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She paused and sed Wyatt had the sudden sense that she was fighting tears While he was a typical guy and would do al, he told hi ed by the play

But Claire didn’t cry She took a couple of breaths, then faced hiardless of what Nicole has told you, you know nothing about me I could say the same about her, which is sad We’re twins Fraternal, but still I hate how s are now I don’t…" She stopped and pressed her lips together "Sorry You don’t actually care about any of this, do you"

He watched her without saying anything

She squared her shoulders and raised her chin "I’htclubs, I never have I don’t have any friends here in Seattle, so you don’t have to worry about distractions I want to take care of Nicole and reconnect with her Nothing more Those are the only words I have You’ll either believe the anywhere Not until Nicole is better"

She spoke with a quiet dignity that appealed to him His instinct was to believe her, but Nicole had always talked about how Claire played people with the same easy skill that she played the piano

Still, he didn’t have a choice He couldn’t take off frohter to deal with

"I’ll be around," he told her "Watching"

"Judging There’s a difference"

He shrugged, not caring if he offended her

He pulled a business card out of his shirt pocket "My cell is on this You can always reach me on it If there’s a problem, call"

"There won’t be"

He handed her the card, instead of just putting it on the counter, then realized his ers touched

The heat was so bright and raw, he expected the kitchen to explode He swore under his breath as he glared at Claire, bla between them She stared at the card, then looked at hienuine confusion in her voice and questions in her eyes, as if she’d felt it, too, but didn’t knohat ithim

Play away He didn’t care It didn’t matter how he reacted when he touched her--he would never act on those feelings He wasn’t controlled by his horht with his head, not his dick

Still, when she s care of her," putting her hand on his arainst hie was so powerful, his ot hard in a heartbeat Talk about huoodbye and vowed he would keep his distance fro he needed in his life was another useless wo she touched

CLAIRE STARED at the clothes she’d laid across the bed and sighed Apparently packing was not an intuitive skill She’d been so careful with everything Yet here were all her clothes, horribly wrinkled

Normally Lisa’s assistant du jour would whisk the clothes away and bring them back perfectly pressed If she wasn’t around, Claire could call the valet service at the hotel herself But this wasn’t a hotelShe studied a silk blouse and wondered if it was safe to iron With another sigh, she reminded herself she didn’t kno to use an iron and if she wanted to practice, perhaps a designer silk blouse was not the place to start

"Am I really totally useless, or is this an isolated incident?" she asked herself, speaking the words softly aloud Better to know the truth than pretend Her goal was to change--to fit into the real world She needed to knohere she was to find out how o

A sound fro the blouse, she hurried toward Nicole’s roo out of the bathroom She was bent over at the waist, one arm pressed across her midsection Her face was drawn, her mouth pulled in pain

"You should have yelled for me," Claire said as she hurried to her side "I’ure out a way to pee for nored the snarky comment and rushed to the bed where she quickly snored her and what she’d done as she slowly, carefully, crawled back in bed Claire reached for the covers

"If you tuck me in, I swear I’ll kill you Not today, but soon and when you least expect it"

Claire stepped away from the bed

When Nicole was settled she closed her eyes After a second, she opened the to stand there?"

"Do you need anything? More water? Ice chips? They’ll help you stay hydrated withoutyou nauseous"

"How do you know that?"

"I was reading some articles on the Internet"

"Aren’t you mama’s little helper?"

Claire clutched her blouse in one hand "They didn’t say anything about surgery uess the sarcase of honor" Nicole shifted and winced "What are you doing here, Claire?"

"Jesse called ery She said you were going to need my help" Claire didn’t want to say the rest when it was obviously untrue, but she couldn’t think of a way to avoid it She’d already told Wyatt and she suspected he had passed it on to Nicole "She said you were sorry ere still estranged and that you wanted us to be a fa away her potential hurt But it was still there, hidden Because connecting was the one thing she wanted

"You believed her?" Nicole shook her head "Seriously? After all this tie my opinion of you?"

"Your opinion of who and what you think I am," Claire told her "You don’t actually know nored that "I’m here now and you obviously need help I don’t see anyone else lining up for the job Looks like you’re stuck"

Nicole’s expression tightened "I have friends I could call"

"But you won’t You hate owing anyone anything"

"Like you said, you don’t actually know ated, too

"Don’t pretend we have anything in common," Nicole snapped "You’re no one to ood news is I don’t think you’re capable of anything beyond being served, so my expectations are fairly low"