Maxie (Triple X) (14 page)

Because adventurous Maxie was not available for play.

When she stepped inside the kitchen, she was surprised to find only Roxie. For some reason, she’d expected her to sleep until noon. “Good morning.”

Roxie glanced up from the photo album she was poring over. She was curled up on a kitchen chair with both legs tucked underneath her. She was wearing soft shorts and a racer-back tank. She looked as if she’d slept in them too. “Hey. I hope you don’t mind I made myself at home.”

If her visitor wasn’t shy about being in her pajamas, Maxie didn’t see why she should have a problem. She moved to the cupboard to get herself a cup. “I never complain when someone makes coffee for me.”

“I wanted to look at these,” Roxie murmured. She flipped a page and nibbled at her lip as she took in the pictures and captions.

She seemed immersed in the photos of everyday life in what had been the Miller household. Maxie didn’t mind her thumbing through them, but they did bring up a lot of questions now. Questions about her childhood and things she might not have known. Most of all, though, they brought up feelings. Loving feelings. Fiercely protective feelings. She couldn’t remember being fierce about anything before.

“You look like you had a good night,” Roxie noted.

“What makes you say that?”

“You look relaxed and, I don’t know,
tumbled
.”

The coffeepot clinked against the mug when Maxie’s hand slipped. “I…I did sleep well.”

“You must have tuckered our fine sheriff out.” Roxie chuckled before taking a sip of her own coffee. “I haven’t heard him moving around up there at all.”

Maxie put the coffeepot back on the warmer before she could drop it. Her bedroom was right overhead. She remembered how Zac had looked splayed across her bed, and she busied herself with wiping up the counter where she’d spilled.

“You’ve got a keeper there, girl.”

Did she? How did one keep something she wasn’t sure she had? Especially when she’d fallen asleep at exactly the wrong time? Maxie bit her lip. He’d spent the night in the first place because they’d been pretending.

She had to change the subject. If she thought about it anymore, her head might explode. “What are you looking for in those albums?” she asked.

Roxie shrugged. “It’s interesting. We each grew up so differently.” She flipped a page and smiled at a picture of Maxie’s grandmother wearing a sombrero at a Mexican restaurant on her birthday. “Your life was so
normal
.”

Maxie braced herself for laughs or jokes, but the word was said with so much wonder, it slipped by her defenses. She’d never thought that someone like Roxie could sound wistful.

“It’s what I always dreamed of having,” the woman admitted.

Maxie’s throat tightened. She’d been the girl at school without any parents, but she’d had her grandmother. She’d had family. She couldn’t imagine growing up in foster care, all alone in the world. “I’m sorry about your childhood. The things in that file…”

“Don’t be. Don’t be sorry for what happened to me or what might have been. You hold on to what you had with both hands.” Roxie lifted the album. “You hold on to this. I want you as my sister now, but I don’t want to take your past away from you.”

Maxie’s heart was beating a bit too hard. That was her biggest fear, with everything that had happened. She didn’t want to disavow the childhood she’d had. She couldn’t forget the people she’d loved, the family who’d raised her.

“Lexie has another family too, you know. She’ll never give them up.” Roxie settled the album back onto the table and rolled her shoulders. “Much as they deserve it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know that saying, ‘Money can’t buy you happiness?’ That’s the story of our sister’s life.”

Maxie paused with her coffee halfway to her lips. “Were they not good to her?”

“Mmm… Let’s just say that she was the one who was never good enough.”

Not good enough?
Lexie
? Anger flushed through Maxie, but she heard footsteps in the living room. Roxie made a slashing motion across her throat, and they both let the subject drop.

“Is that coffee I smell?” Lexie padded into the room. She hadn’t gotten dressed either, but she was wearing a satin robe. Her toenails were painted a dusty pink. How she could look so classy and elegant first thing in the morning was beyond Maxie.

Not good enough? Who were these people?

“Roxie made it,” she said. It was difficult with her jaw feeling like it was going to pop.

Lexie’s eyes brightened when she saw the photo albums on the table. “I’ll take a cup.”

“Make that two.”

The voice was deep and rumbly, and it made Maxie spin around in surprise. For a moment she thought Zac had snuck up on her, but instead she found another stranger in her house. A tall, dark, handsome,
intense
one. She’d forgotten Lexie’s boyfriend was coming. Maxie tugged on the hem of her T-shirt. The way he was watching her was unsettling, as if he were trying to dissect her down to her parts.

“Stop staring at her. You’re making her uncomfortable.” Lexie snuggled up against the man. He looped an arm around her waist, and the couple looked very right together, even though they somehow shouldn’t. There was something powerful about him. Powerful and driven, but protective.

Lexie smiled. “Maxie, this is Cam.”

“Sorry,” he said, holding out his hand. “It’s strange to see Lexie in another form. I’m used to the evil twin over there, but you’re different in yet another way.”

“Morning to you too, Hatchet,” Roxie grumbled.

Maxie accepted the handshake and found it warm and firm. “How do you mean?” she couldn’t help but ask. She wondered how somebody else saw them.

“Cam,” Lexie warned. “This is all still new to her.”

“It’s new to all of you.”

Again, Maxie felt that astute gaze take her in. This guy missed nothing.

“How?” she repeated.

“Well, if you really want to know, Lexie is classically beautiful. Cultured. Roxie is striking and sensual, but you’re—”

“Careful there, hoss.” Another male voice came from the doorway, and it was
growly
.

Maxie jumped as if she’d brushed against a bug zapper. Zac had snuck up on all of them. He was suddenly there, in the flesh. He’d put his T-shirt on, but he’d propped both hands against the doorframe. The position made him look big and imposing.

Surly.

