Good. If she argued with her father, she didn’t have to think about how nice it had felt to wake up next to Zep this morning, how right it had felt to make coffee while he and Daisy walked around the block. Something sweet had settled inside her as she’d poured two cups and waited for him, something she’d never once felt for her ex-husband.
Now that she thought about it, it was a good thing to avoid. “Different doesn’t mean worse. This town may seem quaint and out of touch to you, but there are solid people here.”
“I didn’t say it was worse.” Her father’s voice was steady. If she’d irritated him in any way, she couldn’t tell. “What you do here reminds me a bit of your grandfather. I noticed it the other night at your boyfriend’s restaurant. Everyone knew your name and you seemed to know them. By the time I joined, that kind of policing in the city was much harder to do. I moved precincts a lot. It makes getting to know people less of a priority, but you have to if you’re going to move up.”
He didn’t have to point out that there was no moving up in Papillon Parish. She could run against Armie, but she had no grand desire to take control of the sheriff’s office. The truth was she liked her job.
Would she miss it when she was in a bigger city? It had been hard to settle in at first since this place didn’t have all the things she was used to. There weren’t a lot of choices in Papillon, but there was a beauty to the simplicity that she hadn’t counted on.
“But this is a much slower pace,” her father continued. “I can certainly see the appeal, though I wouldn’t think it would be for you. You were always my adrenaline junkie.”
“Hey, there are things that happen out here that can get your heart pumping. Being a deputy here is not that different from where I was. We would wait around for something to go wrong and then hold on for dear life.” As if to put a point on her statement, a black cat strolled out from behind the café. The cat sat at the edge of the road, yawning as though the world was far too boring to deal with. That cat would likely be the most interesting thing in her day. However, she’d had days when buildings went up in flames or storms threatened to take out half the town. “The difference is when someone is in trouble here, I usually know who they are and I know how many kids they have, or that if I lose someone, I’ll have to look into that mom’s face and explain.”
“I can understand how hard that would be. Tell me something, Roxanne. Are you happy here? Or are you only staying around for that boy?”
This was not a conversation she wanted to have with her father, but she felt the need to defend Zep. “He isn’t a boy. He’s a man.”
Her father chuckled. “You’ll have to forgive me. At my age, you all look like boys and girls. It’s hard to remember that at your age your mother and I already had Brian and she was pregnant with you.”
Yes, what she needed was a lecture on how her generation was immature. “I’m a late bloomer, I guess.”
Did she and Zep have more in common than she realized? They both seemed to struggle with expectation versus reality, and she’d been guilty in that with him, too.
“You’re not. You always knew what you wanted. You were focused and centered until the last few years,” he replied as though he’d given this subject a lot of thought. “You were excellent at your job. The divorce threw you off. I was surprised you acted so emotionally.”
Why wasn’t there a hurricane? Maybe a robbery. She wouldn’t want anyone hurt, but a nice, potentially violent distraction would be good around now. “Divorce is hard on a person. You and Mom are lucky.”
Another chuckle. “I don’t know about that. You make it as long as your mother and I have and you just kind of keep going.” He sobered and stared out over the town square. “I know you struggle with your mother sometimes, but she loves you.”
Her heart constricted because it could be easy to forget that her mom had been the one who packed her school lunches and included little notes about how much she was loved. Her mom could be obnoxious, but she’d been a good mother. “I know. I didn’t turn out the way she hoped I would. You would think somewhere around the time I joined the military, she would have figured out I wasn’t going to settle down and be some good wife.”