Natalie cracked her knuckles as they climbed out of the truck.
“Well, on the bright side, I actually think you’re handling vehicles better,” Vincent mused beside her. “You don’t look like you’re about to vomit this time.”
“That’s good. It’d be a real shame to lose those pancakes. What did you use to make them, by the way?” she asked, trying to get her mind off the roiling in her stomach.
“The mix in the pantry. Why?”
“Just curious. Maybe sometime soon, I’ll show you how to make them from scratch.”
He pinched her rear and she jumped, smacking his arm teasingly. “Not all of us can learn how to cook in a day.” He linked his fingers through hers, and she melted into his side. “Time to find you a ring, Mrs. Cunningham.”
They were buzzed inside, and Natalie pinned her arms to the side. The rings were beautiful beyond any she’d seen in the department stores. She was terrified of simply touching the cases and having to pay thousands of dollars.
“Mr. Cunningham, welcome back,” a woman behind the counter said. “And this must be your wife. Pleasure to meet you.”
“Thanks,” Natalie said shyly and held out her hand. The woman shook it.
“I’m glad to see you found time to come back for the official ring. Tell me, Mrs. Cunningham, what type of stone are you after?”
She glanced at Vincent, but he shrugged. “Your choice.”
She shifted from foot to foot and leaned in close. “What about price?” she whispered.
“Natalie, you do remember who you married, right?” he replied just as quietly. “Indulge yourself, please.”
The woman behind the counter nodded in agreement. The diamond ring he presented her at the wedding had been pretty, but she was not a diamond girl. She paced from one case to the next, eyeing the sparkling stones beneath the bright lights of the cases while her hands fidgeted at her sides. What stone? Vincent remained a few steps behind her, his hands in his pockets and a subtle lift to his lips. The flowers he brought her the other day were all oranges and pink, like the phoenix on her back and the fire that used to fill her spirit before a real fire tried to snatch it away.
Her hand rested on a case holding stones of white gold rings with citrine and ruby stones adorning their bands. One of the rings towards the back drew her eye and she pointed to it.
“You’re sure?” the woman asked.
“Yes, definitely sure,” Natalie said.
The woman unlocked the case, and after laying out a small piece of felt, she set the ring down. The rubies and citrine twisted around the band in a swirl of fiery color, igniting the spirit of who she was. The stones were that of a faraway burning sun and the flames of a phoenix, two things Natalie held dear to her heart. She slipped the ring on her finger and held it up before her gaze.
“What do you think?” she asked Vincent, looking over her shoulder.
“I think you couldn’t have chosen a better ring.”
“If we can measure your finger, we’ll have the order placed.”
Natalie removed the ring carefully and handed it back to the woman before she went through several ring sizes to find her perfect fit. Vincent took care of the order, ensuring Natalie had no knowledge of how much the ring cost. He whispered something to the woman at the end, and she appeared to add something to the order.
“What are you up to?” she asked as they left the jewelers.
“Just a little something extra, is all. And I have one more surprise for you. If you think you can handle a two-hour car ride, I would like to take you away on a mini honeymoon at my ranch. Not this weekend, but the next. What do you say?”
Two hours, in a car? Natalie gulped as her hands shook. “Two hours?”
“Away from the city, away from everyone,” he whispered. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do,” she said without hesitation. Fear gripped her like a vice. He brushed the back of his knuckles against her cheek, and Natalie’s heart pounded quicker for a very different reason. “We’ll be all alone? As in completely and utterly alone?”
“Yes, and there are quite a few things I’d like to show you once we’re there.”
Nibbling her tongue as she regained control of her trembling body, she winked. “Maybe there are a few things I’d like to show you, too.”
His gaze darkened and his hands tightened around her hips. “Later then. Lunch first would be a good idea.”
“Oh, yes please. I need to gain back my ten pounds.”
