Honest illusions(BookZZ.org) by Nora [Roberts Nora] Roberts Read Free Book Online

flyers to pass out once people start dribbling in?”
    He shrugged his shoulders by way of agreement, then jerked back as Lily’s hand shot toward him. He’d expected a blow. She could see that by the dark, fixed look in his eyes. Just as she could see that look turn to blank confusion when what she gave him was a fast, affectionate ruffling of his hair.
    No one had ever touched him like that. While he stared up at her, stunned, a knot formed in his throat,
    making speech of any kind impossible.
    “You don’t have to be afraid.” She said it quietly, as though it were a secret between only them. “I won’t hurt you.” She slid her hand down to cup his cheek. “Not now. Not ever.” She would have liked to have held him then, but judged it too soon. He couldn’t know, as she did, that he was her son now.
    And what belonged to Lily Bates, she protected. “If you need anything,” she said briskly, “you come to me. Understand?”
    He could do no more than nod as he scrambled to his feet. There was a pressure in his chest, a dryness to his throat. Knowing he was perilously close to tears, he darted outside.
    He’d learned three things that day. He supposed Max would call them free lessons, and they were three he would never forget. First, he would never again smoke an unfiltered cigarette. Second, he detested the little snot-nosed Roxanne. And third, most important, he had fallen in love with Lily Bates.
    3
    Summer heated up as they traveled south. Portland to Manchester, on to Albany, and then Poughkeepsie, where it rained hard for two miserable days. Wilkes-Barre, then west to Allentown, where Roxanne had the time of her life palling around with twin girls named Tessie and Trudie. When they parted two days later, amid tears and solemn vows of eternal friendship, Roxanne had her first taste of the disadvantages of life on the road.
    She pouted for a week, driving Luke crazy with praise for her lost friends. He avoided her whenever possible but it was difficult, as they were all but living under the same roof.
    He bunked with Mouse under the capped bed of the truck, but a good many of his meals were taken in the trailer. And more than once, he found her waiting to spring out at him when he stepped out of the bathroom.
    It wasn’t that she liked him. In fact, she had developed the bone-deep disgust that neither yet recognized as natural sibling rivalry. But since her experience with Tessie and Trudie, Roxanne had come to crave companionship of her own age.
    Even if he was a boy.
    She did what little sisters have been doing to big brothers since time began. She made his life hell.
    From Hagerstown to Winchester, from there to Roanoke and on to Winston-Salem, she nagged him unmercifully, dogged his footsteps and pestered relentlessly. If it hadn’t been for Lily, Luke might have fought back. But for reasons that eluded him, Lily was crazy about the little brat.
    Proof of that affection was obvious during a run-through of the performance in Winston-Salem.
    Roxanne’s messing up the timing, Luke thought smugly as he watched the rehearsal while loitering in the tent. Skinny twerp couldn’t get anything right today. And she was whining.
    The poor rehearsal gave him hope. He could do the trick a lot better than she could. If Max would give him the chance. If Max would just teach him a little. Luke had already practiced some of the flourishes and stage moves in front of the tiny bathroom mirror.
    All he needed was for prune-faced Rox to get some incurable disease, or have a tragic accident. If she was out of the picture, he could slip right in and take her place.
    “Roxanne,” Max said patiently, interrupting Luke’s thoughts. “You’re not paying attention.”
    “I am too.” Her lip poked out; her eyes filled. She hated being cooped up in this hot old tent.
    “Max,” said Lily, coming up to the stage. “Maybe we should give her a break.”
    “Lily.” Max was struggling to keep his temper.
    “I’m tired of