Yet she resembled these women more than either of her parents.Or her grandparents.And then there were their birthdays, the birthmarks and thelilacs.
The sheriff stroked her hair, and her leaping nerves eased a bit.
“How did you two find each other?”he asked.
Yes.More information.She needed more information.
“A billboard,” Lexie said, laughing softly.“An outrageous one.She modeled for it, and I got blamed.”
“And how did you find Maxie?”
Maxie nodded.Yes, she wanted to know that too.He was asking the questions she couldn’t formulate in her own head.
Roxie grabbed her bag.The thing was the size of a suitcase, but the only thing she pulled out of it was a manila file folder.“Here’s everything the PI came up with.”
“Can we have some time to look at that?”
We.He’d said we, but Maxie was okay with that.He was thinking more clearly than she was, and he was a cop.He’d figure this out.He’d make sense of the jumble, find some explanation that wouldn’t turn her entire life upside down.She trembled, feeling choked up.She didn’t want another family; she’d loved the one she had.
“You can keep it,” Roxie said.“I made this copy for you.”
Zac took the folder, but Maxie pulled away from it like it was a time bomb.
“We had a DNA test run, and it came back as a match.”Lexie folded her hands together.“We’d like you to do one too, if that’s okay.”
Maxie stiffened.Absolutely not.
“Why don’t we hold off on that?”Zac suggested.
She wanted to turn around and hug him—and keep on hugging him.This whole thing had come at her from out of the blue.She didn’t know how to act or how to respond.Her very foundation was suddenly unstable.It was all so personal, so private.Her parents weren’t here to defend themselves, and her grandmother had passed away nearly a year ago.These two women had each other for support, but all she had to hold on to was the man who’d let her take his hand.
“Can we at least spend some time with you?”Lexie asked.“We’d like to get to know you.”
“But I’m not your sister,” Maxie insisted.
“Yes, you are,” Roxie said, an edge entering her voice.“I can feel it.”
Lexie caught her sister’s shoulder.“How about dinner?”
Maxie chewed on her lower lip.
“We’ll leave the paperwork.You can look through it, and then we can talk.That way you’ll know as much as we do.”
Maxie looked at that folder, and her stomach turned.She was afraid to open it, but she wanted badly to disprove what it might say.
The only way she’d know for sure was to read what they’d collected.
Overwhelmed, she closed her eyes.She remembered the wish she’d made and instantly regretted it.She didn’t want to be impulsive, if that was what brought surprises like this.She didn’t want to do wild and crazy things.
But that wasn’t quite what she’d wished for, was it?
She’d wished to meet someone special, someone who would be impulsivewithher.She’d meant Zac, but…
But the twin pinpricks.Not one, but two.
She worried her thumb over the bandage on her finger.The coincidence was too much for her to brush off.“I suppose we could do dinner.”
That would be safe.On impartial ground.But there was no way she could deal with the two of them all by herself.
