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“She’s really not coming?” Piper asked.

“Afraid not.” Siena had used those few minutes outside to set herself up for what was coming next. It had been enough time to pull her shit together and put her mask back in place. “You coming?”

“Are you driving?” Bunny asked.

Laughing, Siena nodded. “Of course. I don’t trust you within twenty miles of a car in downtown Portland.”

Bunny threw her hands up. “I’m not that bad of a driver.”

“Says the tickets you’ve racked up. Totally believe that one.” Siena strode to her desk and snagged her purse. This was a much better way to spend the next few hours. Far more worth her time than someone who didn’t follow through on commitments.

twenty-two

“Can you grab those lights?” Jessie pointed to a box on the stage.

Jamie walked over and pulled them out. They were a tangled mess. “Did you put these away last year?”

“Maybe.” Jessie grinned. “I promised Aisha that I’d help her out. I just didn’t mention you were going to be my light detangler.”

“Perfect.” Jamie frowned as she plopped her butt onto the stage and started to unwind the cords. They had an hour until the parents started showing up with their kids for the holiday concert, and Jamie didn’t want to be there. But she’d promised Jessie she would be, and there was no way she was going to break a promise to her sister.

Jessie continued to work alongside a few other teachers and parent volunteers, leaving Jamie alone except to snag the next string of lights that they were putting up around the auditorium. Jamie frowned as she worked. Jessie was so damn popular. It sucked. Jamie had never been popular, and while they were in high school, Jamie had hated every single minute of it.Especially because people she really didn’t like would start to talk to her, thinking she was Jessie.

It wasn’t that hard to tell them apart, was it?

Jessie was happy and popular, and Jamie was the one that dragged everyone down.

“Seriously, what’s wrong with you today?”

“Huh?” Jamie looked up, finding Jessie giving her the evil eye.

“I’ve called your name like four times.”

“Sorry, I was…distracted.” What she was actually doing was sitting in thewoe is me, the world hates memoment that she used to live for when she was younger. She’d managed to process through a lot of that since then, but it still came back to bite her in the ass when she wasn’t expecting it. And since she’d missed the interview time with Siena, she’d been right back in that moment.

“Distracted or… something else?”

Like hell was Jamie going to admit that. Not tonight of all nights. “When are we doing Christmas at the house?”

“Christmas day?” Jessie answered, raising an eyebrow up. “You’re in the group text.”

Yeah, but Jamie had been avoiding her phone like the plague ever since that voicemail had come through. Had Siena really thought she was dead in a ditch somewhere or had she just been trying to guilt Jamie about missing the interview that she had begged for. She’d even gotten down on her knees at one point and begged Siena for it—though Siena might see that particular moment in an entirely different way than Jamie did.

“James.”

“What? Sorry.” She shook her head again as she pulled particularly hard on the next row of lights she was detangling. “These things are annoying.” She nearly threw her hands up in the air and gave up. “Do you really need them all?”

“We need that one, and then we’re done.”

“Fine.” Jamie went back to focusing on the cord slipping between her fingers. She’d hated missing that meeting.

“Oh, the kids are coming,” Jessie said. “Hurry up.”

Jamie finally got the last knot undone and handed the cord over. Jessie immediately put it up and then started to hug her students as they came in one by one. God, her sister was so popular. There was nothing better than being a teacher of little kids. They always loved their teacher. Meanwhile, Jamie had picked a career where no one would ever like her.

And sometimes she just wanted to be liked.

That was a lie. She wanted to be liked most times. Just sometimes she wasn’t willing to accept that she wasn’t the lovable twin.