Spitting Image by Harmony Reed

Author:Harmony Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sterling & Stone

Chapter Fifteen

Everett groaned as he checked his phone — almost nine.

So much for getting up early enough to catch Evan before work. He must have turned the alarm off in his sleep. But maybe that was better? His stomach still ached from the gut-punch of Evan’s admission last night. How could he know about Everett but not care enough to reach out?

Worse, Everett wasn’t sure if he’d have done the same in Evan’s position. If he’d had everything a child could want, would he have cared that Evan might be suffering halfway across the country?

Probably not. And admitting that made Everett feel wrong for coming here and intruding on his brother’s perfect life.

Well, almost perfect. Apparently Klair wasn’t entirely happy with Evan. Did it make Everett a bad person to feel relieved that he wasn’t the only one struggling to balance a career and a significant other?

Speaking of which, it was time to return Clara’s call, now that he could finally report some success. He couldn’t claim an instant soul-bond with his newfound twin, but he could say that they’d celebrated their shared birthday without lying.

“Oh, amazing,” she said when she picked up. “You finally learned how to use your phone. Did you need to take an online course for that, or were you able to find a simple how-to article?”

“Is everything okay?” Everett felt a sudden and perhaps unreasonable fear that no, things were absolutely not in any way okay. Something awful had happened with Jimi while he was fifteen hundred miles away and unable to help.

“Everything is fine, assuming you can do your job as Jimi’s other parent.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I got an audition.”

“Oh yeah? That’s great.”

“For lead guitarist in A Splinter of Moon.”

“Wow. Prodigious!” How had she managed that? A Splinter of Moon was Clara’s favorite band, and one of the biggest influences on what she referred to as “her personal sound.”

Clara sighed, clearly annoyed that he hadn’t responded with more enthusiasm. “So I need you to take Jimi, for at least the next three days. I can drop him off at your place in an hour.”

“I can’t, Clara. I’m in Texas.”

“TEXAS?”

“Austin. My brother is here. I came to visit.”

“I saw Marco and Roberto at the grocery store last night.”

“I hired a private eye to find my birthparents. Turns out I had a twin brother living in Austin.”

“I’m guessing that this is the ‘really great news’ you were going to tell me about later?”

“You wouldn’t believe how many similarities there are between us. It’s like all those stories you hear about identical twins. He’s married to a Klair instead of a Clara—”

“We’re not married.”

“— and she’s a musician, too. Her band is called Redheaded Stepchild — have you ever heard of them? They’re opening for the Stray Bullets. Anyway, my brother, Evan, owns two restaurants here in Austin. I know I only have the one, and both of his are a little bigger than mine, but—”

“That wouldn’t be hard.” Clara paused. “Are you guys really identical?”

“He’s my spitting image.

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