Page 18 of Dopplebanger

“And you’re sure you don’t want me to drive for a while?”

“Nah, not yet. Just… talk. Your awful music might keep me awake, but I prefer stories as opposed to tunes that’ll make my ears bleed.”

She shot me a dirty look that was far too cute to be scary. Then she twisted a strand of hair around her finger and peered up at the ceiling, as if she expected to find inspiration there. “I’m having a hard time thinking of something to talk about.”

“You? Speechless?”

She shoved my arm but smiled, which was my goal in the first place. I’d never get tired of her beautiful, infectious smile. Or those ridiculously cute dimples.

Not that I’d get the chance to get tired of the smile or her dimples, or her in general. I should be glad we’d successfully put several hours of the trip behind us, but every one sent us closer to the last, and I knew that at the end of this trip, I’d only want more.

Don’t think about that.

My gaze ran down her legs again.Don’t think about those, either.

When it came to Gwen, no place was safe for my eyes.

She raised an eyebrow. “What about you? We haven’t talked about you very much this trip.”

“But I already know about me.”

“Apparently, I don’t. For instance, I had no idea you were afraid of heights.”

“Plummeting to my death, you mean. ‘Afraid of heights’ sounds too wussy.”

She laughed. “Okay, okay. Afraid of death—not very original, but totally valid. Any other fears I should know about?”

I’m afraid you’ll find out that I’m not my brother, and then you’ll hate me forever.

I’m afraid that after this, no other girl will measure up.

Not only no other girl, but life in general. Being with her was the most alive I’d felt in years. Every one of those revealed more than I could say, so I searched for something a bit lighter yet still true—I wanted to give her as much of the truth as I could. “Not a big fan of thinking about failure, but who is?”

“Can’t claim I’m not afraid of failure. When I started college, the goal was to become a corporate controller, financial analysis manager, or accounting director for some huge company and make a lot of money. I pictured myself wearing power suits and climbing to the top of the corporate ladder. Since my life isn’t how I imagined it, sometimes I wonder if I’ve failed, but I love my job. I love the people and the animals, and I’m good at it. So naturally, my brain tosses other worrying thoughts at me, so I can feel like I failed at them.”

“It’s sad how easy it is to think of the bad, and how hard it is to remember the good we do.” Throughout school, every B or C grated at me, getting way more weight than the dozens of As onmy transcripts. I tended to beat myself up if I couldn’t recall facts in an instant and had to look them up.

When Gwen blinked at me, I wished I hadn’t revealed so much—apparently that problem was mine alone. “Exactly,” she said, making it okay that I’d confessed as much. “It’s like we need someone to come in and reprogram us. But since we’re not robots…” She eyed me like she needed me to confirm.

“Not a robot.”

“Oh, phew,” she said with a laugh. “Let’s do it.”

Whoa, what?Since my mind was preoccupied with her and her sexy body, the “do it” went down the wrong road, I was almost sure. I cleared my throat. “Do… what?”

She removed her feet from the dashboard and twisted in her seat to face me. “Reprogram ourselves. For this whole trip, let’s only focus on our good traits.”

No more thinking about how horrible I am for going along with this scheme? For enjoying it so much? Sign me up.

“We’ll help each other. Like, instead of simply thinking about how much I like the way you worry about me falling to my death, I’ll go ahead and tell you that I appreciate that you care enough to worry about me. And when I was cold, you gave me your hoodie.” She tugged on one of the hood’s strings. “Of course, you probably didn’t realize you weren’t ever going to get it back when you lent it to me, but that’s neither here nor there.”

I grinned at her. “Well, since it’s neither here nor there, I won’t tell you how easily I could tackle you and steal it back. But the truth is, you look a lot better in it than I do.”

“Doubtful, but thank you. And just so you know, I’m translating that into you giving it to me.”

I barely resisted saying:Yeah, I’ll give it to you, all right.“You’re always happy, and you smile at perfect strangers and spread that happiness. You care about other people, on a deeper level than most.”

“I try.” Two creases formed between her eyebrows and she ticked up her chin, resolve setting into her features. “I mean, I do.”

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