Page 63 of My Twin Sister's Extremely Famous and Incredibly Hot Neighbor

“You’ve seen the headlines?” Her gaze bounces around the house like she’s a trapped wild animal. “I saw them online and I came right over. I can’t believe this is happening.”

“No, I haven’t seen them. But I heard there are pictures of me and Dustin out there. I’m sorry, Jera. I had no idea someone would photograph us like that.” I wring my hands. I messed up in a big way.

She pulls her phone out of her pocket and shoves it at me. “Look! Look what they are saying about me.”

The online article sported a bold title:Caught in the Act: Jera Davenport’s Steamy Island Getaway with Dustin Sawyer.Further down, the article displayed another bold statement:Is She Seducing Him to Win Her Lawsuit?

Intimate photos of me and Dustin kissing on the beach are splashed all over the article. I stop scrolling, my stomach lurching. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes. Mackenzie, I told you to stay away from him. He’s using you to get me to drop the lawsuit, and the paparazzi got it all wrong. They think it’s me!” She points at her chest, which is blitzed out in a pink and silver sparkly shirt.

I shake my head at her. “No. Dustin isn’t using me. He tore down the fence. He’s moving it, just like you want.” I motion to the back of the house.

Jera stops and stares at me. “He tore it down?”

“Yes. Go look.”

She races past me, and I hear her footsteps and then a scraping sound as her sandals slide to a stop at the patio door. I walk through her house to join her, and I point at the spot where the fence used to be. “See?”

“I can’t believe it. He really tore that eyesore down.” She turns to me, her eyes narrowed. “What’s his plan? Why did he do that?”

My chest tightens. “He did it for me,” I say quietly.

“What do you mean?” She grabs my shoulders.

“I think…I think I’m in love with him,” I blurt out. Tears spring to my eyes.

“What?” Jera shrieks. “You can’t—” She stops talking when she sees my face. “Oh, honey.”

Jera pulls me into a hug, and I sob into her shoulder. “I didn’t mean to, I promise.”

“What happened?”

I open my mouth to tell her, but everything is so messed up I don’t know where to start. Where did I go wrong? I’m not sure how everything happened. Then I remember the window incident and words start pouring out of my mouth.

“I thought I saw something happening over at his house, and I almost fell out of your window, and I dropped my phone, then he came over to help because I was stuck, and then things got super crazy. At first I was desperate and needed his help, but then somewhere along the way it became more than that.”

Jera pulls back and squints at me. “You almost fell out my window?”

“It’s a long story.”

She gives me that older sister look. “I have time.”

I huff and wave my hand. “I thought I saw Dustin dragging a dead body. Turns out it was a CPR mannequin.”

Her mouth pops open but no words come out. Suddenly, she bursts out laughing. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes. I was so sure he was dragging a body around in his back yard that I stretched too far to see and got stuck in your tiny bathroom window.”

Her eyes grow large. “You didn’t.”

“And the worst part? I was only wearing a towel.”

“Mackenzie!”

The look on Jera’s face makes me laugh. “I know. It was very embarrassing. Dustin saw me struggling to get back inside the window, and I couldn’t…it was a nightmare. But he came over and pulled me back inside, even though he thought I was you and you were suing him.”

She stiffens. “Yes, I’m sure he was just being noble. Honey, I hate to break it to you, but he’s playing you. I don’t know what angle he’s trying, but Dustin Sawyer is not the man you think he is.”

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