Happy Thanksgiving! Sneaking this in for those of you reading in bed after a day of indulgence. 😉 Find chapter 2 here.

3

They left the restaurant and walked several blocks to a chocolate bar and ordered a few different desserts that they all shared in addition to another round of drinks. At some point everyone was feeding everyone else a bite of their food and Elizabeth ended up wiping a dollop of whipped cream off Will’s nose while she laughed. Jane dabbed her napkin around Charlie’s mouth and both women dissolved into giggles when they realized they were taking care of the wrong man.

Of course, neither man complained.

“So, which one of you is older?” asked Charles. By this point, they were all thoroughly buzzed and heading toward full-out drunk. They sat in a collection of lavish chairs and small sofas in the corner of their third venue of the night, a bar just up the street from the chocolate place.

The women looked at each other and giggled lightly again. “Should we tell them?” asked Elizabeth.

“I don’t know. It’s been a pretty interesting night so far. I don’t know if they could handle it,” Jane replied.

They looked at the men with identical mischievous looks, but on Jane it was surprising and therefore intriguing, while on Elizabeth it looked downright dangerous.

“Handle what?” asked Charles.

“Jane’s older,” said Elizabeth. “A little bit.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “Quit trying to make yourself sound younger. It was four minutes.”

“Didn’t stop you from bossing me around when we were kids,” retorted Elizabeth.

“You’re twins?” asked a surprised Will.

“Triplets,” they said in unison.

Charles’s eyes were enormous and Will spluttered on his drink.

“See, that’s what always happens,” said Elizabeth with a shake of her head.

“That’s why we don’t usually tell people,” added Jane.

“You all right?” Elizabeth hit Will’s back lightly as he coughed.

He nodded.

“So where’s the other one?” asked Charles.

“Mary lives in San Francisco,” said Jane.

“You didn’t want to live nearer to each other as adults?” asked Will.

“Yes and no,” said Jane.

“You have to understand, growing up triplets makes you a bit of an exhibit,” said Elizabeth.

“Everyone knows who you are, everyone wants to ask you a million ridiculous questions.” Jane shook her head. “It’s exhausting. When it was time to go to college, we were all looking into different fields and it was natural to just go where we wanted without wondering where the other would be. If we were close, okay, if not, that was okay, too. It wasn’t like we’d lose touch.”

“So you’re a physical therapist, you’re a lawyer, and Mary is?” asked Charles.

“A musician,” answered Jane.

“She plays viola in the symphony,” added Elizabeth.

“Wow. That’s impressive,” said Charles.

Will was looking at the women silently, trying to see the resemblance. He also had to admit to a small amount of doubt in their story. After all, they had played a joke on them once already tonight, who was to say they weren’t doing it again?

“If you’re trying to figure out if we look alike, you’re looking in the wrong place,” said Elizabeth to Will.

“Excuse me?”

“We get that a lot, people looking at us, trying to see if we are even a tiny bit identical. I’ll tell you now—we are completely fraternal. We each had our own egg, thank you very much, we just happened to be womb mates.”

He smiled at her explanation. “So you have absolutely nothing in common?”

“Not exactly. Jane,” she caught her sister’s attention from where she was talking to Charles. “Smile.” The girls pressed their faces together and showed Will, then turned to Charles to show them their identical smiles and matching perfect teeth. “And,” Elizabeth said. She pulled her hair back behind her ears. “We have the same elf ear.”

They each turned their heads one way to show a regular ear, then the other way to show that their right ears were pointed on top.

“I stand corrected,” Will said with hands up in defeat.

They giggled and Jane went back to talking to Charles who sat in the chair next to her side of the sofa while Elizabeth continued her conversation with Will on her side.

“We also have the same toes, though Jane’s feet are bigger than mine. And we have the same knees. See?” She extended her leg out next to her sister’s; Jane was already wearing a shorter dress than Elizabeth’s and one leg was stretched out in front of her as she leaned over the arm of the sofa.

Will smiled and nodded. “Does your other sister share your knees and ears?” he asked with a restrained smile.

“Actually, no. Her feet are the same size as mine, though. But if you saw her, you’d know we were all related. She’s the link between us. We all have the same smile, but Jane and Mary have the same eyes, and me and Mary have the same nose and chin.”

“Is she blonde or brunette like you?”

“Neither! She’s a redhead!” She fished in her purse, then pulled out her phone. “Here.” She turned it toward him and showed him a picture of three women in sparkly party hats.

“A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead walk into a party?” he said.

“Yeah, I know, we get that a lot. That was New Year’s Eve last year. We came to stay with Jane and celebrated in Times Square. It was really fun.”

“And noisy and dirty,” he added.

She smiled. “And that, too.” She sipped her drink and leaned further over the arm of the sofa. “So, what do you do with yourself, Will?”

“For work or for play?”

She tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips. “Hmmm. For play.”

He smiled. “Mountain climbing.”

Her eyes popped open. “Mountain climbing? Wow. I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

“Why’s that?”

“You seem so… restrained.”

“Restrained?”

“Controlled.”

“I would think control would be useful on the side of a mountain.”

She nodded. “I can’t argue with that. I’ve just always thought climbers were wilder—thrill seekers. I stand corrected.” She raised her glass towards him in a silent salute.

“Thank you.” They each took a sip and he smiled and looked down, shaking his head slightly, then he looked back at her, an odd look in his eye.

She squinted and stared at him. “What?”

He shook his head again. His mouth opened, then closed in a grimace. “I don’t climb mountains.”

“What?”

“It sounds terrifying. And you’re right, I’m not a thrill seeker, and I’m too restrained to risk my life for a temporary rush.” Her eyes were so wide he could see all the way around her green irises. “You played a trick on us, so I thought I’d play one on you, but I’m a terrible liar.”

