Maxie (Triple X)

by Kimberly Dean

  Zac didn’t make it to the park until after lunch. Despite the heat, a big crowd was milling about at the festival when he arrived. He was off duty and out of uniform, but most people called him Sheriff as he walked by. It was nice being part of a community that knew him, quite the change from working in the shadows.

  When he found Maxie’s booth, he discovered she was on a break. He finally spotted her under the large tent where everyone had eaten. She was way back in the corner at a picnic table in the shade. He watched as she tied her hair up in a loose ponytail, the motion natural and surprisingly sexy. On impulse, he bought two lemonades.

  “The Indigo Falls talent show will start in half an hour,” an announcer said over the loudspeaker. “Late entries need to put their names in now at the main stage.”

  “Hey, Beauty,” he said as he walked up to her. “Got any secret talents?”

  He slid the drink onto the table. It was cooler in the shade and a slight cross breeze brought some relief, but the heat was still sweltering.

  “Me?” She shook her head. “Hardly.”

  He chuckled. “I’d argue with that, but you’re right. This probably isn’t the best place to show them.”

  Her gaze dropped in embarrassment, but she accepted the drink. “Thank you. That tastes wonderful.”

  He took a drink too. He’d only just arrived, but the heat was already uncomfortable. The lemonade tasted tart and sweet against his tongue, but best of all, it was cold. He climbed onto the picnic table with her, straddling the bench to face her. It put her right in his line of sight, the way he liked it. “Where are your carbon copies?”

  “Roxie went to get something to eat, and Lexie and Cam are debating over a couple of paintings.”

  “How are sales?”

  “We’ve already sold out of the dried arrangements, so Laura’s pushing the garden decorations.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?”

  “It’s great. We didn’t expect things to go so fast.” She pulled her ponytail over her shoulder to get it off her neck. “How are things down at the station?”

  “Slow, but in my field, that’s a good thing.” His gaze slid over her bare shoulders. She wore a lightweight summer top with spaghetti straps and shorts, but she looked sapped. “Okay, today you do look overheated. Are you feeling okay?”

  “I thought it would get better the longer I stayed out in it.”

  “Are you telling me it doesn’t?”

  “Sorry.”

  He popped the plastic lid off his lemonade and fished out an ice cube. They were the cylindrical kind with the hole in the middle, the kind that kids liked to stick their tongues through. He popped it into his mouth but nearly swallowed it whole when he saw the expression on her face.

  Wow. One look. One spark, and he was charged up and ready to go.

  He sucked the juice off the ice and spit it back out into his palm. She was staring as he slid the tube of ice over his middle finger. He held up his hand innocently. “Need to cool off?”

  Her mouth worked, but no sounds came out.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” He ran the smooth cube over the base of her neck, and she let out a squeak.

  Flinching away, she looked over her shoulder. “What are you doing?”

  “Well, there isn’t a pool around, and I’m not partial to you skinny-dipping in the falls in front of all these art lovers.”

  Her face was flushed from the heat, but her cheeks turned a bit pinker. He held his hand inches above her spine, waiting for permission. She took her time giving it. They both watched as the ice melted. A drop of water gathered at its base, collecting and growing bigger. When it dropped with a splash onto her skin, she jumped.

  “Too cold?” Damn, his voice sounded like sandpaper.

  “No, it feels good.”

  He touched her, and her head dropped forward. The ice melted faster against her warm skin, but the cool wetness was sexy. Tempting. She sat, compliant, as he stroked the smooth chunk over the back of her neck, along her shoulders and between her shoulder blades. They loosened, and she sighed in relief.

  She was right with what she’d said last night. Skin on skin was much better.

  “So I made some progress down at the station this morning.” His voice hadn’t gotten any better, but he kept his tone low so nobody else would hear. Back in the corner of the tent, near the trees, it was as private as they could get with so many people nearby.

  “Progress on what?” she asked.

  “I did some more digging into Cam’s background. He checks out all right.”

