“I’m sorry,” Jason said.
“You have kids?”
Jason shook his head.
“At least it was clean, then. No baggage. And I don’t mean to say my boys are baggage. The damn baggage is Shandra. She’s always going to be Jack and Charles’s mother. I won’t ever be rid of her, and I’ll probably be cutting a fat alimony check to her the rest of my life, not to mention child support for the next fifteen years. Be glad you don’t have to deal with that hassle.”
Jason didn’t know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut. Burns finished off the beer and grabbed another from the fridge. “Go on. Take one. Don’t make me drink alone.” Jason hesitated but then took a can.
Burns walked to the door leading out to the porch and opened it, stepping out into the hot sun. “Where’d the girls go? I was going to take them to lunch over at Top O’ the River.”
“I don’t think they were expecting me to show up. Niecy got pretty upset.”
Burns chuckled. “She’s a fireball, that one. Got her daddy’s brains and momma’s temper.” He popped the top on his can and took another long sip. Jason tried his best not to focus on the drink in Burns’s hand. “I suspect your niece was a little pissed that you haven’t been around in a while.”
“You suspect right.”
“You and Jana grew up in Marshall County, didn’t you?”
Jason nodded. “Little cove called Mill Creek.”
“That’s right. I remember Jana showing us the old homestead. Good fishing up that way. I’ll still go over there and try to find some bass or catfish in and around those boathouses.”
Jason remembered all the mornings he would wake up and see a small bass boat circling his family’s boathouse. “Yep,” he said, smiling.
“How long’s it been since you were out to Mill Creek?”
“Forever and a day. With Mom and Dad both gone . . .” He trailed off.
“I actually knew your dad. Lucas Rich. Had a law office on Gunter Avenue forever. When he retired, they turned the old building into a barbecue joint.” Burns gave his head a jerk. “Sad. That why you became a lawyer? Because of your old man?”
Jason frowned. “I guess that was part of the reason.”
Burns sipped his beer. “No shame in that. I followed my old man into the car business. So I have to ask, Why didn’t you take over the family practice?”
“That’s . . . kind of a long story,” Jason said, not wanting to get into it, staring at the beer can still in his hand.
Burns looked out at the lake. “Guessed it must’ve worked out for you. Based on your billboards, I’d say you’re making a killing.”
Jason continued to examine the beer, running his finger over the opening. “We’re doing OK.”
For a few seconds, neither man spoke, and Burns drank his beer. “Do y’all still own the place out at Mill Creek?”
“As far as I know,” Jason said, scratching the back of his neck and looking again at the beer can, wanting so badly to open it. “Jana would have needed to get my approval to sell.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what’s happened to the house. I think Jana was going to try to rent it out.”
Burns took another long sip of beer and began to amble down toward the dock.
“Are you sure it’s OK—？” But Jason cut himself off when it was obvious the other man wasn’t going to stop.
“If it’s like everything else in Jana’s life, I suspect your Mill Creek house is a disaster.”
“Tell me,” Jason said, peering at the approaching boathouse and then back to Burns.
“She and Braxton were having problems, I know that. Jana had gotten into drugs, and she owed quite a bit of money to credit card companies . . . and her drug supplier.”
“Tyson Cade,” Jason said, and Burns looked at him.
“You know Cade?”
“By reputation only.”
“Well, his rep is well earned. He’s the last person you want to get messed up with, but you know your sister. She’d find trouble in a house full of nuns.”
Burns stopped at the edge of the water. “Why are you back in town, Jason?”
“I would have thought it was obvious,” Jason said, feeling defensive. “My brother-in-law’s been murdered. My sister’s in jail. I wanted to check on my nieces and see Jana.”
Burns took another sip of beer. “You sure waited long enough.”