“If you’ve never met her, you don’t know fuck all about her. So you sure as fuck don’t talk that kind of trash about her.”
McClintock was shifting in his seat, all bluster now, demanding, “Step back, Garrett.”
He didn’t step back.
Garrett declared, “It’s a sad thing to say about a woman her age, but the God’s honest truth is, your daughter is a spoiled-rotten brat.”
He lifted a hand and jabbed his finger an inch from McClintock’s face, savoring the flash of fear he saw before the bluster shot back when his eyes narrowed.
On his jab, he went on.
“You created that. The woman is in her late thirties and her daddy is still out bustin’ his ass and makin’ himself look a fool to get her what she wants. Since she hasn’t already done it, the time is now for her to grow the fuck up and learn to take care of herself. Even more, she needs to learn to take care of the things in her life that mean something. The age she is, Justin, if she doesn’t do that shit, she’s gonna lose those things and you can’t do jack to get them back for her, case in point, Mia not fighting for her marriage and only deciding she’s willin’ to do that when it’s way too fuckin’ late.”
“You need to step back,” McClintock spat.
Garrett straightened, but he didn’t step back. This meant McClintock had to get out of the seat while shifting to the side to avoid hitting Garrett’s body. He did that and Garrett turned to him just as his phone in his jacket started ringing.
He wanted to take the call. With his work and a woman in his life, that woman having a son, he might even need to take the call.
He unfortunately had to get this done, so he didn’t take the call.
“We’ll see what your captain thinks of you assailing a citizen right in the reception area of the goddamned station,” McClintock threatened.
“As it’s a police station, we have cameras. Those will show I didn’t touch you. I also didn’t demand to speak to you. I didn’t show at your place of business, interrupt your pursuit of doing that business, and do it uttering slurs against a woman who means something to you. Feel free to discuss this with my captain. He’ll give you the respect of listening to you without laughing to your face. Then he won’t do dick.”
Garrett’s phone stopped ringing.
McClintock’s enraged look turned nasty. “I cannot believe I’m looking at the man I happily walked my daughter down the aisle and gave her away to. She’s hurting…because of you. Her life’s in a shambles…because of you. She—”
Garrett took a step back and planted his hands on his hips, interrupting, “Listen to yourself, Justin. I did not give a ring to another woman, then go to Mia with what amounts to a dare to win her back or lose her forever. I didn’t find out she became involved with another man, happily involved, and seek her out to share I was ready, after five years, to try and resurrect our marriage. After repeated warnings that all between us was good and dead with no hope of resurrection, I didn’t go to her man’s place of business and cause a scene.”
As Garrett spoke, McClintock’s face got tighter and tighter.
He might spoil his daughter, but he wasn’t stupid. As Garrett gave him the words, he was realizing Mia had made her own bed.
But Garrett wasn’t even close to done.
“She quit her job to move to Bloomington to start her life with another man. She took her house off the market and ended her engagement; I didn’t ask her to. It might be way too late for her to learn lessons you never taught her, but I found out just this morning, when it’s important, it’s better late than never. You gotta let her sort out her own mistakes. If you don’t, she’ll never learn.”
It seemed like his words had been sinking in, but his advice hit a brick wall. McClintock might not be stupid, but he was when it came to his daughter. Garrett knew this when he saw the stubborn set in McClintock’s jaw.
Not his problem.
But it was time to sum up.
“The only thing I know right now is, no matter what you say or do, your daughter and I are done. I’ve moved on in a way there is no going back. So, however this gets sorted, Justin, don’t drag me into it because, like Mia, the problems she’s created for herself have fuck all to do with me.”
“So much for ‘to have and to hold, for better or for worse, until death do you part,’” McClintock sniped.
Garrett sighed, not about to get into explaining the concept of divorce to a stubborn man.
He was done.
“If that’s all you got, Justin, I got a killer to catch.”
“When you come to your senses, Garrett, and try to get my daughter back, do not expect me to be your champion,” he warned.
Garrett very nearly rolled his eyes, and he didn’t think he’d rolled his eyes since he was about twelve years old.
“Consider me informed,” Garrett muttered.
They stared at each other and Garrett did it with his face set studiously blank.
He did this to hide the fact that he didn’t like this because he’d always liked Mia’s father.
He spoiled the girls in his life, but he was a good guy. Funny. He told a great joke, was usually in a mood that could only be described as jovial, and he’d liked and accepted Garrett easily. His continuing to spoil his daughter when she was Garrett’s wife was marginally uncool, but it wasn’t heinous. And when the marriage finally disintegrated, he’d only sought Garrett out once to have a chat with him, hoping his intervention might get Garrett’s head out of his ass.