have to wait until we crawl to the
next exit.”
Trent breathed
a heavy sigh of annoyance and unlocked his and then Carrie’s seat belts. “Well,
tell us when you’ve found one.”
He turned his
body so he faced her, his eyes intense, his brow furrowed in concentration. “So
tell me about your childhood.”
Trent’s sudden
interest in her childhood baffled and alarmed her. “What? Why?”
“You said a
good manager should know his staff.”
She
appreciated his desire to change, but wished he’d practice on someone else.
Unfortunately, he had only two people to interrogate at the moment. Sam had
enough stress on his hands, driving in this parking lot of aggressive East
coast drivers. That left only her…damn it.
“Since I’m the
quiet twin who rarely spoke or did anything of interest, I’ve nothing to tell.”
“Twin? There’s
another of you around? Does she need a job?”
Carrie didn’t
want her sister anywhere near her job…or her personal life—if she ever got one.
“I wouldn’t know. After we graduated from high school we went to colleges on
opposite sides of the country.”
“Why?” His
interest seemed so genuine, that instead of feeding him a line of bull, she
spoke from her heart. “Because I hated living in her shadow. From birth, my
parents demoted me to the ‘other twin’. I wanted my own identity and space.”
The moment he
smiled, she regretted telling him the truth. She turned and stared out the
window at the skeleton of a car sitting on the side of the road. How did it
even get there? It had no wheels. Forget tires — it
didn’t even have wheel drums.
He captured
her hand. “I know what you mean.”
She turned and
stared at him. How could he possibly understand? “You don’t have a
twin.”
“No, but I had
an older brother. He represented everything my parents wanted. They saw me as
an accident.”
Instead of
pulling her hand away, which she’d intended to do, she squeezed his fingers to
provide him comfort. Maybe he did understand how she felt.
“Every smile
and compliment went to him. I only got noticed when I broke something.”
She remembered
once thinking negative attention would be better than none at all, but she lacked
the courage to purposely get into trouble. However, God had over-blessed Trent with
courage. “I’m surprised your house remains standing.”
Trent chuckled
then his eyes saddened. “I never harmed the house, but I had no problem
destroying a valuable antique or two to get my share of attention.” He paused
as his black gaze focused on another car skeleton they crawled past. “Then my
older brother drowned in the pool. And before you ask, I didn’t do it.”
Anger and
resentment rang loud and clear in his voice. She reached over and gripped his
hand. “I would never ask such a thing.”
His jaw tensed
in residual pain. “My parents did. They stormed into my room, glaring at me
with accusing, angry eyes. ‘Did you do this?’ They didn’t relent until I
coughed up my alibi.”
Carrie
understood the betrayal he must have felt. Nothing hurt more than parents who
always saw you in the worst of lights. “Clearly, your parents didn’t know you.”
He continued
to stare at the carcass of the abandoned car. Determine to lighten the mood,
she added, “You aren’t capable of murder. Otherwise you wouldn’t have so many
terrible employees.”
He lifted her
hand and kissed her knuckles.
A shock of
electricity ran up her arm and gave her heart a jolt. Had he really just kissed
her knuckles a second time?
His gaze
returned to her. “Knowing the systems manager purposely hid information from me
while padding his budget with friends and family, I might be able to rise to
the occasion now.”
She shook her
head. “Nope. You’ll only threaten to kill him and get yourself arrested.”
He frowned and
changed the topic. “So you got out of your twin’s shadow?”
“Yes, when I
headed East for college.” She sighed with pure