Sera sank down into the seat beside Lisa and gave them all a brilliant smile. “Hey, Roxie. Good to see you, girl. Is it true Zep is running a part of this meeting? Hallie called to tell me about her momma and this black cat thing she’s got going, and she mentioned that Zep would be talking at the meeting tonight. I didn’t believe it, but I called Sylvie and she said it was true. She’s the mayor. She can’t lie. Has anyone checked the water fountain to make sure he hasn’t figured out a way to put vodka in it?”
Lisa laughed. “I’m more worried that he’s going to tell everyone to go hunt for this thing and we’ll have chaos in the streets.”
Roxie felt her brow rise. This kind of joking was what got Zep in trouble in the first place. She was sure they didn’t mean anything by it, but she had to make them understand what it did to Zep. “I assure you he’s taking this job seriously. He’s been out most nights this week trying to calm people down. He’s not going to rile them up because he would be out there on the front lines dealing with the crazy.”
Lisa’s mouth had dropped open slightly. “Oh, I wasn’t saying anything bad about him. I was joking around.”
“He’s sensitive about the whole bad-boy thing.” She’d figured that out this week. “But he won’t tell you. He’s smarter than he’s given credit for. I think it would be best if we didn’t joke about him screwing up. He’s genuinely nervous about this and wants to do a good job. Let’s all try to support him.”
Harry had taken the seat beside his wife and leaned over. “You tell her, Rox. I’ve been saying for months that Zep is way deeper than anyone gives him credit for.”
“I love Zep. I wasn’t . . .” Lisa stopped. “I guess I was.”
“It’s hard to think of Zep as serious,” Sera said with a frown on her face.
“Really?” Roxie had given a whole lot of thought to Zep’s family situation. “He seems pretty good with Luc.”
“They’re practically playmates,” Sera replied.
“Not really. He puts in a lot of time and effort with Luc. He truly wants what’s best for him. I know Zep makes it easy to think he’s not serious, but how many other young men do you know who would stay home and help pay off his sister’s medical bills? That feels like real love to me, and that means he’s serious. He’s definitely serious about the people he cares about.”
Sera’s face had fallen. “I always thought he stayed home because he didn’t have anything else to do.”
Oh, she hoped she wasn’t saying something that would upset Zep, but Sera should know that her brother had loved her enough to sacrifice for her. “He’d been in college. Why do you think he didn’t want to continue?”
Lisa’s eyes had widened. “Zep went to college?”
Did the man tell people nothing of his own accomplishments? She’d managed to go from a husband who made it sound like making himself a sandwich should get him a Nobel Prize to a boyfriend who refused to tell anyone how amazing he was.
“Community college,” Sera replied. “But I thought he only went to check out the girls. That’s what he always said.”
“I’m sure that’s what he told you, but you can’t believe he drove an hour to and from class to check out the chicks?” She wasn’t going to tell them his story. That was his to reveal, but she could lead them down a path to a place where they at least asked the questions they should have. “He graduated. I don’t know many men who do that so they can try to get laid. Zep can pretty much do that without an associate degree.”
“Zep has a degree?” Lisa looked dumbfounded.
Did any of these people know him? Probably not any better than her family knew her. But oddly, seeing it from another side—from a side where she knew these people loved him—was starting to make her rethink her own. So much of life was about point of view. If Zep never offered them his true point of view, how could they take him for anything but what he presented? Had she done that with her family, too?
“He did. He graduated, but it didn’t seem important to him,” Sera argued. “He didn’t even go to the graduation.”
“Was anything going on that might have distracted him from that?” Roxie asked. It was clear to her that someone needed to give Zep’s family a jolt when it came to him. Maybe she would be that someone.
“She’ll get there,” Harry said, watching as Luc climbed on the chair beside him and waved at everyone walking in.
Sera teared up. “I was pregnant and scared, and he didn’t go to his graduation because he wasn’t going to rub it in my face.”