She stared at him in shock for a moment, then she smiled and began laughing. “You’re right, you’re not a very good liar.” She laid a hand on his arm and he laughed with her. “Pro tip: commit to the story. If you break too soon, no one will believe you.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“So, what do you really do for fun?”

“I play racquetball.”

It was such a different answer from the one he had already given her that she couldn’t help but laugh. Or maybe it was the cocktail. “That’s certainly safer than mountain climbing.”

He chuckled. “I do enjoy hiking, though. I just don’t get to do it as often as I’d like. It’s easier to pop into a gym than a state park.”

“Of course. So is it your job that keeps you chained to the city, or something else?”

“Mostly work.”

“Are you going to tell me what you do? Or shall I guess?”

“Guessing might be amusing.”

“Hmm. You wear that jacket like you were born in it; I assume you’ve been wearing it at least a decade. So, something in an office.” She tapped her lip with her finger. “You weren’t at the conference and I’ve never heard of you, so I don’t think you’re a lawyer. You’re too honest to be a politician, though I think you could get elected if you tried hard enough.” She smiled mischievously and he raised a brow. “You’re good with numbers, but I don’t know if that’s because of your job or a natural talent. Maybe you were a Mathlete.”

“How do you know I’m good with numbers?”

“You figured the tip at the last two places without checking—a perfect fifteen percent.”

“How did you know it was perfect?”

“I was a Mathlete,” she said proudly.

He smiled.

“You’re not scruffy enough to be in IT, and not smooth enough for sales. Pardon me saying so, but you clearly earn a good living. I could see you doing something in management. Definitely not medicine.”

“Why not medicine?”

“There’s a raw edge to most doctors that you don’t have. Especially the successful ones. And you didn’t ask any medical questions about a set of triplets you came into close contact with. So you can’t be a scientist either. Doctors and scientists are almost insatiably curious about things like that. It’s what makes them good at their jobs.” She shrugged.

“So you’ve narrowed it down. What’s left?”

“I’m going to say you’re not in publishing, advertising, or banking. Maybe finance… but I doubt it. Definitely some sort of business. And you’re in charge in some way. A VP maybe? Even a president of something? A company that makes things or does things. You would want to be useful.”

He was looking at her intently, his eyes dark and steady on hers.

“Am I getting close?”

“Unnervingly close.”

She smiled. “If I really wanted to be clever, I’d say you work in a family business that you inherited in some way, possibly even several generations old.”

“Why would you say that?”

“You’re proud, but in the best sense of the word. And you’re terribly confident, but not cocky. The kind of confident that comes with generations of security and good decisions. Regardless of whether or not I’m right about your job, I’d lay money on your family.”

“Really?”

“Really. I knew a guy in law school. He was old money—crazy old money. His family ran charities and sat on more boards than I have fingers. There were plenty of other rich kids around—spoiled and entitled. But he wasn’t like that. He was quietly confident. Like he knew his place in the world, and nothing and no one would ever be able to shake that. He could trace his family back more than twenty generations. That kind of solidity can’t be bought.” She took a sip of her drink and pointed at him. “And you have it.”

He smiled, slow and dreamy and just a little boyish. Her insides twisted up and she blinked hard to clear her vision.

“How do you do that?” he asked softly.

“Do what?”

“Know everything about me in one evening?”

She flushed. “I don’t know everything. I don’t know your favorite color, or what you like to do on Sunday mornings, or your dog’s name.”

“Red, walk in the park, and I don’t have a dog.”

“You don’t?”

“I’m not home enough.”

“Ahh. You never did tell me what you do that keeps you away from home so much that you can’t have a dog.”

“I run a division of a large company called Pemberley.”

“Pemberley?”

He nodded.

“I did a deal with them last year.”

“Did you? May I ask which deal?”

“Of course. It’s no secret. I was the counsel for Dovedale when they sold a factory to Pemberley.”

His brows raised. “I know of the deal. It wasn’t my division, so I don’t know any details. You must be pretty successful yourself if you have such illustrious clients.”

“I do all right,” she said quietly, swirling the last of the ice in her glass.

Will watched her stare into her drink, then looked up and met Charles’s eye. His friend raised a brow, and Will matched his look, shooting a quick glance to Jane and back to Charles. Charles almost shrugged, then Jane released a massive yawn and stood.

“This has been really fun, but I’m beat. Shall we call it a night?” She looked to her sister and the two of them seemed to have some sort of conversation without words.

Liz nodded and stood. “I’m exhausted. Let’s get out of here.”

They made their way outside and the men went to the corner to hail a cab. Elizabeth and Charles were staying at the same hotel, and Jane lived ten blocks north of their current location.

“Is Will taking you home?” Elizabeth asked.

“That was the plan, but,” Jane hesitated.

“Do you think he’s going to try something?”

“No! I just want to avoid the awkwardness.” She looked her sister in the eye. “We need to talk.”

“We do. How about I go home with you?”

“Perfect. Maybe meet the guys for brunch if they’re free?”

“You sure you want to do that?”

“Maybe we should check with them in the morning.”

“Good idea.”

They looked up as Charles jogged back to them. “Will’s got a cab. Shall we?”

They followed him to the corner; it was impossible to miss the anxious looks between the guys.

“Slight change of plan, gentleman,” Liz said. “I’m going home with Jane. Do you two mind sharing a cab and letting us take this one?”

“Not at all,” Will replied automatically.

Liz thought he was one of those guys trained so thoroughly with a certain set of manners that they became automatic. In this situation, she was more than grateful for it.

The sisters smiled and stepped into the cab, each saying they would call or text the next day as she ducked in. It wasn’t lost on the men that they didn’t specify whom they would call.

Chapter 4