by Magan Vernon
Dad enveloped me in his arms for a tight hug before he held his hand out to Johnny. They briskly shook hands like some weird bro-political handshake.
“And I thought you didn’t have a boyfriend...or is he just your new Lia, and I’m stepping out of line?” Dad asked, staring at Johnny and me as we took our seats at the table.
“Are you asking if he’s my new BFF, replacing Lia?” I asked.
Dad shook his head, still smiling. “No, I wasn’t asking that at all.”
“I’m not gay, sir, if that’s what you’re asking, sir, but I totally respect your daughter as my friend or girlfriend or girl who is a friend,” Johnny said, sputtering before he unrolled his silverware from his napkin. “Okay, I’ll stop talking now.”
Dad laughed slightly, but it was cut short as the waiter approached and took our drink orders before making small talk with my dad.
Johnny reached under the table, and I felt his warm hand on mine before he squeezed it. I offered him a small smile, but it barely reached the corners of my mouth. I had to let go of his hand because mine was sweating so bad, and I didn’t want him to think I had a nervous condition.
“So I hope you two are using protection,” Dad said, turning toward us. I literally choked on my own saliva, coughing hard as Johnny patted my back.
The waiter brought us our waters, and I took a few big gulps before I finally regained my composure and stared at Dad. “Um. Wow.”
“Sorry, too much? Maybe I need to stop talking to the young kids in catering. Probably wasn’t a very father-like question of me,” Dad said, shaking his head and taking a sip of his sweet tea.
“Yeah. A lot too much, Dad.”
Dad sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. “Well, I guess we should take this conversation away from the two of you then, and I should probably tell you the real reason I asked you to lunch.”
My eyes widened. Last time we had a family talk over a meal, it was when my mother told me she had cancer.
I had just started high school. I was dealing with Christy Quinn spreading rumors that Lia and I were lesbians and the fact she got first chair flute over me in the band. I was so wrapped up in my own world that, instead of worrying about my mother, I was focused on my own insecurities and fourteen-year-old girl problems. I didn’t even cry for her over the chicken cordon bleu.
If my dad told me he was dying, I would have to change my plans with Johnny. I would do everything I could for him that I couldn’t do for my mother and not focus on my own problems.
Putting my hand on Dad’s, I offered him a smile. “You can tell me, Dad. I’m here for you.”
Dad smirked and squeezed my hand slightly. “Well, damn, I thought this would be easier, but, well, Stephanie has asked me to move in with her.”
“Move in because you’re sick?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Dad moved his hand back and shook his head. “What? No. I’m not sick. What gave you that idea?”
“I just...wait...so you’ve only been with this woman a few months, and you’re going to move in with her? But not because you’re sick?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around it.
Dad laughed only slightly, but there was no humor in it. “Stephanie and I have been talking for almost a year, but we’re both adults and decided instead of waiting for time to pass, maybe it would be good for us to take the next step in our relationship. I told her I’d have to talk to you about it first. I don’t want to sell the townhouse just yet, but maybe you could stay there? It would be like your own college living experience.”
Everything Dad said was swimming through my head faster than Johnny could do the 100m backstroke, which I only learned he had a world record in after I Googled him. I laughed out loud. Laughed maniacally and crazily.
“Are you okay?” Johnny leaned in, putting his hand on my back.
I sucked in a deep breath to stop my laughter then shook my head. “No. Not totally, but I guess this is a good thing I’ll have my own place with a room for the baby. Maybe I’ll even paint it the same colors as the Olympic rings to match Johnny’s shoulder tattoo!”
Before I could take back or stop myself from saying those things out loud, Dad’s eyes widened, and his face paled. “Sofie? Are you...?”
Dad’s eyes trailed from my face down to my stomach then he looked back up at my face then at Johnny then back before he pointed between the two of us. “The two of you are...?”
“Sir, I know what you’re thinking and I plan to help Sofie out with everything. I’m not going to go anywhere, and this is something we didn’t mean to happen,” Johnny said quickly, his eyes searching everywhere but Dad’s face.
Dad looked at the table, a small smile slowly crossing his face. “I’m going to be a grandfather?” he whispered.
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. I was thinking more of a papa, but grandfather works too.”
Dad shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. “Wow. I don’t even know what to say. Are we celebrating? Are we in mourning? What do we do now?”
Johnny grabbed the menu off the table. “For now, I say we order food. I’m starving.”
Chapter 10
Dad packed that afternoon, and Johnny went back home to get in his afternoon workout. A workout I hoped didn’t involve his hot brunette neighbor.
Dad was a hoarder, so there was a lot to go through. What I didn’t expect was for two of his couches to be on the curb and a million boxes packed in the living room by the time I got home from class.
