The Confession

Heavenly slapped a hand over her gaping mouth and stared at the trio of siblings in shock. Now that Seth was standing beside them—looking like he wanted to rip out their hearts with his bare hands—she saw the striking resemblance.

“Seth. Hey, bro.” The first twin sounded nervous.

“Shut up, Jack,” Seth barked.

“Surprise! We’re here,” the second one added.

“I see that, Connor,” Seth drawled derisively. “But you didn’t answer my question. Why are you hitting on my woman? And which one of you idiots came up that ridiculous line, ‘Once you’ve had twins, you won’t go back’? Christ, you better not have meant that the way it sounded.”

“I-it was just a joke,” Jack stammered. “We weren’t serious.”

“Yeah. No, not serious at all,” Connor added.

Jack nodded. “We don’t actually do that.”

“Never.” Connor gave the same head bob.

“We were just…saying hello to your girlfriend, bro. Creatively.”

Seth rolled his eyes. “No, you asswipes were hitting on Heavenly because you didn’t remember the picture of her I showed you at Christmas. And if you want to keep all the protruding parts of your body attached, you better stop now.”

* * *

“Okay. Yeah. Calm down.” Jack held up his hands. “You’re right. We didn’t recognize her from your photo. We saw a pretty California girl and—”

“And what? Decided to tap her here, next to the pool, in front of God and everyone?”

“No,” Connor insisted before lifting an apologetic wince Heavenly’s way. “Sorry for being so—”

“Rude?” Seth barked.

“I was going to say forward,” his brother corrected before turning back to Heavenly, his expression softening. “We didn’t mean to—”

“No need to apologize.” She eased beside Seth with a gentle smile, then extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Connor.”

The younger twin darted a questioning glance Seth’s way, silently asking permission to touch her. At least one of his brothers was getting smart… Seth nodded curtly, then watched Connor shake his girl’s hand.

“You, too, Jack.” She greeted him with the same gesture.

The hell-raising rebel didn’t seek Seth’s permission, simply shook her hand and took his sweet time releasing it.

Gnashing his teeth, Seth drew his barely dressed girl closer. “Now that introductions are over, what the fuck are you two doing here in LA?”

Not that he wasn’t happy to see them. He was. But he’d been sitting at his office, working himself into a self-loathing froth at the realization that he’d dumped his angel off with Zach because he still struggled to be around Beck’s brother. It made him feel weak and ridiculous. And when he’d stumbled on to the twins trying to pick Heavenly up, it hadn’t improved his mood.

Jack shrugged. “Well…we told you we wanted to surprise you for spring break, but that didn’t work out, and now it’s summer, so like I said…surprise!”

Was he serious? “You’re here for the whole summer?”

“Yeah. Don’t send us back. These plane tickets weren’t cheap.”

That was a monkey wrench he hadn’t foreseen. How would that work with Beck and Heavenly? There was no way he could have the twins underfoot for months without them realizing that he shared his girl with the surgeon. Fuck. “And you’re planning to do what while you’re here? Sit on my couch, eat all my food, and bring different women to my apartment every night?”

Connor grappled for an answer. “Isn’t that what summer breaks are for?”

Heavenly shook with silent laughter.

Jack pinned his twin with a what-the-fuck glare, then slanted Seth the puppy-dog eyes he’d perfected as a toddler to get an extra cookie at snack time. “C’mon, bro. You’re not happy to see us?”