How did he know that? How was he able to hear what she didn’t say?
Feeling bewildered, she continued. ‘We rented rooms in the house to other students and their rent paid our living expenses. Aunt Kate also had a small life insurance policy, but it was only enough to cover the fees for one of us to attend university. Addi is a lot more academic than I am—she’s quite brilliant, in fact—so we decided that she would study full-time and I would work and study part-time. Then, when she got a high-paying job, she would help me to pay for my degree. That was the plan...’
‘But?’
‘But Joelle returned to Cape Town with the girls. Suddenly we were responsible for two little girls who were confused and lost. Luckily, Addi had just graduated and was offered a great job by your dad. She had the money to support us, but there wasn’t enough to pay for day care. I had plans to go to university full-time, but someone needed to look after the girls, to do the cooking and the cleaning.’
‘And you were how old?’ Cole asked.
‘Twenty-three.’
‘That’s young to take on that much responsibility.’
But what else could they have done—sent the girls into foster care, or back to Joelle? Keeping them had been the only decent option.
‘Finish the story, Lex.’
Lex shrugged, confused. ‘That’s it.’
He shook his head. ‘You haven’t explained how you went from being a bottle blonde to embracing your red hair and freckled face.’
Oh,that. ‘As you saw, Nixi is olive-skinned with black hair—I think her father might be from India or one of the island countries. Snow looks like me. You do know that red hair is a mutant gene, right?’
‘You are not a mutant,’ Cole empathically stated. ‘I think your hair is gorgeous, as are your freckles.’
Lex smiled at his immediate, and sweet, response. ‘Anyway, to get red hair and freckles, and if neither parent is ginger, they both need to carry the gene and pass it on. So, Joelle is partly responsible for my much-hated hair, a fact I occasionally remind her of.’
‘So you do speak to her?’
‘We only started speaking to her again a few months after the girls came to live with us. We nag her to talk to Nixi and Snow, so that they havesomecontact with her. We don’t have much to say to her, and Addi tends to do the communicating, because I lost it with her about eighteen months ago.’
‘What happened?’
‘I caught Snow putting my foundation all over her face and over everything else. She told me she hated her hair and that she wanted to cover her dots, like I did. My heart stopped—because she’s beautiful, so beautiful, Cole.’
‘As are you,’ he softly murmured.
Lex had to ignore him or else she’d never get her words up and through her tight throat. ‘Joelle told her, just like she told me, that she had dirt on her face and that her hair was ugly. I was so angry, Cole. I told her she was beautiful, that she was unique and lovely and wonderful—’ Lex heard her voice crack. ‘She just looked at me and asked me why she should believe me when I covered my freckles, when I dyed my hair.’
Cole sucked in a sharp breath.‘Sweetheart.’
‘I realised that I couldn’t let Joelle destroy her as she destroyed me and that I had to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. I washed the foundation off my face and went to the store, grabbed a bottle of dye that was closest to my natural colour and dyed it back to red. And I promised Snow, promised myself, that I would never be anything but authentically me.’
‘That’s incredible, Lex—you’re incredible.’ The sincerity in his eyes and on his face made her throat close up. ‘And is your sister embracing her looks too?’ he asked.
Lex released a low chuckle. ‘She’s a flaming diva, in every way that counts. And she isn’t being bullied at school, and I’m grateful for that. But that could be because she’s Nixi’s sister.’
‘She’s popular?’
‘She’s eight, so whatever popular means at eight. Nixi is a strong character. She’s either going to become a world leader or lead her own gang.’
Cole’s deep laugh filled the car. ‘They sound...interesting.’
‘Interesting, frustrating, stubborn. Sweet.’
He squeezed her knee again, keeping the pressure until she looked at him. ‘Just like their half-sister. And Lex?’
Her heart, stupid thing, missed a couple of beats at the warm flames she saw in his gold eyes. ‘I’m very glad you’re not a blonde any more. You wouldn’t be you without your bright hair and million-plus dots. Oh, and I also think your body is pretty fabulous and I love...’ He stopped speaking to pull back the band of the shirt she wore to kiss her shoulder.