The Better Man. Amy Vastine

felt so strange as it bounced around her head. “He’s the restaurant manager. I spent the whole day with him.”

      “Oh, honey.” Lucy grabbed and squeezed Kendall’s hand. “No wonder you were ready to fall apart when you got home.”

      Snatching her hand away, Kendall sat back in her chair. “I’m not falling apart. I can’t fall apart. This is the biggest job of my career. I can’t mess it up because this guy reminds me of...” She shook her head, unable to say his name aloud.

      Lucy frowned at her sister before getting up and grabbing the wine bottle off the counter. “How Trevor-like are we talking here?”

      “Very,” Kendall said. Almost identical from a distance. Up close, she noticed the subtle differences—his nose had a small bump, there was no scar on his chin, and his eyes definitely belonged to another soul. Max had brown eyes like hers. Brown with little flecks of gold. They were so warm compared to Trevor’s icy blue.

      “You freaked out when you saw him, didn’t you? Did you faint? Please tell me you didn’t faint. That’s so cliché.” Kendall didn’t answer, but gave a little shrug. Lucy’s mouth dropped open before she began laughing. “Oh, my God, you totally fainted!”

      Kendall’s foot connected with Lucy’s shin. “You have no idea what this is like.”

      Her big sister shook her head. “Oh, K. What am I going to do with you?”

      “Tell me I can do this. Tell me I’ll get this job done and not feel like I’m being haunted.” Haunted was exactly how Kendall felt. Her heart pounded in her chest. Had it always been this relentless? Maybe she was falling apart. This felt like some sort of sick cosmic joke. She had no idea how she was going to survive working side by side with Trevor’s double. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t him. This man would always be a ghost.

      Lucy moved her chair so it was butted up against Kendall’s. “You can do this. This guy is going to be in and out of your life faster than you think. Not to mention, the more you’re around him, the less he’ll seem like Trevor. What’s his name?”

      “Max,” Kendall replied, still testing the name as it came out of her mouth. It was still strange no matter how many times she said it.

      “Max is just some guy. No different than the mailman or the guy at the art store you love to go to.”

      Kendall dropped her chin. “The mailman doesn’t remind me of my dead husband. The guy at the art store is close to Dad’s age. Max, on the other hand, could fool Trevor’s father into thinking his son was still alive.”

      Lucy blew her blond bangs out of her green eyes. “Any chance the Montgomerys had twins and gave one up for adoption?”

      “I seriously doubt it. There was no way Paul would give up anything that belonged to him.” Trevor was gone only because he had been taken. Kendall rested her head on her sister’s shoulder. “Every time I think I’m getting better, something like this knocks me back down.”

      “Stop it,” Lucy said sternly. “You are strong and you are my sister. This is nothing. There are setbacks, and there’s this. This is some weird coincidence, not some terrible twist of fate. Keep your distance from this Max, do your job and keep moving forward.”

      Lucy was right. This was why Kendall confided in Lucy. Her level head came in handy.

      Shuffling feet alerted the two women to Simon’s presence. The head of his stuffed seal was nestled in the crook of the little boy’s elbow. He gave them a closed-mouth smile and scurried around Lucy to Kendall’s other side.

      “I’m hungry,” he whispered in his mother’s ear. Simon didn’t speak aloud in front of Lucy or their other sister, Emma. He talked to Kendall’s mother, but not to her dad, and when everyone was around, he didn’t make a peep.

      “I’ll start dinner in a minute. Did you think of a name for your seal yet?”

      Simon shook his head.

      “Her name should be Lucy, don’t you think?” Lucy asked, petting the seal’s head.

      “How do you know it’s a girl?” Kendall questioned.

      “I adopted the real harp seal. I think I get to choose if the stuffed version is a boy or girl.”

      Kendall shook her head and stood up to start dinner. Of course the seal was part of some bigger cause. Lucy never did things the easy way, like go to a big box store and pick out something from their enormous toy section. In fact, Lucy refused to shop at most chains. She’d even participated in some big rally a couple of weeks ago, protesting against one company’s employment practices. Lucy loved a fight, regardless of whether it was hers or not.

      Simon pulled on his mom’s shirt, and she bent down so he could whisper in her ear. “I want to name him Seal Lo Green.” CeeLo Green, his cat and The Voice had been a big hit in the Montgomery house not too long ago.

      Kendall smiled. “Sorry, sis,” she said, patting Lucy on the shoulder. “Looks like it’s a boy!”

      Lucy scrunched up her nose and pouted. She playfully tugged on Simon’s arm. “You were the last hope I had for your gender, buddy, and you blew it.”

      Simon gave her a confused smile before darting back out into the family room. “I love you, Aunt Lulu,” he said when he was out of sight.

      Kendall’s eyes flew to Lucy’s. He spoke! He wasn’t in the same room with Lucy when he did it, but he spoke. Kendall was going to put that little nugget of positivity in her pocket and keep it. Any good that could come from today was priceless.

      “He is so lucky I love him,” Lucy said before downing the last of her wine. “Anyone else who called me that would be dead right now.” She wasn’t a fan of that particular nickname, even though Simon had been the one to give it to her. It was taboo because someone else used to call her Lulu and that someone was no longer allowed to call Lucy anything.