except Justin’s, until now. Unless …
‘You must be Justin’s brother. Sorry. I thought you were him. I’m Anna Prentiss. Vet.’
To his credit, he recovered well. ‘I’m Ben. I gather you know my brother.’
‘We’ve met a couple of times.’ Anna felt herself starting to blush.
‘Well, he hasn’t mentioned you to me. I shall have to speak to him about that.’ The words were kind and flirtatious, but Anna had a feeling Ben flirted with pretty much every woman he met. He had the same handsome face Justin had. The same winning smile and easy manner. But she wasn’t drawn to him as she was to Justin. That might, in part, be because she could see his eyes flicking as he glanced at her face, then looked away. He would hold her eyes for a few seconds, but always he would glance sideways, as if fascinated and horrified at the same time by her scar. It was a reaction she knew only too well. She thought she’d become accustomed to it, but it still hurt. It always would.
‘I guess you two have met.’ Justin appeared from inside the stables and Anna wondered how on earth she could ever have thought Ben was him, even for a second. They were identical twins, faces like two peas in a pod. They were the same height and both had well-toned bodies after years of physical training and fighting fires. But while Ben was handsome, Justin stopped her breath. He carried himself a bit differently, although in what way, she couldn’t say. He held his head at just the right angle. His smile was different, a kind of quirkiness at the corners that sent butterflies flitting through her stomach.
And when he looked at her, he saw her. Not the scar. He had done from the moment they’d met. There were very few people she could say that about.
Ben chuckled. ‘She thought I was you.’
Anna opened her mouth to protest, but what could she say? He was right, up to a point. She could hardly tell Justin that when she saw Ben’s face, she knew exactly who he was, because he didn’t make her feel like Justin made her feel. He didn’t make her long for something she had learned the hard way she could never have.
Any further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Anna and a woman wearing a photographer’s vest and carrying a large camera bag.
‘Everyone, this is Jo, the photographer.’
After introductions, the five of them walked over to the fence to see the twin alpacas. Anna smiled as she saw them. They were a long way from fully grown, but they were special. Twin alpacas were extraordinarily rare. Bringing live twins into the world had been the highlight of her career. So far, at least, although she doubted anything would ever top that.
‘They’re growing well,’ she told Bree.
Bree beamed.
‘They’re even more photogenic than you guys,’ Jo told Justin and Ben. ‘Now, where are we going to do this?’ She set off, taking Bree with her, to explore the surrounding buildings and paddocks.
Ben stepped away to look at something on his mobile, leaving Anna with Justin.
‘So, you thought Ben was me.’
‘No. I didn’t.’
‘It’s all right. I’m teasing. People have been doing it all our lives. It doesn’t matter.’
‘I would never mistake the two of you.’ The words were out before she could stop them.
‘Really?’ His shining eyes teased. ‘What makes you so sure of that?’
Anna reached for something to say. Something other than,You’re the sexy one. Or,He doesn’t make me want to kiss him. Or … ‘You’re really quite different.’
‘That’s something we don’t hear very often. Or ever.’
‘People should look more closely.’
They stood looking at each other and Anna felt drawn to him like iron to a magnet. His eyes held hers and she could no more have looked away than she could have flown to the moon. Although, if he moved any closer, she might do that. No one had looked at her like this in a very long time. Not since that day, when an injured animal had destroyed her face and, with it, all her hopes for the future. She could still feel the tightness of the skin on her cheek: the memory of the pain. And not just the physical pain. But today, it seemed a little less than it had been.
‘So you’re here to protect the alpacas from us.’
Ben’s voice interrupted Anna’s thoughts and she jumped.
‘Yep. It’s only a formality, really. Protection for the RFS and Bree if anything goes wrong.’
‘With two handsome firemen here, what could possibly go wrong?’ Ben grinned. ‘Unless …’ He looked meaningfully from Anna to Justin and back again.
Anna’s face started to colour, but she was spared having to answer as Bree and Jo returned.
