Skeletons in the Mist (The McCall Twins) by Jennifer Hayden Page A

natural was the urge he had to pull her into his arms. That was getting way too personal, and just exactly what Trace had warned him not do.
    “We looked like our mom, Rachel and me. And after she and Momma died he broke down around me all the time. He was devastated.”
    “Grief is a cruel thing.”
    “I was only six. I had been in the hospital for weeks recovering. All I wanted to do was go home and be normal again.” She blew her nose and shook her head sadly. “I didn’t understand that things would never be normal again. Not until I looked in the mirror and saw Rachel’s face staring back at me.” She met his gaze, her blue eyes filled with sadness. “That’s when I realized why Daddy got so sad every time he looked at me. He was seeingRachel’s face too. And Momma’s.”
    He swore, letting his head fall back against the headrest as he studied her face. “You were just a kid, Roxy. There was nothing you could have done differently. It’s a miracle you survived.”
    “A miracle, or a curse?” She looked away from him, obviously self-conscious.
    “A miracle. It seems strange to me that you don’t realize that after all of these years.”
    “All my face has done is bring people in my family a lot of unhappiness. That’s why I disappeared. I was causing problems in my father’s marriage. He was sad and angry and miserable. So was my stepmother.” She sighed, shutting her eyes as if a movie of her past was playing inside her head. “I was a disaster, Chas. You don’t know. You were a lot older than me. I was drinking and smoking. I was self-destructing just to get my father to acknowledge who I was.”
    “I did my share of testing my parents. All kids do it.”
    “Not like me. And my father was a cop. I put him through hell on purpose. And then, when Iknew he couldn’t take any more, I took off.”
    He didn’t know what to say to that. He’d never considered running away from his family, even at the worst of times.
    “And not only that, I’ve made a complete mess of my life. I haven’t had any one job for more than six months. The first nice apartment I managed to get, I just lost. I’ve slept in cars, bus stations, airports. You name it, I’ve done it. And you would think that over all this time, and all of those experiences, I would have learned something, or changed something in my life for the better.” She shook her head at him again. “But I haven’t, Chas. I’m still blind and stupid and selfish.”
    “A selfish person doesn’t give up everything and come home to help two kids they hardly know.”
    “They do if they lose their job, their car and what little dignity they have left.” She met his gaze. “They do if they have nothing else to lose at this point, except maybe the guilt that’s been eating at them for the past ten years for taking off in the first place.”
    “You’re being extremely hard on yourself rightnow. You didn’t have to come here. You could have turned your back and you didn’t. That’s worth something, don’t you think?” There was something about Roxy Tavish that was getting under his normally thick skin in a big way. He didn’t want to admit that to himself and he sure as hell wasn’t about to admit it to her. All the same, it was true.
    “Not enough.” She let out a sigh and turned away from him. “Maybe we should put off seeing Dylan until tomorrow. I’m not sure I can take another round of stone throwing, even if I do deserve it.”
    He shrugged his shoulders, reaching for the food bag again. “Believe it or not, things could have gone worse in there with Devon. This is a start. You survived.”
    “I froze up,” she reminded him, wiping the last remnants of tears from her face.
    “Shock does that to a person.”
    The ringing of his cell phone kept her from responding. He connected the call.
    “Yeah?”
    “We have a problem. Dylan Tavish is missing,”Trace said levelly. “He snuck out last night. His foster parents haven’t seen