An abundance of brothers, p.1
An Abundance of Brothers, page 1
AN ABUNDANCE OF BROTHERS
D. K. SUTTON
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by D. K. Sutton
Cover art © 2024 by Samrat Archarjee
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.
Edited by: Abbie Nicole
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
The Twisted Bard Collection
Author Note & Content Warning
Cast of Characters
Prologue
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
Also by D.K. Sutton
Written as Addison Loyd
Acknowledgments
About the Author
AN ABUNDANCE OF BROTHERS
Two sets of identical twins mismatched at birth and raised as brothers.
Xander
Winning this baking competition will prove I can handle the pressure of running the family restaurant. But things go sideways right from the start. People I’ve never met act like they know me. Even my brother’s personality changes overnight. Add in a cute guy who hates me with a passion usually reserved for your worst enemy…and my ability to focus is severely tested.
I need this win, but we might not make it through the first round.
Dom
My focus is on helping Xander win and uncovering the truth about our past. But when my socially awkward brother changes overnight into a sexy beast of a man, I have bigger problems. How can my body betray me like this? These feelings are dangerous and wrong. And reciprocated.
Except, not all the time. My brother switches personalities like he does shirts—several times a day. Xander and I are out of sync and almost out of time.
As the competition heats up, we come face-to-face with the truth. Literally. Two men identical to us. And my brother isn’t my brother? We swap places, but pretending to be the other twin is harder than expected. Can we reunite our broken family? Or will our secrets tear us further apart?
An Abundance of Brothers is a contemporary gay reimagining of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. It features enemies to lovers, mistaken identities, twins being twins, and inappropriate crushes.
Twisted Bard is a multi-author series that brings the Bard to the present! It's also Super Gay and full of drama and heat. Did I mention drama? Shakespeare? I think you mean Shakes-queer!
THE TWISTED BARD COLLECTION
Dreamers Often Lie by Shane Morton
Come As You Are by Marie Sinclair
Kiss Me, Kit by Lynn Van Dorn
Moor By Giovanna Reaves
An Abundance of Brothers by D. K. Sutton
Method In His Madness by Abigail Kade
Ambition by Elizabeth Silver
Much Ado About Everything by Drea Roman
AUTHOR NOTE & CONTENT WARNING
An Abundance of Brothers is an MM romance with two sets of identical twins, switched at birth. In this book, two couples get their HEA. And although there are moments of mistaken identity, at no point in the story do any of the biological brothers have intimate or romantic moments with each other.
This story also has an autistic main character. Every neurodivergent person is different. I have attempted to portray my character as accurately as possible while avoiding stereotypes.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
CHICAGO
Sophia Marchetti- owner of Vinni’s Italian Restaurant. Biological mother to twins Xander Cage of Chicago and Xander Cage of Grandville. Her son, Xander Cage of Grandville, was switched at birth with Dominic Toretto of Chicago. She does not know, or perhaps acknowledge, until the end of the story that the boys were switched. She believes her friend Callie March and her babies died during the tornado.
Xander Cage of Chicago (Xander)- identical twin to Xander Cage of Grandville and Sophia Marchetti’s son. He is socially awkward and quick to temper. Excellent baker and pastry chef. He desires to take over for his mother at her restaurant while she travels the world but has not yet proven himself. Until the end of the story, he believes Dominic Toretto is his fraternal twin.
Dominic Toretto of Chicago (Dom)- identical twin to Dominic Toretto of Grandville and (although he doesn’t know it) Callie March’s son. Outgoing and charismatic, he loves to laugh. He is concerned that he doesn’t look like his “mother” or “brother.” He finds a picture that sets him on a journey to find answers. He enrolls Xander and himself in a baking competition close to where they were born. He interacts with Xander Cage of Grandville and thinks it is Xander. Cage is completely different from the brother he knows, and Dom finds himself attracted to him. Until the end of the story, he believes Xander Cage is his fraternal twin.
Paxton Scott- Sophia Marchetti’s trusted advisor. He doesn’t think Xander has what it takes to run Vinni’s while Sophia travels.
Randi- employed at Vinni’s as the backup pastry chef, trained by Xander
Jeremy- the sous chef at Vinni’s. Clashes continuously with Xander
Iggy- server at Vinni’s
GRANDVILLE
Lucinda March- the matriarch of the March family. She is Callie March’s mother-in-law.
Callie March- owner of Sweet Obsessions, a bakery in Grandville. Biological mother to identical twins Dominic Toretto of Grandville and Dominic Toretto of Chicago. Her son, Dom, was switched at birth with Xander Cage of Grandville. She does not know, or perhaps acknowledge, until the end of the story that the boys were switched. She believes her friend Sophia Marchetti and her babies died during the tornado.
