Page 12 of The Charade
Cambrielle snorted. "More like Mother Nature knew Nash would need the head start to keep up."
"So you're younger?" Ava asked my sister, trying to piece things together.
"Yes," Cambrielle said. "I'm a junior. Both my brothers are seniors."
"Both your brothers?" Ava furrowed her brow and glanced around the table as if looking for a Nash look-alike.
Before Ava could look confused for too long, I cleared my throat, held up my hand, and said, "I'm the other brother."
The small pucker line that had formed between her eyebrows deepened as she looked at me and then at Nash. We both had the same Hastings’s blond hair and blue eyes, but beyond that, the family resemblance wasn't as strong. "Fraternal twins?"
I shook my head. "Different moms."
Nash was the purebred. I was the illegitimate son my dad had sired on a trip to Guatemala eight months before he and Dawn had gotten back together.
"Oh." She nodded, understanding seeming to fill her amber-colored eyes. "That makes more sense."
"I bet you were wondering how I was lucky enough to score all the looks," Nash said with a wink.
"Um…" Ava pursed her lips, and after flicking her gaze toward me for a split second, she said, "O-of course."
The flush that filled her cheeks may have been caused by the fact that she was being asked to judge my looks compared to my brother, and that made her uncomfortable. But it wasn't the first time a girl had blushed when studying my unusual features.
Cambrielle always told me I was too arrogant for my own good, but it just came with the territory. I knew I was good looking—a half-Latino, half-Caucasian mix that got the best of my parents’ features: my mom's perfectly smooth, light bronze skin, and my dad's aqua-blue eyes and square jawline.
But what did that matter, anyway?
I'd had dozens of girls flinging themselves at me on our trip to the Hamptons this past summer. So what?
I wasn't like my brother Ian. I didn't care about finding my next plaything. And I wasn't like Nash either—eager to have anyone want me.
Being disciplined was what really mattered when it came to being successful in life, and if anything, girls were just a distraction.
A distraction I wanted nothing to do with this year.
4
Ava
"So, tell us all about you,"Cambrielle said after I'd officially been introduced to her and her brothers.
I usually did okay talking to new people, being the more outgoing twin, but for some reason, I was flustered sitting at this table full of new, beautiful people.
The fact that her brother Carter—the guy who'd basically ignored me when we'd met earlier—was sitting across from me and judging my every move didn't help, either.
But even though he was probably the least welcoming person I'd met today, he was still gorgeous. His pale blue eyes against his light tan skin reminded me of that famous National Geographic photo of the "Afghan Girl."
While his brother and sister had been giving me a more-than-friendly welcome, it was Carter whom I was hyper-aware of. So aware that my face burned every time I looked in his direction and caught him studying me.
But Cambrielle had just asked me a question, right?
I racked my brain, trying to remember what she'd asked. She wanted me to tell her about myself?
"What do you want to know?" I asked, hoping I'd guessed right.
"Where are you from? What grade are you in?"
Easy questions.
