Troy pulled away and shook his head as he moved for the door. “Nope. I got it.” She was right. They were—basically—the same people they were before. They just had a new connection. Maybe this meant he didn’t have to stay away. Maybe it meant visits back here...to this place that had been built for him. He opened the door, and Zach stood there, his eyes narrowed, his lips in a half quirk and every cell of his body looking uncomfortable. Troy wasn’t sure how to greet him and clearly his uncle felt the same. He opened the door wider and gestured him inside. “C’mon in.”
Zach nodded and stepped in, but only a couple of feet. He stopped suddenly, turned to Troy and hugged him tight.
Unused to the closeness, Troy awkwardly hugged him back.
With a last tight squeeze, Zach pulled away, stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and headed to the sofa. “Hi,” he said to Julie.
She smiled and waved. “Hello. Can I get you something to drink? Or eat?”
Troy loved how Julie tried to make the situation more bearable for all of them.
Shaking his head, Zach waved off her offer. “I’m good, thanks.” His gaze landed on Troy, and Troy knew there was no more running to be done.
“Have a seat.” He gestured to the sofa but Zach gave him a wry grin.
“I’m good.” He ran his hands through his hair. “God, Troy, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this day. I can’t believe...” He looked at Troy the way a father might look at his son, with pride, with love. With all the things Troy had never known from a father. “How come you never came back until now? What kept you away?”
A fair question. One Troy had asked himself only a few times over the years. In his periphery, he watched Julie slowly back to the edge of the room. Her way of giving them privacy, but Troy wanted her to know the things that mattered to him. Because he wanted those things from her when the time came. He caught her eye and motioned her back with a quick gesture of his head to the spot next to him. She stopped moving, but didn’t come closer.
What had kept him away? The question still hung in the air. “I honestly didn’t know if anyone wanted to see me again. After high school, I took classes at a junior college and worked to cover the tuition and board. I was pretty busy.”
“Did you get your degree?” The unmistakable hope in Zach’s eyes sent a shot of pride down Troy’s spine. Neither his dad nor uncle had gone to college. They’d worked in the town’s automotive shop since high school. From the looks of the cabin, his uncle had moved up in the ranks.
Troy shot a glance to Julie. “I got a degree in Criminal Justice.”
Zach’s eyes widened and he smiled. “No shit. Are you a cop? Uh, a police officer?” he amended quickly.
Troy would’ve smiled, but they were getting too close to home with this line of questioning. Yes, he wanted Julie to know who he was, but he had to tell her about his real occupation when they were alone. This didn’t seem like the time to tell them he’d worked part—time for a private investigation firm while in college. But getting those required hours had helped him acquire his own license that much faster.
“He’s a bodyguard,” Julie said. Maybe she thought his silence was because he was embarrassed to be a bodyguard. Either way, Troy didn’t correct her. He had been playing a bodyguard to Ari even if it had been as a cover. But he saw a new look in Julie’s eyes very similar to the one on Zach’s face. Her soft smile only brought home that he needed to tell her the truth sooner rather than later.
Zach nodded. It’s possible his smile dimmed just the slightest and Julie, being as much of an observer as he, noticed.
“He saved my life. A couple of times,” she said. She definitely wanted Zach to be proud of him. Maybe she thought it mattered to Troy or maybe she was doing it for Zach. Either way, without saying a word, he’d now become a liar to his father.
Zach’s gaze shot to Julie then back to Troy, the concern in his eyes