He huffed, rolling his eyes as she giggled, linking her arm through his. A few people stopped and talked to him as they strolled through downtown Houston, but thankfully, a large crowd of reporters never swarmed them. He told her, once they reached the restaurant for lunch, that type of crowd was normal. Once the campaign picked up steam, it would only get worse. Natalie had learned to hate being in public, but with Vincent by her side, it was easier to breathe through the situation and keep a smile on her face, even if she was quietly screaming inside at the curious gazes. Her name was out there. Any one of those damn reporters could look up her accident. Thankfully, Billy had managed to hold off on any in-depth interviews with the hopeful Congressman and his wife so far, but he warned her that eventually, they would want the scoop.
She’d brought up her fear to Vincent last night as they lay in her bed, half-asleep, about someone tracking down her family. She admitted she hadn’t told her parents she was married yet, but he said Billy was handling everything at the moment.
“What about Lana?” she’d asked. “We live in the same city. Someone is going to realize I’m an identical twin at some point.”
“Don’t worry about it until we need to,” he’d murmured, yawning widely. “Do you trust your sister to keep our arrangement to herself?”
“Of course I do, but she can a bit scatterbrained at times.”
“It’ll be fine, Natalie. Worst case scenario, we have to quickly come up with a reason why you didn’t tell your parents about me over the last what, year or so we’ve been together?”
He made it sound so easy to take care of when the time came, but Natalie spent part of the night wide-awake and staring at the ceiling. The nagging still in her gut at lunch that afternoon was a bad omen she tried to ignore.
Too bad it only made her sick to her stomach and reminded her how easily her life could take a turn for the worse.
Another week passed and Vincent and Natalie acted more like a couple who had been together for years rather than weeks. They could barely keep their hands off each other, but it was more than that. Each day, he saw a new side of her as she continued to open up to him, and he in turn let her into his life more and more. The Friday they were leaving for the country arrived, and Vincent rushed to get back to the house. He’d packed last night, as had Natalie, both anxious to get out of the city and to the ranch. He worried about the two-hour drive, but if he could keep her mind focused on other things, she would survive. Once she saw the open land and the old house surrounded by gardens tended to by his mother for decades, the stress would be worth it.
Natalie’s sister was swinging by the house before they left so she could tell Lana about how the marriage was going so far. At first, he feared he would see Lana and mix them up, maybe suddenly regret he’d married Natalie after all, but when he reached the house and stepped into the kitchen from the garage, one look was all he needed to know he’d married the right twin for him. Lana was beautiful, of course, but after spending so much time with Natalie, he could tell them apart with a simple glance.
“Hi, babe,” Natalie greeted him and hugged him tightly, kissing him on the cheek. “I’d like you to meet my sister. This is Lana Jenkins.”
He held his hand out to her and she shook his tentatively. “Pleasure to actually meet you this time.” Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open.
“I’m sorry about the mix up. It was all my idea and I thought it would be good for her,” she rambled until he held up his hand, shaking with laughter.
“I was mad at first, I’ll admit, but stranger things have happened to bring two people together, I think. I’ve been meaning to thank you, actually.”
“Thank me?”
“Yes. If you hadn’t been such a hard ass, I might not have found my wife.”
“So you two are happy. This isn’t an act for the cameras and stuff?”
Natalie rolled her eyes as Vincent tugged her close to his side. “Not even close. I love your sister.”
“Love? Holy shit, Nat, way to go.” Lana clapped her hands then bounded to her sister, squeezing her so hard, Natalie’s eyes bulged and she shoved at her sister’s arms, pleading for her to put her down before she cracked in half. “Oh, that reminds me! I brought you a present.” She pulled a gift bag from her tote purse on the kitchen table.
“What the hell is that? Wait, never mind. I don’t want to know so take it back.”
“Screw that. You need this, trust me. Did you pack already for your honeymoon?” She wiggled her eyebrows, bouncing on the balls of her feet in the exact same way Natalie did when she was excited.
“Yes,” Natalie replied slowly.
“Well, you need to repack. You stay here,” Lana ordered Vincent. “Lead the way.”
Natalie groaned, gave Vincent a martyred look, then took her sister’s hand and led her upstairs. He listened to their banter all the way up to the second story, planting his hands on his hips and nodding in confirmation to himself. Yes, he definitely married the right twin. Lana seemed nice, but the fire in her eyes was different, and she lacked the same sense of adventure that came with Natalie. He debated pulling Lana aside to have a quick chat with her in case any reporters came up to her, but when he heard the twins laughing upstairs, he decided not to ruin their fun. He puttered around the kitchen before taking a quick look around his study to ensure everything was tucked out of sight and the safe was locked under his desk.