“Dad? Are you here or have you been captured by aliens and this is a pod person with boxes in my house?” I yelled, carefully trying not to step on the random boxes and sheets of packing paper in the living room.
Dad emerged from the kitchen holding a spatula in one hand and a box with other various kitchen utensils sticking out of the other. “Honey, did you know we have fifteen spatulas?”
“Um, yeah, I think you said they were in a mystery box you got at some swap meet,” I said.
“Do you need them?” he asked, pointing one at me.
“Maybe one? Or two? I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever actually used one.” I shrugged.
“Donate pile it is,” Dad said way too enthusiastically as he tossed the box in a pile with a bunch of other boxes and some old winter coats that had to be from the 1980s.
“You know you’re probably going to have to learn to cook at some point. Maybe Stephanie can teach you. Y’all can have a holiday baking party and make something for Valentine’s Day,” Dad said, heading back toward the kitchen.
“Um, maybe?” I watched as Dad emptied another cupboard, looking at each dish before he set it aside.
I could pinpoint the exact minute Dad became a hoarder. Mom was diagnosed with cancer, and they only gave her so much time left on earth. He went through our attic and every other square foot of the house to fill their tiny bedroom with memories. Then he went through family member’s houses, and soon, we had crazy Cousin Kassi’s couch, actually great-grandma’s, and then another cousin’s couch and an aunt’s dishes. I thought it might stop once Mom had passed, but it got worse as I got older. He would go to yard sales and swap meets and come home with a random box, saying, “Hey, this spatula reminded me of that time your mom and you made pancakes,” and then we would have a bunch of spatulas. I stayed around because I was literally afraid I would see my dad on an episode of some reality show about hoarders.
Now, I could pick out the exact moment he stopped bringing home random stuff, and that was this past summer. It was when he must have met Stephanie.
But I shook that thought out of my head. He was probably waiting to tell me about his relationship, but he shouldn’t have waited that long. One lady couldn’t make him forget about Mom.
Dad sat on the floor, and I crouched down next to him, looking at the random dishes from yard sales and relatives in different piles on the floor. I picked up one little blue saucer with a picture of a white dove on it. “I remember this plate. It went wi
th a little matching cup, but it broke one night after one of my impromptu tea parties with Mom. I cried for weeks...”
Dad smiled as I set the saucer down, and he turned toward me after putting his stack of plates down. “Yeah, you and your mother did love to get dressed up and have tea parties. I remember so many times that I’d be working late and come home to find that all you two had for dinner was some fruity tea and biscuits you picked up through the drive-through. I would have been mad, but I couldn’t be because I wasn’t around. When I would go into your bedroom to kiss you good night, you always had a smile on your face, even when sleeping.”
“We don’t talk about her much,” I whispered.
“I didn’t think you wanted to. This is the first time you’ve brought her up in, well, ever,” Dad said with a shrug.
“Maybe it’s becoming a mother myself that’s bringing this all out...or you leaving or...”
I felt tears prick my eyes, but I fought them back, not wanting to become the crazy, crying pregnant lady so soon.
Dad put his hand on mine. “You know you don’t have to go through this alone. Or at all if you don’t want to.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to go to the clinic if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
“There are other options than that. Adoption for one,” Dad added.
I sniffled, shaking my head. “No. Ever since I heard the heartbeat, I knew she was mine.”
“Do you know this early that she’s a girl?”
“No, but it felt right to call her that, even though Johnny says he’s a boy, but I think that’s just what he hopes will be the case,” I said, wiping at the falling tear threatening to slide down my cheek.
“Do you love him, Sofie?”
“What?” I asked, snapping my head up and meeting my dad’s concerned eyes.
“Do you love him? Johnny.”
“I don’t even know him. I mean we’ve known each other for a while, but we don’t really know each other. When I told him about the baby, he actually asked me to marry him right there. He made a straw wrapper into a little ring. It was kind of cute in a way.”
Dad squeezed my hand. “Sofie, you don’t have to be with him just because you’re pregnant. You can do whatever you want. This is your baby, and Stephanie and I will be here to help you. If you want, I can still clean this place up, and you can move to Stephanie’s with me. If we both don’t like it, we can come back here.”
“As tempting as that sounds...I think I’ll stay here. And I’m going to stay in this weird relationship with Johnny. Like it or not, he’s a part of me, and I think I’m a part of him now,” I murmured, rubbing my stomach without even thinking about it.
Dad smiled. “Then I guess we’d better start shopping for baby Speedos.”
I laughed. “Johnny isn’t sponsored by them. We’ll have to go with another brand.”
***
Dad had packed his stuff within a week, which was much faster than I thought he would.
I stared into the room, realizing the living room looked much bigger with only one couch, a recliner facing the fireplace, and a mantel no longer littered with various knick-knacks.
