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“Where have you been?” I finally ask.
“I went back to New York for a while,” he says, his voice low. “Thought about staying there, but…”
“But what?”
He clears his throat. “I wanted to see my daughter again.”
My tongue twitches, tempted by instinct to issue a snarky reply but I force it down.
He glances at the house. “Seems like you’ve been taking care of yourself…”
“The Morgans took me in after you… disappeared.”
“Good,” he nods. “And Junior? I hear he’s still got that arm—”
“Dad, what do you want?”
He goes quiet but looks right at me for several moments. “Eliza, I was never meant to be a dad. Then all of a sudden, I had a little girl and I didn’t know what to do with you. Where I come from, family was just something that held a man back. Love, marriage, kids — it was all a distraction from what really mattered.”
I cringe away from him. It’s one thing to know it but to hear it so blatantly from the devil himself is something else entirely. “Okay…”
“I never gave that a second thought…” he continues. “Not until Junior walked away from that game last year. When he did that… I don’t know. For the first time, I changed my mind a little.”
“Is that why you ran off?”
“Yeah,” he says. “I couldn’t bring myself to face you again after…” He shakes his head. “Eliza, I don’t know a whole lot about what family means or what it’s supposed to be but I do know that you’re my daughter and you’re the only family I got left. I’m willing to try… if you’ll let me. I’d like to start here with the home you’ve built for yourself and hopefully… you can find a place for me in it.”
And just like that, I’m a little kid again, staring up at the television screen, screaming, “that’s my dad!” at the top of my lungs. It took years for the truth about who he really was to decay the rosy tint in my vision but I’ve always longed to feel that again. With all of his mistakes, he’s still my dad and always will be.
Turning my back on him now might feel good for a while. It’s downright tempting, to be honest. It’s what he’s done to me, after all, but it’s not who I am. It’s not how I’d raise my own child.
“Well, to start…” I shift on my toes. “Would you like to meet your granddaughter?”
He smiles. “Yeah, I would.”
I take him back inside and up the stairs. The house is far too silent for the number of people in it but I imagine the voices ceased the second we stepped inside.
“She’s been napping for a while,” I say just outside of Junior’s room. “Being around people tends to wear her out but I don’t think she’d mind one more.”
I push the door open and we step softly towards the crib in the corner. Even before I see her, I can feel her turning to look at me — like a magic link constantly pulling us together.
“Hey, baby…” I whisper, reaching down to pick her up. “Someone here wants to meet you.”
She twists her head, instantly drawn to the massive man behind my back but she doesn’t make a peep.
“Wow…” my father says, staring at her. “She looks just like you did.”
“Yeah?”
He nods, gently smoothing his palm over the brown tuft on her head. “What’s her name?”
“Courtney,” I answer, shifting her closer to him.
There’s a quick panic in his eyes but it passes as soon as he takes her from me. I chuckle at how much smaller she appears in his huge hands.
“Hello, Courtney…” he says, chuckling. “I’m your grandfather.”
Still, she doesn’t make a noise. She just stares at him with wide eyes, confused yet comfortable.
I take a deep breath to swallow the rush of tears down. “Dad, if you want, you can stay for a while. I don’t think Bonnie or Roy would mind setting another place at the table.”
He furrows his brow. “What about Junior?”
I raise my voice a little, sensing the near-silent movement in the hallway. “Junior won’t be a problem.”
Dad finally tears his eyes away from her face to look at me. “Is he taking care of you two?”
“Yeah,” I say, my heart throbbing. “He’s a good man.”
He nods, regret filling his eyes. “Yes, he is.”
