Page 7 of It Happened Again

“Maisy?” I exclaimed. My heart thudded to a full stop.

She stared at me like I was the one who’d appeared out of nowhere.

“Brooks?” She blinked.

And everything else—the Orion project, Dax’s app, Archer teasing me about Lacey, and anything about this day—faded away.

All I saw was the woman who left me behind.

3

LEFT UNSAID

MAISY

I hadn’t plannedto end my afternoon on the floor of the boardroom, but then again, life had been a little chaotic since I began working at Orion. My damn security badge had slipped from my dress pocket sometime during Julian’s weekly department meeting. I’d doubled back after everyone cleared out. Of course, the badge was nowhere obvious—just my luck.

So there I was, crawling on my hands and knees in heels under the conference table, like some rogue intern. I cursed under my breath and gave up when I spotted something sticking out near the far end of the table.

Not my badge.

A scarf.

Myscarf.

Stormy Blue and Mister Gray yarn. Slightly crooked where I’d dropped a stitch that winter break a few years ago, my third attempt at learning to knit something more impressive than a pathetic potholder. I blinked at it, confused, then slowly reached out and pulled it toward me.

My heart clenched as I turned the thing over in my hands, inspecting it. No doubt, it was the one I’d knitted for Brooks and gave to him our first Christmas.

He kept it? But… what was it doing here?

I brought it to my nose, my insides fluttering over his signature sandalwood scent. It almost knocked me from all fours onto my bottom. And before I could unpack the full emotional weight of that, someone entered the room behind me.

His voice came a second later, low and familiar.

“Hello?”

I flinched and banged my head on the underside of the table. “Shit—ow!”

Out from under the table, straightening to my full height and trying to brush invisible dust off my dress, I promptly locked eyes with… Brooks Bellamy.

His jaw went slack.

My heart dropped straight into my heels.

“Maisy?” He exclaimed.

“Brooks?” I swallowed hard.

There was a long, silent beat between us. My hand still clutched the scarf like it might shield me from the impact.

I’d never forgotten the first night we met. Sophie, Chelsea, and I had gone to a speed dating event in Manhattan, all dressed up for a night on the town in bright sequined mini dresses. Completely out of place compared to the other ultra-professional women in attendance, who were mostly wearing black or navy blue. Yet somehow, being the small town girls we were, we managed to catch the eyes of Rex Buchanan, and the Bellamy twins.

When the speed dating rounds started, each couple had five minutes to talk before switching to another couple. Archer and I had a lovely five-minute round, since he was a Columbia grad, and easy to talk to. Then, after the rounds were over and the attendees lingered to get to know each other more, Archer approached to talk to me again. But I caught the eye of anotherman—almost identical to him—coming up behind him, late to the event.

Despite their similarities, something about him drew me in. Archer introduced him as his twin, Brooks.

While Archer was intelligent, with a wry wit, perfectly timed… Brooks was magnetic. Almost identical, I could find subtle differences, telling them apart from their confidence and aura. Brooks had loads of it, with the cool swagger of a man who knew what he was about. Whereas Archer was trying too hard.

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