His brother turned back to him, his body shadowed as the sun went down, and for a moment he could see his father standing there. “She said she wants to date you?”
He shook off the odd feeling.
“She said we should take this week and see if we work.” Except that wasn’t exactly what she’d said. “She said we should see if it could work. But I assume she means the relationship. Then she let me kiss her in the parking lot. That’s practically a declaration of intent since everyone knows how nosy people are. It’s not like people will politely avert their eyes.” The public display of affection had done a lot to ease his mind. If she didn’t care about someone seeing them kissing, she was getting used to the idea of being with him.
Otis seemed to be well on his way to whatever nighttime plans he had, so it was time to get back to Roxie. He turned and started up the drive.
Remy was right on his heels. “You’re sure she wasn’t talking about her fake boyfriend plan? Her parents are here for a week. She’s giving it a week to see if it can work. How do you know she wasn’t talking about you taking over for Armie as her cover?”
That wasn’t what she’d meant at all. Was it? She couldn’t kiss him the way she had and have been talking about anything but giving them a real shot. “I don’t think so.” He hadn’t talked to his brother about his relationship with Roxie. Remy had been happily married for a while. Maybe he could help. “You know we’ve been together before.”
“The rumor around town is that you hooked up with her and then moved on like you always do, and she gets a little revenge on you by arresting you for everything under the sun. I think you push her to arrest you because you know you made a mistake by treating her like every other woman you hooked up with.”
He should have known that was the rumor. He wouldn’t be surprised if Roxie had heard that one, too. “It isn’t true. I asked her out the next morning. Hell, I’m pretty sure I told her I was serious before she went to sleep that night. With me. I spent all night with her, and I don’t normally do that. I made a connection with her that night, one I never felt before. She turned me down and ignored me every time I asked her out. The arrests are the only thing that gave me hope, and yes, I know how stupid that sounds. But she never actually presses charges. She’s a careful woman. She knows I’m a bad bet, but I’m going to show her that I can take care of her.”
“In bed,” his brother said.
Frustration welled inside Zep. “And out of it. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep her mother’s attention? The minute I let it go, she’s all over Roxie. In the brief time before I came out here, that woman complained about Roxie’s hair, questioned her skin care regime, asked why she wore those shoes, and if there was a place to buy clothes here. Like we don’t have clothes.”
“You know how people who’ve never been out of the city can be,” Remy said with a chuckle. “Though people who’ve never been out of Papillon are just as bad. Give her some time and she’ll settle down. From what I heard, Roxie hasn’t been home to see her family in a couple of years.”
“What do you know about why she moved down here?” He was curious about what stories had gotten around town.
“The usual,” Remy said with a grin. “There were all sorts of stories flying around when she moved here. She fled the city because she was looking for the Lord. She’s hiding from the mob. That’s my favorite. I’ve heard some city man broke her heart.”
They made it back to the restaurant, but Zep paused outside the door. “The way I heard it, a couple of things happened. I know she lost her partner on the job. That’s got to be tough. She got divorced. She doesn’t talk about it much. She told me he was a cop, too, and it would have been hard to stay on the job after they broke up.”
“Have you thought about the fact that she might not belong here?” Remy asked, sympathy plain in his tone. “That she might be using this job and this place as a way to lick her wounds? What she went through with her partner is hard. I know because when I was in the Navy, we lost a man, and I’ve never truly gotten over it. Still, she was on a highly specialized team in the NYPD. It’s the kind of job only the most focused and ambitious people go for. I worry there’s not much to be ambitious about here.”