They al looked to me.

“Don’t worry,” Jet assured me with another smile. She was pretty normal y, but her smile made her spectacular. “I already tried to break up with him, but it didn’t take.”

“Here’s your coffee,” Al y said, handing me a paper cup.

I took it and set it on the counter. “What do I owe you?” She told me, I gave her the money and then she leaned forward and said, “What did you mean, you know the feeling? Do you have a boyfriend you can’t get rid of? I know it’s nosy but I’m asking ‘cause my brother’s sitting over there and he’s been staring at you since the moment you walked in the door like he wants to rip your fancy-ass clothes off.”

I bit my lip and just stopped myself from looking over my shoulder toward the couches.

I was right, this was Al y and since Indy was standing there, and Al y wasn’t likely to point out that Indy’s boyfriend Lee wanted to rip my clothes off, then we were talking about Hank.

Unattached (as far as I knew) but stil a cop.

I didn’t question the fact that Al y would say something like this about her brother to me. She seemed the kind of girl who cal ed them like she saw them.

I leaned forward and made my first mistake of many that were to come. “Are we talking about Whisky?” I whispered, mainly because I couldn’t help myself.

“Whisky?” Indy leaned in.

“The one with the whisky-colored eyes,” I answered.

Indy smiled at the other two, then al three smiled at me.

“That’s him,” Indy said.

“Are you Indy?” I asked, just to be sure.

She blinked, her face registering surprise.

“Yes,” she answered. “Do I know you?”

“I’m looking for Tex MacMil an. He says he works here.” Her face changed and I could see she was shifting straight into mother hen mode.

Yep, I was right, this had to be Indy.

But it was Jet who responded to me. “Who wants to know?” she asked, also, I noted, in mother hen mode.

I looked at Whisky’s sister. She was not in mother hen mode, she’d rocketed straight to lioness mode ready to tear me limb from limb if I gave even a hint that I was there for anything but a happy purpose.

I decided it was best to tel them quickly that it was a happy purpose (sort of, they didn’t need to know about Bil y).

“I’m Roxanne Logan. Tex is my uncle.”

The two hens and the lioness disappeared instantly as three mouths dropped open and they stared in frank astonishment at me.

Then, Whisky’s sister shouted so loud I could actual y feel al the male eyes at the couch area swiveling to look,

“You have got to be f**kin’ shittin’ me!” Then, for some bizarre reason, she threw her head back and laughed. Both Indy and Jet were laughing too. Indy, so much, she wrapped her hands around her middle and leaned over a bit.

“I don’t believe it!” Jet yel ed.

What in the f**k?

I stared at them like they’d lost their minds, which I feared they had, when Al y turned to the couches and shouted, “You are n o t going to believe who this is.”

“No, don’t… ” I said to her and I looked out the corner of my eyes to the couches and saw they were al watching me, most especial y Whisky, or Hank, his eyes somehow managing to look both alert and lazy and I felt the dizziness hit me again and I quickly looked away.

The bel over the door went just as Al y announced, “This The bel over the door went just as Al y announced, “This is Roxanne, f**king Tex’s niece!”

I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath and put my hand on the counter.

“Roxie?”

It was said in a soft boom. I’d never heard a soft boom but that was the only way to describe it.

I opened my eyes and turned and stared at an older version of my brother Gil (an older version with a wild-ass beard). He was nearly as tal as he was wide (which made him humongous), barrel-chested, blond-headed with dark blue eyes and a russet beard. He was wearing a flannel shirt, a pair of jeans and there was a very pretty older woman at his side, leaning heavily into him, holding on to him with one arm while the other arm dangled strangely.

“Uncle Tex?” I asked quietly, but knew it was him and I felt tears come up my throat. As usual, I couldn’t control them. Even though I tried to swal ow them, they fil ed my eyes and started sliding down my cheeks.

“Jesus Jones! Roxie!” Tex gently disengaged from the woman who stood somewhat unsteadily on her two feet with a nod to him and a smile at me and then he took two gigantic strides towards me.

I put my hands up to give him a hug but they glanced off his massive chest. To my shock, he bent low, grabbing me around my thighs, just above my knees and he lifted me up and swung me around in a ful circle. “Roxanne Gisel e Logan, the most beautiful f**kin’ girl in the whole f**kin’

world!” he boomed, ful on this time.

My nose started stinging and I sucked both my lips in to control the tears but it was too late, I was crying flat out.

“Uncle Tex,” I laughed through my tears, holding on to his shoulders, “Put me down.”

He did and I landed hard on my high-heeled boots. He put his big hands on either side of my head, yanked me forward and planted a kiss on top of my hair. Then he shoved me back, keeping his hands where they were and he stared at me for a long time.

Then, his eyes grew soft, and even a little misty, and his voice went back to the low boom when he said, “Fuckin’ A, girl, you look exactly like your mother.”

I held on to his arms.

“That’s what Dad says,” I told him.

Uncle Tex kept staring.

“Fuckin’ A,” he whispered and, to my total and complete mortification, I made one of those loud, crying hiccoughs.

He let go of my head and engulfed me in a hug. I put my arms around him, closed my eyes and pressed my cheek to his chest.

It would seem Uncle Tex wasn’t going to close the door on me and I felt like I’d been blessed. I let out a deep breath and al owed myself a private smile through my tears.

He held me for a long time and I held him right back.

“I’d look forward to your letters every month. I would never have made it through prison if it wasn’t for you, Roxie darlin’. Never,” he said softly to me but his voice was stil loud.

I just nodded my head against his chest, tears flowing freely now. I was incapable of control ing it and no longer wanted to. What he said meant the world to me and that he had the courage to say it meant even more.