Lawmakers (20 page)

Chapter Six

R.J. had to admit when things came to a head in her world that it was a doozy, and Murphy’s Law came into play big time. Life really did like to kick her in the nuts and laugh as she fell crumpled to the ground holding her crotch. How could she go from being blissfully happy to being in the midst of unhappiness and chaos?  She’d invited her parents over for dinner along with Sean to share their big news and hers.  She should’ve known not to get too happy and upbeat about everything because something always managed to fall apart. Whatever could go wrong, would go wrong, and at dinner it did.  Her parents showed up the same time as Sean and she opened the door to their smiling faces.

“Mi bella princesa
, Sean just told us the news!” her mother gushed. “You’re getting married!” She came inside the apartment and pulled R.J. into a hug.  “I hope you want a spring wedding. Midge and Lita will die when we start planning.”

“Um hey, Mom.” R.J. frowned at Sean over her mother’s shoulder. “You couldn’t wait until we at least sat down?”

“Kinda blurted it out.” He smiled. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

“Awwww, he called her sweetheart,” her mother gushed. “Anthony, isn’t that wonderful?”

“It is.” Her father gave her a hug. “Hey baby, how is everything?”

“It’s good dad, it really is,” R.J. answered and smiled. “I’m happy.”

He nodded. “Good.” Anthony Domino turned his attention to Sean. “I’m just letting you know that no man, NYPD detective or not, is good enough for my daughter.”

Sean held out his hand. “Well Lieutenant, I’ll have to work toward making sure that I deserve her.”

“Good answer.” Her dad chuckled.

Her mother chattered on about flowers and a church wedding as they got the food on the table. When they all sat down she poured a glass of wine for each of them and watched her mother’s and father’s faces.  She could tell her father knew, he was too connected not to. He gave her a wink and R.J. smiled.

“So tell me, Rosalie do you want my wedding dress? I still have it boxed up,” her mother said.

“Ummmmm…” R.J. was trying to find the right words.

“Ramona, how about you let them get accustomed to being engaged before you start pulling out wedding books,” her father said and cut into his roast beef. “They’ve got time yet.”

“Not if they want a June wedding. Father Matthias will need to know and they have to be scheduled for the marriage classes, plus we’ll need to lease a hall….”

R.J. looked at Sean. “This is why I said Vegas, you see why?”

He grinned. “Will these classes mean we can’t live in sin like we’ve been doing?”

She snickered. “Probably not, the chastity belt has been off for a long time.”

“Don’t make me deafen myself with my knife,” her father warned.

“Well, you joke now, but when it’s too late you’ll be scrambling looking for a venue,” her mother said firmly. “We should hire an event planner and have an engagement party.”

“I’d rather dance with cobras,” R.J. announced. “Listen, I have something to say that is not wedding or engagement related.”  She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the paper and put it in the middle of the table.

“What that,
mija
?” her mother asked.

Sean looked at her curiously as well and only her father kept his face neutral.
Yep, he definitely knows.

“My acceptance letter for the police academy,” R.J. said. “I’ll go in with the October recruits.”

“You’re making a joke right?” Her mother put her fork down. “You’re getting married, how can you still want to join the police force?”

“How does one make the other null and void, Mom?” R.J. asked.

“Because you will be a mother and no child of mine will be risking her life and leaving my grandchildren without a mama,” her mother said firmly.

“Mom, trust me when I say I’ll be very careful as a cop but I don’t plan on having children two seconds after I get married,” R.J. pointed out. “Mothers are on the force.”

“Not my daughter,” her mother shot back. “I forbid it.”

“
Madre dios, mama
, you cannot forbid me, I’m a grown woman and you’re being ridiculous!” R.J. said in exasperation.

Her mother met her gaze. “Speak to your daughter, Anthony.”

“I think you’ll be an amazing police woman, congratulations R.J.,” her father said.

“Anthony, what are you saying?” Her mother gasped. “Did you know she was doing this?”

“No, I did not.” He looked at his wife and then R.J. “I raised a strong, resilient child and I know she will go far in the police department.”

 “Thank you, Daddy,” R.J. said in relief.