Steps raced downstairs, and he exited his study to see Natalie hugging Lana at the door. “Bye, new brother-in-law!” Lana yelled, waving behind Natalie’s back.
“Bye, Lana. Come back anytime.”
“Oh, I will, don’t you worry about that.” She squeezed her sister’s hand and left.
“Did you two have a nice visit?” Vincent asked as Natalie reached for his hand and fell into his body. “Is she always that excitable?”
“You have no idea. Usually, she’s worse.”
“So, what did she bring you?”
Natalie jumped back, her cheeks vibrant red along with her ears and every other bit of skin he could see. “Nothing, nothing at all. Um, I’m going to finish getting ready and then we can leave, right? Yeah, we’ll be good then.”
“Natalie, what did she buy you?”
“Nothing, nothing,” she called back down the stairs.
He had one foot on the bottom step, ready to go take a peek for himself, when the doorbell rang. Accepting the surprise present would have to wait until that weekend, he peered out the window of the front door to see a squat man standing there, a fedora hat perched on his head and a cell phone in his hand. Vincent cleared his throat and opened the door with a smile. “Can I help you?”
“Mr. Cunningham, I was hoping to catch a few moments of your time.”
“And you would be?”
“Hank Butcher, writer for the Houston Press,” he said, and Vincent stood to his full six-foot-three-inch height. “I have some questions I would like to ask you, if you have the time.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t. If you would like to leave them with Billy Ross, he handles all my interviews. Sorry you had to waste your time.” He tried to close the door, but the man had the gall to put his foot in the way. Vincent nearly went through with slamming the door shut and smashing the man’s foot, but being written off as a man who abused the press was not a good way to start his campaign.
“I’m afraid I will not continue to be turned away, Mr. Cunningham,” the man snapped.
“If you’re referring to my wife shutting you out the other day, let me tell you, off the record, I do not appreciate anyone trying to force their way into my home,” he growled. “I certainly don’t appreciate you doing it to my wife.”
Hank removed his hat with an apologetic smile that came across as a sneer. “I do apologize if I frightened the Mrs.”
“I would be more worried about pissing her off.”
“Is that how you would describe your wife? Easily angered?”
Vincent clenched his jaw as his grip tightened on the door. “That is not what I said and you are not to use anything I say right now, do you understand me?”
“Sure, of course not. As long as I get my interview.”
“I think you need to leave before I call the police for trespassing.” He tried to close the door again, but the man’s foot didn’t budge.
“You won’t even answer my question about the lookalike wife?”
Shit. “Are you watching my house?”
“Of course not, that would be stalking. I was merely passing by and saw a woman who appeared to be your wife leaving the house, but when I glanced back at the front door, I saw your wife clearly standing in the doorway.” Hank rubbed his crinkled forehead. “Is she a twin, by chance? An identical twin?”
“So what?”
“Just curious, is all, if things get complicated.”
Vincent’s chest tightened, and he forced the man out onto the front porch, pulling the front door shut behind him. “I don’t know what you’re implying, and frankly, I don’t care. If you have any questions, you may leave them with Billy Ross as I mentioned before. Otherwise, you are to leave my property and stop harassing my wife and myself,” he seethed.
Hank planted his hat back on his balding head and winked. “If that’s the way you want it.”
“It is,” Vincent huffed.
“All right then. But remember, you had your chance to talk to me first. Good day, Mr. Cunningham. Give my best to your wife—or is it her sister?” The man sniggered as he strode down the walkway.
Vincent glared at him until he reached his car parked along the curb and drove away. He even had the nerve to stick his arm out the window and wave. He tugged his cell out of his back pocket and texted Billy to keep an eye out for anything about him hitting the papers over the weekend. He trusted Natalie with his life and his career, but someone out there clearly had it in for him. It had to be one of his rivals, trying to dig up a scandal. If he wasn’t careful, they would find one big enough to bury his political career for good and tarnish the Cunningham name.
