Grayson looked away. “I thought it was Lark. For weeks, I thought it was Lark. Even though everything about her felt wrong after we got back home.”
“And when you went to the library and saw Wren…”
“Everything felt fucking right! But I was convinced I was wrong about that, because they’re twins and they look alike and because it’s a douchebag thing to do, to kiss one sister, then pursue the other.”
“Except you weren’t,” Maverick pointed out.
“And I didn’t fucking know that,” he bit out hotly. “Because she lied to me!”
Silence settled between them, only broken when Maverick snorted.
“That’s funny to you?”
Maverick shook his head. “No. It’s a Shakespearean tragedy. Or it would be if there wasn’t such a simple solution.”
Grayson felt the first inkling of hope, and he was suddenly grateful he’d come to his big brother for advice. “Lead me to it.”
“Go get her.”
Grayson scowled. “What?”
“She’s the one,” Maverick said, as if those three words were the answer to life itself.
“And she lied,” he reiterated.
Maverick shrugged. “So what?”
“She switched places with Lark at the festival, then kept the lie going. For three weeks,” he stressed.
Maverick rolled his eyes. “Big whoop.”
Grayson closed his eyes, wondering how Maverick could say that. His brother had been around when Dara broken his heart all those years ago, and he’d been the first one he’d turned to when Staci hit him with that pregnancy whopper. Maverick knew just how much Grayson hated being lied to.
“Big whoop?” he repeated, with a healthy dose of disgust.
“Gray, if that’s the biggest problem the two of you ever face, you’ll be the luckiest bastard on the planet.”
“You don’t get it,” he declared.
“No,” Maverick said, pointing a finger at him. “You don’t get it.” His brother’s expression shifted, the teasing and humor vanishing, replaced by something…sadder.
Maverick suddenly looked more serious than Grayson had seen him in a very long time.
“I spent fifteen years trying to convince myself that I could live without Ella.”
Those words landed heavily between them, and Grayson instantly regretted pushing his brother on this. Because no one knew better than Maverick what loss and regret looked like.
“I know?—”
“No, you don’t.” Maverick’s voice was calm, too calm. “Every morning, I woke up with a hole in my chest. I worked. I dated. I fucked. I laughed and partied like life was just peachy, but it wasn’t. Because an entire half of me was gone.”
Grayson felt his stomach knot.
“I was living a half-life, bro.” The raw honesty in Maverick’s voice hit hard. “I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Not even my worst fucking enemy.”
Grayson looked down at the concrete floor, remembering. The way Wren smiled, the way she laughed, the feel of her small body tucked against his in bed.
Maverick’s voice softened. “Did she hurt you?”
