Perfect Match: Enemies to Lovers Romance Read online

  Perfect Match

  Leia Stone

  Copyright © 2020 by Leia Stone

  Cover art by Murphy Rae

  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.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  To twins everywhere and the close bond they share.

  Chapter 1

  Millie

  I remember the exact moment that Colin became an organ donor. We’d been standing in line at the DMV, at the tender age of eighteen, and he checked the box. Just like that, he changed the course of our history.

  “Don’t do that!” I’d whisper-screamed. “I heard they won’t revive you if you get in an accident or something.”

  He’d only chuckled. Even then, I was hopelessly in love with him. He was dating Molly Springer at the time, and so I hadn’t told him yet, but I was.

  “If I’m gone, I’m gone. I’d want others to live on.” I had no idea that moment would change everything.

  “Ma’am.” The nurse brought me back to the present.

  She was trying to hand me the bag of Colin’s clothes and shoes and wallet … and whatever he’d had on him at the time of the crash, but I didn’t want them. That would make it final.

  “Ma’am, are you sure you don’t want me to call counseling services?” Her face lined with worry.

  A shrink? A stranger was going to tell me how to be at peace with the fact that my husband, my soulmate, was dead the day after our wedding? The love of my life? The man I’d been in love with since I was sixteen?

  No fucking way.

  I reached out and took the bag from her. “I’m fine. His parents are flying in. And…” I’d lost my train of thought—What was I saying? Why was this bag so heavy? “And I’m fine,” I repeated. They’d had to sedate me when they first told me about him. But that Xanax was wearing off now and reality was hitting like a ton of bricks. It was deep and heavy and earth shattering.

  His parents had just gone back to Phoenix this morning and we were set to leave for our honeymoon tomorrow night. How was this possible? He couldn’t be dead. We had shit to do. Like have kids, grow old together … be married more than a damn day!

  Colin.

  My chest gave a sharp pang of sadness as a sob formed in my throat and I half wondered if I’d die of a heart attack right here.

  The nurse was older, early fifties, and a deep frown pulled at her lips. “Look, I’m sorry about your husband, but he saved a life today. The person who got his heart was a perfect match.”

  One life. He checked that fucking box eight years ago and traded his life for someone else’s. They said that maybe his corneas could be transplanted but everything else had torn or exploded on impact. Except his heart. His fucking heart miraculously survived, which was so Colin. And now someone else had it and they would go on and have an amazing life, while Colin went into the ground.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled and turned to leave before I lost my shit again and they put me on a seventy-two-hour-hold.

  “Ma’am, do you have somewhere to go?” Her voice trailed after me and I just raised my hand and waved her off.

  I hadn’t called Julie yet. The police had showed up at my apartment and the first thing I did was call Colin’s parents and then my own, and then they sedated me because I’d lost my mind. I vaguely remembered tearing a poster off the hospital wall when they had me ID the body. Nothing felt real and yet everything was too real.

  I didn’t want to tell Julie. I didn’t want it to be real.

  But I was legitimately afraid to be alone right now. I just wanted to die. I wanted to die and be with Colin. And those thoughts scared me.

  I took off out the hospital doors and onto the busy New York streets and hailed a cab. I barely remembered getting inside, barely remembered giving directions to my best friend’s place. Julie was a nurse at the very same hospital I’d just come from. She had tonight off but in the morning she would go to work in the same place that my childhood sweetheart, and brand-new husband, had died.

  A sob formed in my throat and I wished I’d asked for a prescription of Xanax. I didn’t want to feel anything right now. I probably should have called Julie and told her I was coming, or at least texted her, but my brain wasn’t working right and before I knew it I was on her doorstep. The doorman knew me and just let me in, and time was weird. I wasn’t in my body. Nothing made sense. I was floating out in the universe searching for Colin, searching for anything that would make this pain stop. I just needed to wake up from this awful dream.

  With a shaking hand, I rang the doorbell of her apartment and waited.

  It was ten at night, she had a seven a.m. shift tomorrow. She was probably asleep, or worse, screwing her boyfriend John at this very moment.

  The door opened and Julie stood there, brows drawn together, brown hair mussed from sleep. When her gaze fell on the hospital bag in my hand, her fingers came up to her mouth.

  “Millie … what’s happened?”

  She knew.

  Fucking nurses, they just knew.

  I had also just realized that Colin’s blood was on my fingers from when I’d tried to hold his hand, when they made me identify the body. That had been a world class mistake; his cold rigid hand didn’t squeeze back.

  My fingers shook, I couldn’t speak, so I just handed her the bag like an idiot.

  She took it, opened it up, peered inside at Colin’s wallet and shoes, and then sagged against the door.

  That’s when I blacked out.

  Ashton

  I came to in the hospital. The beeping noises, bright lights, people rushing all around me, it was chaos. There was a deep throbbing pain in my chest and I felt so lightheaded I thought I might float away.

