Page 94 of Crossed Wires: The Complete Series

“Hello, Dylan.”

The American accent played with his senses, and even though he knew it wasn’t her, for a surreal second the name Monet almost formed on his lips. Almost.

“Annie?”

The woman nodded, flicking Hunter a quick look as he moved closer to her. “You look like your brother.”

Dylan couldn’t miss the way she swallowed and shifted her feet. She was nervous. He grinned, hiding his own nerves. “Nah, I’m the good-looking one.”

Annie laughed. Hunter rolled his eyes. “Idiot.”

Dylan grinned. There was no mistaking the way Hunter felt for the woman Dylan had thought would be his just six days ago. It was as clear as bloody day in his brother’s body language.

Dylan gave Annie a wide smile. “So, you and Hunter, eh?”

She nodded. But slowly. As if she wasn’t sure what answer he was hoping to hear.

Of course she wouldn’t. She doesn’t know what happened between you and Monet. Nor why you’re home so soon. She could be thinking you’re back to pick up where the two of you left off.

“Well,” he said, pretty certain his brother was going to punch the shit out of him for what he was about to do. “I suppose we better go ahead and make sure fate was right.”

A frown crossed Annie’s face a second before Dylan closed the distance between them, cupped her smooth, warm cheeks and pulled her toward him, capturing her lips with his.

For a split second she didn’t move. Didn’t respond. And then she did, returning what he was giving her.

But it was…nothing.

Nothing.

Pulling away, he let out a soft chuckle.

It seemed fate was right. Cruel, but right.

“Had your fun?” Hunter asked.

For a moment, Dylan was tempted to make his brother suffer—it was what he did after all, bug the hell out of his older twin. He was tempted to say something like, “I knew you were my soul mate, Annie,” but at the clear apprehension on Hunter’s face, at the tension in his stance, Dylan couldn’t do it. “Bit like I imagine kissing Linda would be.”

Ignoring yet another eye roll from Hunter, he smiled at Annie. “A cousin from Perth we rarely see.”

She laughed, and just like that, Dylan knew he and Annie were what they were always meant to be—friends. He grabbed her in a big hug, spinning her around. He’d known her online for three months, but now, standing with her in the flesh, it felt as though he’d known her so much longer.

“Damn, it’s good to finally meet you, Annie,” he said, returning her to her feet. “Has my brother been taking good care of you?”

The bright red blush that flooded her cheeks made Dylan burst out laughing. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Hunter snared Annie’s hand and pulled her from Dylan’s hug, wrapping his arm around her shoulders in a gesture Dylan knew was designed to say “my woman”. Dylan felt no jealousy, only happiness for Hunter. Happiness that two people who meant so much to him had found something special together.

Like you had? Before you walked away from it?

“We weren’t expecting you home so soon.” His brother gave him a pinning look, the same one he’d tried when Dylan had emerged from Customs back in Sydney. “Sort of got the feeling you were taking a fancy to New York.”

“New York was all right.”

“And you met Monet?” Annie asked.

Dylan’s gut knotted, sharp pain stabbing through him. He drew a quick breath, fighting to keep his smile wide and relaxed. By the frown suddenly appearing on Annie’s face, he suspected he’d failed. An image of Monet filled his head but he shoved it away. He’d made his decision. He had to live with that now. “I did.”

He didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t. Annie and Hunter exchanged a look and Dylan braced himself for an onslaught of questions. Questions, thankfully, that didn’t come. Instead Hunter reached down, picked up his duffel and tossed it at him. “I guess we better get you back to the house before Mum stomps out here to see you.”