When the phone rang unexpectedly, it blended with all the other noise in her head. Once she recognized the sound, she stood so quickly the boots fell onto the floor. She hurried to the bedroom to search through her clothes. Her hands were clumsy as she pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jeans.
“Billy?”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. “It’s Maxie.”
Roxie’s shoulders drooped. The momentary burst of energy disappeared, and she clutched the back of the counter stool.
“Is this a bad time?” her sister asked.
Roxie looked around the room. She didn’t have a clue what time it was. The room was darker than it had been, but the energy of The Ruckus gave her no clues. Was the night just getting started? Was it closing time? It was another of those thoughts that flitted away. “It’s fine. What’s up?”
The moment the question was out, she had the vague cognition that maybe she should be worried. Late night calls were rarely good.
“I don’t know.” There was the sound of a teakettle whistling in the background. “I just felt a really strong need to call you.”
Roxie moved back to the sofa and sank onto it. The triplet radar was running on full power.
That teakettle kept whistling. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”
A lie jumped to her lips, ready to go, only the words got stuck. It was what she always did, bucked up and pretended things didn’t affect her. Pushed them away. Lexie had called her on her tough girl act, and now so had Billy. She was feeling anything but invincible tonight. She needed to talk to her sister, but she didn’t even know where to start. “I’ve had a really bad day.”
“Oh, honey. What happened?”
The empathy made her throat thicken. “The billboard was taken down.”
The teakettle choked off. “Our billboard? No!”
Her sister’s disappointment didn’t have nearly the panic that hers had, but the sadness was there. Roxie cuddled up in a tighter ball on the sofa. She hadn’t realized how invested she’d gotten in that stupid thing. “And there are no leads on our parents.”
She tried to push away the nagging feeling that the two were connected. The gut instinct. Billy was right. The billboard had been lucky—she wasn’t going to let go of that—but it wasn’t magical.
There was the sound of a chair sliding. Maxie must be in her kitchen. Roxie loved that homey kitchen with the herb garden in the window that overlooked the big backyard.
“That’s okay,” her sister said. “None of us has made much progress on the search. I hope you didn’t feel like we put it all on your shoulders.”
Funny, but that’s where all the weight seemed to be bearing. Roxie rolled her shoulders but the tension wouldn’t go away. She wasn’t the patient type. Once they’d made the decision to look for the rest of their family, she’d wanted results.
“It’s been years,” Maxie said softly. “It could take a while.”
It could take forever. Roxie grabbed a throw pillow and squeezed it to her chest. She didn’t know if she could bear that.
“Billy left.”
The words just came out without any plan or forethought.
Maxie paused. “Because he had to get back to work?”
“We had a big fight tonight.” Although right now, it didn’t seem as much a fight as the two of them being brutally honest with each other.
“Oh, Roxie.”
Roxie wanted to wave it off—that damn self-preservation instinct again—but her hand was clenched too tightly in the pillow. “It was due. Overdue really. We managed to be around each other much longer this time.”
“No. You two aren’t meant to be apart. You belong together.”
Roxie’s stomach clenched. She’d thought that way once—and she’d slipped into that mindset too many times over the past week—but she knew better. She knew how her story with Billy went. Her life had looped around time and time again, and their ending was always the same. A psychic had even confirmed it.
This was the last loop, though. This time, he wouldn’t be coming back.
Tears pooled in her eyes. “We’re both too messed up and damaged.”
“Well, who isn’t?”
Roxie blinked. “What?”
It wasn’t the response she’d expected.
There was the tinkle of a ceramic cup on the other end of the line. “Please don’t take this the wrong way. You had a tough time of it, and my heart bleeds over that, but we were all affected by our past. Lexie is constantly trying to please others, and I’m terrified to step outside my comfort zone. We’re messed up, too. The split affected us all, but that doesn’t mean we don’t deserve love.”
Roxie went still. The verbal swat on the behind by her shy sister made the swirling thoughts in her head stop.
“You might have actually come out of it the best,” Maxie continued. “You’re so strong. You know what you want, and you go out and get it.”
Come out of it the best… For the best…
The words hit close to home, and Roxie’s fingers dug into the pillow. They’d all been affected by what had happened to them, but she wouldn’t have traded places with her sisters if they’d offered.
Her breaths came a bit more rapidly in her chest. Was that the reason she’d been the one left behind? Because she was the one who’d been able to take being scared and alone? The castoff? She was an identical triplet who’d been made a loner, but if one of them had to grow up in foster care, she was glad it was her.
Glad.
The insight was messed up, and it made her lightheaded.
Her sisters had needed their second families—and she’d needed Billy.
Oh, God. She rubbed a hand over her face, and her gaze landed on the boots on the floor in front of her. She still needed him. “What am I going to do?”
“Go find him.”
So much pain and frustration had filled that bedroom. “I don’t want to hurt him anymore.”
She’d never wanted to hurt him.
“I’d bet my flower shop that he doesn’t want to hurt you, either.”