  “Is that why you left?” Her eyes narrowed. “I thought you had to work.”

  “I did. Things are going well with all the visitors in town, but it’s still a busy weekend for my deputies. I needed to check in, but I also made a promise to you.”

  Her gaze sought out her sister. She and her boyfriend were at a booth over near the cross-country trail. “I like Cam, and I trust Lexie’s judgment. I could have told you he’s a good guy.”

  “He’s growing on me. From what I could tell, he made his fortune out of nothing.” Zac cleared his throat. “My head just gets jumbled up when I see him touching her. She looks so much like you. It gets me going, you know?”

  “Gets you going?” Maxie started to say more, but she stopped. Her straw squeaked loudly against the hole in the plastic lid, and Zac hesitated.

  What got her going? Looking at someone who mirrored her so much? Or watching herself with someone else?

  When she said nothing more, he shifted uncomfortably. Nothing like putting yourself out there and feeling yourself flap around in the breeze.

  He concentrated on stroking the ice cube over her back in a figure eight. “As far as I can tell, your sisters have no ill intent. They just want to get to know you.”

  She nodded. “I want to get to know them too.”

  That was good, because he had a few more bits to share. She’d asked him to check into things, and he’d dug deep. “I managed to find some other information that I thought would interest you.”

  “Info on what?”

  “Pete and Mary Miller.”

  Her eyes went wide. “What did you find?”

  “It’s not much,” he cautioned. Damn, when she looked at him like that, it cut straight through. “I had to go pretty far back.”

  She laid her hand on his thigh. “Tell me.”

  The unconscious intimacy wasn’t lost on Zac, but he tried to keep his brain on track. The information he’d found would be insignificant to most people, but it was important to her. That was why he’d made the effort. “Your mom had jury duty about twenty-five years ago in Cobalt City. From what Roxie’s PI was able to gather, that would have been after the time the adoption occurred.”

  “So we did live there.”

  “You can be happy to know she performed her civic duty.”

  “She would. She was a nurse. She was always helping others.”

  Maxie started blinking a bit too fast, and Zac’s gut tightened. Needing to distract her, he moved the ice to the side of her neck, just behind her ear. It was melting fast, and a dribble ran forward over her collarbone. He held his breath as it followed her curves and dipped between her breasts.

  Instead of wiping it up, she let out a relieved, “Ahh.”

  More creative phrases sat on the tip of his tongue.

  He cleared his throat again. “I also found a speeding ticket for your dad in Cobalt.”

  What had been cooling before, now caused a shiver. She bit her lip and pulled her hand back so it lay in her own lap. “He was driving when they were killed. The accident investigators said he was going too fast then too.”

  Zac’s fingers stilled, and another stream of water slid down her back. A different kind of ice went down his spine. “Were you in the wreck?”

  “I was spending the night with my grandmother.” Her chin dipped. “It turned out to be a much longer stay than either of us envisioned.”

  The
knot in his gut worked its way up to his chest. He couldn’t imagine. With one bad decision, she’d been left an orphan. He flicked the sliver of ice onto the ground and settled his open palm across her back. It was a soothing touch, cool, wet and intimate.

  She accepted it, sighing heavily. She was watching Lexie and Cam again, her focus intense. “What are your brothers’ and sister’s names, Zac?”

  “Mine?” He circled his thumb against a knot near her shoulder blade. “Kevin, Mike and Chrissy.”

  “Are you the oldest?”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  She shrugged. “What’s it like? Having siblings?”

  Now that was a loaded question. He evaluated the concentration on her face. “I guess it depends on the situation. Sometimes they’re your best friends, but at others, they can get under your skin worse than ticks. It just depends on how you click together.”

  “Do they live in Chicago?”

  “All but Mikey.”

  She glanced again to where Lexie was still shopping, and the weight in the air had nothing to do with humidity. “Do you think Lexie, Roxie and I click?”

  “Are you kidding me?” She’d been at the pool. They clicked like frenetic dolphins. He slid his hand to the nape of her neck. “You’re thinking too much again, Beauty.”

