“Would that have been so bad?”
“Would it have been so bad for Brian?”
He held a hand up. “Understood. I’m sorry. I know it’s not very modern of me, but it’s different to send your daughter out. And you are good at your job. Your boss speaks highly of you. He seems to be a solid guy. He was a detective in New Orleans.”
Her father often liked to point out the obvious. “Yes, I know that.”
“Are you sure that things can’t work out between the two of you? He seems much more like a man who I could see you with.”
Since her dad had thought her ex-husband was the perfect man, she wasn’t giving great credence to his thoughts concerning her love life. He also was forgetting one important fact. “He’s married. You met his wife.”
“She wasn’t very friendly. Well, we both know marriages don’t have to be forever.” Her father finally glanced her way, a concerned expression on his face. “I want to talk to you about that Guidry boy. Man. Whatever you want to call him. I know your mother likes him, but we both have grave concerns. Do you honestly believe he would make a good husband? Don’t get me wrong. He’s a charming, attractive young man, but he belongs here. You don’t.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” It didn’t matter that she’d thought the same thing before. She didn’t like her father judging her relationship with Zep. It was something between the two of them.
Zep had been judged enough.
“It means it’s time for you to come home, and I don’t think he’s going to fit in,” her father said bluntly. “You have to know he’s got a record.”
Well, naturally her father had run a trace on him, too. She should have known he would do it, but she’d hoped he would understand that they weren’t too serious. “Of course I know. I’m not planning on marrying him. I like him. His offense wasn’t violent.”
She watched as a sedan passed them, making its way toward the stop sign ahead. Why wouldn’t it speed by and instigate a chase? A chase might get her out of this uncomfortable conversation.
Her father wasn’t saying anything she hadn’t thought before. He was giving her back all the reasons Zep was a bad bet. But the night before had changed something between them. She’d seen the hurt in his eyes, a hurt she would have sworn she couldn’t ever cause him.
“It doesn’t matter if it was violent or not,” her father continued. “A cop can’t have an ex-con as a partner.”
She rolled her eyes and watched as the sedan came to a stop because the cat had decided to leave that side of the street for better prospects. The cat sauntered across the road. Yeah, it was jaywalking, too, and like Dixie, she couldn’t even give the cat a ticket. “You’re acting like he spent years in a federal prison. It was six weeks in minimum security because he was a dumbass.”
“I don’t care if he wasn’t guilty,” her dad argued. “You’re not going to get back to NYPD with him at your side.”
She stopped and turned his way. “What?”
“One of the reasons I wanted to come here in person was to discuss your future. I’ve talked to Joel. He knows now that what he did was wrong. At the time he thought it was best for your career if he didn’t let you file that report.”
“You thought I shouldn’t file that report, either. Do you know you were wrong?” The old anger threatened to bubble to the surface. God, she’d thought she’d gotten over this.
Her father sighed, a long-suffering sound, and he pinched the place where his nose met his eyes. It was his “I’m getting a headache” expression. “We’re all trying to keep up with what’s acceptable and what’s not, Roxanne. Women officers back in my day wouldn’t have had a problem with what your supervisor did.”
“Yes, they did. They were just too scared to talk about it. They knew damn well they would lose their jobs. Those women had to go through what they did so I don’t. I get that you think the world has changed, that suddenly this generation is less tough than the one before. I’m not. I simply will not allow myself to be treated that way. The funny thing is you’re the one who taught me that. You taught me how to stand up for myself and then betrayed me when I did it.”
Her father’s eyes flared but she was saved by the fact that the sedan was now backing down the street.
“I did not betray you,” her father was saying.
But she was getting out of the car. Unlike the current driver of the slowly reversing sedan, she wasn’t going to chase a car down in reverse, nor would she make a crazy U-turn on this fairly narrow street.