The day Luis Fortune walked into the house with his identical twin brother, Jase Nicholas sat back and held his palm to his chest. He thought he was seeing double. He closed his eyes, shook his head for a second, and reached for the back of another chair. He’d been sipping a cup of coffee at the kitchen table, waiting for Luis to return so they could plan what they were having for dinner that night. He’d never expected the shock of his life.
The only difference between the two men standing in the middle of Jase’s New York City kitchen was their hair. Though they both had the same short haircut, the Luis on the left had dark brown hair; the Luis on the right had lighter brown hair with brassy blond highlights. Camp, their bald Chinese crested, jumped off a kitchen chair, ran to the one with the darker hair first, and barked.
“Don’t get excited, Jase,” the one with the darker brown hair said. “I’ve been meaning to tell you I had an identical twin brother for a long time. I just haven’t gotten around to it.”
The one with the lighter hair said, “I told you we shouldn’t have surprised him this way. I should leave now and let you explain.”
“Maybe you were right,” said the one with darker hair. “His face is a little red.”
Well. They even sounded identical. Evidently, the one on the left with the darker hair was the real Luis. Jase stood and crossed to the middle of the kitchen. He rested his palm on the white marble counter. He gaped at the twin brother and finally said, “I can’t believe how much you look alike. It’s too hard to believe.” He rubbed his jaw, looked the twin brother up and down, and added, “You even have bodies.” Both were thin with lean, defined muscles, and had both adorable asses that jutted out into perfect rounds.
Luis and his twin brother exchanged glances. Then Luis said, “Let’s all go sit down.” He took Jase’s hand and said, “I’ll tell you everything. It’s kind of a long story.”
Jase reached for a couple of mugs and filled them with coffee, then joined them at the kitchen table, still at a loss for words. The minute he sat down Luis started talking. Luis apologized for not mentioning he had a twin brother in the first place; he explained all about how he and his twin brother had always been at odds with each other and how they’d never gotten along. He mentioned a guy from the past named Snake and something about a bicycle: classic sibling rivalry between two very competitive brothers that sounded as if it went very deep.
After that, Luis went into a detailed account about the previous weekend. He told Jase an outrageous, ludicrous story about how his twin brother had locked him up in an apartment in Brooklyn above a grocery store, assumed his identity temporarily, then had returned to set him free on Monday morning. Only Luis revealed he wasn’t really locked up at all. He could have left any time he wanted. But he decided to let Gage think he was locked up, to see if he could trust his twin brother to do the right thing. Though Luis said he’d known he was taking a huge chance, he had to find out if Gage would eventually return and set him free.
Jase sat there with his mouth half open. It sounded like the plot on a daytime soap. When Luis introduced his twin brother as Gage Weston, Luis told Jase this wasn’t his real name,, just the name Gage preferred to go by now. Gage’s real name was Eddie and he worked as a stripper, of all things. Jase sat back and listened, with his arms folded across his chest, trying to fill in the blanks and process it all. He had a feeling Luis wasn’t telling him every last detail. But he also knew Luis well enough to know Luis wasn’t a liar.
When Luis finished speaking, Gage shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’m sorry, Jase, for pretending to be Luis all weekend. I shouldn’t have done it. But I was so confused, and so desperate at the time, I wasn’t sure what to do. My life seemed to be coming down around me in one day. I don’t know how I can make it up to you. I don’t even know if there is a way to make it up to you. But I’ll spend the rest of my life trying.” Then he reached out, took Jase’s hand in his, and held it tightly. “I won’t blame you if you can’t find it in your heart to forgive me.”
After that, Gage went into a detailed account of the events in his own life that had led him to the point of assuming Luis’s identity. As Jase sat there and listened quietly, he had to admit the guy hadn’t had an easy time of it. He’d taken care of his mother and father—Luis’s parents—until they died, he’d moved to New York with no money at all, and he’d found a way to survive on his own. Though Gage and Luis hadn’t been close in years, Jase found it remarkable that their stories were so similar. It seemed as if the only two good things that had happened to Gage so far in New York were that he’d now reconciled with Luis and he’d fallen in love with a nice cab driver he’d recently met.
When Gage and Luis finished speaking, Jase sat back and rubbed his eyes. “Ah well,” he said. “I have to admit this is one unusual story, especially the part about me spending the entire weekend with Gage, thinking Gage was really Luis. You could have just kept that part to yourselves. I would never have known.” He felt duped. He’d gone to bed with the guy. They hadn’t had sex, but still.
Luis reached for Jase’s hand. “I wanted you to know the truth. So did Gage. I don’t ever want any secrets to come between us. And I’ve been telling you all along there are things about my family I had to tell you when the time was right. I should have told you about my twin brother much sooner and this never would have happened. I’m sorry for that.”
This was true. Jase had known bits and pieces about Luis’s past. He knew Luis had been kicked out of the house by his overly religious parents when he was very young and he’d gone to live with an older man, a doctor in Tennessee. After that, Luis ran away to New York. But Luis had never discussed his parents, getting kicked out of the house for being gay, or anything else about his family in detail. He’d always said it was too painful to talk about. And Jase had always let him off the hook.
Gage frowned and looked down at his lap. “Don’t blame Luis, Jase,” he said. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have locked him up and I shouldn’t have pretended to be him. But I’d read so much about you and Luis I wanted to find out what Luis’s life was really like. When I did, and when I saw how much you loved each other and how happy you were, I couldn’t continue with the charade. I don’t blame you if you’ll never be able to forgive me. But please don’t blame Luis. He’s done a lot of things to me in my life that weren’t very nice, but this time it was my fault.”