People in the crowd started to grumble. Dan finally turned outright to stare. It made Maxie feel like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Okay, Maxie,” the emcee said. “What kind of a trick are you going to show us today?”
Lexie hesitantly rose from her seat across the way. “But I’m Maxie Miller,” she called, her voice barely lifting above the noise.
As one, the crowd turned and gasped.
A thrill went through Maxie. It was working.
She peeked back at Zac, and he was grinning. Beside him, Cam looked poleaxed.
Oh yeah, this was going to be good.
She watched Lexie closely, almost a bit fearful. Roxie had gotten so into her part, and she’d captured Lexie’s essence down to a T. How would Lexie play her? Could she trick people into thinking she was the town florist they saw every day?
More so, Maxie wondered how other people saw her. Was this going to be complimentary? Or just painful?
Murmurs started throughout the crowd as Lexie made her way to the aisle. She apologized to everyone she bothered and smiled shyly at people who caught her eye. Maxie inhaled and exhaled in a slow, determined rhythm. Even she couldn’t tell if her sister’s introversion was real or not. Lexie hid behind her hair as she hurried up the steps. She wore the same T-shirt as Roxie. They’d grabbed them at the last moment from a vendor, but wearing it, she looked like more of an all-American girl. She folded her hands nervously.
Okay, that was weird. Maxie often felt like she was looking into a mirror when she watched her sisters, but this time it was as if she was seeing herself.
She was so enthralled, she forgot her nervousness.
It all slammed back into her when Dan poked her in the shoulder.
“Maxie?” he said, his tone baffled.
Oh crap. It was down to her.
“Well, this is befuddling.” The emcee gestured to the crowd. “Does anyone know how she’s doing this?”
He gave his best Bob Barker smile and winked at the two matching women onstage. “Will the real Maxie Miller please come on down?” he joked.
He didn’t realize there was another waiting in the wings.
Now. It was time.
Only Maxie was frozen.
There was no way she could do this. It was too big. She couldn’t even stand up, much less pull off her act. The only sister left to play was Roxie. Lexie had refused to participate if she’d had to pretend to be her, so that left the task to Maxie.
And it was monumental.
She couldn’t do it. It took too much moxie, and she was a timid sort. She couldn’t imagine having Roxie’s confidence or flare. She didn’t even know how to flounce.
Dan poked her in the shoulder again. What, did he think she wasn’t real?
Come on, she begged herself. She wanted to do this. She only had one shot for it to work. Her grandfather had been the original magician in the family, and her grandmother had carried on the tradition. It was time for her to pick up the torch, at least this one time. It was a way she could show her love for her family, the only one she’d truly known. She’d be so disappointed if she let nerves or shyness waste this opportunity. Move!
Everyone was watching her now, both in the crowd and from the stage. For a moment, time seemed to stall. It went one count beyond what was comfortable, and that invisible hand began circling her, pulling her back. But then she felt a different kind of energy. It came from behind her, warm and encouraging. Zac.
Was she going to defend her grandmother’s title or not?
She surged to her feet. “Hold on one second. I’m Maxie Miller.”
She turned towards Dan. “Excuse me, hammer man. Can I get by?”
“Hammer man?” The hardware store owner wasn’t staring at her now; he was gaping.
When he didn’t move, she shrugged and wiggled by him suggestively. The murmur in the crowd lifted to a dull roar as she started up the aisle. In that second, though, she almost lost it. She was wearing Roxie’s ankle boots, and she nearly tripped into a face plant. She had to concentrate hard on the placement of her feet. The crowd’s attention was so heavy, she thought she’d never make it to the stage, but then the most amazing thing happened.
Laughter bubbled up inside her.
When it came out, she felt the most incredible sense of freedom. With a smile on her face, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and began to strut.
Onstage, Lexie’s eyes bugged out, and Roxie clapped a hand over her mouth.
