Page 75 of Newly Tied

“Don’t lie. You can see it the same as I can.”

“Who is that?” his father asked.

“That is the guy who’s dating your daughter,” Lang grumbled.

“And you don’t like him? He’s no good?”

“He’s a player,” Lang answered. “But he’s also a fellow marshal, so perhaps we should extend him the benefit of the doubt.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“He’s not talking to you,” Etta explained gently. “He’s talking to his partner there. Both he and your son are federal marshals.”

“You went into law enforcement?”

Lang was too focused on his sister and Sharpe to notice anything else.

“He’s talking to you, son.” Etta nudged Lang.

“What?”

She used her finger to gesture at his father.

“Oh, yes. I did,” he answered. “I was a cop first, patrolman, moved up fast, made detective, but I was more interested in hunting down the bad guys, not trying to figure out the why of it all.”

“Plus, you like kickin’ down doors,” I chimed in.

“I do like that,” he cracked wise, nodding, and then his gaze returned to his father. “This is my partner, in all ways, Delroy McCabe.”

Duke offered me his hand, and we shook briefly. From the lack of questions, I was guessing that his father didn’t catch what Lang meant. That was fine with me. I had a strong feeling I would never see this man again.

“I understand you live in New Orleans. What do you do there?”

He regarded Lang oddly, as though he wasn’t sure what he meant. “I’m a musician.”

“Do you travel the country, play different places? I apologize, I don’t know much about the lives of musicians.”

Duke nodded. “Selah and I own a small club on Frenchmen Street where I play nightly. She manages the place, and Ford plays with my band, as well as several others. Drea does promotion and marketing, and Jasmine is the odd one out. She’s a lawyer in her second year of practice at a law firm she joined after she graduated.”

“So other than Jasmine, it’s a family business.”

“Yes, it is,” he said with a chuckle. “Now, I would love to have you come meet my family if you would.”

I could tell Lang was torn; I could read it all over his face. His mother could as well.

“May I speak to my son a moment?” Etta asked her ex-husband.

“Of course,” he said, then smiled at Lang. “We’re right over there.”

Once he left, Lang took his mother’s hands in his.

“Yes?” she asked him with a warm smile.

“That man owes you years of child support that could have really helped.”

She shook her head. “We’re not living in the past.”

“I know that, but…how can he come back here, after walking out on you, and us, his children, and think we’ll be fine with everything?”