Paulie: "Bruce, I wonder if I might cut in?"

Bruce: "This is a joke, right Victoria?"

Paulie: "Joke? I'm asking you, nicely: can I dance with your daughter please?"

Bruce: "I'm afraid I don't think that's appropriate, and I don't think Victoria does either, so..."

Paulie cuts in anyway and shoves Bruce out of the way. Bruce is very amazed, what is going on, but he doesn't react or intervene. We assume that this reaction heartens our belief that Tori would have not to fear as much telling her parents about her love for Paulie as she does.

Bruce Moller probably would not be very responsive in the first moment, when Tori would have told him, but we assume as well Bruce is not the one who could not be convinced. We further assume that Tori's mother might care more about the point of view of her mother than anything else, talking about a relationship between Tori and Paulie.

Bruce's reaction let us came to the conclusion, that he doesn't really appreciate a love relationship between Tori and Paulie, but when he will see how much it means for Tori, that this is the love of a lifetime, he might even be on Tori's side and support her, because he loves and cares about Tori as a father should.

Bruce tries to enforce his claims, but life told him he can't always win. We believe Bruce would have disrupted otherwise for sure.