Blinking fast, Lexie sipped carefully.As graceful and elegant as she was, she threw an elbow into Roxie’s side.“You could have killed me.”
Cam rubbed his lover’s back.“I told you she was the evil one.”
Zac grabbed all the coffees before anyone else dared a sip.“No use risking assault charges.”He tossed the lot into a nearby garbage can.
“The pastries aren’t bad, though.”Cam stole a bite of Roxie’s funnel cake and backed out of reach before she could pinch him.“I’ll go get everyone some tea.”
“Orange juice for me,” Roxie called.“And see if you can do something to restructure her business plan before she kills someone.”
“That’s not such a bad idea,” Maxie mused.
Zac pushed at the crumbles that were left on his plate.“Her muffins are the only thing that got me through all that bad java.”
“Really, Sheriff.”Lexie clicked her tongue in disapproval.“You shouldn’t be talking about other women’s muffins when you’re dating my sister.”
Maxie laughed.It was so nice to be sitting here with people she felt affection for.The upheaval in her life had caused stress, but now that things were righted again, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun.
“I’m going to miss you guys,” she said.
“Stupid work,” Roxie muttered.She stuffed another bite of powdered-sugar deliciousness into her mouth.
“You’re going to come down for our grand opening, aren’t you?”Lexie asked.
“I wouldn’t miss it.”Maxie caught Zac’s hand underneath the table.“We want to see this company you and Cam are building.”
Roxie’s face lit up.“Charlie and Skeeter down at the bar would get a kick out of meeting you.They nearly flipped the first time Lexie walked into the Ruckus.The place would overflow if word got out that there are three of us.”
Maxie toyed with her tea.That brought up something she wanted to discuss with them but hadn’t quite known how to bring up.“Know who I’d really like to meet?”She took a deep breath.“Our mom and dad.”
Roxie looked at Lexie sharply.Surprise was clear on both their faces.
“Are you sure?”Lexie folded her napkin and settled it in her lap.“I thought you didn’t have any interest in that.”
Under the table, Maxie squeezed Zac’s hand.
“I do,” she admitted.“I’ll always love the parents who adopted me and the grandmother who raised me, but…”
“But blood is blood,” Lexie surmised.
“And… Well, I found something.”Maxie’s heart began beating faster when she picked up her purse.“It was in my grandmother’s treasure box, the one where I found the adoption papers.”
She pulled out a heavy-duty paper picture folder.That hadn’t been in the box, but she’d wanted to protect what she’d found.She opened the folder with care, and her heart squeezed just like it had the first time she’d seen the delicate paper inside.
“What is it?”Roxie asked.
Maxie turned the frame around and slid it across the table.Her fingers shook as she did so.
Lexie inhaled sharply.“It’s a sketch.”
Roxie leaned in for a closer look.“Of you when you were little!”
The drawing had been a surprise.When Maxie had first found the old keepsake, she hadn’t been able to process what she was seeing.The paper itself wasn’t that large, only notebook sized.The medium was simple, paper and pencil, but its impact was huge.
She was laughing in the sketch, delight showing in her sparkling eyes.She was still a baby, but even then, she’d had a good head of hair.The dark strands swooped down from a bow atop her head, and her grin made her cheeks look even chubbier.The sketch had been done by someone with talent, but it was more than that.The work had been personal.Feelings and emotions radiated from every line.
Roxie clapped her hand over her mouth when she saw the writing down in the bottom right-hand corner.“Maxie,” she read aloud.“Love, Mom.”
Lexie ran her fingertip across the plastic covering the signature.“Mom.”
