Clash of Twins, page 1
Clash of Twins
Wears Valley Witches
Book Four
L.A. Boruff
Lorraine Cooke
Copyright © 2023 by L.A. Boruff & Lorraine Cooke
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover Design Copyright © 2022 Glowing Moon Designs
Book Design by L.A. Boruff
Printed in the United States of America First Printing, 2022
Contents
1. Lela
2. Mae
3. Lela
4. Mae
5. Lela
6. Mae
7. Lela
8. Mae
9. Lela
10. Mae
11. Lela
12. Mae
13. Lela
14. Mae
15. Lela
16. Mae
Also by L.A. Boruff
About L.A. Boruff
About Lorraine Cooke
Also By Lorraine Cooke
1
Lela
"Okay. What?" I stared at the man on my front porch. "You're my who now?"
"Your father's half-brother."
I didn't reply for a few seconds because I couldn't. I looked him over. Gray hair, brown eyes, at least, I was pretty sure. The porch light didn't provide quite enough illumination. He was stocky with a bit of a paunch.
The man could’ve been anybody's uncle. Like the guy who let his nieces and nephews use his pool in the summer and who slipped them a twenty on their birthdays.
"How—" I stammered over my words, then a warm, firm hand on my back reminded me that I wasn't alone here. Joseph was right behind me, and Mae across the yard, hanging out in the camper for the night.
She'd been a trooper, volunteering to read in the camper during my date.
"Come in." He might be an ax murderer, sure, but I had some pretty spectacular powers and Joseph was here. Joseph was no slack in the physique department. We'd be okay.
"Actually, I'd like to see your ID first." Joseph stepped slightly in front of me.
Oh, okay. Protective.
I wasn't mad about it.
"My last name is Dixon, after my adoptive parents."
"Adoptive?" I peered at my possible uncle around Joseph's shoulder. "Is that why I didn't know you existed?"
Looking down, the man, possible-Uncle-Dixon, pulled out a wallet. "Yes, I'd imagine. I don't know what anyone knows, so..." He handed Joseph his license. "Landon Dixon. I can explain a lot, but I have a lot of questions, too."
Joseph pulled out his cell and took a picture of Landon, with flash, then a picture of Landon's ID. Probably smart. After handing back the little card, Joseph stepped back, staying in front of me, and made room for possible-Uncle-Landon-Dixon to come in.
"Listen, please sit, make yourself at home." I gave Joseph big, panicked eyes. "Get him a drink? I'm going to go get Mae."
After squeezing my arm, Joseph whispered, "Go ahead. I've got him."
Oh, my geez. Oh, my geez. I whirled around and darted out the door. How was this possible? This guy was around sixty, which wasn't too young, but our father would've been—I did some quick math in my head as I rushed across the yard. Our father was born in fifty-three and died in eighty. He would've been sixty-nine or seventy.
Holy crap. That meant possible-Uncle-Landon-Dixon would've been born after our father, meaning our grandmother or grandfather had cheated on the other.
Drama with a capital D. "M—" I started to yell, but she'd never hear me inside the camper. She was reading, meaning totally in her own world. I tried our other method of communication. Mae.
I didn't get a reply, but I was almost across the yard. I picked up the pace in time for my foot to catch on a giant root. Darn this thing. I threw out my hands in an attempt to break my fall. It all happened so slowly. Oh, man, I was going to break my wrists. I should've twisted and rolled or something.
As I braced myself for the inevitable pain in my arms and hands, I screwed my eyes shut and tried not to let a scream erupt.
It never came, nor did the pain. A lurching feeling and a yank around my stomach did, though, and my body folded in half as a couple of vines appeared out of nowhere and yanked me upward by my waist.
My eyes shot open to find I was now suspended in midair, my arms and legs dangling in the breeze. I yanked my head up to find the source of this sudden rescue mission as if I didn't know.
Mae stood in the doorway with a smile on her face and her cute little salamander in one hand. "Whatcha doin'?"
"Coming to find you if you'll let me down. We have a, uh, I guess it's a situation."
She huffed and waved her hand. My feet lowered and set gently on the ground. "What now?"
I didn't even open my mouth. How in the world to say it?
Blurt. Just blurt. "There's a man in our living room who claims he's our father's younger brother."
My twin sister blinked twice. "Of course there is." She sighed and closed the camper door behind her, then put Sally the Salamander on her shoulder before walking over and helping me untangle the vines from around my waist. "I mean, what else? Will we find out we're not witches, but aliens from outer space?"
I snorted as she yanked on the vine. "Are you a witch or what?"
"Oh." She rolled her eyes. "Duh." With a wave of her hand, the vines snaked into the ground. "Let's go."
I hurried in front of her, eyeing the ground in the moonlight this time. I'd gotten lucky that Mae had heard me calling and opened the door. Otherwise, I'd be in agony right now and she'd be hunting for our magic rings so she could use my power to heal me. Not the ideal way to spend the night when we met a new family member. If he really was.
