His Innocent Lover (Slade Security Team 3) - Page 17
Chapter 13
Chloe hadn’t sent for anything she’d left in storage, but Mrs. Smythson had sent her a few things with a note.
Thought you would want these.
The box included a photo of Chloe’s mother on horseback, her parent’s wedding album, her grandmother’s china tea set, and an apron Mrs. Smythson had made from Blue Bird flour sacks. Chloe teared up with a sudden longing for the ranch.
It’d be time to gather the young steers soon and ship them to market—not that they had any cows this year, but they’d always helped their neighbors as well as doing their own work. She ran her hand over the cracked binding of the photo album. She’d give it to her dad to keep—maybe it’d make him happier.
She’d visited him twice this week and found him surly and guff. He didn’t like his doctors—or rather, he didn’t like what they were telling him about how his days on horseback were done. He’d didn’t want to hear it, and started in on talking about how he was just here to die. She’d lit into him, telling him he was a selfish old man to be thinking that, and what about her, and wasn’t he interested in hanging around to maybe see some grandkids?
That made him sit up and Chloe found herself talking about Trent. Her dad had sat in his wheelchair and listened, and finally said, “You best bring that young man by for a visit.”
He was right. She should. Trent should know what he was getting into with her family.
Hanging the wedding photo up by her window, Chloe stood back to admire the image. They looked so happy. She glanced out and saw Trent opening the door to his place.
She headed outside and walked across the courtyard to Trent’s bungalow. She knocked on the screen door. When no one answered, she pulled open the screen and stuck her head inside. “Trent?”
She listened and heard water running. The shower? Grinning, she slipped inside and tip-toed down the hallway, following the sound. She could hear him singing off key and she smiled. She hadn’t heard him sing before. She pushed the door open, noticing that it was already steamed up and the mirror was completely fogged over.
The shower was a large tile enclosure with clear glass walls and door. The steam had rendered the glass opaque, so she could only see bits and pieces of his body. Feeling like a voyeur, she watched him wash.
Slipping off her dress, she let it drop and pulled open the glass door. “I thought maybe you needed some help washing your back.”
He turned around, his eyes wide.
Something wasn’t right. He wasn’t looking at her the way he usually did. Then she noticed the scar on his forehead—the old scar.
Trent doesn’t have a scar.
Suddenly embarrassed and afraid, she backed away, slipping on the wet tile and almost falling. The man who was Trent but wasn’t caught her. “You okay?”
He even smelled wrong. She pushed on his chest. “You’re not Trent!”
He grinned and looked so much like Trent she almost thought maybe she was losing her mind.
Letting go of her, he grabbed two towels, held one out to her. “I’m Travis. His twin.”
Chloe began to hyperventilate. She grabbed the towel and clutched it. “I didn’t even know he had a brother.” She didn’t know anything about Trent—not anything important. She hadn’t known he had family—he’d never told her. Heat blazed through her.
Trent’s brother wrapped the towel around himself. “I’m going to step out and let you get dressed.”
***
Travis snagged his cell phone from the counter in the kitchen. This had been a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad; but Travis was beat from keeping an eye on the Guardians, listening to nothing. Plus Trent’s place was a lot closer.
He’d figured on a quick shower, some coffee, raiding Trent’s fridge, and he’d be back at his listening post in less than an hour. Instead…oh, he didn’t want to think about instead. He punched his brother’s number. When Trent answered, he hissed, “Get your ass home ASAP. Your girlfriend just surprised me in the shower.”
“She what? Where is she now? Dammit, I’m pushing the speed limit to the max.”
“Good. You get a ticket, it’s on you.”
“Was she naked?”
Travis heard the snarl in his brother’s voice. “Well, she wasn’t going to join me in the shower dressed to go dancing.”
“Shit! Keep her there. I’m three minutes away. Don’t let her leave, whatever you do.”
Source: readsnovelonline.net