Lexie (9 page)

Score tied. One to one.

Roxie waggled her finger at his face. “You’ve got a little lipstick on you, lover boy.”

He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. He didn’t like this woman. He didn’t like her at all. “Do you have any idea how much trouble that billboard is causing?”

“I have to disagree with you there. It brought my sister to me. I think it’s fabulous.” Roxie tilted her head, and her right foot rocked back. She balanced her weight on her heel with her toe pointing into the air. It was a gesture so tied with Lexie in Cam’s mind, for a moment he was thrown off his game.

“Yeah, well, reunion time is over.” He got over the similarities fast and caught Lexie’s hand. “She’s coming with me.”

“What? No, I’m not.”

“She is not.”

That got a rise out of both of them. They spoke in unison, as if they’d spent their entire lives together rather than a day. Lexie tugged on her hand, and Roxie’s foot slammed down.

“She’s not going anywhere with you.”

A big, scruffy mountain of a man smoothly took his place at the barmaid’s side. “Is there a problem here, Rox?”

Cam judged the bouncer. The guy had a good fifty pounds on him, but all that mass would slow him down.

“No. Skeeter, don’t.” Lexie stepped between the two of them but lifted her hand to her forehead. “Whoa.”

“Are you okay?” Cam asked.

“Lexie?” Roxie said.

Lexie wove on her feet. “I don’t feel so good.”

“She needs fresh air.” Cam threw another glare at the barmaid. Lexie was beginning to feel the effects of all that alcohol, and not the good ones. It was going to be a long night for her. He needed to get her somewhere comfortable and soon. “I’m taking her home.”

He took a step around the huge Skeeter, but Lexie didn’t budge.

“No,” she said, tugging on her hand.

He looked at her face, hoping she wasn’t about to get sick.

She wasn’t. On the contrary, her eyes were suddenly clear. “I don’t want to go back there, Cam.”

He stilled. It wasn’t home she was thinking about, it was the Underhills. “It was a mistake, Lexie. Everybody makes them. They owe you an apology.”

“I don’t want to go back. Not tonight.”

There they were again, those emotions bubbling up and up. Her breaths were shortening and her shoulders were stiffening. He saw the worry in her eyes and immediately changed plans.

“Okay, we won’t.” He wasn’t going to push her on this. “I’ll take you to a hotel.”

“Over my dead body,” Roxie snarled.

“I…I want to stay here,” Lexie said.

“That’s fine with me.” Roxie wrapped her arm around her newfound sister’s shoulders and faced him, her jaw set. “She staying, Hatchet Man. That is what she calls you, isn’t it?”

Cam felt his shoulders tighten. He’d expected a fight when he came in here, but not one like this. “This is not the right place for her,” he said, trying to keep his patience.

“And you’re not the right guy.”

Touché.

He stared Roxie down, a vein in his temple throbbing. He knew her type. Cocky and hotheaded. Bold with no sense of class or respect for authority. She was everything that Lexie wasn’t, and he hated that she wore the same face, inhabited the same body.

He glanced at Lexie, hoping to reason with her, but she was paler than she’d been only a moment before. He needed to get her out of here fast.

“Lexie, you don’t even know this woman. She’s your sister,
maybe
. You need to get a DNA match to prove it, but right now you know nothing about her other than she looks like you, wears half the clothes and lets anyone driving down the I-67 get a real good look.”

“I don’t wear that many clothes,” Lexie grumbled. She tilted awkwardly towards the jukebox as she reached for it. “Besides, we have a DNA test scheduled first thing tomorrow.”

“Hold on.” Cam wrapped his arm around her, steadying her. Her body was almost too pliant. He looked at Roxie. He didn’t like backing down to her, but he knew how to pick his battles—and he sensed a lot more coming. “Fine. You win. Where should I take her?”

The combat in the other woman’s eyes turned to concern. “My apartment is right upstairs.”

Lexie leaned more heavily against him. “I think I need to sit down.”