“Do you want her to get shot like you did, to be laying in a hospital bed fighting for her life?” Her mother stood and her hands were clenched at her sides. “I lived it once, I will not do it again. I forbid this! Sean, say something to your intended wife!”

“How long have you known that you got accepted?” Sean asked quietly.

She looked at him. “From the time you proposed. I didn’t think your proposal was dependent on whether I was a cop or not, or was it?”

“It doesn’t, but I’d liked to have known,” Sean responded.

“You do now, or was it that you thought a wedding ring would curb my dreams and you were going to make me into a good little wife?” R.J. felt her irritation rise. “Was I going to sit home and bake pies and watch the kids while you go out and work?”

“I’m not saying that, Rosalie…” Sean began but her mother cut her off.

Her mother threw her hands in the air. “What’s wrong with that, why must you be the tomboy all the time, Rosalie? Jeans instead of dresses, guns instead of tea parties. I thought by now you’d of given this all up and understood it was time to be a woman.”

“And I’m less of a woman because I want to be on the police force? Great, thanks for that, Mom,” R.J. said sarcastically and sighed. “I’m doing it with your blessings or not.”

“Then you’re not my daughter.”  Her mother’s words were like a slap to her face, and she looked at the woman she loved in dismay.

“Ramona, you need to think of what you’re saying and think rationally,” her father said quietly.  “You’re taking this too far.”

“No, Daddy, she’s saying what she feels.” R.J. stood and lifted her head in pride. She had just as much of it as her mother did.  “I’d like everyone to leave please.”

“R.J., honey,” her father said.

“It’s fine, Dad. I’m going against the iron will and rule of Ramona Domino and now I must be punished for being such a bad daughter,” R.J. said.  “You take your wife home and thank you for supporting me.”

She watched her dad shake his head and her mother walk stiffly out the door without a goodbye. She stood waiting for Sean to do the same, yet he stood by the table watching her.

“I mean you too,” R.J. said.

“Why?” he asked the one simple word.

R.J. lashed out. “Because you stood there like an asshole and didn’t once stand up for me. You wanted to know why I didn’t tell you first? I waited to see if you’d tell my mother you supported me one hundred percent.”

“Excuse me for wanting to know what was going on in my girlfriend’s life,” Sean snapped. “You didn’t even tell me you applied.”

She laughed. “Yeah, why should I?  You loved the fact that my mother imposed her rule and hid like a coward behind it. What is it, huh, Sean? Don’t want the little woman to show you up at the job, be a better cop than you?”

“You’re being ridiculous and you fucking know it,” Sean said.  “How was I supposed to get a word in edgewise with you and your mom going at it?”

“And somehow Dad managed to root for me,” she sneered.

“Well stop the presses, the illustrious Anthony Domino stands behind his daughter,” Sean snapped. “You’ll need more than his name to get through the academy.”

R.J. narrowed her eyes at him and rage filled her. She could see it in his eyes, he knew that he had taken one step over the boundary and now he couldn’t take it back.

“Rosalie, I’m….”

“Get out of my apartment,” she said coldly.

“I didn’t mean that and you know it,” Sean said.

She gave a humorless laugh. “The thing is the truth always seems to come out in the heat of an argument.  No, you meant it, and I’ll show you and anyone else who thinks my dad’s name would push me through the academy. I need you to leave, you’re a cop, you know the rules. When a woman says leave you take your ass out of her house lickity-split before she kicks your ass or you get escorted away in handcuffs.”

“What about us, Rosalie? We need to talk and fix this,” he said walking toward the door.

She shook her head, refusing to cry. “Nothing to fix, it was fun and I don’t regret a minute of it.” She took the ring off and slapped it against his chest. It fell into the palm he held up as she moved hand away. “There you go, still shiny and new for the next girl you propose to. Maybe a day care worker who wants to have nine children and dogs in a farm compound upstate while you’re on the job. You can tell her about your two day engagement to the non-feminine female cop who went on to break every fucking record the NYPD holds in arrests and closing cases.”

“Rosalie….”

