“Come on,” she said, catching her dad’s hand.“Sit down.I think we all need to talk.”
Introductions were made all around as more chairs were pulled up to the table.Maxie introduced Zac and Lexie held Cam’s hand tightly as she introduced him as her significant other.
Finally, Dex and Alexis sat down, their chairs close enough that they could hold hands.Their intertwined fingers turned white, but neither complained and neither let go.Reaching out, Roxie latched onto Billy, holding him the same way.
They took the chairs near her mother.Roxie stared so hard she felt like a stalker, but she couldn’t help it.She didn’t want to help it.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Lexie said shakily.Cam helped her to a seat next to her father.She reached out timidly, her pinkie finger brushing her dad’s hand.He latched on tightly.With a shuddering sigh, she leaned her head against his shoulder.Lexie had spent so much time trying to please her adoptive father, but this was the daddy she’d needed.Roxie knew it intuitively.
Meanwhile, Maxie had taken Maddox under her wing.She was smiling as she sat down across the table with Zac and her brothers.The girl who’d grown up an only child suddenly had four siblings.She’d come a long way.Instead of fainting, she seemed to be taking it in stride.
As was Blaire.She was watching everything with keen interest.She took a seat by Roux, who didn’t seem so distracted anymore.
Roxie glanced over her shoulder when Charlie squeezed it.
“Bourbon?”he asked.
She laughed.That sounded perfect.“All around, except for those two.”
She nodded at Blaire and Maddox, who seemed surprised.
“I love ya, kids, but I’m not going to lose my liquor license on you.”
Alexis looked at her sharply.“This is your place?”
Roxie was caught off-guard and, for a moment, didn’t know what to say.The Ruckus was a biker bar.She’d never been embarrassed by it, and she wasn’t going to start now.Yet it wasn’t pretty or dainty or somewhere most people would want their daughter working.
But her life was what she’d made of it.Tilting her head, she said quietly.“Yes.”
The smile that settled on her mother’s face was warm and happy.“You have your own business?I’m so proud of you.”
Roxie’s tough heart stumbled a little bit.“Maxie and Lexie do, too.”
Maxie shrugged shyly.“I have a flower shop.”
“Oh, I love lavender,” Alexis said.
“It’s my favorite, too.”Maxie squeezed Zac’s leg, and he rubbed his hand over hers.
“What about you, baby?”Dex asked Lexie.
Her sister finally left her father’s embrace for Cam’s.“We just started a new business for recycling toys.It’s going really well.”
“Of course, it is,” he said, brushing the tip of her nose.“You always were the thinker.”
Skeeter helped Charlie carry over the drinks.By now, everyone in the place was watching them.Everyone from Whitey to Old Martha to the rough-looking guy with the tattoos who always sat alone.There was nothing like a good soap opera to intrigue people.The jukebox had been turned silent, and even the pool table was absent of activity.
Everyone waited for what would happen next.
Only now that they were here, now that they’d found each other, hugged, and shared a drink, nobody knew what to say.Roxie certainly didn’t know what to do.She’d thought about this moment her entire life.It had been that secret dream she’d never told anyone about, but this was as far as she’d ever let herself imagine.Now that it was really here, she didn’t know how to proceed.
She’d always said she wanted answers.
She still did, but there was that niggling fear that all this could be ripped away.Whatever those answers were, this was the happiest she’d ever be.She wanted to freeze this moment in time, just lock it away and walk into the sunset with Billy.
But time moved on, and the truth had to come out.
It was Lexie who finally downed her bourbon, took a shuddering breath, and turned in her seat.“What happened?”she asked, point-blank.“Why were we split apart?”
