Showdown!. Laurie Paige

He’s the quiet, ugly one.”

      “You look identical,” she said, smiling at his joke.

      Travis chuckled while his twin clutched his chest as if wounded. “I’d hoped you could tell the difference,” Trevor said in complaint, then spoiled it with a grin.

      “We’ll have a blessing,” Uncle Nick said.

      Honey bowed her head when the men did. Uncle Nick thanked the Lord for bringing Honey to them and recounted other blessings. She felt such an impostor. A brief silence ensued, then the uncle said, “Amen.”

      “Potatoes?” Zack asked, handing her the bowl.

      She took a small serving of each dish as it was passed. There were several to go along with the meat loaf, so her plate ended up filled to the edges. She gazed at it in dismay, not sure she could swallow. She choked down a bite of everything.

      “You don’t have to eat it all,” Uncle Nick said kindly.

      “Thank you. It’s more than I realized. But everything is delicious,” she quickly added in case she hurt the uncle’s feelings with her lack of appetite.

      “So, Zack says you may be our long-lost cousin,” Trevor began after a brief silence. “Where did he find you?”

      “In Vegas,” Zack answered before she could. He smiled. “She brought me luck. She found a quarter I dropped. When I put it in the slot machine, I hit the jackpot for six hundred quarters.” He turned to her. “I meant to give you a big tip.”

      Heat rose to her cheeks. “That’s okay.”

      “A hundred and fifty dollars,” Travis, the quiet twin, commented. “You were lucky.”

      “How much did you blow before you won?” the uncle asked shrewdly.

      Zack grinned. “Twenty dollars.”

      “Huh,” Uncle Nick said.

      Honey wasn’t sure if the older man disapproved of the gambling. When he turned his startling blue eyes on her, she felt like a kid called on the carpet.

      “Honey and I are going to talk after we eat,” he said. “Privately.”

      Her chest actually hurt as she thought of the deception she was perpetrating. Although she wasn’t lying about her past, she’d cast enough doubt to leave the question of her origins open. She hadn’t mentioned her brother at all.

      A sigh worked its way out of her. She had to protect Adam. He was her first concern.

      Unexpectedly Uncle Nick patted her hand. His wise gaze seemed to peer right into her soul. Instead of feeling cornered, she felt comforted, as if he knew her troubles.

      “You’re welcome in this house,” he said.

      “Thank you.” Her voice trembled, a fact she couldn’t conceal. Honestly. In another minute she would dissolve into tears and confess all. Would they throw her out? Or would they take her under their wing like some stray kitten?

      “Were you in Vegas on vacation?” Travis wanted to know.

      She glanced at Zack, then said truthfully, “I was working as a cocktail waitress.”

      “Ah,” the other twin said as if that explained a lot. Not a smidgen of condemnation entered his gaze.

      She couldn’t stand it another second. Pushing her chair back, she stood abruptly. Four pairs of pure blue eyes stared up at her. “I…excuse me. I need to…to rest for a while.”

      Coward and liar that she was, she fled to the pretty bedroom, closed and locked the door behind her, then flung herself on the lace coverlet, tears she wouldn’t let fall burning her eyes like hot coals. She’d never felt so miserable.

      Zack shrugged when his brothers stared at him across the table. “Women,” he said in answer to their unvoiced questions. He turned to his uncle. “What do you think?”

      Uncle Nick buttered a roll before glancing his way. “I think she needs to rest just as she said. What time did you make her get on the road this morning?”

      “Early,” he admitted. Since he’d never been able to hide the truth from Uncle Nick, he told about the storm and having to spend the night in the truck.

      “Ahh,” drawled Trevor softly.

      Zack glared at his brother. “She might be our cousin,” he said by way of explaining their sleep had been of the most innocent variety.

      “Maybe. Maybe not,” Trevor said thoughtfully.

      Zack kept his mouth shut and finished his meal. The abundant and simple food was delicious compared to the fast food he’d consumed on the road.

      After he and Honey had made it into a small town that morning, he’d bought doughnuts, milk and coffee for them at the gas-station mart while they filled up. He hadn’t thought to stop later for a more substantial breakfast.

      “You want to talk to Honey now?” he asked Uncle Nick when the older man finished eating.

      His uncle considered, then shook his head. “She might be asleep. I thought she looked tired.”

      “Yeah. We left early yesterday and she didn’t get off work until two that morning. She didn’t sleep much last night, either. Nightmares,” he explained at his brothers’ identical glances.

      “What made you think she was our cousin?” Travis, the quiet twin, asked.

      Zack told them about his winnings and the accident that had caused him to drop the bucket of quarters. He vaguely described Honey’s outfit and how he’d just happened to notice the scar on her thigh. He didn’t say they’d both been on their knees picking up quarters at the time, his nose no more than six inches from her…well, it wasn’t necessary to go into fine detail.

      “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen what those gals in Vegas wear,” Trevor agreed.

      “You’ve never even been there,” Zack scoffed.

      “I’ve seen movies,” the twin asserted, looking wise.

      Zack refrained from punching him out, then wondered why he was getting so hot under the collar. There was no reason for him to defend Honey.

      “Let the girl alone,” Uncle Nick said, putting an end to the conversation. “She’s probably taking a nap. I’ll talk to her later. Isn’t it time you boys got to work?”

      The twins took their plates to the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher, then departed for the stable. Zack yawned and thought about a snooze himself.

      He helped his uncle clear the table and clean up the kitchen, then Uncle Nick went to his room and Zack sprawled on the leather sofa in the living room, which had once been the entire cabin, built more than 150 years ago.