Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
It was everything I could do to keep myself calm after the fourth or fifth time he did it. I didn’t understand the compulsion to bring me the water. Not that he was the only person who ever did that. If there was one thing watching people be upset on TV and in movies has taught us all, it’s that when someone is emotionally distraught, clearly, they need water.
He was only trying to help, and he was being so sweet. I was just feeling on edge and worried about what was going to come next. I didn’t know what I was going to do. Or even what I was supposed to think. Maybe I should be relieved. When I saw him on the street where my rental was, I automatically believed it was because he found me. He was right on my tail, and it was going to be harder and harder to stay hidden and ahead of him.
Now I knew that wasn’t actually what happened. He didn’t show up because he found me, and he wasn’t on that road because he knew it was where I was living and had come to get me. It was all a coincidence. Maybe that should make me feel better.
But I still couldn’t get the reality out of my mind. Of everywhere I’d chosen to go, of all the places I could have gotten a job, it had to be the same place Jack made a business connection. People would probably say it had to do with being twins. That somehow our minds were more connected, and he was just able to intuitively find the same people I had, even if he didn’t know it.
But I didn’t put a lot of stock into that. In fact, it was those kinds of assumptions that drove me crazy anytime people found out we were twins. They loved to smile and talk about how deeply connected we had to be and how special that was for us. They asked if we had a special language or if we could feel when the other one was injured.
I had to remind them we were not identical twins. We were a brother and sister who just so happened to form at the same time. There was really no difference between us and any other set of siblings. No special language. No deep connection that meant we could feel each other.
Him ending up at the King Vineyard at the same time I was working there was nothing more than an unpleasant coincidence. Or a nasty joke of the universe.
It didn’t really matter to me why he was there. All that kept going through my mind was that he was there.
I was waiting for answers, for something to let me know what I was going to do next.
As we were setting up for our lunch service, I saw Zane and Cameron come into the restaurant and get Derek. They dragged him into his office and closed the door. I wanted to go in and find out what was happening, but I stopped myself. Trying to keep concentrating on the work I was supposed to be doing, I did my best to ignore that he was in the office. That they were still there and were probably talking about Jack and what that all meant.
I had no idea what they were going to say. I already worried I was going to be an excessive burden for Derek when I thought Jack was just there because he managed to find some sort of lead and came to find me. Now I had to worry his brothers were going to say all of this was just too much. I couldn’t stay.
The longer they stayed there in the office, the more that seemed like what was happening. I was just waiting for them to come out and tell me I would need to leave the vineyard before I compromised their connection with him and the business deal they’d managed to put together.
After a while, Zane and Cameron came out of the office. Without saying anything to me, they left the restaurant. I looked over at Derek and saw him give me a tight smile. I could only hope everything was okay. That he hadn’t been lying when he told me they could help.
Even after the lunch shift finally started, it moved like molasses. It felt like the day was going on and on, repeating over and over. I thought Derek would come to me and tell me what his brothers and he had talked about, but it never happened. When the day was finally done and it was time to go home, he was quieter than his normal self.
That made my tension even worse. Maybe he was just waiting until we got back to the house so he could let me down easier, and I wouldn’t be embarrassed in front of other people. By the time we got to the driveway, I was planning on making it easier on both of us by just going in and packing. I didn’t want to have the whole dramatic conversation. This didn’t need to be a learning moment or to hear about how meaningful our time together at the restaurant was. I just needed to get ahead of Jack and move on.