Free Entangled Moments (Moments in Time) by Dori Lavelle

robe, and
tiptoed to the bathroom. I closed the door but didn’t lock it, so as not to
raise suspicion.
    Gripping the basin with both hands until my knuckles
whitened, I squeezed my eyes shut. With every fiber of my being, I wished what
I’d just seen meant nothing. That it was a simple coincidence.
    But I couldn’t spend the rest of the weekend with Nick. As
long as I was this confused, I had to leave.
    I needed to find out the truth.
     
    ***
     
    I was brushing my teeth with one of the new toothbrushes I
found at the basin when Nick walked in, a towel around his waist, his hair
messy.
    It would be so hard to leave him. Especially since he looked
so handsome. His broad shoulders, his smooth, muscular chest and biceps made me
want to touch him. But I feared this thing between us might be more complicated
than I had anticipated. Maybe it wasn’t a simple story of boy meets girl and falls
in love.
    “Morning, beautiful.” He kissed my neck, picked up the other
toothbrush, and squeezed toothpaste onto the bristles.
    “Morning.” I rinsed my mouth, trying to find a way to tell
him I had to go.
    He held his toothbrush in midair. “Are you okay?”
    I wiped my mouth with a fluffy towel, avoiding his eyes. “I’m
fine. I’m sorry, Nick. I need to leave today.” I looked up then.
    Nick’s eyebrows shot up. “Where are you going? I thought—”
    “Home. I can’t spend any more time with you.”
    “Did I do something to upset you? Offend you in any way? I
thought we both had a wonderful time last night.”
    “I did, I really did. It’s just that I promised to help out
at Oasis this weekend. I can’t let them down.” Last night, when we took breaks
between lovemaking, I’d opened up to him about working at the shelter, and he’d
been impressed.
    I walked back into the bedroom, and Nick followed,
toothbrush still in hand.
    I gathered my clothes and felt his eyes on me.
    Before he could guilt me into staying, I slipped into my
dress and sandals, grabbed my purse, and headed for the door. “Bye, Nick.”
    “Carlene,” he called, as my hand reached for the doorknob.
    “You don’t really need to go, do you?”
    I bit my lip and didn’t respond for a while. He could tell I
was lying. But I saw no other way to remove myself from this situation. “I do.”
I opened the door and almost collided with someone carrying a breakfast tray.
    “Room service?” the woman asked.
    I turned to look back at Nick. He had ordered breakfast, and
I was leaving him hanging. He cocked his head to one side as if to ask if I’d
change my mind.
    I shook my head and walked past the woman without looking
back.
     
    ***
     
    Back at my apartment, I switched on my computer and opened the
Internet browser. My shaking fingers flew over the keyboard as I started a
search.
    First, I typed “Nick Johnson” and then “Christopher Brown.”
Nothing useful. There was a lot about Nick, as I’d expected, and little about
Chris, except about him being captain of his football team in college.
    I’d just closed an article when a thought crossed my mind.
Fingers shaking, I typed in “Nick Johnson and brother.” Chris had been adopted,
so there was a possibility.
    As the search results came up, I slipped my bottom lip
between my teeth and bit on it, drawing blood. I clicked on the first article: “Nick
Johnson meets long lost brother.” The first photo was of the two men hugging
and laughing. One of them I had loved, and the other I loved. The further I
scrolled down the page, the more I gasped for breath. Nick and Chris were not
only brothers—they were twins, separated at birth.
    I clapped a hand over my mouth and darted to the bathroom,
fell to my knees, and retched into the toilet bowl as tears flooded my eyes.

 
    Chapter Fourteen
     
    For one week, I couldn’t face the world. Seeing Nick was out
of the question.
    How could I see him and not tell him the truth? How could I
listen to him talk about his brother when I kept a devastating