Read Somebody Like You for Free Online Page A

squares of sharp cheddar cheese from the fridge. “Look, I cooked just for you.”
    “Rinsing fruit and opening a bag of precut cheese is not cooking.”
    “For me it is.” She grabbed a bag of cheese-flavored Doritos out of the mostly bare pantry and set a tub of cream cheese beside it. “One of the members at the range said this is delicious.”
    Claire wrinkled her nose at the chips-and-dip option. “That’s all yours.”
    “Fine.” Slipping her hand beneath her long-sleeved denim top, Haley rubbed the faint tightness in her lower back. “So . . . something happened last night.”
    Claire stopped sorting through the wire basket on the counter that contained the few boxes of tea Haley kept on hand for her friend. “Something bad? Or something good?”
    “Something . . . weird.”
    “Weird? Baby weird?” Claire paused, as if weighing the effect of her next question. “Being-without-Sam weird?”
    Haley chewed her bottom lip, leaning back against the counter, gripping the edge of the sink. “Some guy showed up claiming to be Sam’s brother.”
    Claire dropped the box of Constant Comment tea she’d selected, causing it to hit the floor with a dull thud. “Sam doesn’t—he doesn’t have a brother.”
    “That’s what I thought.” Releasing her death grip on the counter, Haley filled the electric teakettle with water, setting it on the counter and turning it on.
    “Sam would have told you if he had a brother.”
    Claire knelt and scooped the tea packets back into the box. Haley pulled a red ceramic mug from the cabinet and placed it next to the electric kettle. She had five more just like it—a bargain at a dollar apiece. “Again—that’s what I thought after meeting this guy who looks and sounds exactly like Sam. I mean, why would he have a twin brother—and not tell me?”
    Claire looked up from where she knelt—why hadn’t Haley swept those scattered dust bunnies and cereal and chip crumbs? “What did you say?”
    “I said why would Sam not tell me—”
    “No, you said twin .”
    “He’s Sam’s twin brother.”
    Claire plopped onto the floor, seeming to abandon all thoughts of cleaning up the tea bag mess. “This gets more and more bizarre.”
    “Welcome to my personal episode of The Twilight Zone . You’ll have to be satisfied with a cameo appearance, as it seems I have the starring role.”
    “Is this guy a—what do they call it—a fraternal twin? You know, the kind that doesn’t look alike?”
    “He looks exactly like Sam.”
    “No, he doesn’t.”
    “Claire, I was there.” Haley refused to allow even a hint of anything—everything—she’d experienced last night to creep into her voice. “When I say ‘exactly,’ I mean I couldn’t tell the difference.”
    “What?”
    “He walks like Sam. Sounds like Sam. If Sam looked in a mirror, he’d see this guy. It was dark . . . but for a minute or so, I thought . . . I thought . . .”
    Claire scrambled to her feet, walking over and wrapping her arms around Haley. “How awful. This guy is really Sam’s twin brother?”
    Haley shrugged out of the embrace. “I should have known it wasn’t Sam. The guy called me ‘Haley.’ To Sam I was always ‘Hal’—you know, like one of the guys.”
    “Your husband did not think of you as one of the guys!”
    “You know what I mean. Anyway, I called Sam’s mom last night. She confirmed it—although don’t ask me why I needed her confirmation. Miriam said she couldn’t tell me about Stephen before because it was up to Sam to do it. And he never did.”
    “What did Sam’s brother say?”
    A snort escaped her lips. “Not much after I threatened to shoot him if he didn’t leave.”
    “You. Did. Not.” Claire gave her space, gathering up the tea packets before tearing one open, positioning the tea bag in the mug.
    “I did.” She’d collapsed in some strange man’s arms—who, even in the muted light, seemed to have the same cleft chin as Sam . . . the