awhile before making the call that had been utterly inevitable. He’d managed to duck her when he’d gotten his stuff the day before, and she hadn’t said anything last night since they’d been in front of Roxanne, but he’d known this was coming. “Hey, Momma.”
“Zéphirin, you naughty boy. What is going on between you and that sweet deputy?”
“Momma, she’s not exactly sweet.” Except she’d felt that way the night before when she’d wrapped herself around him. They’d nestled together like puzzle pieces and he’d slept better than he had in ages.
“Oh, she is in her own way,” his mother insisted. “Now, what are you doing with her? I heard a rumor that you’re tricking her mother and father into thinking she has a boyfriend because her mother meddles. I can’t imagine what that’s like. The poor girl.”
Sure she couldn’t. “Anyway, I’m staying here for a few days. It’s not a big deal. I’ll be back by Monday, if not sooner. If you need anything, all you have to do is call.”
“Baby, wait. I want to talk to you. Your brother is worried about you. He talked to me this morning because he heard you went on a call last night. I told him that I was there and you were with the deputy. She wasn’t on duty. She wasn’t supposed to be there, was she? Remy thinks you two might be getting in pretty deep.”
Well, of course his brother was worried. Remy was always worried about him. But that was what happened when big brother had to go halfway across the country to get little brother out of jail the one time he’d decided to follow his heart. His heart? It was more like his dick, though it had been his heart that really got him in trouble. “I’m fine. I’m doing a friend a favor. Everything’s going back to normal next week.”
Normal and boring. His days were dull, and his nights seemed to drag on until they mixed together and he couldn’t tell one from the other.
“She’s never been your friend, Zep. Do you think I don’t know that you spent the night with her and then she started arresting you at all turns?”
No one ever said his momma didn’t lay it on the line. “All right, I’m helping out a woman I like.”
“How much do you like her? You’ve never said anything about her to me. I always thought you were more the free-love type.”
He could point out to his mother that love was rarely free. Everyone paid for it one way or another. He worried what he felt for Roxie was going to cost him a lot. Not in money, but then he’d learned there were far more precious things than cash. But he wasn’t about to tell his mother that. She would get with Miss Marcelle and start working on a love spell or some nonsense. “Roxie and I are friends, nothing more. I know we don’t hang out a lot, but we understand each other.”
It had felt that way to him. He had to consider the fact that they could click, could have an amazing connection, and yet want such different things that they couldn’t work.
“I think this is about more than liking a woman. I know you’ve changed a lot in the last year. Was it because of her?”
He sighed. “I like her. That’s all. And maybe I’m finally growing up. Maybe watching my sister and brother get married and settle down made me think.”
“Oh, honey, Remy’s right. You do have a thing for her.”
He sighed in frustration. “I just told you I didn’t.”
“Yes, but I know you lie to me a lot. You don’t talk to me about a lot of the things you want because you don’t think you honestly deserve them,” she said quietly. “Sweetie, you should talk to me. I can tell you what an amazing man you’ve become. Maybe if I talk to your deputy, she’ll see it, too.”
That nearly made his heart stop. “Absolutely not. That is the last thing I need. Like I said, it’s a favor for a friend, and we’ll go back to normal at the end of the week. I’m asking you not to get involved.”
“How uninvolved do you want me to be?” she asked. “Because I might know things. But if you don’t want me involved, I can keep it all to myself.”
His mother was tuned in to the gossip mill that flowed through Papillon. If she knew something, he might as well