Cam turned, putting their new arrival in his line of sight. Zac was bigger and more muscled, but there was something edgy about Lexie’s lover. He’d be scrappy.

Maxie’s weight went to the balls of her feet. For someone who didn’t like attention, she felt as if she were standing under a spotlight. This couldn’t go well, no matter how she judged it. Zac didn’t appear to be pretending, but if he was, he was getting a bit too deep in his role.

Cam deliberately looked her up and down again. “I was going to say cute and cuddly.”

Roxie snorted. “Like a teddy bear?”

“Like the girl next door. Like a first love.”

“And a teddy bear.” Lexie must have felt the tension too, because she winked at Zac. “After all, I want to hug her.”

Maxie felt uncomfortable with everyone watching her, but Lexie walked over and wrapped her arms around her. There it was again, that feeling of familiarity.

She pulled away, flustered. “Sit everyone. Grab some coffee. There’s orange juice in the refrigerator.”

“Be careful who you get cuddly with, Hatchet.” Roxie jerked her thumb towards Zac. “That’s the sheriff. He carries a big gun.”

Finally, Zac eased from his pose against the door and stretched out a hand. “Zac Ford.”

“Cameron Rowe.”

The handshake was testosterone-filled, and all the posturing made Maxie uneasy. Zac wasn’t in a good mood at all. Either he wasn’t a morning person, or something else had rubbed him the wrong way. Her stomach tightened. She knew what that irritation had been, only there had been no rubbing.

That was the problem.

“Anyone want pancakes?” she asked weakly.

He turned his attention to the table, ignoring her. “Are you guys going to Park Art today?”

Lexie glanced up from her seat. She’d pulled up a chair next to Roxie and was looking through another scrapbook. “I don’t know. We hadn’t discussed it, but it sounds like fun.”

“Is there jewelry there?” Roxie asked as she flipped to another page.

Maxie felt pinned when Zac’s gaze swung back to her. For a moment, she was tongue-tied, but then he lifted his eyebrows. The question. He wanted her to answer it. It made her realize he’d never been to the event. He’d only been sheriff for a few months.

And they’d only been masquerading as a couple for a day.

Talk about a time warp.

She wrapped her fingers around her coffee mug. “Jewelry, paintings, photographs and pottery. You’ll find a little bit of everything there. I have to go stock my booth this morning.”

“You’re working it?” Lexie said.

“I was going to. Maybe I should see if Laura could cover it by herself.”

“Don’t bother. We’ll help you,” Cam said, decision made.

Zac nodded. “Maybe I’ll see you there.”

Maybe? Lexie sucked in a breath that hurt her throat. Was he calling it quits?

“You’re leaving?” Roxie’s hair swung as his comment finally pulled her attention away from the photo album.

“I’ve got to run home for a bit and then down to the station.”

“Home?” Lexie blushed. “I’m sorry, I thought you lived here.”

“Well that, sweetheart, is a point of contention.”

Because they’d intentionally made them think that. Maxie’s entire body felt leaden. The lies were building up until she couldn’t carry them anymore. If he called her out, it would serve her right. He’d been such a good sport, but she’d pushed his kindness too far. Acted unbelievably selfish. Something real might have been happening between them, but she hadn’t held up her end. After last night, he had to think she wasn’t interested, when the opposite couldn’t have been more true.

She stiffened when he curled a finger at her.

“Come see me off,
cuddly
one?”

Oh God. This was it. He wanted to talk.

He held out his hand, and there wasn’t much she could do but take it. She put down her coffee, and he tugged her along. Maxie looked back over her shoulder to the kitchen. That was as far as she’d made it on her desperate escape, but she hadn’t had time to think things through. She still didn’t know how to explain or make things better.

She had to hurry to keep up with him as he marched towards the front door. He wasn’t giving her a choice. She couldn’t run off again. She had to face him. Alone on the front porch, he closed the door behind them, shutting away the clink of coffee cups and the murmur of voices.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted before he could say anything.

She had to get it out in the open before he was too angry to hear. “I don’t know what happened. Everything got so wild. It spun out of control, and then everything went dark. I don’t know how to apologize.”

A funny look crossed his face, but then he grinned. Moving in fast, he caught her by the waist. She couldn’t have been more stunned when he kissed her. He pressed her up against the side of the house, and Lexie’s senses ignited when his weight leaned into her. He was hot and hard and
aroused
.

His hand swept up the back of her leg and under her shirt. He squeezed her bottom, and she moaned. In that flash of an instant, her nipples peaked and her body began to quiver. She clutched at his back, overwhelmed. This wasn’t what she’d expected. “You’re not angry?”

He pulled back the slightest of inches. “Did you do it on purpose?”

“No.”

“Were you faking it?”

“
No!
” The heat in her face couldn’t have gotten any pricklier.

He smiled and kissed her again, hot and fast. “Then I’ll take it as the best ego booster ever.”

“Ego booster?” Her mind was spinning and tripping so fast she couldn’t make sense of things. He seemed pleased. How could that be?

“I gave you an orgasm so powerful it knocked you unconscious.”

The heat in her face spread like wildfire. He said the most outrageous things. He liked to shock her, but there was always that nip of truth. This time it stung more than the fingers pinching at her bottom.

He soothed the pinch with a caress, and the air on the porch turned sexually charged.

“Next time, you can set the pace,” he said. “But remember. When Prince Charming kisses Sleeping Beauty, she’s supposed to wake up.”

Maxie’s mouth went dry. There was going to be a next time? And he expected her to take the lead?

He eased away from her. “Damn, but you make it hard to go.”

“You really have to leave?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” His gaze slid over her, snagging on the outline of her nipples under the cotton shirt and again where her thighs were rubbing together. “But do me a favor, would you? Put some clothes on around that guy.”