Maxie took that as a positive sign. She let her hips swivel, and Martin Shimwell’s jaw went slack as he returned to his seat in the crowd. Good, that was the reaction she’d seen men have all day long around Roxie. Her confidence soared, even though her T-shirt was knotted high around her waist and a good amount of skin was showing. She waved at Becky along the aisle and blew a kiss to a middle-schooler whose eyes were the size of saucers.
A wolf-whistle pierced the air, and she stopped on the steps up to the stage. She looked back at the crowd and found Zac teasing her once again. She met his challenge dead-on and gave him a flounce and curtsy.
Cam burst out in laughter at Zac’s side.
Once onstage, she moved to stand by the other Maxie Millers. By now, the crowd was atwitter and the emcee was flummoxed. He considered them one by one and shook his head.
“I’ve got to admit, folks, I went to school with Maxie, and I don’t know which is which.” He faced the crowd. “So you’re going to have to tell me. Which one is she?”
Idiot Ronnie Nealson. She’d sat behind him for an entire year in biology class.
He pointed at Roxie, who was still in character as Lexie. “Maxie number one?”
Roxie lifted her hand and gave a ladylike wave. Applause rang out.
“Maxie number two?” This time it was Lexie’s turn. She smiled shyly and cocked her foot back on its heel. She nodded before disappearing at Roxie’s side. Applause rang out again, this time more loudly.
“Or finally, Maxie number three?”
Without missing a beat, Maxie stepped forward. She pumped her fist in the air and gave a hearty whoop whoop, which made both Zac and Cam nearly double over.
The crowd thought they had things figured out and remained quiet. With a conspiratorial look at Cam, Zac let out another wolf-whistle. His new buddy joined in with applause and a catcall. They both got to their feet, and more than one person turned to frown.
Lexie broke character and waved at them, trying to get them to sit down and be quiet.
The boys fell into their chairs, laughing. By now, everyone was baffled. Both men had been seen with Maxie—or someone who looked a lot like her.
Wouldn’t they know best?
“I don’t know how she’s pulled this trick off, everyone,” the emcee confessed. “Shall we see? Will the real Maxie Miller please step forward?”
Roxie stepped up smartly, but then slinked back into line. Lexie stayed where she was and gave Maxie a nudge. She stumbled a step forward in her unfamiliar boots. When she stayed in place, though, the crowd inhaled in surprise.
Now that the gig was up, she gave a more uncertain wave. Her sisters grinned.
Finally, they all dropped their playacting, and Roxie and Lexie both pointed at the one, true Maxie. The crowd was stunned. One by one, though, they started clapping and rose to their feet.
Tears unexpectedly pressed at Maxie’s eyes. She hadn’t wanted to believe she was adopted. Her life had been thrown cattywampus by the sisters’ arrival, and she’d been angry with denial. She couldn’t accept it, but today she wasn’t hiding from the truth.
Still, she was shocked when she found herself stepping up to the microphone.
So was the crowd, because they quieted down to listen.
“Hi, everyone,” she began. She swallowed hard, and her Maxie traits resurfaced. Her foot cocked back on its heel, and she lowered her chin a bit to hide behind her hair. “I know magicians aren’t supposed to give away their secrets, but I have to c
onfess that this wasn’t a trick of mine. It was a trick of nature.”
Roxie and Lexie held each other’s hands.
“You see, I’ve just learned that I was adopted.”
The crowd went silent. So silent that only the falls could be heard in the background. Apparently there could be still be secrets in a small town.
“And more than that, I’m one of a set of identical triplets.” Maxie’s voice shook on the words, and she took another deep breath to brace herself. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce Lexie Underhill and Roxie Cannon, my sisters.”
The crowd was stunned, but then the place went absolutely bonkers. Roxie and Lexie swarmed Maxie at the microphone, and the three embraced in a circle onstage. Roxie let out a whoop whoop, and there was an echo from the back row.
