“Well, I wasn’t sure of my welcome at all, but you weren’t the one I was worried about. That was mostly because Mr. Gentry found out that I haven’t exactly been mowing his yard all these years.” Zep had the good sense to flush. “I mean it started out that way, but after a while Mrs. Gentry paid the Smith kid to mow and she and I would spend the afternoon fucking. It’s not my fault. It started when I was seventeen. I was too young to know what I was doing.”

“Are you telling me you’ve had a Thursday afternoon booty call with Emma Gentry for the last five years?”

Zep shrugged. “Well, Momma told me I needed to get a job. I did. It led me to sin. And you know when you think about it, it’s all old man Gentry’s fault. He’s damn near ninety. What’s he doing marrying a thirty-year-old?”

“Well, I think it’s called buying himself a gold digger,” Jean-Claude explained.

Zep held a hand out. “Sorry I missed the party, big brother. It’s good to have you home.”

His younger brother was obnoxious and damn, but he’d missed him. “Good to be home, Zep. But you have to stay away from other men’s wives.”

“Oh, you have to be more precise these days, mon frère,” Jean-Claude said. “It’s not merely other men’s wives. When it comes to adultery, Zep doesn’t care if you’re a woman married to a man or another woman.”

“I was almost certain she wasn’t a real lesbian,” Zep explained. “Camilla, not Dawn. Dawn wore a wallet on a chain. I was pretty sure about her, but Camilla was on the fence.”

“She wasn’t on the fence. They had a lovely wedding.” Jean-Claude shook his head.

“And then I had a lovely portion of their honeymoon. It’s not my fault Dawn’s a long-haul trucker and she needed to get some TVs to a Walmart in Reno.” Nothing was ever his brother’s fault. Zep just fell into bed with women. “And I’m glad you’re home because maybe you can talk to Armie about his deputy.”

“Old Paul?” He’d been around for twenty years.

“Nah, he retired. Armie hired someone from a SWAT team in the city,” Jean-Claude explained. “Pretty thing. You would never guess she was a sniper in the military. Or that she would have terrible taste in one-night stands.”

Zep’s eyes went wide and innocent. “Or that she could hold such a mean grudge.”

Remy held a hand up. “Nope. Your dick is on its own.”

Zep leaned in. “Damn it, Remy. She’s mean. She follows me around and punishes me for every tiny infraction.”