  His gaze dropped to her lips. They both knew how he liked to fix that. He leaned closer, but the speaker overhead crackled, startling them both. Maxie’s spine went ramrod straight, and Zac winced.

  “Last call for talent show entrants. Come on, Indigo Falls, show us what you’ve got!”

  She glanced wistfully at the stage, but a commotion in the tent had them both turning around.

  “Finish your drink, Martin. We’re going to be late.” Audrey Shimwell walked past their table, rushing her son along, but she paused when she saw the two of them sitting so close together. Her face pinched. “Sheriff Ford.”

  Zac didn’t let the sour look faze him. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Shimwell. Are you enjoying yourself?”

  The woman scrunched her nose, but her eyes softened when she looked at Maxie. “Good afternoon, dear.”

  “Hello, Audrey. I look forward to hearing you and Martin sing.”

  “I hope you like it. We have a lovely duet selected.” The stiffness in the woman’s face seeped into her lips, and they twisted oddly. “I’m sorry your grandmother isn’t here to compete anymore.”

  “Thank you,” Maxie said. “I miss her, especially today.”

  “Yes, well… Have a good afternoon.” The woman tugged at her son’s elbow. “Stop dawdling, Martin.”

  Martin tossed his Java Mama coffee cup into the trash and followed in his mother’s trail. “Hey, Maxie,” he called over his shoulder.

  Zac’s upper lip twitched into a snarl, but he let it go.

  “Do librarians patent that look?” He understood the coolness towards him. Mrs. Shimwell had obviously been hoping for a pairing of her son with Maxie, but her aloofness seemed like more than that. “What was that about?”

  Maxie rolled one shoulder as if it didn’t matter, but it clearly did. “Oh, it’s one of those small-town feuds. She’s always been nice to me. She’d put aside books for me at the library, but she and my grandmother didn’t get along. They’d battle it out every year here at the talent show.”

  “Battle?” Zac tried to get past the image inside his head. Battle of what? Frowns? Arched eyebrows? “Okay, I’m liking the sound of this. What did your grandmother do? Sing? Play an instrument?”

  A small smile pulled at Maxie’s lips. “Magic. Every year she’d have a new trick to wow the crowd.”

  He set down his lemonade so fast, the ice cubes clunked. “Are you serious?”

  The smile widened. “She usually won.”

  “I’ll be damned.” The light bulb finally clicked on inside his head. “Is this the first year that she isn’t here?”

  Maxie nodded, her expression turning wistful again.

  “Well, hell. Do you know any of her tricks?”

  Her hair swung around her shoulders as she turned to look at him. “What?”

  “You can’t let those two win.” The Shimwells had already worked their way to the entry table, and onlookers were starting to gather. Apparently, this talent show was a main event. It had been important to Maxie’s grandmother. It had to be important to her. “You’ve got to defend her title.”

  The statement flustered her, and the straw in her drink kinked as she fiddled with it. “Oh, I couldn’t. I can’t perform in front of people.”

  “So you do know a trick or two.”

  She squirmed. “It’s not an option. I was too shy to be her assistant even when I was little. There’s no way I could get up there…alone.”

  The word hung out there like a balloon, but then it was as if the string was cut. Her chin snapped up, and her gaze drilled into the stage. Energy started pumping from her, and her lemonade hit the table with a smack.

  Uh-oh. Zac’s warning antennae started vibrating. He recognized that look. He’d seen it in her eyes before, right as she’d jumped nearly butt-naked into the Inndigo’s pool.

  She twisted in her seat and flung her legs over the bench. “Excuse me.”

  “Hold on. Where are you going?”

  She was rushing off towards her sisters. “Don’t let them close the registration table.”

  Chapter Nine

  What was she doing?

  Maxie sat in the audience in front of the stage, her hands clenched in her lap and both heels digging into the ground. Second thoughts assailed her…and then third and fiftieth and thousandth thoughts… She was beginning to learn that she and impulse didn’t go together well, because when she submitted to an urge, she went all out.

