Lexie by Kimberly Dean

been put over her head. She took another quick sip and was surprised to find her bourbon nearly gone. She downed the dregs. “Yes. Was foster care…?” She couldn’t find the right word. Terrible? Lonely? Scary?
    Roxie shrugged. “I was passed around the system until I got out at sixteen.”
    “So young?”
    Her twin stared down into the swirling liquid of her drink. “A friend got me out.”
    Lexie didn’t want to push, so she just squeezed her sister’s hand. “Have you ever thought about our parents? What they must have been like?”
    “And why they gave us up? Kind of hard not to, isn’t it?”
    “Yeah,” Lexie agreed. She’d always wondered. “I never thought about a sister, though.” Her gaze landed again on Roxie Cannon’s face. It was still so shocking. Every time she caught her reflection doing something she wasn’t, it was a jolt. Yet the hand clutching hers told her it was real. Real…irrefutable… Her brain began clicking. “We need to have a DNA test run.”
    Roxie’s chin snapped up. “What, you think I’m trying to scam you?”
    Lexie started shaking her head as soon as she saw the woman’s reaction. “To prove it once and for all. I want documentation that shows you’re mine. I’m not going to lose you again.”
    They’d gotten split up once and nobody had been the wiser. She wanted it on paper this time and in computer databases. She wanted a solid line connecting her and Roxie on a family tree somewhere.
    “Oh. Yeah, that’s a good idea.” A slow smile slid onto Roxie’s face. “It would be kind of cool running around showing everyone our matching double helixes.”
    Lexie grinned back. Really cool for somebody who’d always been considered different. A square peg in a round hole…
    She watched as her twin flipped back her hair, the gesture unconsciously sexy. The dark strands trailed down Roxie’s back in wild tumbles. As similar as they were, there were differences. Nurture over nature. Her twin was tough and impulsive. Bold, confident and nonconforming. A poser couldn’t have pulled off that billboard.
    Yet at the moment, Roxie looked vulnerable. “Can you stay for a while?” she asked.
    Lexie felt her shoulders relax. She had nowhere else to go, and she certainly wasn’t heading back to the offices. She’d found the answer to all the questions that had been screamed at her this morning, but this wasn’t something she was going to fix. She lifted her empty drink in Charlie’s direction and got more comfortable in her chair. “Are you kidding me? I’m not going anywhere.”
    Charlie grinned and reached for the bottle of bourbon.
    The vulnerability disappeared, and Roxie bent forward, resting her arms on the table. “Tell me more.”
    “About what?”
    “About you. I don’t care what.” She glanced at Lexie’s left hand. “Doesn’t look like you’re married. Do you have a boyfriend? Somebody who makes your heart go pitter-patter?”
    From out of nowhere, Cam popped into her head. Leaning over her in the elevator… Dark, intense eyes watching her… Hard body radiating heat… Lexie was so surprised when her belly clenched, she shifted in her seat.
    Roxie’s eyes widened. “I take that as a yes?”
    “No. Definitely no.” She and Rowe had just veered into subject matter that they shouldn’t. Like her relationship with the Underhills… And her cleavage…
    “Looks like a definite maybe to me.”
    The hatchet man had no place here. None. Lexie had so many questions she wanted to ask. What was her sister’s favorite color? What kind of music did she like? What did she like to do? Where did she like to go? Was she dating anyone? “Okay, my turn—and this is a big one.”
    “All right,” Roxie said, obviously relishing a dare.
    Lexie grinned. “Is that billboard showing something it shouldn’t?”
    Roxie laughed and gave her a wink. “What do you think?”

Chapter Four
    It was dark when Cam found Lexie’s car outside The Ruckus. He braked,