His voice was quieter when he said, “Her sister finally passed.”

Nina closed her eyes.

“Yeah,” Reece murmured.

Nina opened her eyes.

“Poor Zara,” she whispered.

“Give me the day, but, you got time, come around tonight. She won’t be workin’. She just got the day off. But I’ll have to go in, at least for a little while, and it’d be good she wasn’t alone while I’m gone.”

She immediately reached to a cell on her desk. “We’ll exchange numbers so you can call me if she doesn’t and I can call you to check to see if she’s okay without disturbing her.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. They exchanged number as he continued. “You got any idea why your sister-in-law would run interference on Zara learnin’ about her sister?”

“I don’t right now but I will as soon as she picks up her phone,” Nina replied.

He figured that was true. He suspected Nina Maxwell didn’t let anyone in her life get away with shit.

And he was hoping that she did the same thing professionally.

“You’re asking her to marry you?”

Fucking shit.

He didn’t want to discuss this with a woman he barely knew and a good friend of his girl’s.

“Yeah,” he said shortly.

“Please take no offense, you know Zara and I are close. She means a lot to me, she’s a good friend, she watches our kids.” She pulled in a breath, then laid it on him. “Are you sure you’re ready to settle down?”

Reece held her eyes.

He didn’t answer to anyone. Spent years not doing that. Hated doing that shit. He didn’t like her question and, eight months ago, he would walk right out the door without answering it.

But this was Zara’s girl.

So he answered it.

“I knew when I drove away from her the first time, I shouldn’t be doin’ it. I knew when I let her walk away from me three and a half years ago, it struck deep. I found out she lost her house, I sunk everything I had into buying it back. Never owned a piece of property in my life. Was once tied to a woman but never owned a house. Got myself loose from that woman and learned. What I learned after years was how to spot a good one. And what I learned seven months ago was that I was never gonna watch a good one walk away again. So yeah. I’m sure about settlin’ down and I’ll answer the question you didn’t ask. I’m also sure about Zara.”

Nina was silent and held his eyes through all that.

When he was done, she remained silent.

Then, slowly, her eyes lit, and she smiled.

And when she did, she smiled huge.

* * *

After finishing with Nina, Reece walked to his truck, angled in, and slammed the door.

Then he pulled out his phone, tamped down his still coursing anger, found the name, and hit go.

It rang three times before a man answered, his voice guarded. “Hello?”

“Greg, this is Reece, Zara’s man, and before you get pissed and hang up, I just found out Xenia passed away two days ago.”

To this he got silence.

So he spoke through the silence.

“It’s f**ked up I’m tellin’ you before I tell Zara but once I tell her, I’m gonna need to be there for her so I won’t have time to deal with you.”

“Deal with me?” Greg asked, his voice unsteady and Reece didn’t know why, anger or emotion for Zara about her sister.

Since Reece didn’t give a f**k about this guy, it didn’t matter.

“Deal with you,” he confirmed. “I talk straight and I don’t got a lot of time so suck it up, man, ’cause here it is. Last night was f**ked up. When you came to the bar was f**ked up. Zara knows I’m gonna be doin’ this, havin’ this conversation with you, but she doesn’t like it. That’s because she cares about you. If you give a shit about her at all and want her in your life in the limited way you can have her, you end this shit. Now. You want to piss on my patch, we got problems. You followin’ me?”

“Sorry, I’m still back at Xenia dying. I’m finding it hard to keep up through your threats,” the f**kwit replied.

“Right, it’s good you brought that up because I should make that clear. These aren’t threats, Greg. When you pull that shit, it guts her. I’m not gonna let you do that and I’ll find a way to make sure you stop. The way I’d prefer it to be is if you’d give the tiniest f**kin’ shit about her and not make me do that because I got no problem f**kin’ you up, but if I gotta go outta my way and lay the hurt on you that would f**k her up. Now are you followin’ me?”

“It guts her?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know you so I don’t know if you sound happy because you can do that to her or pissed at yourself you’re doin’ it to her,” Reece told him.

“I’m not happy I’m hurting, Zara. God,” he clipped.

“Then stop doin’ it,” Reece returned.

This was again met with silence.

“I gotta go lay a different kind of hurt on Zara now, man, so tell me this was a productive conversation so I can get that over with for her,” Reece prompted when the silence stretched on too long.

“I never wanted things to get ugly between us,” Greg shared.

“You don’t want that, stop doin’ what you’re doin’,” Reece advised.

“It was just a shock, seeing her with you last night.”

“I get that. So does she. Doesn’t change the fact that you didn’t play that right.”

“I didn’t think. I guess I was mad.”

Jesus. What kind of guy was this guy?

“I’m sensin’ we’re comin’ to a positive end to this discussion so I don’t wanna piss you off, but I’m not your counselor. I’m your ex-wife’s man. You need to process shit, do it with one of your boys. I got shit to do.”

“Right, that was… I’m being…” He trailed off and before Reece could end this and get on with his shit day, Greg kept going. “I… this is weird to have to ask but, I mean, I probably should but, later, I’d like to call her. About Xenia.”

“Give it time. I’m lettin’ her sleep until she wakes up. Then I’ll lay that on her.”

“All right.”

It was time to end this.

“Thanks for givin’ a shit, Greg, now I gotta go,” Reece stated.

“Of course. Right. I’ll, um… call her later.”