Her gaze sought out her sister.She and her boyfriend were at a booth over near the cross-country trail.“I like Cam, and I trust Lexie’s judgment.I could have told you he’s a good guy.”
“He’s growing on me.From what I could tell, he made his fortune out of nothing.”Zac cleared his throat.“My head just gets jumbled up when I see him touching her.She looks so much like you.It gets me going, you know?”
“Getsyougoing?”Maxie started to say more, but she stopped.Her straw squeaked loudly against the hole in the plastic lid, and Zac hesitated.
What got her going?Looking at someone who mirrored her so much?Or watching herself with someone else?
When she said nothing more, he shifted uncomfortably.Nothing like putting yourself out there and feeling yourself flap around in the breeze.
He concentrated on stroking the ice cube over her back in a figure eight.“As far as I can tell, your sisters have no ill intent.They just want to get to know you.”
She nodded.“I want to get to know them too.”
That was good, because he had a few more bits to share.She’d asked him to check into things, and he’d dug deep.“I managed to find some other information that I thought would interest you.”
“Info on what?”
“Pete and Mary Miller.”
Her eyes went wide.“What did you find?”
“It’s not much,” he cautioned.Damn, when she looked at him like that, it cut straight through.“I had to go pretty far back.”
She laid her hand on his thigh.“Tell me.”
The unconscious intimacy wasn’t lost on Zac, but he tried to keep his brain on track.The information he’d found would be insignificant to most people, but it was important to her.That was why he’d made the effort.“Your mom had jury duty about twenty-five years ago in Cobalt City.From what Roxie’s PI was able to gather, that would have been after the time the adoption occurred.”
“So, we did live there.”
“You can be happy to know she performed her civic duty.”
“She would.She was a nurse.She was always helping others.”
Maxie started blinking a bit too fast, and Zac’s gut tightened.Needing to distract her, he moved the ice to the side of her neck, just behind her ear.It was melting fast, and a dribble ran forward over her collarbone.He held his breath as it followed her curves and dipped between her breasts.
Instead of wiping it up, she let out a relieved, “Ahh.”
More creative phrases sat on the tip of his tongue.
He cleared his throat again.“I also found a speeding ticket for your dad in Cobalt.”
What had been cooling before, now caused a shiver.She bit her lip and pulled her hand back so it lay in her own lap.“He was driving when they were killed.The accident investigators said he was going too fast then too.”
Zac’s fingers stilled, and another stream of water slid down her back.A different kind of ice went down his spine.“Were you in the wreck?”
“I was spending the night with my grandmother.”Her chin dipped.“It turned out to be a much longer stay than either of us envisioned.”
The knot in his gut worked its way up to his chest.He couldn’t imagine.With one bad decision, she’d been left an orphan.He flicked the sliver of ice onto the ground and settled his open palm across her back.It was a soothing touch, cool, wet and intimate.
She accepted it, sighing heavily.She was watching Lexie and Cam again, her focus intense.“What are your brothers’ and sister’s names, Zac?”
“Mine?”He circled his thumb against a knot near her shoulder blade.“Kevin, Mike and Chrissy.”
“Are you the oldest?”
“Is it that obvious?”
She shrugged.“What’s it like?Having siblings?”
