The Bachelor's Twins

He rounded the corner of the garage, where he and Aiden shared an upstairs apartment, and almost collided with his older brother and Lily.

“Whoa!” Brendan reared back and pretended to scan the yard. “Where’s the fire?”

“I’m on the clock this morning, remember?” Liam reminded him.

Three hours, fifty-two minutes and counting.

“Oh. Right.” Brendan linked his arm through Lily’s. “Anna Leighton’s birthday present. How did you end up playing guide today instead of Aiden? I thought he was the one who came up with the package for the silent auction.”

“Aiden had already booked a private lesson.”

It was a testimony to Lily’s influence that Brendan didn’t know the details. BL—before Lily—his brother had micromanaged every aspect of Castle Falls Outfitters, including the things he’d asked Aiden and Liam to oversee. But over the past year, Brendan had loosened his grip and started to focus his attention on marketing and sales, the area of the business he truly enjoyed. Liam was still getting used to this new-and-improved version of his big brother.

“I’m sure Anna will have a wonderful time.” Lily smiled.

“She gets to soak up the sunshine and eat food she doesn’t have to prepare. What more could a girl want?”

Liam could think of a lot of things.

In high school, it was no secret that Anna couldn’t wait to leave Castle Falls. Everyone had expected great things from Emerson’s beautiful valedictorian and Ross, the team’s talented quarterback. Ross’s football scholarship would take the couple through college and then on to places a girl from a small town in the UP could only dream about.

College hadn’t been in Liam’s future, not when all hands were needed on deck to keep Castle Falls Outfitters out of the red when Rich Mason passed away six months after he and Sunni had opened their home to Liam and his brothers.

As always, memories of his foster dad stirred up a blend of grief and gratitude. Liam still didn’t know why God had called Rich home so soon, but the impact he’d had on Liam in those few short months had changed his life.

Where you look is where you go.

One of Rich’s favorite sayings chased through Liam’s mind. At the time, he’d assumed his foster dad had been talking about paddling a canoe. Any guide worth his salt knew you’d run aground if you kept looking back, but now Liam understood Rich’s words of wisdom could apply to a lot of situations.

Like this one.

Which was why he would treat Anna the way he would treat anyone who’d booked a canoe trip with Castle Falls Outfitters. He would be polite. Professional.

Because the here and now was a much safer place to be than camping on the ledge of the past. Or, even worse, allowing himself to dream about the future.

Chapter Four (#uc9766389-7c55-508a-b6d2-8549b8f4b5ca)

“Come on, Mom!”

Anna had barely finished signing the waiver on Sunni’s kitchen table when the girls burst through the door.

Sunni chuckled at their enthusiasm. “Have a wonderful time. And don’t worry about a thing, Anna. You’re in good hands.”

Liam’s hands.

Anna didn’t have time to dwell on that. She was taken captive by two impatient little girls who still believed a birthday was a cause for celebration. Not a day to look back on your life and wonder why it hadn’t turned out the way you’d expected it would.

The day promised to be exactly the way Aiden had described it on the bid sheet. A whisper of a breeze stirred the tops of the trees, and the sun beamed down at them from a cloudless sapphire sky, turning the surface of the river to glass.

Cassie and Chloe towed her toward the riverbank. Two canoes, fashioned from intricate strips of polished natural wood instead of fiberglass, looked as though they’d come straight from an era when fur traders and lumberjacks roamed the forest.

Anna knew nothing about canoes other than the fact they were supposed to float, of course, but even she could see the craftsmanship that elevated the ones Liam made from the cookie-cutter styles sold in most sporting-goods stores.

Cassie and Chloe could barely contain their excitement while Liam went through the safety procures and demonstrated basic paddling techniques.

“If you don’t have any questions,” he said after helping the twins put their life jackets on, “I think we’re good to go.”

“Which canoe is mine?” Cassie wanted to know.

“You and I will share that one.” Liam nodded at the canoe on the left.

“It doesn’t have flames.” Cassie couldn’t quite hide her disappointment.

“You saw Aiden’s canoe.” A hint of a smile came out to play. “A long time ago, my brother found out his name means “fiery,” so he painted flames on the sides.”

Before the girls could suggest they find a can of paint and decorate their canoes, Anna helped Chloe get settled and took her place at the stern.

Liam took the lead and the girls fell silent, their frowns of concentration gradually giving way to awestruck wonder.

The river flowed behind Riverside Avenue, Castle Falls’s main street, just steps from the back door of The Happy Cow, but Anna stayed so busy during the day she barely had time to give the picturesque scene more than a passing glance.

Here it cut a sparkling corridor through a hedge of towering white pine, birch and fragrant cedar. The leaves of the hardwoods had slowly unfurled over the past few weeks, opening to a soothing, soul-feeding shade of green. Anna breathed in the scent of sunshine and water and felt something unfurl inside her, too.

The two canoes ended up side by side as they rounded a natural bend in the river.

“Look! Someone is building a playhouse!” Chloe pointed at the skeletal frame of a cabin tucked in a stand of birch trees. Simple lines and the river-rock fireplace rising through the center of the gabled roof gave the structure a rustic charm.

“It’s a house.” Liam chuckled. “I’m hoping to move in by the end of the summer. I work on it in my spare time and Aiden chips in to help whenever he can. He has a vested interest in this place because it means he’ll have the garage apartment all to himself.”

Cassie’s brow furrowed as they drew even with Liam’s cabin.

“It’s kind of little.”

“Cassie!” Anna had taught her daughters to always tell the truth, but while they seemed to understand the importance of honesty, they didn’t always grasp the meaning of the word tact.

“Well, it is.” Cassie stuck to her opinion. “Don’t you think it’s little, Chloe?”

Ordinarily Anna found it humorous when Cassie attempted to draft her twin sister as an ally, but this time she was too embarrassed by her daughter’s candor. Anna discovered it was difficult for a mother to make eye contact and telegraph a silent message while drifting down the river in a canoe.

“It’s a little little,” Chloe agreed.

Liam didn’t appear offended or uncomfortable by Anna’s daughters’ innocent observations. “Just right for one person.”

“But aren’t you going to get married someday?” Cassie asked, not bothering to hide her shock.

Eight-year-olds—Anna knew this from past experience—didn’t hide anything.

“And have kids?” Chloe looked shocked, too.