He started up the truck. “I’ve had to be over the years. That wasn’t my first rodeo.”
She suspected it wasn’t. “You were probably the bane of all the high school girls’ parents.”
He went quiet, driving down the road, the silence lengthening between them.
It was already light outside, and Papillon was up and at work. It was the second night in a row he’d gotten next to no sleep because he was helping her. He was upset and she wasn’t sure how to reach him. All she knew was that she really wanted to. She didn’t like this feeling in the pit of her gut that she’d done something wrong and hurt him.
“At least we can put the rougarou rumors to rest.” She couldn’t take the silence another moment. It was odd since she liked quiet. She didn’t talk a lot, but she liked it when he did.
“Don’t count those rumors out yet,” he muttered. “People here like a good story, and a tied-up dog and young love gone wrong aren’t as good as a Cajun werewolf running wild. I assure you, there will still be talk. Don’t worry about it. We’ve got the big crawfish festival in a few weeks. I’m sure something will happen at it that will get people talking.”
“The last festival I worked, your sister-in-law had a catfight with Josette Trahan after she drank way too much strawberry wine.” People still called it the Great Hair Pull Incident. Josette had come out on the losing end of that one.
“I think it was more about Josette putting hands on my brother,” Zep replied. “Lisa’s a little possessive. And yes, something like that will happen and we won’t hear more about the rougarou. Hopefully before my mother sets herself up as the rougarou whisperer. She will charge for that. I wouldn’t want you to arrest my momma.”
“I wouldn’t arrest your mother,” she shot back.
He fell back into silence. Not so easy this time.
She decided to try again. “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about,” he replied, his eyes steady on the road.
She hated this feeling. This was the time when she should shut down and let it go. He would either get over it or he wouldn’t, and that would tell her a lot about how her week was going to go. “I feel like there is because you’re mad at me and I don’t really understand what I did wrong.”
Somehow she couldn’t do what she’d done in the past. She couldn’t simply let this emotion sit between them.
He sighed. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m afraid your honesty hurt my feelings. But it wasn’t wrong for you to feel the way you do.”
“About you? I wasn’t saying anything bad about you, Zep. I made a dumb joke about stress relief.”
“Yes, that’s what it was and that’s why I got my feelings hurt.”
“What?”
“It was a joke to you,” he said. “It meant something to me. You’re not wrong, Rox. I was. I should have listened to my brother. He told me we weren’t on the same page, but I didn’t believe him.”
“Okay, now I’m the one who doesn’t understand.”
“I thought you really liked me. I thought you’d finally figured out that I was serious about you and wanted to be more than . . . well, than stress relief. I wanted to be more than a one-night stand. I get it. I’m too old to be some young stud. I’m the one who gets in trouble. That was fine when I was a boy. Everyone loves a bad boy. It’s pathetic on a man. It’s a joke. You made the joke, but I am the joke. I’m the walking, talking joke of the parish.”
“No, you’re not.” Except wasn’t that why she’d stayed away from him in the first place? She had never once considered that he thought of himself as a joke. “I think every man in town would like to be you. You get all the ladies.”
He stopped the truck at a red light and turned her way. “What is that supposed to mean? Are you talking about the fact that I can get a woman to dance with me? Hell, honey, I’m at bars most nights. Of course the women there want to dance. Not one of them wants to do anything more than have a good time. That’s what I am. I’m a good time. I’m stress relief. I’m not the guy you call when you need to talk. I’m the guy you get in bed with and forget about the next day.”
“I didn’t forget about you.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree about that.” The light had changed and he sighed as he started to drive again.
“I’m sorry. I don’t view you as stress relief.” She’d never considered the fact that the reason Zep didn’t date was anything but preference. It hadn’t been hard to think about him preferring quick hookups to taking women out. She’d heard the stories of love-’em-and-leave-’em Guidry, but not once had she asked herself if they were true. She’d listened to every rumor about Zep without considering that he might be different, that there might be a private side to the man.