was having a party, and then he was the life of it. “Armie took it pretty well. Lila told Rox that there are days she’ll loan him back to her. That woman doesn’t get fazed by anything.”
“No, she doesn’t, but I’m a little surprised.” Remy gave him that look, the one that let him know the lecture was about to begin.
This was his life. He was standing at a big gator’s tail end waiting to get yelled at by his brother. If Otis chose to be stubborn, he would have to grab that gator tail and drag him away. He’d gotten all prettied up, and if he got muddy, he would be the one giving a lecture. To a gator.
Was it any surprise no one took him seriously?
“What was I supposed to do? She doesn’t want her mother to think she’s single. You met Pamela. She’s a lot to take. You’re right. Roxie is a steady woman. If she’s rattled by this, if she thinks her mother could disrupt her life, then I’m going to believe her.”
Remy sent him a stare he would likely one day use on whatever kiddos he and Lisa had. It was the look that told anyone on the receiving end that they should start telling the truth. “I want to know why she had to turn to you in the first place. Tell me why you were still at her house at two in the afternoon. You could have left. You could have had her neighbor look in on her. Darlene has a key to her place.”
He hadn’t even considered it. Even when he’d realized he would have to catch any rest he would get in that too-small chair she had in her too-small bedroom. “Lila told me to stay with her. Even if she hadn’t, I would have stayed. I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
Otis’s big mouth came open as if he was yawning. Yep, he was right on time.
“You wanted to get close to her any way you possibly could.” Remy managed to make the statement as accusatory as possible. “You’ve been chasing that woman for over a year. I want to make sure you’re not manipulating the situation to trick her into giving you what you want.”
That was a kick to the gut. “And what do I want, Remy? You think I want to trick her into bed with me? I’m trying to think of some other nefarious purpose I could have for upending my life, adopting a dog, and looking like a fool in front of the whole town.”
Otis lifted his big body up. At least one thing was going right.
“Why would you look like a fool?” Remy started to follow Otis down the path that would take him into the bayou.
Zep could think of a hundred reasons why. He almost always looked like the fool, but most of the time people didn’t look at him with pity. “Because I’m chasing a woman who tells everyone she meets that she doesn’t want me. Maybe I’m looking for revenge.”
Remy’s gaze softened. “Stop, little brother. I know what you want and it’s not revenge. You want her. You’re crazy about her. You think I don’t know how long it’s been since you spent the night with a woman?”
Otis picked up the pace as they neared the place where the bayou and bay merged. “You keep track of me?”
“There are only a couple of places close by where you can get a drink. I know you go to that bar at the edge of town a lot,” Remy admitted. “I asked Cain to keep an eye on you.”
Cain Cunningham was the bartender at The Back Porch, Zep’s bar of choice lately. Mostly because he worked at the other place to get a beer close to town. “It’s good to know I always have eyes on me. A little like a kid, huh?”
“I’m worried about you, and I definitely worry about that bar. Zep, you’re drifting. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life taking shifts here. It’s not what you love. I want you to consider working down at the shop for a while. Willie’s planning on retiring in a few years. You work under him for a while and learn how to run the shop and the marina. How does that sound?”
It sounded awful. He liked working on cars and boats, but only as a hobby. He liked keeping up his truck, but it wasn’t what he wanted to