Looking out, Maxie saw Zac grinning at her. All around him people were clapping or crying. Some of those people had known her nearly her entire life. Women were hugging, and men were chattering. They were all happy for her.
Zac started cutting his way through the crowd, and her pulse jumped. He was the one who’d encouraged her. He was the one who’d been at her side since the start of it all. She wanted to share this moment with him.
She tried to navigate to the side of the stage, but everyone wanted to share their congratulations. The crowd bunched around, asking questions and doling out hugs.
“How did you find out about one another?”
“What about your real parents?”
“Why didn’t you grow up together?”
Lexie and Roxie answered what questions they could, but Maxie tried to escape the crowd closing in on her. She didn’t like being the center of attention. It had been one thing when she’d been playing Roxie, but this was something different entirely. The questions were ones she’d been asking herself over and over, and they were about to drive her mad. When she finally made her way through, Zac was standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her.
Looking big, buff, blond and blistering hot.
Shyness came over her. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Zac said, his voice gruff. He stood there, hands on his hips, shaking his head in disbelief.
But then she started down the steps towards him, and he nearly swallowed his tongue.
She was dressed like Roxie, but it was all Maxie as she strutted in her sexy boots and short shorts. His gaze drifted down her form and got stuck on her bare stomach and then her bump-bah-da-bump hips.
Damn, but it was enough to make a man beg.
He couldn’t help it. When she stood in front of him, he reached for her, but she stopped him with a hand to the chest. She looked around self-consciously. She and her doppelgangers were a fascinating oddity, and the mob was still gathered.
She caught his hand and tugged. When she started leading him around to the back of the stage, his heart fisted. She was willing to come clean about her sisters, but she didn’t want people to know about them?
Or weren’t his services needed anymore?
Once they were out of sight, he dug in his heels. “Hold on.”
If they were finished playing games, he didn’t need to be let down easy. He’d prefer to have the bandage ripped off fast and clean, although this was going to hurt like a mother.
She turned towards him, and her eyes were the deepest brown he’d ever seen.
“Thank you,” she said.
That fist around his heart twisted. Damn. Here it came.
“You’re welcome. Anytime.” He had to ask. “For what?”
She nodded towards the festival. “For that. For giving me the idea.”
She gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand. “How did we do? Did you know who was who?”
He squeezed back possessively, hoping it was a good sign. “I knew you, but I would have sworn Roxie was Lexie if Cam hadn’t knocked me upside the head.”
“She was good, wasn’t she? They both were.”
“You all were.” He winked at her. “Whoop whoop.”
She blushed so fiercely he laughed.
“It was brilliant. And brave.”
“It was time.”
It was time for a lot of things. He watched her closely. “People all over town are talking, you know. Not only about them, but about us.”
Her hair tumbled forward over her shoulder as her chin dipped. “I know. Becky was asking questions.”
Zac took a step closer to her. The noise and chaos of the crowd drifted away until it was just the two of them. The falls weren’t that far away. The crash of the water against the rocks was a low rumble, and a fine mist of cool water hung in the air.
“I’m not sure what to tell them,” he admitted.
“I don’t know either. I didn’t expect… I just wanted you to go to dinner with us.”
But things had gone way beyond that.
He waited, but she’d gone quiet on him again. It made him uneasy. Had they gone too fast for her? He’d thought she’d been with him last night, but did she have regrets now? “I don’t mind giving them something to talk about as long as I know what’s really going on.”
But he didn’t know what was happening between them. Not really. At least not on her side.
Her gaze shied away from him towards the water rumbling down the hill. She was back to that reserved girl who stuck to the sidelines, away from all the noise and action. She looked so bashful and vulnerable, totally opposite of the role she’d just played.
He ran his finger over her cheek. “Things have been kind of crazy the past two days, haven’t they?”
She nodded, and her gaze went to their joined hands. She touched the bandage on her finger. “We’ve been doing crazy things on the spur of the moment, haven’t we?”
