“Like really,” he echoed with a chuckle. “We’ve known each other since grade school. She’s been Sloane’s best friend since I can remember, and Sloane’s my twin sister.”
“How can Sloane be yourtwin? You don’t even look alike—not very much, anyway.”
“Fraternal twins don’t share identical DNA.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That’s weird.”
“It is—kind of. But sort of fortunate, too. At least my parents weren’t tempted to name us Riley and Kylie or something like that.”
This elicited a small grin.
“Or dress us alike,” he added emphatically. “Can you imagine what that would’ve been like for me—going through school always matching my sister?”
Her smile broadened, though grudgingly. “She’s still your same age. Did you like that?”
He lowered his voice as if confiding a great secret. “Early on, I would gladly have traded her for a brother. But when I started getting interested in girls, her cute friends were coming to the house all the time, so I felt like the luckiest guy in school.”
She laughed out loud, then clapped a hand over her mouth as if the sound had escaped in spite of her attempt to squelch it.
“I had lots of acne and braces back then, so I needed all the help I could get,” he said, and that made her feel comfortable enough to drop her hand.
“So... she’s cool?” she asked uncertainly.
“My sister?Ithink so. We’ve managed to get along despite being the same age. I think you’ll like Charlotte, too.”
She reached down to scratch her ankle. “Mr. Heidelman told Luca that Charlotte’s married to an NBA star. Is that true?” She gestured around them. “Is that how she has the money for a place like this?”
“The three of us are sharing expenses, which makes our accommodations a bit more affordable. But what Mr. Heidelman saidwastrue. Until a couple of weeks ago, she was married to Clifford Jackson.”
“From the Lakers?”
He nodded.
“What happened a couple of weeks ago?”
A soft wind ruffled his hair as he turned his face up to the sun. “They split up. He wants to be free. And since he’s famous, you can read all about it on the internet, which, as you can imagine, isn’t very much fun for her.”
“That would suck,” she admitted.
“It does. Bottom line, you’re both going through a pretty shitty time. But it’ll all work out in the end.”
His swearing startled her, but she also relaxed immediately after. “What makes you think so?”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever met a nicer person than Charlotte. She’ll get on her feet eventually—and, if I know her, she’ll be there for you.”
She fell silent for a few seconds. Then she said, “What about your sister?”
“What about her?”
“She married?”
“She is—to a guy named Ben.”
“Where’s he?”
“Back in Seattle, where they live.”
“He couldn’t come?”
