“All right.” He was going to follow her lead. He could use a drink, too, but he wasn’t going to get one. Someone had to be sober, and he wasn’t putting that on her. Not tonight.
She turned his way. “I’d like to talk to him alone, Zep.”
He hadn’t expected that at all. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“What exactly do you think I’m going to do to her?” Joel’s brow had risen. “She accused me of a lot of things at the end of our marriage, but I assure you, domestic abuse wasn’t one of them.”
“He’s not going to hurt me,” Roxanne said with a sigh. “Just stay here with your family. I’ll be back in a little while.”
Zep watched as she walked away with the man she’d married. Why would she want to be alone with him? He didn’t think she was still in love with the man. Not at all. She’d made it plain who she wanted in her bed.
But this was about her life. Was she going to make decisions that didn’t involve him?
She’d stood in front of the whole town and basically fought to get him a job that would occupy the majority of his time and make him important to these people. Had she done it knowing she would leave him behind? Had it been a parting gift? Or had she wanted the sacrifice he would have to make to keep him here?
She had no idea what he was willing to sacrifice for her.
“Why would she be upset?” Pamela asked, her hands on her hips.
Tony watched as his daughter and ex-son-in-law disappeared into the house. “She won’t be once she figures out why he’s here.”
It struck him forcibly why the man would have come all the way across the country. “He’s offering her a job.”
“An important one,” Tony replied. “I would like to talk to you about it. Can we take a little walk?”
Nope. He didn’t want to walk anywhere except into that house to pick up Roxanne, throw her over his shoulder, and run. “Of course.”
The rest of the party milled around the buffet Sera had set up, talking to each other. Soft music played and the whole patio was lit by twinkle lights, giving the space a romantic feel. It would be perfect if he were standing beside Roxie, her hand in his.
He wasn’t ready to let her go. And they hadn’t had enough time for her to ask him to go with her.
Would he?
Yes. He would leave everything behind. He would drop it all and walk away with her.
He loved Roxanne King, and that was all that mattered.
His mind was going a thousand miles a minute as he walked with Roxie’s father down the path that led toward the water.
“I need to talk to you about my daughter.”
Zep stopped right before the walkway that led down to the dock. They were far enough away that they couldn’t be heard, and not so close to the water that he would be tempted to throw the man in when he inevitably turned nasty. Before he could do that, Zep was going to lay it all on the line and hope for the best. “All right. You should know that I’m in love with her.”
Tony sighed, a long-suffering sound. “Actually, I was hoping that wasn’t the case.”
“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way. It’s the truth and it’s not going to change because you bring her ex back into her life. We’re together and we’re not planning on breaking up.” She’d seemed surprised he was going back to his place, but he didn’t want to move so fast that he scared her.
And offering to move to New York with her would be going slow? He felt himself being shoved into a corner and wasn’t sure how to get out.
Tony turned to him. “Look, Zep. I have to be brutally honest with you. Roxanne has wanted to do one thing her whole life.”
“Be a cop.” She’d told him. When other girls had played princess, she’d preferred taking the bad guys down herself. She’d never dreamed of a knight saving her.
“Yes.”
“She is a cop. She’s very important around here.” People had come to depend on her steadiness. He’d noticed in the last week that women opened up more around her about their problems. Moms would bypass Armie to complain to Roxie about their worries for their kids.
“It’s not the same here, and you know that very well. You have a department