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Chapter 12
"You don't know how surprised I was when I saw Howie at the beach last night," Destiny told Grace.
"Why?" Grace asked. "You had to have known that he was a Backstreet Boy, what with Faith and all."
"Yeah, I know. I found him so familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Then he showed up, and he wasn't at all surprised to see me."
"Because he knew it was you when AJ said Grace and twin and all that to Brian on the way over?" Grace suggested.
"I did tell him all about us," Destiny said. Grace nodded, just as Hope walked up behind the girls. They were sitting clad in their bathing suits on the beach where their picnic had been the night before.
"Trying to tan, girls?" Hope asked, shaking her head. "Such harmful rays the sun radiates."
"You sound like a corny poem," Destiny informed her, shielding her eyes as she looked up at Hope.
"Any word from Kevin?" Grace asked, and Hope shook her head, frowning.
"I had a great time with him last night. I thought he had fun too."
"He's probably working up the nerve to call you," Destiny said. "You have that effect on people."
"What do you mean?" Hope asked suspiciously, dropping to the sand beside them. Grace scoot over on her towel and allowed Hope to share the space.
"Never mind," Destiny muttered, avoiding Hope's eyes comically. Hope punched her lightly on the arm.
"Have you guys seen Faith?" Grace asked. The two shook their heads.
"She left with Brian like, an hour ago. They'd been talking in the kitchen, and then they just left. I didn't hear any yelling, thank God."
"Maybe she worked things out," Destiny said eagerly. She cared a lot for Faith, and she hated to see her in an argument with someone who meant so much to her. "Maybe he confessed that he's secretly fallen in love with her."
"Right, Des," Hope said, rolling her eyes. "He's just going to be like, 'I want you, I need you, oh baby oh baby.' Right?"
"Do you doubt it?" Grace questioned, raising her eyebrow.
"Well, no," Hope said quickly. "It's just that, she knew when she sent the letter that there wasn't a high chance of him reading it. So if he does, who's to say that he's going to drop everything in his life and search high and low for her? They make a great couple, it just might take him a little while to see that."
"No, he already sees it," Grace said quietly. Destiny and Hope looked at her. "Faith is my twin. When someone feels strongly for her, I feel it too, only in a different way. And Brian is confused right now. You guys would understand if you had a twin. I feel when she's in danger, when she's hurt, when she's feeling devilish, anything. And I'm sure she feels it for me, too."
Destiny nodded thoughtfully. "I understand, Grace."
"We have to figure out how to get them together, then," Hope said.
"They don't need us, Hope." Grace smiled. "We have to concentrate on our own guys. We have lives, too."
"Really," Destiny groaned. "I feel so caught up in this Faith and Brian thing."
"It's not wrong to be involved in her life," Hope said. "We just can't forget about our own, that's all."
The girls were quiet for a while, then Grace stood up and said, "I'm tan enough for today, I really need to get out on the Boardwalk. Everyone but me has seen it."
"You've been to the market," Destiny pointed out.
"That's not the boardwalk," Grace said. "See you guys at five for dinner?"
The other two nodded and she left them, pulling on her jean shorts as she went.
Grace stopped at the condo for some suntan lotion and a hat, then she made her way up the sandy, grassy walk and towards the busy boardwalk.
A bright stand caught her eye, and she turned her head to look. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground looking up at AJ.
"Oh, no," he muttered. "Grace, we have got to stop meeting up like this."
He grabbed her gently around the wrists and pulled her up.
"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned. She blew her bangs out of her face and nodded.
"I'm fine," she said. "I'm just tired of running into you, that's all."
"It's getting old," he agreed. "Where were you headed?"
"I wasn't really planning my path out," she explained. "I was just hoping to finally see this place."
"Well, I'll walk with you," he declared. "If that's okay."
"It's more than okay," she said, smiling up at him. They started walking, and Grace's heart all but stopped when AJ took her hand. She looked up at him, shocked, and he just smiled at her. She smiled back and willed her heart to stop racing.
"Tell me, Grace," AJ said. "Tell me how it is you're such a pretty little thing and you don't have a guy."
He relished in seeing her flush in what seemed like down to her toes.
"I did have a guy, but things didn't exactly work out," she said.
"Why not?" he asked, astonished.
"He didn't plan on informing me of my departure with him to Egypt until the day of," she said dryly.
"What a jerk," he said sympathetically. She shrugged.
"What about you?" she asked. She enjoyed the stares of some girls as they caught sight of her with AJ. She didn't think they even knew him, but the fact was, he was so good-looking that anyone would stare.
"This has been the first time in a long time that I've had the chance to meet some girls," he responded. "It was pure chance that I'd meet you."
"Dylan was only the most ambitious guy I've ever met," she said. He noticed her reluctance to acknowledge his last remark.
"How so?" he wondered.
"He wanted to be an architect." She laughed. "I was counting on him settling down into something that he could do here, in the U.S, you know? He could have found a great architectural job somewhere west."
"What do you want to do?"
"I love to write," she said shyly. "But I also love to draw. I'm not really good at writing, though, so I spend more time on sketching and stuff."
"Can I see some of your drawings sometime?" he asked hopefully.
"Yeah, why not?" she agreed. "They're not the best, but hey."
"I'm sure they're beautiful." Just like you, he added to himself.
Grace beamed, and he smiled to himself.
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