It was for the best. Billy’s words stung, but had they been too close to the truth, too?
“Go after him, Roxie. That’s what you told me to do when I almost lost Zac.”
“I don’t know where he is.”
Maxie let out an unladylike snort. “Since when would that stop you?”
Never.
“I have faith in you,” her sister insisted. “You can make things right.”
But he’d made it so damn clear he was done.
Roxie leaned her head back against the sofa. She couldn’t destroy her sweet sister’s belief in happily-ever-afters. “I’m glad you called, Maximum.”
“I love you, Rox.”
The tightness in Roxie’s throat nearly choked her. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing to let people in. “I love you, too.”
When she hung up the phone, her hands were shaking. Those floating scraps of paper were coming together and the picture they formed was uncomfortably clear.
She wasn’t unlovable. She had Maxie and Lexie. They were three parts of a whole, but there were others who were close to her. Like Skeeter and Charlie. And Billy.
Looking back, there’d been others who’d tried. The Hamiltons had been nice. They’d fostered her for over a year, but she’d been so guarded and untrusting. And then there was Mrs. Fisher in tenth grade. She’d always been willing to lend an ear.
But she’d pushed them all away before they could push her.
Roxie looked around the apartment, dark but for the moonlight starting to come through the window. Look at what she’d done with her life. She had her own place and her own business. Friends. She’d pulled herself up by her bootstraps, broken as they might be.
She’d had to fight for it all tooth and nail, but that made it all the more precious to her. She’d told herself that she’d wanted answers about her childhood, but deep down she admitted she wanted
more than that. She’d wanted acceptance. She’d wanted love.
She’d had it all along.
Oh, damn.
A ragged breath hit her and she waved her hands in front of her face to fight the sting in her eyes. She’d been so busy trying to protect herself, she’d pushed away what she wanted most. Why did she always have to do things the hard way?
Well, why not? She was good at it.
She was a fighter.
And, this time, she was going to have to fight for him.
She flipped back her hair, blinked her eyes dry, and rubbed her hands against her thighs. Okay, she had to do something. She couldn’t leave things the way they were.
Billy did deserve better.
So did she.
She let out a puff of air and focused. She had to find him. They had to talk.
But where had he gone?
Would he even listen to her?
She picked up her boots from where they’d fallen so carelessly onto the floor. Standing them upright on the coffee table, she ran her fingers over what had once been a broken heel. She didn’t know if their relationship could even be saved, but she had to try.
It was her turn to play the fixer.
Chapter Thirteen
Nobody paid much attention when the smokin’ hot brunette stepped into the garage. It was nearing the end of a long workday, and most of the guys were thinking about the beer and burgers waiting for them at the diner down the road. The open work bay was huge, with cars lifted on hoists, engines hooked up to monitors, and tires stacked ten high. The place was a bastion of masculinity and not many women dared to enter.
This one not only dared, she struck a pose as she scanned the place.
The Corelli garage wasn’t some neighborhood grease monkey shop. It was a high-tech laboratory focused on speed and power. Tools were ordered on peg boards, floors were swept spotless, and computers outnumbered cars. This was home base for a sport built on testosterone, and the men who worked here were filled with it.
The brunette didn’t flinch. Her gaze swept over the mechanics and engineers. It connected with a guy who wore black-rimmed glasses and a red headband. He jerked when he saw her and conked his head on the hood raised above him.
A corner of the vixen’s lips curled upward in acknowledgment, but she didn’t stick around to preen. Instead, she started down the wide aisle that led to the double doors at the end of the massive building. The tall heels of her boots clopped with every step she took, drawing more attention in her direction.
One by one, workers in the building forgot what they were doing. A grizzled veteran with a Fu Manchu mustache slowly straightened from the engine he was tweaking. “Holy shit,” he murmured.
A kid sweeping up metal shavings tripped when he saw her, and the handle of the broom banged him in the head. Embarrassed, he rubbed the red spot, but he didn’t stop gaping.
The hottie was on the hunt. She walked purposefully, never breaking stride as she met each of their gazes. Those sexy boots were zipped over tight-fitting jeans that cupped a backside curvy enough to make a grown man cry. A whistle broke out from the end of the garage she’d already searched. Her hips only settled into a more determined sway.
Damn, she was something.
Activity stopped as she passed until one end of the garage was working, while the other end stared. Finally someone with a company badge stepped out to meet her.
“Can I help you, miss?”
“I’m just looking for someone.” Reaching out, she smoothed the lanyard that held that badge over the man’s chest. “Don’t mind me.”
Her voice was like raw silk. The man stood dumbfounded as she walked right on past.
The woman’s dark hair swung as she walked, the wild curls tumbling this way and that. She had an angel’s face, but she wore that leather jacket for a reason. There had been hell and determination in her big brown eyes.
A barrel-chested guy in a pair of company coveralls stepped out in front of her next. He grinned at her from a scruffy face. “Hello, beauty.”
“Hi, beast.” She passed him, too, giving him a quick swat on the behind.
