The tone was as aggressive and angry as the woman’s unblinking glare.It made Lexie flinch in surprise, and she clung to the bar a bit more tightly.“Lexie…” She stopped to clear her throat.“My name is Lexie Underhill.”
The hard look on the other woman’s face melted, leaving her expression almost blank.Or stunned.Her chest rose and fell.“Lexie?”she repeated.
Lexie nodded.
“I’m Roxie,” the woman said.
Lexie’s breath caught.Not Charlie at all.
“Roxie Cannon.”
Lexie and Roxie.Oh, sweet heaven.It just couldn’t be.
Could it?
They evaluated each other from head to toe, taking in details fast…then slowing down to make sure.Lexie had thrown on her favorite navy blue suit during her mad dash this morning, hoping it would bring her luck in the meeting.She’d never expected it would bring her luck like this.She watched this woman, a stranger who might have more in common with her than anybody else in the entire world.Roxie had on low-slung jeans with a metal-studded belt.It hugged her tightly, and so did the close-fitting black tank she wore.The body on that billboard hadn’t been airbrushed one stroke.
Lexie couldn’t stop staring.Her replica was wearing high-heeled boots, while she was wearing high-heeled pumps.Roxie wore funky sterling-silver jewelry, while she wore a simple gold chain.Her reflection’s lips glistened with red lipstick, while her own were painted with a softer pink.Style-wise, they were night and day.
Underneath it all, though, they were interchangeable.
“I was adopted.”The words tumbled out of Lexie’s mouth.Without tact, with no tentative feeling-out period.In three small words, she asked the biggest question of her life.Yet they were all she could get out, and she wanted to know so badly.
“I wasn’t,” Roxie replied.
Lexie’s shoulders deflated.A rock of disappointment settled in her gut, and tears pricked at her eyes.Only seconds had passed.She’d just met this woman, yet a lifetime of hope had been lifted.She’d thought maybe…
“Oh, no!No, no,” Roxie said, her brown eyes widening.Reaching out almost compulsively, she caught Lexie by the forearm.Her nails bit, but the grip was trembling.“I didn’t mean it that way.I meant I never got out of the foster care system.”
Suddenly, Lexie felt as if she was keeping them both on their feet.If her hold on the bar faltered, they were both going down.Yet she was finding it hard to breathe.That rock in her stomach had jumped up into her chest.
Her mind blanked.She didn’t know what to say or what to do.
So they went back to staring at each other.
Finally, she shook her head, too nervous to accept anything on face value—even her face.There were things she needed to know.Facts had to be checked.“When’s your birthday?”
“April twelfth.”Roxie barely waited for her to nod in agreement before she fired back.“How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight.”
They both let out shuddering breaths, yet it wasn’t enough.“Where were you born?”Lexie asked, drilling deeper.
“Here in the Cobalt Valley, I think.Have you been in Cobalt City the whole time?”
So close.They’d been so close their whole lives and hadn’t known it.“East Side.”
Roxie’s lips pressed tight.“No surprise there.”Her gaze slid over the designer suit and high heels before she gestured at her surroundings with a nod.“Mostly west for me.”
The ache in Lexie’s chest rose to her throat, making it hard to talk.
Her doppelganger took the lead.“How tall are you out of those heels?”
“Five foot five.That birthmark on your shoulder on the billboard?”
Roxie pushed her right shoulder forward.“You mean this?”She looked at Lexie anxiously.
Daring to let go of the bar, Lexie fumbled to undo her suit jacket.Rolling her shoulder, she tugged the jacket down to the crook of her arm.The light blue chemise she was wearing had spaghetti straps.Following Roxie’s gesture, she pointed at the mark on her own shoulder.A perfect, tiny replica.