"Wait." Mae grabbed my arm as we stepped onto the porch. "Catch me up."
I sucked in a deep breath. "Okay. We were on our date when someone knocked on the door. This older man, around sixty I guess, was there. He said he thinks he's our father's brother."
Her brow furrowed, and I could nearly hear the wheels in her brain cranking. "How, when? Wait." She looked up for a second, then squinted. "Sixty? Did you say sixty?"
"Yeah, I mean, he could be sixty-five maybe."
"Our poor grandmother." She cocked her head. "Or grandfather, but surely someone would've known it if she'd been randomly pregnant."
"Yeah." I shrugged. "We won't know until we go in there and talk to him."
She squared her shoulders. "Let's go."
We opened the front door and walked to the right, then stood stock still. Do you see what I see?
A large picture of our mother and father hung over the fireplace. It'd always been there, but I'd only paid it enough attention to make sure it was rehung after the remodel.
Oh, sure I'd stared at it. Wondered what it would've been like to have been raised by those people.
We hadn't, and we never would be, so I preferred to dwell on the present and the future, and not the shoulda, woulda, couldas.
That wasn't the point right at this second, though. The point was that if we changed possible-Uncle-Landon-Dixon's hair to brown and removed a few wrinkles, he looked exactly like our dad.
Crap. He is our uncle. Mae's voice twisted through my brain, nearly indistinguishable at this moment from my thoughts. I wasn't totally sure if it was her or me who had thought the words.
Yep. Let's talk to him.
She surged forward and plastered her professional smile on her face. I'd seen it before, many times, mostly in college, but a few times since. Usually when she was uncomfortable. "Hello. You're our uncle?"
Possible-Uncle-Landon-Dixon stood and smiled at her, then me. "I think so, yeah. I have to say, it really is wonderful to meet you."
"Please, sit." I lowered myself onto the loveseat beside a blandly smiling, confused-looking Joseph and Mae took the chair. "Um, how did you come to this conclusion?"
"Um, okay. It started on a DNA site. I sent in a saliva sample to one of those sites that matches you with your relatives. It said that you two were a significant DNA match and said you were most likely my nieces."
I looked at Mae, my heart sinking. We forgot about that DNA test.
She closed her eyes for a second, then asked, "Begat.com?"
He nodded. "That's the one. They had a big sale."
I couldn't stop chuckling. "That's when we did it, too. Their tests were more than half off, so we figured, why not?"
Mae shook her head again. "Ugh, we sent in the sample, and right after, we ended up..." She looked at me like she didn't have the words.
"We ended up moving here in kind of a hurry."
"Yeah, your renters at your house in Los Angeles gave me this address." He smiled with one side of his mouth, and I looked at the big photo of our parents. My father had the exact same smile in the photo."
It was kind of creepy, to be honest.
"How'd you know about the address in LA?" I asked.
"It's on your profile. You have it open for contact by matched family members, but the phone number didn't work, and I ended up with this address. I live kind of cl
Why would our address have been on our profile? I tried to remember filling out the form. "I think there was a box I checked that said we consented to be contacted," I whispered. "I figured it would share our email address. Not our physical address."
Mae glared at me. "You didn't read the terms and conditions, did you?"
She just had to say something now, didn't she? I glared at her until she blanched a little. "Sorry."
She was right, I should've read them, but she could've waited to lecture me. "Anyway..."
"Right." After blinking at me several times and quickly muttering, Sorry. in my head, she looked at possible-Uncle-Landon-Dixon. "I don't understand how this could be. We were told all the Cables were dead."
As she spoke the question we'd both thought, I pulled up the Begat app and looked at our profile. Sure enough, under DNA matches, the closest match was username LDixon431. I showed the phone to Mae as Joseph leaned forward and grabbed my hand.
"Could your grandfather have had a child—sorry to say, but—out of wedlock?" He grimaced. "Maybe before they got married?"
"I mean, for all we know, it was dear old granny who had the kid." I shrugged. "How can we figure it out?"
"When did they get married?" P-U-L-D asked. "Your grandparents?"
I squinted at the DNA screen as Mae said, "I'm not sure, but our father was born in, uh..." She squinched one eye shut and cocked her head. "I think Bertha said..." Mae looked at me with wide eyes.
"Fifty-three, I think. Listen, according to this, your DNA percentage indicates you’re a full uncle. Not a half."
The room went silent. "Meaning, his mother and father were both our grandparents."
"What?" Mae took the phone from my hand. "Wait, when were you born?"
"I was born in nineteen fifty."
I furrowed my brow at him. "That's before our dad. That would make you..." I was counting decades in my head when he spoke.
"Seventy-two. I just turned seventy-two."
Holy freaking cr—
"I'm going to get us some drinks," Mae said, then in my head said, Come help me.