“You can lie down, hon. You can have my bed.” Roxie started moving across the floor. She glanced back at Cam as he helped Lexie along. “I promise she’ll be fine.”

“You’re damn right she will be.”

The barmaid blinked in surprise, her long strides slowing. “Is that trust or a threat?”

“Neither. I’m staying too.”

She came to a complete standstill. “You are
not
staying in my apartment.”

The smile he gave her was hard. She thought she could outmaneuver him? People paid him big bucks to see all the angles, and he’d found the only compromise that would work for him. “She’s with you? I’m with her. Get used to it. You just got yourself two houseguests.”

Chapter Five

Lexie didn’t feel so good. The room was starting to tilt, and Cam was the only thing keeping her steady. He was pressed against her side, and he had his arm wrapped around her waist like one of those security bars on a rollercoaster.

Rollercoaster. Not the thing to think about just now. The room suddenly went into a dive, and she closed her eyes to try to right it.

The security bar tightened. “Roxie?” Cam growled close to her ear.

“Fine,” her sister snapped. “You can both stay.”

He was staying? Lexie’s stomach flipped. Her topsy-turvy day had just been upended completely. She’d found an identical twin and Cameron Rowe had kissed her silly. The world was not right. She peeked at the man at her side. He shouldn’t even be here. But he was. She could feel him from head to toe and, honestly, he was the only thing that felt good right now.

Roxie went to speak with Charlie behind the bar. “Do you mind if I knock off early tonight?”

The good-natured owner rolled his eyes. “Get out of here. Your billboard doubled our crowd and you found a sister along the way. Hell, take tomorrow off too.”

“I’ll take you up on that.” Roxie grabbed Lexie’s purse and suit jacket from where they’d tucked them under the register.

Lexie reached for the jacket eagerly. From the day Cameron Rowe had started at Underhill, she’d done everything she could to appear professional, polished and competent. Her gaze fell on the bar, and she stopped in her search for an armhole.

Well, that image had just been blown to bits.

“Let’s go,” he said with a nudge.

With regret, she folded the jacket over her arm. It was bunched and backwards, but she didn’t have the wherewithal to figure it out. His shoulder brushed against hers, and awareness danced over her skin.

“This way,” Roxie said.

Getting to the door wasn’t as easy as it sounded. The crowd was still jumping, and their main attraction was leaving. The novelty of twins had been a big hit. Roxie waved off invitations and smiled soothingly but, for Lexie, the crowd was getting a bit close.

Cam tucked her up tighter against him. “Hold on just a bit longer.”

Like things would be better when they were alone?

Heat crawled up into her cheeks. This wasn’t like her at all. A cocktail was the most she usually consumed, and then only if the business situation called for it. She didn’t like being foggy. Landers could go out drinking with clients, but she liked to be sharp.

She didn’t feel sharp right now. Dull would be a compliment. She’d danced atop the bar for a crowd of bikers, for God’s sake. And Cam, of all people, had been there to witness it. Her nerves jangled. She’d spent the past three months on guard against him. Would he use that against her? Against her staff?

If she still had a job.

Roxie held the door open so they could pass through, and Lexie gulped down the night air. She felt Cam watching, and she straightened from him. Raking a hand through her hair, she tried to tame it.

His gaze flicked over her for a long moment but then focused on the street. “You live here?” he asked Roxie as he scoped out the dark spaces.

“You don’t have to stay,” her sister said tightly.

“Oh yes I do.”

“I’m sorry to be so much trouble,” Lexie murmured. She was struggling to keep her purse on her shoulder. It was tiny, but the strap was long and delicate. The combination was a little too much.

“It’s okay, hon,” Roxie assured. “I’m feeling a bit tipsy too.”

“I’m so tired.” Tilting her head back, Lexie let the night air slide over her hot face.

“It’s just up these stairs.”

They stopped at the stoop one door down from the bar. It opened to two first-floor apartments and a set of stairs. Roxie started climbing. The staircase was empty, but the area was clean and well lit. Still, the beat of the music penetrated the walls, and the crowded sense of the bar seeped over into the private dwellings.

