Free Falling for the Wrong Twin by Kathy Lyons Page B

couldn’t win without him and he’d felt a responsibility to his teammates, the owners, and the fans. So he’d gone.
    Which meant that his twin had grieved all alone--and under pressure--while Mike had been able to stay with the rest of his entire family. At least now Rick’s recent wild, tabloid-exposed lifestyle made a little more sense.
    Then Rick had turned the tables on him and started digging into Mike’s private thoughts. After twenty minutes of ribbing, his twin’s advice went like this: any 29 year old man still having wet dreams seriously needed to get laid. And since Anna was the only woman available--and clearly Mike was into her--he needed to make the moves on the girl right now.
    As in…right now at breakfast because that was the only time he’d seen her yesterday before she’d disappeared all day into her room. Right now when she was sitting with his mother and aunt, regaling them with some story about Scott Bakula. His mother--a big Quantum Leap fan--was in seventh heaven. His niece and nephew, however, were more impressed with the chocolate chip pancakes Bethany was promising them.
    And he… well, he just stood there with a burn on his cheeks and an ache in his groin. Hell, it wasn’t like him to be so awkward around a woman. But he’d never asked a woman out before while she was sitting with his mother. In his mind his mother and dating were in entirely separate places. Two states apart and never to touch, ever. Especially given his more dominant desires.
    It didn’t help that Anna was dressed in black skinny jeans and a blousy orange top that did nothing to hide her full breasts or sweet curves. He’d touched those curves last night. He’d spread those long legs and buried himself so deep he’d thought he’d disappeared. Sure, he’d done it all in a dream, but somehow his dick didn’t seem to care. It was up for a repeat, and she was sitting next to his mother.
    “Someone get Mike a cup of coffee,” his mother said with a laugh. “I think he’s fallen asleep on us.”
    “He’s not asleep,” Aunt Tilde shot back. “He’s been blinded by Anna’s beauty.”
    Anna, of course, said nothing at all. She didn’t need to. She stood up, filled a coffee cup from the thermos on the table, then extended it to him. He took it greedily, doing his best not to stare at the curve of her full chest. Sweet heaven, Jennifer Lopez herself never looked so good.
    “Sit down, darling,” his mother said as she pulled out the chair next to him. “I’ve been doing some on-line shopping and I thought I’d asked you some questions.”
    That broke Mike out of his Anna Lopez haze. His mother loved shopping. The only thing that had kept her from complete financial disaster is that she didn’t like going out so much anymore. But give her an internet connection and life could get very dicey, very fast.
    “Mom, what have you done?”
    “Nothing yet, dear. Chrissy said I should ask you about this first. And it’s only a few thousand dollars--”
    “Holy shit, Mom. A few thousand--”
    “Michael! There are kids at the table!”
    He cut off his next curse, choosing instead to swallow more coffee rather than let fly. It was too late, of course. Henry had just gotten his pancakes, so he appeared completely absorbed in his food, thank God. Not so with little Darla.
    Darla looked up with big brown eyes and said with absolute clarity, “Holy shit, Mom!” That might have been the end of it, but Aunt Tilde burst out laughing. Anna too, though she tried to cover it with a cough. And that just spurred little Darla into repeating it over and over and over.
    “Holy shit, Mom! Holy shit, Mom!”
    Chrissy was going to kill him.
    Meanwhile, Anna started laughing for real. Not at little Darla, but at him. Great. Then she turned her attention to his niece as she waved a bunch of grapes at her.
    “Hey little one, do you like grapes? These are grapes. Grapes .” Then she plucked off one and tossed it onto the tray of