"I'll help," I chirped far too brightly.
When we got in the kitchen, I opened my mouth to hiss at my sister but then snapped it shut and used our special power. He looks so young.
She nodded. I know. You looked like you were about to blurt that out, so I pulled you in here.
She pulled out little cups and saucers and flipped on our kettle. We've got a few minutes to ourselves while this water boils.
A thought popped into my head. "Oh my gosh. What if…" I bit my lip to cut off my words. What if he doesn't know about magic?
Mae's back stiffened. She put both hands on the counter and hung her head. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. What a mess.
"Pfft. Yeah, it is."
She turned and looked at me. I recognized that face. That was my sister's I-can-fix-this face. When she put that face on, she generally fixed it. It took a lot for me not to grin at her. We have to steer the conversation toward magic without him knowing we're talking about magic.
I nodded once. "Got it." We'll suss it out. If he knows, we'll figure it out.
The kettle boiled, so Mae took care of transferring the hot water into the pot with the tea, and I got out little cookies and napkins.
She sucked in a deep breath and picked up the tray. "Let's do this."
Once everyone had a cup of tea, I cleared my throat. "Okay, so we've had a lot of information. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?"
"Sure, yeah." He set his cup down and smiled at us. "Well, I was adopted as an infant. Newborn, I think, but that’s pretty much all my parents told me. They said it was all sealed. I've been married for forty-five years to a wonderful woman." His smile saddened. "I was married. She passed, four years ago."
"I'm so sorry," I whispered as Mae and Joseph also said similar things.
"It's all right. We had many wonderful years together. My grief will never leave me, but I'm old." He chuckled. "I'll see her again soon."
It was difficult to say anything after that.
P-U-L-D said something and broke the tension. "We have a beautiful, competent, amazing daughter, Christina. She has a daughter, too, and let me tell you. If I'd known having grandchildren was so amazing, I'd have done that first." He chuckled and sipped his tea as Mae and I looked at each other in mild panic.
"Do you live nearby?" I asked casually.
"In the mountains?" Mae added.
"Sort of. We're a little south of Charlotte. We're on the edge of the Appalachian range, technically. On the map we are, anyway."
"Is this the first time you've been here?" I asked quietly. "Up in the mountains?"
He shook his head. "Yes, but we’ve always wanted to visit.”
If P-U-L-D brought his daughter, it could be disastrous.
It was time to stop thinking about him as Possible-Uncle-Landon-Dixon. I wasn't quite ready for Uncle Landon, though. Landon would do fine.
I wasn't sure what to ask next. We sat in silence, a million thoughts running through my mind, for a full five seconds when a black and white streak entered the room.
Stinky jumped up on the couch, tittering. I was easily able to gauge his mood. He had the zoomies.
Landon let out a shriek and launched himself off of the couch. Stinky followed suit and zoomed out of the living room, in the direction of the kitchen and the cat-flap door we'd installed.
It was safe to say Landon had no intention of following. He went in the other direction but caught his foot on the edge of the coffee table.
"No," I screamed as he fell. We'd already saved me from falling today. No way would it happen twice.
Joseph threw his hands out and a blast of wind filled the room, giving Landon enough support to get his footing.
He stood there, gasping. "What was that?" he whispered.
"That was a good catch." Joseph clapped him on the back and laughed. "Some fancy footwork on your part. All I did was push you a bit."
"You touched me?" Landon looked very confused.
"Of course. How else would I push you?"
If I hadn't known for a fact Joseph had used wind, I totally would've believed him. Dang. Was it a good thing that he was a good liar?
Eep.
It's time to call it a night.
Mae was right. "Landon, why don't you come Monday for lunch? We'd love to keep talking about this and figure more out." That was smart. It gave us a day to figure it out.
He smiled at us. "I'd love that."
We walked him to the door and waved as he pulled away, then Mae and I stared at each other, then Joseph.
I threw my hand up and put my finger on my nose.
"What?" Mae asked.
"Nose goes." We'd always done that. Whoever didn't touch their nose in time had to do the thing, whatever the thing was. "You have to tell Bertha."
Mae slapped her hand on her cheek. "Of course." Belatedly she put her finger on her nose.
"Nope." I wiggled my finger around, still touching my schnoz. "I won. Do it."
She groaned but went inside to call our aunt while I said my goodbyes to Joseph.
"Come back in the morning?" I asked.
He grinned. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
2
Mae
My typical wake time was around nine, but I’d tossed and turned all night thinking of our new-found family member. I hadn’t slept much but decided to go ahead and get up anyway around seven.
The house was quiet as I slipped into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. I leaned against the kitchen counter, rubbing my eyes, and trying to shake the exhaustion off. Sally scurried out of the bedroom and up the side of the kitchen counter. She stared at me, no doubt wondering why I was awake so early.
"Don’t worry, little friend," I whispered. "All is well."
