Julianna Morris - The Right Twin For Him

Patrick groaned.

He’d never met a woman whose emotions were so close to the surface. She blurted out every thought that came into her head, and everything she felt flitted uncensored across her face. Now he felt like a jerk for acting as if her tears were an imposition.

“Don’t worry about it. Why shouldn’t you be here?” he asked, figuring he should make up for his big mouth, though it probably meant hearing things he’d rather not know about.

“Oh.” Maddie looked unhappy again. “It’s just that I left Mom and Dad to take care of everything. I should have stuck around for a while, then left.”

He shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t help himself. “Take care of what?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Two hundred pounds of coleslaw, potato and macaroni salad. Three hundred pounds of cheese, ham, turkey and beef. Over a thousand of those dumb little crusty rolls. Gallons of mayonnaise, fancy mustards and a bunch of other stuff.”

“Really?” Patrick didn’t have the slightest idea what she was talking about.

“Some of the ‘other’ stuff was a four-tier wedding cake,” Maddie added, then bit her lip as if she regretted saying anything at all.

He whistled beneath his breath. He’d guessed she was recovering from a bad romance, but he’d never expected something so dramatic. Something had happened on her wedding day? Once again he decided he should keep his mouth shut, but his vocal cords were having a day of glorious freedom.

“What happened?”

“I caught my fiancé kissing the woman we hired to serve the punch.”

Patrick winced. Still, it could have been a misunderstanding. “Maybe—”

“Maybe nothing.” Maddie scowled and stuck her chin out. “He had her blouse off, and her D-cup bra was hanging from his pocket. What is it with men, anyway? Breasts are breasts. Why does size matter so much?”

Patrick gulped.

He liked women’s breasts—big ones, little ones, they were all terrific in his opinion. But it was hardly a discussion they should be having on a public street. At the same time a surge of anger swept over him, anger at the unknown man who’d callously cheated on his bride-to-be. How could that guy take advantage of an innocent like Maddie and still look himself in the mirror? At his worst he’d never taken advantage of a woman, and he certainly wouldn’t cheat on his bride-to-be.

“I think your fiancé has the brains of a squirrel,” Patrick said. “I could say something about another part of his pea-size anatomy, but I won’t since I’m in mixed company.”

Maddie giggled, though a bright pink flooded her cheeks. “I’m sorry about that ‘men’ comment. You really are nice.”

Nice?

Patrick gave her a measured look. Having watched four sisters go through some unhappy romances, he knew women were vulnerable when their hearts were broken. His sisters always talked about meeting a “nice” man after breaking up with a boyfriend.

If things were different he’d enjoy getting to know Maddie intimately, as long as she understood it wasn’t going to last. But that didn’t make him “nice,” at least according to the female definition of the word.

“Don’t get the wrong idea about me,” he said carefully. “I’m not that nice.”

Maddie sobered instantly, recognizing a warning when she heard it. Her chin lifted. “Don’t worry, I’m not getting any ideas.”

“I just don’t—”

“I said not to worry.” She gave him a tight smile. “But you’re right about it getting cold. I think I’ll go back to my room at the inn.”

Patrick groaned. Oh, yeah, he’d handled that really well.

“Maddie, wait.” Patrick caught her arm and swung her around. “I’m sorry.”

She gave him an innocent look. “About what?”

Hell, he was going to pay big-time for his big mouth. “About being a jerk, all right? I’ve got four sisters and I’ve seen them get hurt even more when they’re…well…”

“On the rebound,” she finished, her mouth turned down. “I hate that word, it sounds like something out of a basketball game. But you seem to have forgotten that you’re the one who keeps following me. So even if I did have ‘ideas,’ which I don’t, it wouldn’t be my fault.”

“You’re right.” Patrick held up his hands in surrender. He must have sounded incredibly arrogant, but he’d hate to see a sweet kid like Maddie get hurt again, and he’d hate it worse if he was the one responsible. “If I abjectly apologize and say I was out of my mind, will you forgive me?”

Maddie sighed. She wanted to be furious, but maybe she’d sounded wistful, or admiring, or had indicated in some way to Patrick that she was getting starry-eyed over him. He probably had women falling all over themselves to catch his attention, and she had gotten tingles and a racing pulse over him. It didn’t mean anything. He was a gorgeous hunk with a body chemistry that could make any woman weak in the knees.

“Maddie?” Patrick prompted.

“It’s okay.”

It wasn’t, but she didn’t want to admit it was her ego on the rebound, not her heart. When she’d been growing up, her mother and father had always made her feel beautiful, but now she was left wondering what she actually had to offer a man. Did big breasts really matter that much? Maddie glanced down at her not-so-generous bustline and sighed again.

Maybe Ted would have found a kinder way to tell her he didn’t want to get married if she hadn’t surprised him with the punch girl. He wasn’t mean. And if she’d been able to tell him first that she was having second thoughts, they probably would have laughed about it, bypassed the church and had a great party with all that food and cake.

“You don’t look okay. You still look upset,” Patrick murmured. His eyes were more serious than she’d seen them since they’d met. He put on a good show of being easygoing, but she suspected there was a whole lot more going on beneath his nonchalant exterior than even he wanted to admit.

Maddie summoned a smile. “I’ve had quite a few shocks over the past couple days. I have a reason to be upset. But don’t worry about the other thing. I overreacted, that’s all.”

“About the ‘other thing,’ I should explain,” he said, a determined expression creeping into his face. “You’re so trusting and everything, I didn’t want you to start thinking I was some nice guy without ulterior motives. I’m a guy—of course I have ulterior motives. I’m loaded with them. Hell, I didn’t put in all that time as a rebellious teenage tough for nothing.”

“Oh, sure, you were a teenage tough. I believe that.” She made a disbelieving gesture.

“Take my word for it, I was one of the worst.”

Maddie still didn’t seem convinced, and Patrick thought about rolling up his sleeve and showing her the gang tattoo he sported on his upper arm. Oh, he’d gotten out of it quickly enough—thanks to a tough old coot whose car he’d tried to steal—but not so fast he didn’t have some scars and a broken nose from fighting. Not even his family knew everything about his escapades.

God, he’d been so angry after his father’s accident it was a miracle he hadn’t gotten himself killed.

But it wasn’t any wonder Maddie didn’t believe him. The closest thing to a gang in her hometown was probably the crew down at the local hamburger stand. He’d driven through some of the small, off-the-beaten-track towns in New Mexico. They were terrific…and about a million miles from the city.

Oh, but she did have a very sweet mouth.

Reaching out, he traced his forefinger across the fullness of Maddie’s bottom lip. Her breath caught and her golden-brown eyes widened, the pupils expanding until nearly all the gold specks disappeared, leaving a ring of velvet brown.