"Where have you been?" demanded Romey. "Paris has been looking for you."
At present, Paris was chatting with a customer. He held up a crooked looking squash, patiently explaining that even though the vegetable wasn’t the prettiest, the taste would be unlike anything the buyer had ever sampled. That was the reason their booth at the weekly farmer’s markets had a never-ending line of repeat customers. No grocery store could top the taste of what they pulled from their organic fields.
With the sale made, Paris stuffed the money in the till. He lifted his head and their gazes connected. Jules could see the sharp intake of breath he took when he spotted her. Her breathing remained even. Paris swallowed and then displayed a wide grin as he regarded her. Jules tugged at one corner of her mouth, urging her lips to rise.
Even though Paris stood in the full light of the sun, she felt no heat between them. His attentions left her cool, unaffected. Jules needed to tell him that. She needed to let him know that she had no feelings for him, at least not in that way.
“Are you going to answer my question?” said Romey. “Where have you been?”
"Romey, you'll never guess what's just happened to me."
"What?" Romey scanned her sister’s body like a mother would after her child returned after a stint at the playground. "Are you hurt?"
Where the average twins were born moments apart, Romey was the elder twin by an hour. Their mother liked to say that Jules had been a natural homebody and preferred to stay in the familiar fixtures of her mom's belly.
"Romey -no. Stop that.” Jules brushed her sister’s probing hands away from her body. “I’m fine. In fact, I'm better than fine."
Jules took a deep breath, drawing out the moment. It was a big announcement she was about to make. The biggest admission of her life. It needed the dramatic pause.
“I…am…” Jules took another deep breath, letting go of the last two words with a wondrous sigh. “In love."
Romey's expression didn’t change. Her gaze still roamed over her twin as though she were looking for a bruise, a cut, some sort of wound. Finally, she inhaled and then let out a sigh of her own.
"Well, good,” Romey said. “I knew that's what you wanted. If you've realized that you can love Paris, all the better."
"No, no, Romey.” Jules held up her hands, waving them to ward off such a notion. “I’m not in love with Paris."
“Then I don’t understand? I don't see how you're going to marry Paris if you think you're in love with someone else? You haven’t shown interest in any other man on the commune.”
“He’s not from the commune,” Jules admitted. "We just met."
“Today?” asked Romey.
Jules nodded.
“Here?” Romey pointed to the patch of dirt beneath their feet.
Jules bit her lip but gave her sister another nod.
Romey regarded her twin for a long moment. Jules could see the wheels turning in her sister’s head. While Jules had stayed behind to luxuriate in their mother’s belly for that hour, Romey had taken the head start to get the lay of the land. Those additional sixty minutes gave Romey the false sense that she was wiser than her younger sister.
“I think these oils and sugary scents are getting to you," said Romey. "You're not making any sense."
Jules knew better than to try to speak emotions with her science-minded sister. She had to use logic. Although logic didn't actually apply in this matter because Jules had fallen in love, head over heels in love, with a man she'd only just met. A man she didn’t know much of anything about.
Except that his name was David. And that his friends were cruel for calling him Porco. Even though pigs were delightful creatures and smart too. as evidenced by her pet pig Hamlet who could always track her down no matter where she was on the commune. Jules bet David was just as smart and loyal as a pig.
But that was all she knew about him. That and that he'd dated Rosalind. And possibly another girl… or two. Or more…
But none of that mattered. What mattered was what she’d felt between them. That had been real.
"Who is this man?" said Romey.
"His name is David."
"David what?"
“I… I um… don't know his last name…yet."
Romey raised a brow. Though they were twins, Jules had never mastered the raise of one eyebrow. Or the lowering of it.
“Okay,” Romey said. “What does he do?"
“I, um…” Jules huffed in frustration. Trust her practical sister to ruin it. “Romey, we just met."
"And now what?" her sister asked.
"I don't know? All I know is that he made my heart skip a beat. That’s never happened with Paris. That’s never happened with any guy I’ve know.”
"But you're in love?” Romey was using her logical voice. The voice that went if this then that must follow. “If you’re heart skips, then love must follow, right?”
Well, it didn’t sound wrong. Before Jules could respond, Romey kept treading down her logic trail.
“What you experienced was likely a heart palpitation, which happens during exercise, heat, or even low blood sugar. It’s hot out here, so you’re likely overheated. Have you eaten?”
“What? Um… no, not since breakfast.”
“And you’ve been walking, in the heat, with no food in your belly. So, you see, it’s not love. It’s your body crying for shade, water, and sustenance.”
Jules seethed. How had the two of them shared a womb? How, in fact, did they share the same DNA when they saw the world so differently?
"This is why I didn't want to tell you,” said Jules.
"Paris is a smart decision,” Romey said. “Don't throw your life away on misfiring synapses. All over a man you just met and know nothing about.“
Romey reached out to rub Jules’s shoulder. The wound wasn’t there, her sister had plucked at the center of Jules’s heart. Misfired synapses or not, Jules was determined to find David and see what would follow.
She wouldn’t get that chance at this moment. Paris was headed toward her. Just as he took his first step in her direction, his gaze shifted. A dark cloud passed over his features as he watched a woman walk down the cleared path of the fair.
Brenda Vance walked past the commune’s booth. In both hands, she held leads. Tethered to the ends of each lead was a young calf. Children trailed after the female rancher, unaware that those innocent animals would one day reach their maturity and then be led to slaughter.
Jules wasn’t a fool. She knew that was the natural order of things. She simply chose to get her sustenance a different way, the same way the cows did. From the fields.
What upset her was that the Vances tainted those fields with harsh, unnatural chemicals.
As she walked by with her calves and parade of children, Brenda glanced over at the booth finding Paris. Jules held her breath as the generations-old enemies glared at one another. Unlike their fathers who had come to blows, Paris and Brenda only threw daggers with their eyes. That and the legal paperwork each of their lawyers had filed, bound both their hands. The agreement of when, where, and what chemicals could be sprayed had kept the peace so far. But that peace was as tenuous as the thin boundary connecting their lands.
Brenda gave a nod of her head, her eyes ever watchful. Paris deigned to do the same. But it was clear that a line had been drawn in the sand between the two lands. Jules stood firmly behind her family on the commune, the place she’d lived all her life, where she drew her sustenance as well as her livelihood.
There were only two Vances remaining. Brenda’s brother was one of the town’s pastors. His efforts had lent a huge hand in keeping the peace between the families. Brenda had recently married a soldier, and now she had a small army on her side. A group of tall, well-formed men flanked the cattle rancher. Jules’s heart skipped another few beats when she recognized the face of one man in particular.
She’d only seen his shaggy brown hair once, but she’d have easily picked him out of a crowd. She’d been under the direct assault of that grin only moments ago. Seeing it again made her stagger a footstep back now. She took another step back as David’s grin slowly fell.
Recognition dawned in his dark eyes as their gazes locked. Happiness, confusion, awe, denial all lit his face at once. Jules had the urge to shield her gaze from the onslaught of his emotions. She didn’t get the chance to.
Paris stepped in front of her, blocking her view of David. Jules shifted to catch another glimpse of him. Her heartbeat tripped over itself as she realized they were looking at each other from across an imaginary line in the sand.