“It’s worse.” I let out a humorless laugh. “So much worse. I don’t want to give her up and I know how that sounds. I know it’s a disaster waiting to happen. But she’s—” I cut myself off, shaking my head. “She’s everything, and I’ve been lying to her the entire time. Plus, I’ve done a really bad job at trying to be Jesse. I was supposed to be paving the way for him, but instead, she’s going to have to get to know a whole different person once they’re married.”
Kate crossed her arms. “So what’s your plan?”
I pushed off the wall, straightening my jacket. “I don’t have one.”
“That’s not reassuring, Will. That poor girl has moved across an ocean to be with you. What the hell is she supposed to do when she suddenly finds herself living with a man who’s not at all the same person as she got to know before the wedding?”
“I’m trying, okay?” I scrubbed a hand over my face and looked back at Kate, who was still staring at me like she was deciding whether to yell or adopt me out to a different family. “It’s just been harder than I thought, pretending to be him. We’re nothing alike.”
She arched an eyebrow—steeply. “Well, that’s a groundbreaking realization, isn’t it? Especially this late in the game.”
“I’m serious,” I said. “We might look alike, but that’s where it ends. I’m different and no matter what I do, when I’m with her, I keep reverting to myself.”
While I would never say it out loud, I was softer than my brother. More romantic. I took things more seriously and felt alot deeper. “Jesse is good at winging it, whateveritmight be. He lives his life by the seat of his pants and I love him for it, but that’s just not me. It’s not Eliza either.”
Some of the tension eased out of Kate’s expression as she nodded. “Jesse lights the match and walks away. You stay to put out the fire.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
The corners of her mouth twitched into a reluctant smile. “Did you really think you were going to be able to mimic your chaos-gremlin twin?”
“Thank you for summarizing my crisis so succinctly, but no. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off because I wasn’tthinkingat all.”
She sighed, the fight draining out of her. “This is still the dumbest thing I’ve ever witnessed.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I muttered. “We’ve had some strong contenders.”
“Will.”
“Fine. It’s definitely top three, but in my defense, it wasn’t my idea, and if I’d known how long it was going to carry on, I never would have agreed in the first place.”
She rolled her eyes. “You never should’ve agreed either way, but for what it’s worth, you’re not alone in thinking this is insane. Jane has been giving Alex hell about it.”
I let out a low whistle. “I’d pay to see that.”
“Charlotte threatened to fly up from her dreamy life in Texas just to wring all of your necks.”
I blinked hard. “Allof ours?”
Kate shrugged. “Yeah. She’s not discriminating, and frankly, neither am I. You’re all on the shit list. You, Jesse, Nate, Alex, and your dad. Your other brothers too, if they know what’s going on.”
“Fantastic,” I deadpanned. “So the women of the family are not united in their desire to see me survive this.”
Kate snorted. “We’re on Eliza’s side. Sorry.”
“That’s fair, I guess.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Jesse is supposed to fly in for the garden party tomorrow afternoon, right?”
I let out a slow breath. “That’s the plan, but I doubt he’ll show.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Do you think he’s going to bail again? Alex seems pretty confident he’s going to be there and Nate just keeps saying that Alex knows what he’s doing”
“I think Jesse does whatever Jesse wants, and right now, this isn’t what he wants.”
