A shadow went past her window. She wasn’t one to believe in spirits or ghosts but her bedroom had an eerie feeling at night.
She heard something shuffle in her closet.
“Who’s there?” she called out then noticed that the light in the closet was on.
She was sure she’d turned it off. She crept over to it and went inside to see if something had fallen. The closet door closed behind her. She spun around and tried to open the door, but it was fastened shut. How had she managed to get locked in? She banged on the door then screamed.
Moments later it swung open and James stood there wearing grey cotton pajamas. “What’s going on?”
She dashed out of the closet and looked around the room. “I couldn’t get out. Someone locked me in.”
“I didn’t see anything,” Jackson said, coming into the room dressed in a green and black stripped robe, “and it locks from the inside.”
Ava looked at him surprised; he should have left and gone to his apartment by now. “What are you still doing here?”
“It’s called a family house for a reason.”
Ava turned back to James. “I didn’t make it up. Someone locked me in.”
“Why would someone do that?” James asked.
“To scare me.”
“There’s no reason to scare you.”
“Who would want to do that?” Jackson asked.
“Sure you don’t know?” she challenged him.
James frowned. “Why would he want to lock you in a closet?”
Jackson shoved his hands in the pockets of his robe with a smug grinned. “Yes, why would I want to do that?”
Ava glared at him, knowing she couldn’t share his motive without revealing what she’d done to him. It was a petty revenge, but it worked. “Never mind.”
“Perhaps it was a nightmare,” Jackson said. “I can relate. I feel like I’m living one right now.”
“Go back to bed,” James said to him. “I’ll stay with her.”
“No,” Ava said quickly. “That’s okay. I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll stay until you fall asleep.” James sent his brother a look. Jackson nodded then left.
“It’s embarrassing enough,” Ava said when Jackson closed the door behind him. “You don’t have to do this. At least I didn’t wake up anyone else.”
“Hmm.” James sat on the edge of the bed, like a looming dark presence in the bright white room. He looked up at her, thoughtful. “You and Jackson know something that I don’t. What is it?”
Ava rubbed her arms, feeling suddenly bare in her pale blue cotton nightgown. “Nothing.”
“I know Jackson locked you in the closet. He did it to me once when we were kids.”
“Why?”
He measured her with a cool look. “I made him mad.”
Ava shook her head. “You don’t have to stay. He can try to get rid of me but it won’t work.”
“Why would he want to get rid of you?” James asked in a soft voice.
She’d said too much. Damn Jackson and damn James for being so observant. She searched her mind for the perfect lie. “Before I knew you’d switched places, at the rehersal dinner I may have said something that I shouldn’t have. I thought he was you after all and…” Her words trailed off.
James nodded encouraging her to continue. “And what did you say?”
“I…” She chewed her lip, hoping to look properly contrite. “I said James—you—dressed better than him. That he had the flair but you had the taste. I’d hoped you’d talk to him and convince him to tone it down a little. It’s not my fault that he was really Jackson.”
James nodded and Ava felt her tension easing as she watched him swallow her lie. “That would do it. His style means a lot to him.”
“Yes.”
“You’re lucky I convinced him not to wear the red suit he really wanted to wear to the wedding.”
“Red?”
“He called it crushed mauve or something, but it just looked like red to me.”
Ava sat on the single reading chair that faced the bed. “That would have been ridiculous.”
“It would have matched your dress.”
“My dress?”
“Yes.” James nodded with a faint smile. “He initially had ideas about that too. Mom persuaded him otherwise. He likes to put on a show.”
“That’s true.”
“But it’s his style that first caught your eye, right?”
Ava felt her tension return. Was James questioning her motives? She had to be careful not to criticize Jackson too much; she had planned to marry him after all. “What?”
“On the cruise. I noticed you watching him.”
She blinked trying to remember. Edgar had invited her on a night cruise and she’d met Jackson for the second time, as she’d planned. But she didn’t remember James. “You were there?”
He nodded.
“No, you weren’t. I would have noticed you.”
“Really?”
“I would have remembered if there had been two of you.”
“But you didn’t.”
She frowned. “How could I have missed you?”
“Think back to the balcony. Did you notice anything about that moment that was strange?”
Ava let her mind drift back to the time on the cruise. She’d spent time flattering Edgar and was heady with a chance to meet his stepson again. She took a break to get away and enjoy the sea air, the breeze toying with the hem of her silk blue dress. She’d been surprised to see Jackson alone on the deck.
“How did you get up here so fast?” she asked him.
He turned to her surprised and opened his mouth, but she waved his words away. “Never mind. I don’t care. It’s nice to see you out of that jacket. What are you trying to be, eh? A disco ball?” She held up her hand again. “That was a rhetorical question. I know you’re into fashion more than I am.”
She was about to say something else, but he suddenly grabbed her and pulled her to the side just as a young man reached the railing and lost his dinner over the side.
“I guess someone had too much to drink,” Ava said, wondering why she suddenly felt nervous. There was something different about Jackson, steadier, more in control. His arm around her shoulder made her body warm in a way it never had been before.
“We should get back before we’re missed.”
“You go first,” he said.
She remembered returning to the lower deck and seeing Jackson in the hall. “Did you run here?” she asked him amazed.
“What are you talking about? I’ve been looking for you.”
She looked up towards the stairs. “Why were you looking for me when we were just—”
“I have someone I want you to meet,” he interrupted and then she forgot her confusion and pushed the incident from her mind. Now she understood as she looked at James. “That was you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You didn’t give me a chance, for one.”
“For one? What’s the other reason?”
He shrugged, his heated gaze holding her still. “At that moment I wanted to be him.”
She folded her arms and looked away not trusting herself not to fall prey to his invitation. “You should probably go back to your room. I’m fine now.”
“You haven’t broken my rules yet so you’re still safe.”
“I don’t feel safe.”
He stood. “I’m a man of my word.”
Ava also rose to her feet, not sure what he would do next. She wanted to be prepared. “When you’re not lying.”
He smiled and patted the bed. “Go to bed.”
She scuttled past him and got under the covers. But the extra sheets didn’t make her feel any less vulnerable. “You don’t have to stay.”
He took her seat in the reading chair. “I’ll leave in a minute.”
She closed her eyes, pretending to sleep, but when she lifted her head moments later, the chair was empty. She hadn’t heard him leave.