  Why had she thought this was a good idea?

  Because it was, the devil on her shoulder responded. The idea was perfect, a way to honor her grandmother and her new family at the same time.

  But it demanded more out of her than she normally was able to give.

  She squeezed her hands so tightly, her fingers started going numb. Determinedly, she flexed them open wide, but her nails dug into her thighs when she settled them on her lap. She looked around the crowd. She was seated on a folding chair next to Dan Cramer, owner of Indigo Falls’ only hardware store. Roxie was near the front beside some kids and Lexie sat halfway back on the far side. She watched as her sister shooed Cam away when he tried to take the seat next to her. The look on his face was so comical, Maxie nearly laughed. Somehow, she doubted the man had ever been shooed before, but this would never work if he was seen with Lexie.

  After all, the key to magic tricks was diversion.

  Her stomach filled with butterflies. She’d been excited about the idea, and Roxie had been over the moon. Lexie had been more reticent, but she’d agreed to play her part. Maxie just didn’t know if she could live up to hers anymore. The longer this took, the louder her nerves were singing. As the final entry in the talent competition, they would be the last to perform.

  Perform.

  She hadn’t been able to do that when she’d been in the third grade. Her teacher had assigned her the role of second pilgrim from the left for the Thanksgiving play. All she’d had to do was stand quietly as others recited their lines, but when the time came, she hadn’t been able to step out on the stage. What made her think she could do this now?

  Because her sisters were here this time. Her support system.

  She glanced over her shoulder and found Zac watching quizzically from the back row. She’d been in such a rush, she hadn’t had time to share her plan with him. He looked intrigued but a bit uneasy.

  She knew how he felt.

  She blew out a breath and tried to stay calm as a juggler dropped his bowling pins, and then Laura’s daughter tap danced. Audrey and Martin were up next. Their voices blended together seamlessly on the gospel hymn. They’d performed together for years and were the ones to beat.

  Although it would be a vic
tory for her if she didn’t go running for the trees.

  She caught a reassuring wink from Lexie, but her sister didn’t look all that composed either. She was sitting with her legs crossed, but her top foot was bouncing up and down faster than the beat of the music.

  At last the emcee came back onstage as the crowd applauded the Shimwells. “Exquisite, weren’t they ladies and gentlemen?” He waited for the clapping to subside as he read his agenda sheet. “We’re down to our last act, and it’s Maxie Miller, who’s here to carry on her grandmother’s tradition. Maxie, please come amaze us with some magic.”

  Maxie stopped breathing. Here they went.

  The emcee turned towards the curtains at the back of the stage. “Maxie?”

  She felt weighted down as she stayed in her seat, her attention focused on the stage. People in the crowd started to turn. Most people knew her, and they’d seen her sitting with them.

  Only when heads turned throughout the crowd, they turned in different directions.

  That was Roxie’s cue.

  She stood in the front row. “Here I am.”

  Her posture was straight, and she spoke clearly. Her hair was smooth, and she wore a Park Art T-shirt. It was tucked in, and the sleeves were rolled up in sharp creases. She looked classy and cultured. A perfect imitation of Lexie.

  The triplet switch was on.

  Maxie’s adrenaline surged. Roxie glided towards the stage with her shoulders pulled back and her chin lifted high. The crowd paid little attention now that “Maxie” had responded to the emcee, except for those people who were seated next to a “Maxie” still in the crowd.

  People actually started to point, and she fought not to sink in her chair. If she couldn’t stand the attention here, how was she ever going to get up on that stage? She felt Dan’s confusion as he sat next to her, and she did her best to keep her expression serene and composed.

  She assessed Roxie, trying to take pointers, because her sister was good. There was only poise, no flounce. Roxie was all about the flounce, but the way she’d committed to her role was impressive. If Maxie hadn’t known better, even she might have been confused. At last, her sister stood next to the emcee with her hands clenched behind her back and a pleasant smile on her face.