Offside (The Barker Triplets 1)

“Oh, Billie.”

God, she hated the way her sister inserted that tone into her name. It made her feel like she was eleven years old again, when she’d been caught peeking through the fence at their then, fifteen year old neighbor Paul, while he was ‘entertaining’ his girlfriend in the back yard.

“Logan Forest? He’s way out of your league.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Out of my league? I’m not an idiot.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Bad choice of words. Logan is just…he’s a player and you’re not.”

Billie was now really irritated. “First off, Bobbi, you don’t know what I am or what I’m not. And secondly, why exactly do you think Logan is a player? Because that’s not the vibe I get at all.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because he’s thirty and nowhere near close to settling down. He dates a girl, six months max and then breaks up with them. Just ask Sabrina or Melanie or Christy, or—”

“I get it.” Billie took one more swig of wine and got up from the table. “Maybe he hasn’t met the right girl yet.”

Bobbi’s eyes widened and she cursed under her breath. “Oh, shit. You don’t think…you’re not thinking of him as a permanent kind of guy, are you?”

Billie made a face. “Of course not. We just started hanging out, but give the guy a chance.”

The thing was, and she knew how pathetic it looked, she [i]was[i] thinking along those lines. Heck, she’d been thinking along those lines ever since she’d tricked him into having sex with her all those years ago.

“I gotta go. I have a game.” Billie pushed her chair back into place and stared down at her sister. “You can’t tell anyone, not even Gerry, all right? With this whole hockey thing,” she sighed, “it will just make things worse.”

“I won’t say anything but I hope you know what you’re doing with Logan and that you keep your eyes wide open. Because if I remember correctly he had a thing for Betty a few years back and…”

Billie winced. It still stung to hear those words.

“And?”

Bobbi filled her glass once more and settled into her chair. “Look, don’t get upset but he slept with Betty.”

Shit.

“How do you know that?”

Bobbi must have sensed something was up because she straightened in her chair and plunked her elbows onto the table. “Shane told me back when we were still together. Apparently she hooked up with Logan at some Christmas party and then blew him off, which is so typical of Betty, but…” her voice trailed off and Billie shifted beneath the intense observation. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I’m not,” Billie offered weakly.

Bobbi made a face. “So you’re perfectly fine sleeping with a guy who’s already slept with your sister? Your identical sister to be exact? Don’t you find that creepy?”

[i]Keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything else[i].

“He didn’t sleep with Betty.”

“What?” Bobbi was confused. “Are you on drugs?”

As if a tiny crack appeared inside her soul, the secret she’d been carrying around for years came tumbling out. She couldn’t help it. Her brain and her mouth were not getting along.

“Logan thinks he slept with Betty because the two of them had flirted outrageously all night. But she left with someone else and it wasn’t Betty who followed him into that room at the party. It was me.”

She waited for Bobbi to say something but her sister remained silent, though her eyes were wider than before, and with the smudge of liner around their edges she looked like a deranged raccoon.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Billie said quietly.

“You pretended to be Betty so you could nail Logan Forest.”

“Pretty much.” She winced at the crude words but what the hell, they were true.