  Gran’s worried gaze swam into view as she clutched her purse to her chest.

  “Ash,” she sobbed.

  “Ma’am, we need to get him into surgery.” A nurse held Gran back as they wheeled me past.

  At the word “surgery,” I remembered the accident. The way the tree stump had impaled my chest, the way…

  “Jenna!” I screamed, trying to sit up as I remembered her flying across the road with no seatbelt on. But moving made the dizziness worse and now I felt like I was going to throw up on top of it.

  “Gran! Jenna?” I looked at my grandmother as they wheeled me through the double doors.

  She just shook her head.

  Everything inside of me died in that moment. It just went dark. I went dark inside.

  When they put a mask over my face and started to sedate me for surgery, I had one wish.

  Don’t let me wake up, I don’t want to wake up in a world without my twin sister.

  Chapter 2

  One Year Later

  Millie

  Julie sat across from me in her nursing scrubs as we grabbed lunch at the Chinese place near the hospital. This place was loud and I wasn’t i
n the mood to “people” today, but I would never pass up a lunch date with my bestie. I wouldn’t have survived the past year without her. I could almost smell the MSG, but this place was so good it was worth the food coma I would get later on.

  “So, John has been acting weird. I think he’s cheating,” Julie confessed. Her brown hair was tied into a top-knot as she scowled down at her fork, twisting lo mein noodles onto the tip.

  “John? Cheat on you? You’re crazy,” I assured her. John was so far from cheating on her it wasn’t even funny. I knew he wasn’t cheating, he was getting ready to propose. I’d helped him pick out the ring last week, but I needed to play it cool or I’d ruin the surprise.

  Julie leaned forward and lowered her voice. “He’s all cagey and secretive. The other day I went to look through his gym bag for my yoga mat, and he freaked out.”

  Fuck. He probably hid the ring in there.

  “John’s not cheating,” I assured her again, making my voice a bit firmer than I probably should have.

  Julie crossed her arms, glaring slightly at me. “You can’t possibly know that.”

  I shrugged. “True, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure.”

  Let it go, woman!

  Julie furrowed her brow. “Now you’re acting weird. You’re normally super protective of me and would be offering to snoop on him. What’s going on?” She pinned me with a glare.

  A grin tugged at my lips.

  She was too smart to hide anything from.

  “You caught me. John and I are hooking up.”

  Her smile grew wide as she giggled, knowing that wasn’t possible, for many reasons.

  1. I would never betray my best friend.

  2. The last man’s lips to hit mine had been Colin’s.

  “Seriously though—” Her face drained of color. “Ohmygod, is he going to propose?”

  Dammit.

  I put my head in my hands. There was no surprising this girl.

  She squealed so loud that everyone stopped their lunch and stared at her.

  Pulling my head from my hands, I looked at her. “Dammit, Julie, why can’t you just leave things be? Why do you have to play detective?” I snapped, tossing an edamame bean at her face. She dodged it and chewed her lip, bouncing in her seat, grinning.

  “When is he doing it? Is the ring big? I mean I don’t care … I love him either way, but I’ll bet it’s big.”

  A smirk pulled at my lips. “I’m not saying shit.” I crossed my arms.

  Julie scowled behind her lo mein. “Excuse me? Best friend? You will tell me so I can make a waxing appointment and be sure to wear a sexy dress that night.”

  She was right. No one wanted to have hoo-hah stubble on the night they got engaged.

  I sighed. “Fine. Tomorrow night on your four-year anniversary and you better fucking act surprised.”

  She bopped up and down in her chair, eyes alight with joy. “I totally will. Super surprised. So, it’s big right? Because these bitches at work all married surgeons and have rocks the size of cars on their hand.”

  I chuckled. John was a corporate litigation attorney, junior partner at the firm. It was big.

  “It’s decent.”

  Her face fell. “Decent is fine. I just love him.”

  Laughter pealed out of me. “Girl, it’s huge. You’re going to have to hire a bodyguard to walk you to your car.”

  “Really?” Her face lit up again, and for the first time in a long time happiness exploded in my chest.

  For like five minutes, I’d forgotten about Colin. I’d forgotten that I was a tragic twenty-seven-year-old widow. I’d allowed Julie’s happiness to make me happy. But then my fingers came around the chain at my throat, the place where Colin and my ring hung together right over my heart.

  Julie noticed the shift in my face. “Mill, I know this must be hard for you. The one-year anniversary of Colin’s death is tonight and with my—”

  I sighed deeply. “And nothing. We’re going to get shitfaced and watch Netflix and I’m fine.”

  She nodded. “Yes, we are, but it’s okay if you’re having a hard time with me and John…”

  I waved her off. “I’m not. I’m really happy for you. He’s amazing … for a Republican.”

