She fiddled with the fresh bowl of peanuts Charlie had set in the middle of the table.Her chair was pointed right at the jukebox—the same jukebox where she and Cam had made out for the first time.In public.
How had things changed so quickly?She was doing things she never would have dared before, and two people she hardly knew were suddenly the key people in her life.She’d found a sister she loved, regardless of the tension between them.And as for Cam… Well, he was becoming a confusion and an obsession all at once.He was still a mystery to her, but something deep and important was developing between them.
She just hoped she could trust it.If she’d learned nothing in the past days, it was that people could and would surprise you.
But not always for the better.
“Brace yourself,” Cam muttered.
Lexie didn’t need the warning.She could hear Roxie’s heels cracking against the floor even with the music blaring.Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that her sister was still in full battle mode.
Apparently she didn’t have a hunk to ravage to ease her tension.
The random thought had Lexie’s eyes blinking wide, even as her twin slammed their drinks on to the table.
“Came to get your car?”Roxie didn’t wait for a response as she dug in her pocket and came up with the borrowed keychain.She tossed it onto the table, and the keys clattered across the surface until Lexie slapped a hand over them.
She met her sister with her shoulders squared.“We came here to talk.”
One of Roxie’s eyebrows lifted.“Well, I’m busy.”
As swiftly as that eyebrow had risen, though, it snapped back down.Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the two of them sitting together, and her gaze turned laser-like on the spot where Cam toyed with Lexie’s hair.
“Are you serious?”Heat blasted across the table as she turned on Cam.“You took her to bedtoday?”
He stiffened.“Now wait one minute…”
“Why?You obviously couldn’t.”Roxie planted her hands on her hips and rocked her foot back on its heel.“Just like the other night.You pounce on her when she’s weak and vulnerable.Nice, Hatchet.Real nice.”
Cam’s chair squealed against the floor as he pushed it back and started to stand.“You’re one to talk.She did nothing to you today, but your claws came out at her.”
“Hey!”Lexie was on her feet before he’d risen to full height.“Enough.”
“But he—”
“She—”
Lexie smacked both hands on the table, rocking the drinks.Beer slopped onto the wooden surface, but she turned a furious glare on her sister.“I was the one who pounced.”She whipped her head around towards Cam.“And I don’t care.”
Sitting down in a whoosh, she reached for her Diet Coke.She took a healthy gulp before looking up at them both defiantly.The tip of Roxie’s boot dropped to the floor, and Cam eased back into his seat.
“Sit.”Lexie pointed at an empty chair.“Please.”
Roxie tapped her fingers against her hipbones.She cast a glance back at the bar but pulled out the chair and perched on its edge.“Fine, but I can’t take long.We’re busy.”
“That’s all right.I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
Her twin shrugged.“It wasn’t your fault.”
“In a way, it was.We should have taken more time to look into things.If we had, maybe…”
“You didn’t have time—not with the way they were coming down on you.”Roxie rolled her shoulders uncomfortably.“How did you stand growing up with those people?”
Those people.Her family.The fire in Roxie’s eyes immediately put Lexie’s back up, but she identified with it too.The anger and the horror over this morning’s encounter hadn’t left, nor was it getting any weaker.Every time she’d thought about the unfairness of it all, she’d wanted to march into Cam’s living room, grab that paperweight and throw it through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“I had no idea what they’d done,” she said.“I don’t think they understand the damage they did.”
“Stop making excuses for them.You don’t split up kids.I don’t care if there were enough ‘parents’ to go around.”The air quotes Roxie used might as well have been daggers.
