“It’s the truth, doll.” He shrugs while grinning.
“She’s still your sister.”
“She is that, unfortunately,” he agrees, then asks, “What’s your sister like?”
“I have four.”
“Four sisters?” His eyes go wide with surprise.
“Yep.”
“Any brothers?”
I shake my head. “My dad always wanted a son, but he ended up with five girls instead.”
“Damn,” he mutters.
“That pretty much sums it up. Grandma calls it karma, since Dad was a little bit loose before he met my mom.”
“Loose,” he repeats with a soft chuckle.
“You know what I mean.” I smack his chest with the back of my hand, and he grabs it before I can pull it back.
“I’m gonna keep hold of this for a few, since you can’t seem to keep your hands to yourself.” I watch him tangle his fingers with mine, and my heart starts to flutter while my belly dips. “So what are your sisters like?”
“They’re the best,” I admit quietly, still transfixed on my hand in his, which is twice the size of mine and rough, like he works with them often.
“You guys are close?”
“Really close. My whole family is like that though.” I meet his gaze. “What about you and your family? Are you guys close?”
“No, not really.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is,” he says, but that does nothing to stop the sadness I feel for him.
“So you only have one sibling?”
“Yeah,” he says after a moment, but the way he says it makes me think that’s not the full truth, and I drop my eyes from his.
“So tell me about this Mike guy you used to know.”
“What?” My eyes fly up, and his head tips to the side.
“The guy you said looks like me. Is he your ex?”
“No.” I roll my lips together, trying to find a way out of this conversation, when just few minutes ago I was trying to build up the courage to bring it up.
“If he’s not your ex, who is he?” He frowns.
“A guy I met on a dating app,” I admit while studying him, trying to see if there’s any type of recognition in his expression. There’s not, not even a flicker. Then again, there wasn’t even a hint earlier today when I questioned him either.
“And he looked like me?” He raises a brow, and I let out a breath.
“He was you,” I admit, tugging my hand from his and looking back out at the water to hide how humiliated I am. “That, or he was using your photos.”
“I’ve never been on a dating app in my life, doll.”
Of course he hadn’t. I mean, a guy who looks like him wouldn’t need a dating app to find a woman willing to date him. He could just walk up to any woman, ask them out and they’d swoon right into his waiting arms.
“Right,” I mutter, my cheeks so hot they feel like they are on fire.
“So you met a guy who looked like me on a dating app?”
“I did. I talked to him every day for a few weeks and made plans to meet up with him, but he stood me up.” I let out a hollow laugh. “The night that happened, my sister took one of the photos he was using on the app and did some kind of photo search. She found out who the guy in the picture actually was.” I glance over at him. “So imagine my surprise when I came face-to-face with you right after I pulled that kid out of the water.”
I shake my head, thinking it all still seems too strange to believe. I also now realize I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if April had done that image search sooner.
“Jesus.”