Xander Cage of Grandville (Cage)- identical twin to Xander Cage of Chicago and the son of Sophia Marchetti—although he doesn’t know it. He’s an introvert but can “people” well. He’s an excellent baker and used to work for his “mother” at Sweet Obsessions Bakery before he started his own catering service. Winning the baking competition will get him the money he needs for his business. At the competition, he interacts with Dominic Toretto of Chicago and thinks it is Tor, the brother he grew up with. Dom is completely different from Tor, and Cage finds himself attracted to him against his will. Which is also awkward because Cage has a boyfriend. Until the end of the story, he believes Dominic Toretto is his fraternal twin.
Dominic Toretto of Grandville (Tor)- identical twin to Dominic Toretto of Chicago and Callie March’s son. Outgoing and sarcastic, he loves to banter with others, not worried about hurting anyone’s feelings. He doesn’t care about the baking competition, but it’s important to Cage, so he makes it a priority. Tor realizes something unusual is going on right away and stokes the fire as much as he can for his own amusement. He only meets his match when a man comes to sort things out. A yummy man named Paxton.
Ren Edgewood- Cage’s boyfriend. A very pretty but possessive twink. He is frustrated by Cage’s lack of commitment to their relationship, even more so when they’re at the baking competition.
Erik Waters- baker and manager at Sweet Obsessions Bakery. He was Cage’s best friend growing up and his roommate in college. Erik is friendly and kind. He likes everyone but Cage. There’s too much bad blood between them. At the competition, Erik thinks Xander is Cage and treats him horribly. But this Xander isn’t the same and Erik is drawn to him. Until the end of the story, he believes Xander and Cage are the same person instead of identical twins.
Carinne Waters- Erik Water’s sister and partner in the baking competition.
DUNKLIN COUNTY BAKE-OFF
Dottie- the bake-off coordinator.
Raul- sassy server, very interested in Dom. Or Tor. Or whatever the hot guy calls himself today.
Perpetua- one of the judges. Hates Dunklin County and cheaters. Likes wearing strange hats. Even inside.
PROLOGUE
A NOTE FROM LUCINDA
This isn’t Kansas. Or the Wizard of Oz. Or Twister if I want to be a tad more current. But I’m going to tell you something. You may not believe me, for it is truly astonishing, but it is the absolute truth, I swear on my son’s grave. May he rest in peace. Or not.
My son was an ass.
He got that from his father. And he, from his father. Well, you get the picture. I never said anything when he married Callie. It was not my place, and the girl was a delight. We got along famously. Shared pain and all that, I suppose. My husband had already drunk himself to an early grave, and I never stood in the way. Who was I to deprive him?
When Callie became with child, I was the natural choice to take her to her doctor appointments. My son was much too busy for such things. There, she met another young woman, Sophia. They bonded immediately over having tw
They were terrified their husbands would find out about the other, but that wasn’t what tore them apart. That happened quite literally.
Plans were made. They decided to be induced on the same day and have their babies together. Twins tend to come early, and when they both made it to thirty-nine weeks, the doctors were ecstatic. But then tragedy struck.
I mentioned tornadoes. The twisters that day raged down and tore the hospital in half, right down the middle, as each mother was giving birth. The generator lights came on when the power went out. We lost track of Sophia and her babies in the chaos, and our fear was that they had not survived.
But as soon as I set eyes on my grandchildren, I knew a mistake had been made. The doctors had thought the twins would be identical, although they couldn’t say for sure. But Callie had one baby with fair skin and red hair like her. The other baby had dark hair and olive skin.
Like Sophia.
Did the switch happen when the power went out? The chaos of saving all the mothers and all the babies? It didn’t matter. Callie accepted both children as hers. She never even hinted they were not. Sophia was gone, likely dead. Callie used the names they had both decided on: Xander Cage and Dominic Toretto.
My son never questioned it. That would have taken a keener observation and more caring than he had. He followed in his father’s footsteps, and Callie mourned her husband for less than a week and in public only.
She mourned Sophia every minute of every day. It took years for her to recover enough to move forward, but I suspect she mourns her still.
They had picked out identical names for the kids. Xander Cage and Dominic Toretto. Sophia had planned on calling them by their first names, so Callie used their middle names.
We loved Cage and Toretto. And we never spoke of the possible mix-up.
But this story is not about Callie and Sophia. It is about their boys and begins twenty-five years after the tornadoes tore our world apart.
Miracle of miracles, Sophia and her sons survived.
Since this is not my story to tell, I’ll turn it over to those who know it best. The first is Sophia’s oldest son, Xander. He is an unlikely hero who struggles to find his place in the world and desperately wants to be loved and accepted.
The other is Dominic, raised as his brother. With red hair and pale skin, he looks nothing like his family and desperately wants to find the truth.