Cam’s gaze swept the corners of the staircase. The sense of awareness he had seemed ingrained. “How many flights up?”

“Two.”

“I’ll take her.”

Lexie swatted at him when he reached for her again. “I’m fine.”

His eyebrows rose, but then a corner of his mouth lifted. It stopped her in her tracks. She’d never seen him smile before. She’d thought it physically impossible.

Roxie hovered three steps up. “You two aren’t going to start making out again, are you?”

Lexie flushed. She grabbed the railing and started upwards. Every move she made was precise, just half-time. She finally got her purse looped over her shoulder so it wouldn’t slide off, and she tossed her hair back with pride. The move was too quick, though, and she shut her eyes.

“Spinning?” Roxie asked.

“Just a twirl.”

She felt Cam’s touch on her waist, only this time it was farther down, closer to her hip. Lexie tried to go faster, knowing he wouldn’t let go until they were all the way up. The contact burned, the ball of his hand brushing with every flex of her butt.

Roxie fished her keys out of her pocket when they made it to the third floor. Up here, the music was muted. Only a soft, persistent beat made it all the way upwards.

Lexie’s gaze swept the apartment with interest as she entered. Roxie flicked on the lamp by the sofa and looked around anxiously. She straightened a pillow on the couch and tidied up the magazines on the coffee table. The one-bedroom apartment wasn’t that large, and she didn’t have many belongings to fill the space. What she did have, though, was style. Her taste was offbeat and quirky. Half rocker, half New Age, but it suited her.

Lexie’s lips pursed when she saw the scene out the living room window. On the third floor, the apartment was above the trees with a perfect view of the Cobalt River. Not too high, and not so far to fall. The moon reflected off the water, making it look like flowing black silk. “It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah, it’s why I took the place. Normally, I’d prefer to live farther away from work, but I couldn’t pass it up.”

Lexie wandered around the cozy apartment. “I love it.” She swept her fingers through the beaded fringe that hung off the lampshade and sighed. “My mother is the only one who decorates at our house.”

“You still live at home?”

“I made it as far as the guesthouse. Pathetic, isn’t it?”

Cam caught Roxie’s eye. “It’s expected. They all still live at the manor.”

The manor. Lexie grimaced at the bad taste it left in her mouth. There was no way she could have gone back there tonight. Not with the way she was feeling and acting. Not after what had happened this morning when her family had turned on her.

She focused her blurring gaze on her twin. This afternoon was the first time she’d felt totally accepted. Free to be herself—or somebody entirely different. She’d been comfortable enough to let down her guard, to not care what people thought, and she loved her sister for that. The bond she’d felt when they’d first looked at each other had snapped into place. It wasn’t going to yield. Ever.

Tears pressed at Lexie’s eyes, and she blinked fast. Nobody liked a weepy drunk.

Roxie dropped her keys onto the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the living area. “Well, it’s not manor-ish, but it is home. Welcome to Chez Cannon.”

She rubbed her hands on her jeans, while Cam stood like an immovable force in the middle of the room. Lexie wasn’t sure what to do. If she sat, she might not get back up. Instead, she let her purse and jacket tumble onto the chair. Even they were becoming too heavy for her.

Roxie hooked her thumbs in the loops of her low-riding jeans and drummed her fingers on her hipbones. “Anyone hungry?”

Food. Blech. Just the idea made Lexie queasy. She shook her head, but that made the room give another twirl.

Cam caught her elbow. “She needs to lie down.”

“So do I,” Roxie said. “She can sleep with me.”

Lexie peeked through her lashes to see Cam’s brow furrowing, but Roxie pounced faster.

“Contrary to the mouth-mating session downstairs, I know you two aren’t a couple.” Her sister pointed across the room. “The sofa is a foldout. It’s all yours, Hatchet Man.” She grabbed Lexie’s hand, not allowing any argument. “You can wear something of mine. I’d lay odds we’re the same size.”