  We both laughed at that, and then the conversation navigated to equally choppy but different waters.

  “So … closing the cupcake shop?” She winced and looked down at the paperwork stack that I had perched at the edge of the counter.

  We hadn’t really talked about my business failure much. I didn’t want to be that friend, the friend that constantly complained or cried or was depressed. No one wanted to hang out with that friend. John had been nice enough to get me out of my three-year lease agreement without having to get evicted for non-payment. For that I was grateful.

  I waved her off. “It’s fine. A new restaurant idea was an ambitious choice after everything. I was able to get out of the lease without being in debt. That’s a plus.”

  Colin’s parents had gifted Colin and I ten grand to open the cupcake shop. The problem was that Colin had gone to school for restaurant management and I was just the pastry chef. A Cordon Bleu, French-trained, pastry chef, but still … I knew nothing about business. It was doomed from the start. I should have gotten out of it when I’d learned of his death, but his parents wanted to see it come together. Colin’s dream. We’d worked on it at the same time as we planned our wedding. We were set for our grand opening the day after we landed from our honeymoon.

  Cupcakes and Whiskey.

  A bar with dessert that matched the drinks. The perfect pairing. Colin got the best bartender in New York City and I curated the menu, inspired by my time in Paris. Chocolate croissant cupcakes with Kalua mudslide or bacon maple scones with caramel rum.

  Sigh.

  If I hadn’t fucked it up, it would have been amazing. I missed more work than I attended. Shit fell through the cracks. The line out the door died down when they realized I hadn’t ordered or baked enough to feed them. One day I’d been so despondent, I just closed the place early and went home.

  I had to hear about it on social media. Some bitches showed up to the closed shop and made a whole Instagram story about it.

  Reputation was everything and the restaurant suffered after that.

  Julie pointed an accusing finger at me. “Are you thinking about that Instagram bitch?”

  I grinned. “Just a little. She had a million followers. A million!”

  Julie waved me off. “She was a bitch who made a huge, nuclear, World War Three big deal about a restaurant closing an hour early.”

  I shrugged. “It was three hours.”

  “The point is: Fuck her.” Julie was viciously protective of me and I loved her for it.

  I held up my bubble tea and smiled at my bestie. “Fuck her.”

  We clinked plastic cups before the beeping of Julie’s phone caused her to peer down. “Okay, I gotta get back. Eight p.m., my place. I kicked John out for the night. You, me, getting hammered and watching Netflix!”

  I gave her a quick hug and then watched her go, weaving in and out of the restaurant while still shoveling lo mein into her mouth.

  She looked back at me in the doorway. “HOLY SHIT I’m getting engaged!” she yelled as a huge grin swept across my face. The restaurant burst into applause and she left with a fist pump in the air. That’s when my mind wandered to the day Colin proposed to me. It was perfect, he was perfect. We were perfect.

  Now that Julie was gone, I could let my fake smile fall, I could let my shoulders droop. I could ask myself on the one-year anniversary of Colin’s death … what the fuck was I doing with my life?

  Ashton

  The blaring alarm clock cut into my sleep like an assault, I rolled over and slammed my hand down to shut it off.

  Another fucking day.

  Every night I went to sleep and prayed I wouldn’t wake up, but lo and behold, that fucking alarm clock was there to remind me I was still in the land of
the living.

  Great.

  Sitting up, I pulled a cigarette from my bedside table and lit it. Reaching out, I touched the picture of my twin sister that sat at my bedside table. I remembered the day I took that picture. We were seventeen and she’d been canning strawberries with Gran; she was a sticky mess. She had a crush on one of my buddies who was over, and I’d called her a sticky slob or something and she’d flipped me off. I’d snapped the pic right as she flipped me the bird and glared me down in the way that only Jenna could do.

  She hated the picture, which of course made me love it.

  Emotion tightened my throat and I reached out and slammed the frame face-down.

  Tomorrow was the one-year anniversary of her death. One year since the universe decided to take her and not me. Peering down at the ten-inch scar on my chest, I shook my head and took another drag of my cigarette. I shouldn’t be smoking, or drinking for that matter, but I didn’t care anymore. I shouldn’t be alive. Jenna should.

  My second, backup alarm went off and I tore from the bed and yanked it from the wall, ceasing its blaring mid-stream.

  After showering, smoking three more cigarettes, and tossing on a questionably clean shirt, I headed downstairs to open the bar. I was surprised to see my real estate agent Darcy waiting for me out front.

  “Surprise!” She bopped on her heels, holding two Starbucks cups. “We got an offer!”

  Darcy had been trying to sleep with me for months. She was a perky twenty-five-year-old blonde with a banging body. But she also had a big brain and cared too much about people. Not the kind of girl you had a one-night stand with, so I avoided her advances at all costs. Ya know, I was a gentleman like that.