He took a drink of coffee and the cobwebs in his head started to pull away.
Leaning forward, he braced his elbows atop the bar.You’d think he would have gotten used to the three of them last night, but he just couldn’t stop staring.They were so unbelievably beautiful, but it was more than their identical looks.Roxie had sisters.She had blood.He’d always thought they’d been the same—loners against the world—but that wasn’t true anymore.
Here, they weren’t the oddity.
He was the one thing not like the others.
Maxie leaned her chin against the top of her chair.She’d twisted all the way around to watch him, but her gaze faltered when he caught it.“Hi,” she managed to say.
With as much tension as was floating around, that was enough to make a smile pull at his lips.“Hi back at ya.”
“I’m Maxie.”
“I know.”He blew her a kiss.“Now.”
She blushed bright red.“Did you have a good time last night?”
He coughed as his coffee went down the wrong pipe, and his gaze shot straight to Roxie.She was gaping at her sister like she wanted to yank on her hair.He’d had a frickin’ fantastic time—when his lover hadn’t been pulling away from him.
Maxie’s blush turned impossibly brighter.“I didn’t mean… The party.Did you have a good time at the party?”
She was shy, and it was fascinating to watch.She might have her sister’s face, but Roxie had never been shy a day in her life.
“It was a nice send-off for Charlie,” he said, letting her off the hook.
“How do you know him?”she asked.
Roxie’s fingernails began ticking rhythmically against her coffee mug.She wasn’t comfortable having him here, and she didn’t like her sisters asking questions.The set of her shoulders said so.So did the press of her lips and the cock of her foot under the table.Billy took pleasure in the fact that he could still get under her skin.
Lord knew she could still scratch him bone deep.
“I used to work here,” he said.
“At The Ruckus?”
He looked around the darkened room.With the neon lights off and the booths empty, it seemed more like a library than a drinking hole.Still, the memories were here.“Charlie gave me my first job when I really needed it.”
Lexie leaned forward, curiosity plain on her face.“Was that before or after you and Roxie got married?”
The drumming of Roxie’s fingernails got faster.
Aha.So, she’d shared a bit of their backstory with her sisters, but not all of it.
God, he hoped not all of it.
“Before,” he confessed.Those memories haunting the place became more vivid, and his voice dropped.“But she was in the picture.”
Front and center.He didn’t like thinking back to a time when she hadn’t been in his life.
“What do you do now?”Maxie asked.
He took another drink of coffee to give himself a moment.It was good and strong, but not bitter.Another three or four cups and he’d be human again.
“I’m a mechanic.”
That finally got a response out of Roxie.Her chair scraped against the floor as she pushed it back and stood.“He’s being modest.He’s a top-of-the-line gearhead, but truth is, he can fix anything.”
Everything but them.His jaw clenched.