Their journey begins with that picture from long ago of both women smiling and happy. It ends with them realizing the truth I suspected all along.
Two sets of identical twins, switched at birth, resulting in both mothers having a matching set. One dark and mysterious. The other fair and gingered with a wicked sense of humor.
Do not misunderstand, my friends. Xander and Dominic are the narrators of this story of love and belonging, but they do not end up together. They were raised as brothers. But they each find their true love, and their unbelievable stories are each shared here with you.
I hope you enjoy this impossible tale. Those who have skipped this note might be confused as the story unfolds. But they have only themselves to blame. Perhaps they can piece it all together with just the clues left behind. I admire them for that.
Who am I to stand in their way?
Lucinda March
He that commends me to mine own content
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
(The Comedy of Errors, Antipholus of Syracuse 1.2.33-34)
CHAPTER 1
XANDER
FRIDAY, MAY 20, 6 P.M.
The kitchen is a whirlwind of activity. We currently have twenty staff working the dinner rush. Four in front of the house and sixteen in back. I’m normally uncomfortable around this many people, so the owner hesitated to give me this chance. But since the owner is also my mother, I was able to wear her down. I need to get this right.
“Everything okay out here, Xander?” My mother, Sophia Marchetti, is beautiful and elegant. We have the same olive coloring and dark eyes, thanks to our Italian heritage. And while physically we’re similar, my mother is more charming and patient. But we have the same drive. Which is how she was able to make Vinni’s Italian Restaurant into such a success.
“I’m sure he’s got this, right, Xander?” My brother Dom looks nothing like us. Nothing like me. Which might seem strange since we’re twins. Fraternal twins. His hair is reddish blond and his light skin is freckled. I’ve always wondered if he looked more like our father, but Mom doesn’t talk about that or him. All we know is that he died in a fire when we were young, along with all his pictures.
“Yes,” I say, trying to sound reassuring instead of stressed. This isn’t my first attempt at managing the Friday night dinner rush. The last time ended with the sauce chef dumping a plate of spaghetti on me and walking out the door. “Everything’s going smoothly.”
My mother’s eyes narrow slightly, but her face remains impassive. She gives me a quick nod with a pointed look at Paxton, which I interpret as Keep an eye on him. “Dom and I will be in my office if you need us.”
Paxton watches my mother and Dom retreat down the hall and turns to me. “Smoothly?”
Everything hasn’t been smooth. But that’s an impossible dream with a restaurant this size on the busiest night of the week. Paxton’s about ten years older than me, my mother’s right-hand man, and a pain in my ass. His brown hair with caramel highlights is stylishly groomed and he has a short, neatly trimmed beard.
When I don’t respond, he shakes his head as if asking for patience and heads to the front of the restaurant. I relax, working out the tension in my neck, and take a deep breath. I can do this.
Barely ten minutes later, Paxton is back.
“The orders are dying on the pass. Do you know where your servers are?” Paxton asks, raising a judgmental brow. He doesn’t think I can do this.
I ignore him, for now, as I stomp through to the front and motion for Iggy, barely managing to keep my cool. Iggy is younger than me, with dark curly hair and a warm smile. But he acts older, like a mother hen, taking care of everyone. “What’s the hold up, Iggy?
“We got slammed in the last ten minutes.” But his eyes betray him as he glances at Rachel, one of our best servers. Lately, she’s been off. Is this her being slower? Or is Iggy trying to counsel her during the dinner rush?
“I don’t need excuses. Get the food out to the customers.”
He scrambles to do as I ask, and I check the front for further issues. The wall sconces and suspended globes create a warm, intimate feel to the place and highlight the murals of the Italian countryside. White tablecloths on top of red with flowered centerpieces create an elegant look. Mom did all this on her own. And now she needs me to step up. I have to get this right.
Once everything is under control, I return to the kitchen. “What’s on deck?” the sous chef asks the room, ignoring Paxton and me as he manages his team. The kitchen is full of noise and activity—shouts, the clank of dishes, the sizzle of meat, and people scurrying. Which would normally put me in sensory overload. But I grew up in this kitchen with these sounds. The smells of onions, seared meat, and Italian spices are comforting. I step back to avoid the porter barreling through and almost run into Paxton.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” His voice is quiet, thankfully. His brown eyes watch me, and I keep my face impassive. “Won’t you miss baking?”
I glance at my station, where Randi is trying to get my attention. She seems small in the bustling kitchen. Is that her short stature or her greenness at this job? Her eyes catch mine and they’re wide with panic. I’ve been training her as the backup pastry chef for the last six weeks. She’s been doing well, but today has been a test. It’s her first time on her own, and we’re in the weeds, as my mother would say.
