Hopefully nothing had happened back home. She mindfully breezed through the possibilities. Dad was in good health, Mom too. There was Jeanie, Craig, hopefully the boys were okay. She considered Duke’s side too, praying all was good with his family as well.
“Sorry to bother you, Kat,” Marsha said once Jamal killed the engine. She made her way out while he tied up the boat. “I’ve got to let you in on a new…development.”
Randall clung onto the collar of his life vest in a far corner of the boat, his eyes fixed on Jamal, who was still tying up the boat.
“Is Duke inside?” Marsha asked.
“Yes,” Kat said, moving to lead the way. But the woman put out a hand to stay her. “I’ll go speak to him. You stay out here and talk to Randall.” Marsha threw a look at the co-producer over her shoulder. “It’s safe now,” she assured. “Come on.”
Kat glanced back at Randall before turning her gaze back to Marsha. Why did she want them to be separated for the conversation? It didn’t make any sense.
“Is everything okay back at home?” she hollered to Marsha.
“Yep,” she piped without looking back. “Your families are fine.” Marsha was halfway to the beach house now. “Duke?” she called again.
Kat watched Duke hurry onto the patio. He was quick to look from Marsha over to her. A furrow creased his brow. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” she heard Marsha say. “Let’s go inside.”
Why did Kat have to be the one to talk to Randall? He’d take forever to spit out the details. Meanwhile, Duke was probably already hearing the gist of what they faced. Which was what, exactly?
Jamal offered Randall his hand and escorted the nervous man onto the dock.
Her anxious thoughts became sharp grains of sand, threatening to scratch the smooth layer of peace she’d enjoyed only moments ago.
“What is it?” Kat asked Randall. “What happened?”
The man pointed to a lookout bench at the end of the dock. “Let’s have a seat down there.”
Chaos broke out like an inner storm, forcing her body into panic mode. Stop, Kat. Calm down. But the effects were already coming. Chest tightening. Breaths speeding. Throat achy and dry.
She sucked in a slower, deeper breath and forced herself to hold it as Randall planted himself on the bench, the life vest still in place. She thought he favored the flushed and shiny look before; this climate brought that out even more.
He smeared fingers over his face before squaring a look at her. “There’s a social media page that’s growing a whole lot of popularity. We noticed it develop on the night of the live wedding. It was small at first, but it quickly began to grow.”
Kat shrugged, unable to even guess at what it was about. “Okay…”
“It’s called INDIZ, which is an acronym for It’s Not Duke, It’s Zander.”
The inner storm became a full-on tsunami. Each word like a separate, booming quake beneath the surface. It’s not Duke, it’s Zander.
She gulped, shook her head, willed the fuzzy state of her mind to sharpen. “They think it’s Zander.” She pointed a look at Randall. “Why do they think that?” Already her mind was racing. Was it possible they were right?
“They have their reasons,” he said with the wave of his hand.
“Like what?”
“Things like Zander not showing up for the wedding. Duke suddenly having Zander’s hairstyle instead of that man bun he likes so much…”
“Oh.” The single word hovered in the warm, suddenly breezeless air. “Yeah, I guess I can see why people thought that. But that doesn’t mean that it was him. Or is him. Even I thought it was Zander at first,” Kat admitted. “But their faces are identical, so they wouldn’t really know.”
Randall nodded. “True.” He gripped at the collar of his life vest once more and threw a look over his shoulder.
Kat braced herself for a freakout. Surely that inner tsunami was on the rise again, ready to wreak havoc in its usual ways.
But as she pulled in a tentative breath, the details Randall shared simmering in her mind, something strange happened. Her muscles weren’t tensing. Her throat wasn’t clamping. She felt…good.
She pulled in a breath of confidence as her shoulders rose. Despite what those viewers might think, Kat was confident that she was with Duke, not Zander. “Is that all you guys wanted to talk about—some conspiracy page about a twin swap?”
