“I was just wondering if you like amusement parks.” Close enough.
“Is that a hard limit for you? Whether or not your dates enjoy the Tilt-A-Whirl?” His response is light, but I caught the quick blink that tells me he didn’t buy my response to his question.
“I like them, but I tend to get motion-sick after a couple of rides,” I admit with a shrug. Is this a metaphor for my love life as well? Get in and out before anyone gets dizzy? “I never get sick of the arcade games or the cotton candy though.”
“If it’s not a deal-breaker, then I’ll admit theme parks aren’t my first choice of holiday. Of course, I’d never have picked a tour of American historic sites either and it’s turning out to be far more”—he pauses and eyes me slowly—”lively than I’d expected.”
I blush. He has a way of making a simple response sound indecent. I clear my throat before speaking. “What would your preference have been?”
“When I have the time? Skiing.”
“I’ve never been skiing.”
“No?” He glances at me and starts to say something then stops. I wonder if he’s stopping himself from making a throwaway comment about the future such as, We should go sometime.
We’ve exited the lobby of the hotel and I expect to get into a cab, but he guides me towards a waiting black SUV, so I assume he’s called an Uber. I guess this means we’re not going to the pancake house across the street, which makes me giggle.
Jennings slides into the back of the SUV after me and takes my hand, kissing the back of it. “Something funny?”
I tap my finger against the window in the direction of the International House of Pancakes across the street. “IHOP,” I tell him. “It’s a chain restaurant. When we were kids my sister called it ‘I Jump’ till we were like…” I stop. I can’t tell him we’re the same age, that’s way too much information. “Till she was like seven,” I finish. “That’s a stupid story. I don’t know why I told it to you.”
“It’s not a stupid story. I enjoyed hearing it. Are you close with your sister?”
You could say that, since we’re identical twins and I’m wearing her clothes and living in her apartment. “She’s my other half. Do you have any siblings?”
“Two half-sisters. I don’t really know them. We grew up in different households and they’re much younger than I am. They were raised in Scotland. I’ve only met them a handful of times actually.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why? Scotland is lovely. It’s hardly a tragic situation.”
“No.” I laugh. “No offense to Scotland. I meant I was sorry you weren’t closer with your sisters. I can’t imagine life without my sister.”
“Yeah, well. It is what it is.” He runs a hand over his jaw but otherwise doesn’t give away if this is something that bothers him. “I’ve a cousin I’m close with. He’s like a brother to me. You’d like him, I think. He’s got your American sense of humor.”
“Your cousin is American?” I twist in my seat so I can see him. “How does that happen?”
He laughs as the car pulls onto Richmond and accelerates through a green light. “You need me to explain the basics to you, love? You seem a smart girl.”
“No.” I thump his chest with my palm. “I just meant my entire family lives in Illinois. My parents. My sister. Aunts, uncles, grandparents. One cousin moved to Pittsburgh and another moved to Orlando but everyone else is nearby. It’s not as though I have a random German cousin.”
“Wow. You let me pick you up at the door and disclosed which state you live in. I’m feeling quite chuffed.”
“Don’t get overconfident. I can still fake an emergency and take a cab back to the hotel.”
“Duly noted. I’ll do my best to entertain you well enough that you don’t need to pull a runner.”
“Naperville, Illinois,” I offer because there can’t be much harm in telling him that much. “I’m from a city called Naperville. It’s a suburb of Chicago and it’s very… suburban,” I offer for lack of a better description. I try to picture bumping into a guy like Jennings living in Naperville and find that I can’t. If I could find a guy like Jennings in Naperville he’d already have a wife and two kids. They’d have a Bugaboo stroller for the toddler and the baby would be strapped to his chest in a Tula and they’d have a nice house within walking distance of the riverwalk and I’d hate them a little.