“So,” Zee said. “I can tell, we’re not through with the questions, are we?”

“Sorry,” she said, but she wasn’t, and he knew it too.

“Since we’re laying everything on the table tonight, tell me, Jimmy. You and Mom?” She swallowed more wine, for courage. “Did you two get together?”

He avoided looking at her, gazing around the room, up at the huge mounted tarpon on the wall.

“You know, Big Jim, one of the guys who started this bar? He was a helluva fisherman. He took me out tarpon fishing one time, back in the day. Too much like work for me, you know? You can’t even eat the damn things.”

“About Mom,” Drue said gently.

“I’m getting to that,” Zee said. “Yeah, I’m not proud of it, but we did have a thing. Your dad was in law school at Stetson, and when he wasn’t studying, he was working nights as a security guard for concerts at the Bayfront Center and the Curtis Hixson, over in Tampa. The marriage was in trouble. And by then, Frannie and I were divorced. Sherri was lonely, and I was a shoulder to cry on. We had that shared secret, you know? It only lasted a short while.”

“Do you think Dad knows?”

“No,” Zee said firmly. “Never. It was over, almost as soon as it started. Your mom got pregnant, and it was the happiest I’d ever seen her.”

Drue’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Hold on. Are you telling me…?

“No!” he exclaimed. “God no. I swear it. I’ll admit, there was a moment there, when she told me, I guess I kind of secretly thought, maybe? But Sherri set me straight. The timing was off. And when you were born, and I saw you? Lucky for you, you’re Brice’s kid, no ifs, ands or buts.”

“No offense, but I’m really glad,” Drue said. “I think I’ve had enough shock for one week.”

“None taken,” Zee said. He toyed with his sunglasses again. “Hey, did you know I was at the hospital when you were born? In fact, I’m the one who took your mom to the hospital.”

“I never knew that.”

He placed his hand over his heart. “True story. Brice was in a hearing at the courthouse up in Clearwater, and your mom was at Publix, when her water broke. Your dad had a beeper, but we didn’t have cell phones back then. Sherri went to the customer service booth and had them call the station. I’d made detective by then. Dispatch radioed me, and I hauled ass across town with flashers and sirens. Never so scared in my life, that she’d have that baby in the back of my Crown Vic. But we made it to St. Anthony’s, and by the time they wheeled her into the delivery room, your dad was right there with her.”