Dead Ringers Read Free Page A

like someone had just walked over her grave. Her mother had always used that expression but Tess realized she had never really understood it till now.
    Your face, she wanted to say. Even your voice .
    But he sounded so sincere.
    â€œIf you’re playing some kind of game—”
    â€œTess. Explain.”
    She exhaled, once again searching the sidewalk on the opposite side of the intersection. In all the time she’d known him, she’d never seen Nick in a suit that nice, never known him to be willing to spend that kind of money on anything, or to have that kind of money to spend. Not even on his daughter, whom he professed to love.
    â€œWhere are you?” she asked.
    â€œJust got back from a hike. Where are you?”
    â€œYou’re hiking?”
    â€œUp in the White Mountains, staying at the Notchland, but right now we’re just having coffee at that little place across from the train station in North Conway. You remember it?”
    Her thoughts raced. She turned to stare at the spot on the corner where she’d encountered Not-Nick—because he really had been Not-Nick, hadn’t he?
    Tess felt her cheeks flush with heat. She lowered her head. “With Kyrie.”
    â€œWhat…” He trailed off for a moment before replying. “Of course with Kyrie. You know…” Nick broke off again and she heard his muffled voice as he explained that it was his ex-wife calling. “Sorry, I’m back.”
    â€œI’m the one who’s sorry. Go and enjoy your time off with your girlfriend. Take her to that little Irish pub for the late-night music.” Tess shook her head, feeling foolish now that all of the anger had bled out of her. Of course Nick—her Nick, with that touch of Asperger’s—would not consider that telling her he was taking his girlfriend to the places they used to enjoy together might hurt her. They had loved to hike, back before …
    Stop, she told herself.
    â€œCall me when you get back,” she said. “I have a wicked stupid story to tell you.”
    â€œYou sure you’re okay?” he asked.
    Over at the crosswalk, the WALK signal lit up. She started toward it, laughing softly as she rejoined the post-workday exodus.
    â€œRight as rain,” she said, trying not to imagine Nick and his new mate riding the North Conway Scenic Railroad. Were they staying in the same room at the Notchland that she and Nick had always booked, the red-walled one with its drafty windows, creaky four-poster bed, and enormous fireplace? If there’d been one thing Nick had never failed to do properly, it was build a fire.
    â€œI’m right as rain,” she said again. “I’ll give Maddie your love.”
    Tess heard him say her name as she hit the button to end the call, trying to remember Not-Nick’s exact features. Had she overestimated how much the stranger looked like her ex? That seemed far more likely than him having a secret twin brother that his parents had never told him about. Didn’t they say everyone had a double somewhere?
    Weird, she thought. So damn weird .
    She hurried across the intersection, phone still clutched in her hand. As she stepped up onto the opposite curb, she glanced again at her contact list and tapped the screen to call her best friend Lili. The line crackled as it rang three times, then a fourth and fifth, and when she was about to give up, Lili answered.
    â€œHey, lady,” her friend said. “Did you get that babysitter? We still on for drinks tonight?”
    â€œOh, yes,” Tess replied, the autumn chill caressing her legs and racing up her back. “A thousand times, yes.”

 
    TWO
    Tess had met Lilandra Pillai in a drama class back in their bad old days at Tufts University, just a few miles outside of Boston. Lili had been double-majoring in archaeology and history, Tess in history and political science, but they both had a not-so-secret love of the theater