The Forbidden Brother. Barbara McMahon

stood near one of the large plate-glass windows at the front of the gallery gazing out over the busy street when Laura finally left her office. He felt like he was in some kind of time warp. His parents had not been overjoyed to see him. His mother accused him of deliberately staying away from the funeral. He’d explained about the timing of the message, but she refused to accept any responsibility on its delay, saying she’d told the woman who answered to have him call. It was more trouble than it was worth to keep repeating she should have mentioned it was a family emergency.

      Sometimes he wondered how his mother made it in the real world. She expected everything to run according to her rules and when they didn’t, it was never her fault.

      Being an artist was the cause. She lived that mystique for all it was worth. Jed remembered making meals when he was in high school so the entire family could eat. His mother would be lost in oil paints, his father in his studio working. Jordan had either been out with some girl or talking on the phone.

      How did they manage meals now, he wondered briefly.

      “I’m ready,” Laura said, coming to stand next to him.

      He glanced at the woman his brother had been going to marry. He didn’t understand this relationship, either. Laura was not the type of woman he knew Jordan liked. She didn’t have big blond hair, wasn’t built like a Playboy bunny and seemed all-around stable. Her honey-golden hair barely brushed her shoulders. Her brown eyes held honest appraisal when she looked at him. She wore little makeup. Her dress was suitable for a successful businesswoman. Had his brother finally given up his bimbos and settled down with someone who could add stability to his life?

      Or had he proposed to insure he always had a market for his painting? The cynical thought wasn’t fair to Laura. She was a pretty woman, as well as being a competent business owner. The gallery was obviously doing well. Maybe his brother had finally matured and had been ready to settle down. Jed had not seen him for the last five years. A man could change in that time. Maybe love was the key factor here. He’d heard love could change the world.

      “Where do you recommend we eat?” he asked.

      “Sal’s Shack has good seafood sandwiches. It’s crowded but there’s always a table somewhere,” she said. “Unless you have another place in mind?”

      “No. I don’t know the area. My folks moved here when I was in college. I’ve been here for only a few visits since then.”

      Jed opened the large glass door for her and followed her into the sunshine. The wide sidewalks were not crowded despite the number of people strolling along. It was late June, the beginning of the summer months when tourists outnumbered the residence five to one. The summer economy kept the town going year-round, but the other visits he’d made had been in fall. He thought he liked the place better when it wasn’t so crowded.

      He looked at her. “Didn’t Jordan tell you?”

      She kept her gaze forward and shook her head quickly. “I knew your family was a fairly recent transplant as Miragansett families go. But they were here before me, so they seemed like longtime residents to me. Jordan wasn’t much for talking about the past. He was always looking toward the future and what success he’d achieve when his painting took off.”

      Or he’d make love talk. The hours they spent together were for the two of them, not talking about his family or the past.

      “He was thirty years old, how long before his painting took off?” Jed asked.

      Laura shrugged. She slipped dark glasses over her eyes. She didn’t want to talk about Jordan.

      Jed tried not to let it bother him that his brother had not shared more information about their family with Laura, but he wondered what kind of engagement it had been. How could she agree to marry him and not know more about the Brodies?

      “How long were you two engaged?” he asked.

      “We were engaged for two months,” she said.

      “And you knew him how long before that?”

      She glanced up at him, her expression hard to read with the dark glasses. “Is that important?”

      “Just curious.”

      “Jordan swept me off my feet and we got engaged only a couple of months after meeting. I’d known your mother for longer, of course. Hugo represented some of her work so I knew her first from business.”

      “So how did you two meet?” He wasn’t surprised to hear Jordan had swept her off her feet. He had that ability. Jed knew he’d never sweep anyone off their feet. He didn’t have the glib charm that Jordan displayed so easily. For him life was more serious. He didn’t think the world owed him anything. He had to make his own way. A slight, but significant difference between the two of them.

      Women liked the carefree charm of his brother, Jed knew. There’d been plenty of instances when they’d been in school and college. He was nothing like Jordan in that area. The few women he’d dated over the last decade had been casual friends. His work in foreign countries didn’t make for long-term relationships.

      “He came into the shop about a year and a half after I became the owner. He brought a painting to show me, wanting me to represent him. I declined based on the one painting, but he was persistent, insisted on taking me to dinner to discuss things. We began dating and before long he asked me to marry him. I said yes.”

      Where was the falling-in-love part? Jed wondered. Maybe Laura was still too raw from Jordan’s death to talk about that. Yet there was a hint of anger in her tone. Wasn’t that part of the grieving process, anger that the person who died had left?

      “You two were obviously not very close,” she commented.

      “Distances prevented it.” Distance and their past. Jed kept secrets few people knew he had. Jordan had moved on, why couldn’t he?

      “With today’s e-mail and telephones everywhere, you could have kept in closer contact if you both had wanted. I always thought twins were close,” she said.

      “Maybe ones who share more than just looks. I don’t have the family artist talent. Jordan couldn’t care less about load ratios and wind factors. He went his way and I went mine.”

      “And never the two shall meet,” she finished. “I didn’t even know you were twins,” she said sadly.

      Jed looked at her in surprise. “Jordan didn’t speak of me at all?”

      “Only to say you were the younger brother and worked out of the country and the family rarely saw you. Which explained why you weren’t at home for Christmas.”

      Jed didn’t want it to bother him, but it did. How could his brother be so close to this woman and not even mention they were twins? He had never fully understood Jordan. This was another incident to add to the list.

      They reached Sal’s Shack. It was situated right on the harbor, with a huge wooden deck jutting over the water, dotted with umbrellas to shade the tables—most of which were full of laughing, happy tourists and townsfolk eating lunch. The hostess led them to one of the umbrella-shaded spots near the railing. The bay was calm today, ruffled only occasionally by a gust of wind. The blue was deeper than that of the clear sky. A perfect June afternoon in Miragansett.

      Jed saw one or two people look their way as they walked through the crowd and do a double-take. They probably had known Jordan. Were they others who had not known he had a twin?

      He felt overdressed. Everyone on the deck was in casual shorts and cropped shirts. Dark glasses repelled the sun’s glare. Some had hats that lifted slightly in the gust of breeze from the sea. His suit was as out of place here as at the bridge site.

      As soon as he returned to his hotel, he’d change into something more casual. It’d been a long time since he’d taken a vacation. He’d planned to combine the business of Jordan’s estate with some time relaxing in the seaside town. Working in the jungle he wore khakis and the coolest cotton