Page 21 of Break Away
“As a matter of fact.” He reached out histhumb to swipe along her chin, then took it to his own mouth.“Yum.”
Zoey lowered her brows. “Are you flirtingwith me? That felt like flirting.”
“Who, me?” His innocent expression wasn’tparticularly persuasive. “I can’t flirt. This isn’t a date.Remember? And while we’re on the subject, tell me why you can’tdate a cop.”
“Remember that anti-authority streak I toldyou about?”
He scratched his chin. He’d shaved thescruff, and the shadow of his beard made a rasping sound. “Iremember that you don’t like authority when it’s heavy-handed. Whatmakes you think I’d be heavy-handed?”
“Cops in general have a tendency to throwaround their authority. It’s not personal.”
“Cops in general have a tendency to want tokeep people safe, and sometimes have to exert their authority to dothat. But let’s be personal, since generalizations and stereotypessuck.”
The lick of temper was there under his words.She studied him. “Maybe you’re right. I’m sure some cops aren’tlike that.”
His expression had her rolling her eyes.
Levi sipped his beer before choosing anotheronion ring. He dipped it in a different bowl. “This one is honeymustard sauce, which doesn’t sound like it would be good, but is.”He handed it to her.
She took it from him and crunched. “Yum, it’salmost as good as the ranch.” She returned her gaze to his. “Ican’t help how I feel about cops. It comes from personalexperience.”
“Why don’t we try this? Talk to me about thatexperience. Maybe it will help.”
That meant opening up to him, something shewasn’t usually willing to do with anyone but her closest friends,but for some reason she wanted him to understand. She traced afinger through the condensation on her glass, considering herwords. “You sure? It’s not pretty.”
He picked up her hand, turning it over in histo rub a thumb across her palm in a gesture that had the bloodsinging up her arm. “Yeah, Zoey, I’m sure, ’cause the other thingthat sucks is you won’t date cops. Help me to understand.”
She pulled back, closing her hand in a fist.Then she started telling him. “We were homeless for a while.Charlie’s dad left us. He couldn’t take the stress of being aparent of a child with autism. That wouldn’t have been so bad, butMom didn’t have a job because taking care of Charlie was afull-time commitment. He was five, and he’d have tantrums. Momhomeschooled him so he wouldn’t get picked on. Ted, that’sCharlie’s dad, had a daughter who came on the weekends, and therewere times things were pretty chaotic.”
His blue gaze didn’t waver as she continued.“Ted decided he couldn’t do it anymore, which apparently includedbeing a dad in any way, at least to Charlie. He stopped payingchild support, and didn’t want to see his son. The consequence wasthat we were evicted from our house within a couple of months.”
“Shit. I’ve known a couple guys who have donethat. Maybe they pay child support, but they totally check out oftheir kids’ lives. They’re selfish bastards.”
“Ted certainly was. There was a lot more thatwent into it, but in the end, Mom decided we’d live in our van. Wehad one of those VW Vanagon campers. Mom got the night shiftwaiting tables at Denny’s. She’d park the van in the back, andCharlie and I would sleep there while she worked. The manager wascool with it, and she’d feed us breakfast in the morning. But we’dhave to take off during the day.” Zoey realized she was grippingthe edge of the table and forced herself to relax her hold.
“That had to be tough.”
“Yep. We had a lot of sponge baths and washedour hair in the sink. Charlie had to go to regular school. I was inmiddle school. Mom would drop us off, then find a place to park soshe could sleep.”
“What happened to change things?”
“There was this cop, Officer Barille, who wasone of Mom’s regulars at Denny’s. One morning he hung around untilshe got off shift and followed her to the van. He’d figured out itwas her vehicle and thought it was a perfect setup so they couldhook up. They’d have a quickie, and he’d be on his way. He didn’tlike ‘no,’ so he started to get grabby, Mom was fighting him off,and then Charlie was screaming and I was coming out of the van tohelp my mom. It wasn’t quite how that asshole thought things wouldturn out.”
“Fucking bastard should never have been acop.”
“No, he shouldn’t. He called for backup, andsoon there were cops all over. The end result was that childservices were called. They came pretty close to putting Charlie andme into foster care, but we ended up at a shelter instead.”
“Other cops at the scene must have knownBarille was up to something with your mom.”
“They did. I heard another cop say somethinglike he needed to stop messing with women. So they knew what he wasthere for. Luckily, Mom wasn’t arrested. She filed a complaint, butnothing came of it. Don’t cross the blue line, right? Cops don’trat on cops.”
“That’s true sometimes. But like I said,there are a lot of cops who believe their job is to serve andprotect, even if that means protecting citizens from bad cops.”
The waiter brought the burgers they’dordered, and Zoey was glad for the reprieve from the conversation.She bit into her veggie burger, washing it down with a sip ofbeer.
“How long did you stay in a shelter?”
“Four months. Mom got a lawyer who agreed totake the case pro bono, and went after Ted for child support. Shegot an office job, and things were better. Then a friend of herswho’d moved to Hangman’s Loss and opened a business offered her ajob, so we moved up here.”