“I’d say. Skinny-dipping. Multiple Maxies.” Crashing after climaxing…
That pretty brown gaze locked with his. “You’re making me forget to be a timid sort.”
Zac wasn’t sure what that meant, but she stepped towards him. Her hands settled at his waist. He looked down sharply, but then she was pressing up against him and lifting her mouth to his.
Timid sort, his ass. The inhale he took was sharp and deep. It burned in his lungs when she kissed him. Slow and sexy, her lips glided over his. The act was so sensual, he forgot to exhale. He was afraid to move, afraid to do anything that would make her stop. He wasn’t sure what was going on inside her head, but he wasn’t going to do anything to discourage or distract her.
Because this felt real.
Keeping the kisses long and drawn out, she lifted her shoulder and curled into him. Her hands slid under his T-shirt, and her palms pressed flat against his flesh.
Zac caught her bare waist. Her skin was like velvet, and he wanted to kick himself for not touching her more last night.
As it was, his heart was pounding hard against his rib cage. They’d both been playing parts over the past few days, but right now it was just the two of them, and he’d never felt anything so erotic as her hands on him. Her touch slid higher, hiking up his T-shirt. Her fingers were small and feminine against his chest, but her fingertip trailed fire as she traced his abs down to his belly.
Holy. Hell.
“Maxie,” he hissed. Cupping the back of her head, he deepened the kiss. He held her tightly, and it was a good thing he did, because his knees went a little wobbly when she drew across the lines of his six-pack.
His lungs worked like bellows. She seemed entranced by what she was doing, but she wasn’t hurrying. Everything was slow and soft. Rich and pleasurable.
Mind-blowing.
Her finger dipped into his belly button, and his brain nearly exploded.
“It’s okay,” a voice said from nearby. “We’ll find her.”
They both flinched when they heard Lexie.
“I think I saw her go around this corner.”
Maxie sprang back, but Zac refused to let go of her. His hand was still fisted in her hair, and he pulled her back to him. Her eyes flared, and those hands that
had been so inquisitive spread wide over his stomach. She didn’t push him away, but she bounced on her toes.
She didn’t want people to catch them together.
“Son of a—” Zac swore. They weren’t done with this. That had not been for show.
He leaned his forehead against hers, breathing heavily. “Hold that thought.”
He gave her another determined kiss just before Lexie came around the corner. Turning, he wrapped an arm possessively around Maxie’s waist. Color was high in her face, and she had her fingers pressed against her lips.
Lips that looked plump and thoroughly kissed.
Damn it. Zac fought to catch his breath.
“There she is.” Lexie had Audrey Shimwell at her side. She cupped the older woman’s shoulder and sent a confused and concerned look their way.
Zac’s eyes narrowed. Audrey appeared devastated. It was clear she’d been crying. Her normally pinched expression had crumpled, and dampness had gathered in her eyes. Her chin wobbled when she saw Maxie. She hurried forward, clutching a trophy in one hand and dragging along Roxie in her wake.
Roxie was completely flummoxed. The older woman had her hand caught in a death grip.
Zac went on the alert. The librarian he knew had a spine made of steel and lips made for kissing a lemon. What was going on? He raised an eyebrow at Cam who brought up the rear of the small group, but the guy shrugged. He seemed just as confused as the rest of them, and they were all looking at Maxie for help.
“We won first prize,” Roxie explained, jerking her head towards the trophy caught in Mrs. Shimwell’s fist.
Zac stiffened a bit. That thing was heavy.
Maxie stepped forward, but he pulled her back, out of danger.
“Oh, Audrey,” she said, her face falling. “I know it wasn’t fair, but…”
“No, it wasn’t fair.” Tears streamed down the woman’s face. She held out the trophy, her hand shaking.
Maxie looked guilty as she accepted the prize, but her lips trembled when she read the names of the winners over the years. She traced the name Naomi Miller. It was on there several times, winner of the Indigo Falls Park Art Talent Competition.
Maxie (Triple X) Page 13