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More like haphazard. As if he were trying to cover his worries and failing.

Which was funny considering the boy she remembered had few of them she knew of.

He’d lived with his mother after his parents had split up, barely spoke to his father, but divorce was common.

“I know. I appreciate it. You’re in the fraud division now? Talk about a slow pace.”

He snorted. “Yeah, well, life called for it.”

She frowned. “Can I ask why? Or you can tell me to mind my own business.”

He smiled again. Light, open, telling her he had no problem with this conversation.

He never did. He’d always been one to talk. Engage with others. Sit and chat and probably got more information out of people because of that trait.

It did him well in his job. Having the ability to get someone to trust him and spill their guts because he gave just enough for them to feel as if he cared.

Funny how that all popped into her head when she’d only dated him when she was thirteen. Before she was mature enough to understand those things.

But it was the years after that she remembered more.

The times his name came up from her father or even her brother, Zander. Zander had been on the force for a few years before he opened his own private investigator firm. Her brother, he wasn’t one for always following the rules.

Now her father worked with her brother.

“You don’t know about Bella?” he asked.

She kept her smile in place. No reason for her to be jealous of anything. “Your girlfriend?” Her eyes dropped to his left hand. “You’re not married.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Went down the aisle once, almost twice. I’m not sure if I’m cut out for that. Or it’s meant for me.” He waved his hand. “Sorry. Bella is my half-sister. I’ve got custody of her.”

“What?” she asked, her jaw dropping. “I hadn’t known that. I don’t know I even knew you had a half-sister.”

Marly knew his father had died two years ago. Drunker than shit, lost control of his vehicle in the middle of the night and thankfully only took his life and not some other innocent person along with it.

“My father remarried,” he said. “Holly was half his age and had a kid when he was fifty.”

“How old is she now?”

“Bella is thirteen. She was eleven when he died. And before you ask, I’m not sure where Holly is now. She wasn’t in the picture when my father died, and he left custody of Bella to me, much to my surprise.”

“That had to be hard. Were you close?”

“Not then. I didn’t even have her phone number. I barely spoke to my father, and I might have seen Bella five times if that.”

And then he ended up raising the kid.

Talk about a change in your life all at once.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said, her hand reaching across the table. “I wish I knew.”

He laughed. Not a forced one. More like genuine.

“Don’t be sorry. Nothing with my father surprised me.”

“It makes more sense now that you’d rather not be called out in the middle of the night. That had to be hard to manage.” She shook her head. “And there I am assuming. For all I know, you’ve got someone else home with her.”

“Nope,” he said, the end of the word carrying harder than she’d thought. Like he was taunting her with it.