“It’s rumored that you answered the questions in that social experiment as if you were actually your twin brother. Did you?”
How in the world did she do it? Sheesh. “I don’t want you to report that.” Duke looked down at her phone pointedly, wishing he could squelch the adrenaline shooting through his blood.
“Here’s the thing,” he started, “as a woman I care about, as a woman I once wronged,youdeserve answers. But not everything I tell you can go in that article.”
Vivi dropped her gaze, drummed her fingers on her notebook, and sniffed. “The agreement you signed says I can use anything we discuss for the article.”
“Then I guess I won’t discuss it with you.” Duke tipped his head until she met his gaze once more.
If humans could lock horns, this is what it would look like. It went deeper than the fixed glare between them; there was something greater happening beneath.
“Who really wants to know?” he challenged. “The people reading the article, or you?”
“Both.”
“But most people haven’t heard thatrumor,as you call it.”
“They will after this interview,” she assured.
Duke flinched from the comment. “I thought you were supposed to…”
“What, Duke? Give the public what you want them to hear? That’s not how it works. I’m supposed to paint an image of the true you. In order to do that, I have to find him first. I’ve got to get to the bottom of your recent behavior. And this wedding game show is at the top of everyone’s list.”
She was right. It was, essentially, the beef America had with him. Duke rolled his shoulders back, hoping to ease the tension he felt growing tighter with every breath.
Tension that wouldn’t go away until he worked through this part with Viv. He thought back on his mindset at that time in his life. Considered the series of events leading up to his decision.
“You know that Winston died of an overdose, right?” Images of his youngest brother seeped into his mind, each carrying a significance of their own.
“Yes,” she said softly.
“We had this camaraderie, you know? Winston was theotherblack sheep. Even better, he always ventured a step beyond me. I loved hanging out with him. It felt nice having someone willing to go further out of bounds than I’d go. Not too far, of course.” He shrugged. “I don’t know, it was just good to be the more mature, serious natured brother sometimes.”
He glanced at the notepad by her side, wondering if Vivi would pick up the pen again. She didn’t.
“After he died, I felt responsible in a way. Maybe if I’d have been more tame he wouldn’t have had to go so far to exceed me.” That stinging sensation—the one that always snuck in when he thought of Winston—seeped in like venom.
“To make up for it,” Duke continued, “I changed the way I acted after his death. I went so far as to do the opposite of what I’d normally do, figuring the more different from my natural self I was, the better.”
Another glance down. Still Vivi left the pen untouched.
“But with the wholeMarried At First Meetsituation, I think there was something more driving me to answer those questions the way Zander might.” Sparks of adrenaline kicked up as he considered the confession at his lips.
“I wanted someone thatwasn’tattracted to the bad boy who dated one woman after the next without a care. I wanted a woman who was down to earth. More serious minded. Ready to settle down, even. I think what I really wanted—what I want even still is…” He gulped as he glanced across the table. What he really wanted was her. Or at very least, a woman like her.
Vivi leaned in at the absence of his words.
Duke offered an equally true statement. “I want someone who wants the man I’m working to be. Not the image I’m working to shed, if that makes sense.”
A cool wind picked up suddenly, sending the napkins up and off the table in one swift move. From his periphery, Duke saw a nearby attendant snatching them from the ground as they toppled.
“So maybe you answered them more like yourself than you realize,” Viv said.
Duke considered that, then shrugged. “Maybe. But not where habits of my past are concerned. I used Zander’s history, and his impulses too. Mine are too…” His gaze dropped to Vivi’s lips as he remembered the first time he kissed her. “…reckless.”
“Hmm.”
Another breeze came in, this one dotted with drops of rain or ocean water, he couldn’t be sure. A quick glance at the sky said the clouds he’d spied were coming in quickly.