She never looked away from his gaze as she pushed the door closed with one hand and let it close in his face.  She turned the lock and went to the small table in her dining area and began to clear away the food on the plates. She worked as if on automatic, calmly cleaning dishes, wrapping up the leftovers and putting them in the fridge. After that she got herself a glass of wine and sat on the couch watching the news and other shows without seeing them. Outside the evening turned to night and she stared unseeingly at the TV.

Finally, she got up and turned the lights off in her apartment and went to her bedroom.  After a shower, she pulled on some shorts and a T-shirt and climbed into bed, still refusing to cry. She was R.J. Domino and no one made her cry. Yet as she lay against the pillow she felt the tears leak out from beneath her lids. It seemed her body was trying to betray her and she held back the sobs.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this
. R.J. pretended she wasn’t crying until she fell into a dreamless, unhappy sleep.

* * * *

The day before she left Rosalie made sure she had everything she needed for training camp. She had the grit and determination but her heart was broken and the relationship between her and her mother was torn apart.  Even so, she was going to go through with her plan to become a cop come hell or high water and that was final. She was even considering moving out of Manhattan and starting her career in Brooklyn or Queens for two reasons. First, she never wanted to be put in a situation where she’d have to see Sean while working, and second, over there her father’s laurels wouldn’t follow her that much.  The buzzer sounded to announce someone was at her front door. She didn’t buzz them in because it could be Sean, or worse, her mother. She was too emotionally tired to deal with either of them.  She was pleasantly surprised to see it was Lila and she had her daughter Brandy with her.

R.J. opened the main door to the building with a warm smile. “Hey you two, what a nice surprise, come on in.”

Lila smiled and shook her head. “No, we can’t stay. I’m taking Brandy to her new day care and then I have to go to work. I got in at the nine-one-one call center so I start today. I just wanted to stop by because I never brought you that dinner I promised and I’m sorry. We had so much going on, and then they found Charlie and his family….”

“You don’t have to explain a thing, and it’s okay.” R.J. hugged Lily happily. “That’s so great, you may be sending me a dispatch in the next few months. I leave for the academy today.”

Lila grinned. “I wondered why you were a private investigator and not a cop. They’re going to be lucky to get you. R.J., you are an amazing lady and you got my baby girl back for me. I’ll be forever grateful to you. As a police officer I know you’ll do the city justice. They need more people on the force like you.”

“I’ll try my best and I won’t ever give up, I can tell you that,” R.J. replied.

Brandy held out her hands to R.J. who lifted her easily. “How’s it going, kiddo?”

“French fries?” Brandy asked.

“You just had breakfast, little miss,” Lila said with a laugh.

R.J. gave Brandy a squeeze and then tickled her until she giggled. “How about this, when I get back from the academy I’ll come visit you and your mom and we can all go for French fries.”

“Okay.” Brandy nodded and pressed a kiss on R.J.’s cheek before saying in the sweetest voice ever, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” R.J’s voice was husky with tears.

She bid them goodbye and watched them walk down the street away from her building, with Lily swinging her little girl’s hand as she happily skipped along beside her.  She saw a familiar car turn on her block and frowned. It was her parent’s burgundy SUV. She didn’t want another confrontation, not before she left for her twelve weeks of training. She breathed a sigh of relief when it was just her father who got out and walked across the street to where she stood on the steps of her building.

“Getting nippy out here,” her father commented.

“That’s what happens in fall,” R.J. said. “You want to come in for some coffee?”

“Sounds good,” her father replied.

She’d taken the steps downstairs finding it easier than waiting for the elevator, but with her dad this time she used it not wanting her father to climb six flights of stairs. In her apartment she went into the kitchen while he sat on one of the stools next to the low bar that separated it from the living room.

“How’s Mom?” she asked as she took down the k-cups for her Keurig coffee maker from the cupboard.

“Upset, and I’m supposed to be over here talking you out of the police force,” her father replied.

“Okay, let’s hear the speech,” R.J. said.

“That was it.” He smiled. “Did it work?”

R.J. laughed. “No, Daddy, it did not.”

“Drat,” he said.

“I know I’m stubborn.” She brought his cup of coffee to him and made a second for herself.

She moved to her sofa and he followed, placing his coffee cup on the glass table in front of them.