It was clear she was looking for someone in particular. A very lucky someone, indeed.
Badge Man caught up with her again. He was puffing as he tried to keep up with her runway model strut. “I’m sorry, miss, but you really can’t be in here without permission.”
She winked at him. “Then someone should have stopped me instead of holding open the door.”
His eyebrows rose, and he threw a fierce look back towards the front office. A line of techs and mechanics stood watching the scene. Two had even rolled out from under cars to observe.
“Whom is it you’re looking for?” the man persisted.
The brunette stopped. Without the clip-clop of her high heels, the place seemed nearly silent. Only one engine revved. It was the car to her left, the one where a mechanic was still working. Her gaze swept over the man’s backside as he leaned over the engine, and she licked her lips. “That’s him,” she said without even seeing his face.
“Cannon?” the man said in surprise.
The mechanic paused when he heard his name. He pulled back to respond, only his green gaze fixated on the woman’s feet.
The ones clad in those sexy black stiletto boots.
“That’s him,” she said throatily. “My husband.”
* * * * *
“Husband?” Corelli repeated. It wasn’t the driver, but his uncle, who ran the business side of the house.
Billy had never taken much of a liking to the guy, and he paid him little attention now. His heart was beating too hard, and his head had begun a dull throb.
Roxie. She couldn’t really be here, could she?
Her boots certainly were. He’d recognize them anywhere.
Slowly, he dragged his gaze upwards. Her feet were planted wide, and one hand rested on a slim hip. Her leather jacket was form-fitted and zipped closed. His grip tightened around the socket wrench in his hand as he finally looked at her face. A dark angel with a devil’s twinkle.
His chest tightened until he had no air. “Ex-husband,” he rasped.
“Are you an idiot?” his tech mumbled.
Billy barely heard him. What the hell was she doing here?
His eyes narrowed as he slowly stood upright. Her chin was lifted in that way that told him she was nervous, and her right foot was cocked onto its heel. She didn’t back off, though. She stood there, staring him down, waiting for him to make a move.
It pissed him off. He’d made his move. He’d left.
“What are you doing here, Rox?”
“I thought it was time I came after you for once.” Her gaze flicked to the thin man at her side. “We need to talk.”
Talk. Billy took the rag out of his back pocket and wiped his hands. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that she was here, halfway across the country from where she belonged. It unsettled him, having two separate parts of his world collide. He’d thought he’d shut the door on his past once and for all. “We’ve talked enough.”
Her eyes glistened, and she swallowed hard.
It was enough to make him do a double-take.
When he focused on her again, though, her eyes had narrowed. She tilted her head to the side and swirled her hair around her finger. He braced himself, seeing the gears turning in her head.
“Okay,” she said silkily. Her red-tipped fingernails drummed against her hipbones as she stepped forward.
The sexy roll of her hips distracted him enough that he found himself rooted in place. When she settled her hand over his heart, he couldn’t move. She slid that dangerous touch upwards until she’d caught him by the nape of the neck.
Her brown gaze met his, searching. “Then we’ll do this.”
She tugged down as she lifted herself up onto her tiptoes. Her soft lips pressed against his, and Billy’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest. He dropped the wrench, letting it clatter aga
inst the floor, and caught her by the arms.
A whistle cut through the air, followed by a hearty “Hell, yeah.”
The leather of her jacket was chilled, but the body underneath it was warm and oh-so damn tempting.
His grip on her tightened even as he tried to pull back. The ache in his head was growing into a rumble. She snuggled closer, pressing her breasts against his chest. He jerked his hips back before she could rub against him there, too.
Adrenaline surged through Billy, pulling his nerves tight. He had to resist. He couldn’t get sucked back in. He hadn’t detoxed from her yet.
Jaw tight, he held her away from him. This had to stop. She’d messed him up bad this time. Really bad.
“Billy,” she said softly.
He tried not to look at her. He tried not to look into those brown doe eyes, but then she trembled. It went all the way through her, and a soft whimper caught his ear. He looked at her sharply and felt his stomach drop. The expression on her face was so open and honest, it tore right through him.
“I’m sorry,” she mouthed.
When she lifted herself to kiss him again, he couldn’t deny himself. He kissed her back, their mouths melding slowly. Achingly. He slid his hand into her hair and vaguely heard the hoots and hollers that broke out this time.
Their bodies touched, connecting from head to toe. As far as kisses went, it wasn’t the hottest or the most explicit. After over a day away from her, though, it was the hit he needed to ease his shakes.
And start him down the wrong path all over again.
Breathing heavily, Billy broke the kiss. He leaned his forehead against Roxie’s as he tried to make sense of everything. They’d really done it this time. He’d thought the break had been clean.
Why had she followed him home?
Shaking his head, he tried to clear his thoughts. Focusing on his boss again, he realized this wasn’t the time nor place to do that. “I need to leave.”
“You think?” Corelli straightened his badge around his neck. “We can’t have distractions like this. It’s not safe.”
Roxie Page 18