I never thought it would feel so...empty.
“Okay, got the final box loaded in the truck,” Dad said.
I thought it was his hands on my shoulders, but when I turned, instead of seeing my dad’s messy gray hair, it was a smiling Johnny facing me.
“What are you doing here?” I raised an eyebrow.
Johnny laughed. “Sorry, I should have come in and said hi sooner, but I was helping your dad load up outside.”
“Did you just show up here and see boxes and thought you’d help out?” I asked.
“Oh, no. I called him, sweetie,” Dad said, interrupting us and putting his arm around my shoulders.
“You called my boyfriend? Since when did you have his number?” I asked, looking back and forth between them.
“Actually, I called him first. Wasn’t that hard to find his number at the hotel. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay, and he told me about this move and said he didn’t have much for manpower...so...” Johnny said, his words trailing off before he shrugged.
“Come on, don’t you want to see your dad and your baby’s future dad bonding?” Dad asked, shaking my shoulder.
“This is really messed up,” I mumbled.
“Why don’t you and Johnny follow us to the house to help unload? Stephanie said her and Abbey picked some stuff up at the farmer’s market to make for dinner. It’ll be a nice family meal.” Dad smiled, squeezing my shoulder.
A family dinner.
Suddenly, this new woman in my dad’s life and Abbey were now our family. And now, Johnny was in the mix.
“I hope she has enough food for Johnny. This guy loves carbs more than a woman who has been on Atkins all her life,” I said, forcing a small laugh, and Johnny and Dad joined in.
“If not, we’ll just order a pizza from Conti’s as well. Maybe you can still get the employee discount,” Dad said with a smile as we walked toward the front door then out into the brisk February air.
“Okay, it’s not too far from here if y’all wanna follow me,” Dad said, hopping into the rented U-Haul.
“Are you really okay with all of this?” Johnny asked as we got into his car.
“Are we talking about your bonding time with my dad or him moving in with his girlfriend or the fact that I’m pretty sure the smell of leather is making my stomach turn, and I don’t want to throw up in your car?”
Johnny quickly rolled down the windows. “If you’re gonna spew, give me a warning.”
I put my head on the back of the seat. “I don’t know if I want to have any of these conversations right now. At least the first trimester is almost over, and according to those baby websites, the sickness should subside in the second trimester.”
“I was listening to an audio book when I was swimming this morning. I thought it was all about pregnancy, but then I realized it was actually fiction. Okay, so I didn’t actually realize that until an hour into it, but now, I’m really vested in the story. I need to finish to find out how they get past the second trimester, and if they’ll get married, or if she’ll end up with the billionaire helicopter pilot,” Johnny rambled.
I laughed despite myself. “I don’t think I even own a pregnancy book, and you’re reading about billionaires and babies. And how can you do that while swimming?”
“I have waterproof Bluetooth headphones. I can let you borrow them and use my Audible account if you want.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to do anything until at least our next appointment or whenever we’re at twelve weeks, and it’s actually official.”
“Do you not think it’s official now?” he asked, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Not that I’ve been looking at a lot of random stuff on the internet, but you know a lot can happen in the first twelve weeks. It even says that in the paperwork the doctor gave me,” I rambled.
Johnny’s hand slid over to mine, entwining our fingers and placing our hands on the center console together. “Nothing is gonna happen. You just can’t stress about it, okay. But speaking of stressors...”
“Oh shit, where’s this going?”
Johnny smiled slightly. “I have a meet coming up in Italy at the beginning of next month. I was wondering if you wanted to come with. I was planning to go to Arizona to see my mom first, for like a long weekend, then fly to Italy from Phoenix. Maybe we can get the ‘meet the mom’ thing out of the way and tell her about the little swimmer.”
“Did you just refer to our baby as a little swimmer?” I asked.
“I did, but I know you’re just asking to change the subject.”
I sighed. “Well, I don’t have Spring Break until the end of March, and I know Lia will be at the meet in Italy with her whole family. That would be super weird being there with her and Jay and their entire family and try to hide the fact that I’
m puking and carrying a life around. Top that all off with the fact that I have my next doctor’s appointment coming up, so I can’t miss that.”
“Do you have enough excuses now?”
I nodded. “I think that’ll work.”
“Okay, if you aren’t going to go with me to Italy or Arizona, how about I go with you to your doctor’s appointment?” he asked.
I turned to face him. “You do know that this is an appointment where an old man will have his hand up my lady bits, right?”
“Do I get to play with your lady bits after?” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“Ew,” I said, wrinkling my nose.
“Kidding. Kidding. But really, can I come with?”
I shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know why you’d want to be there.”
“Because I told you that you’re stuck with me,” he said, pulling my hand to his lips and kissing it gently.
This was like the fairy tale where the guy accidentally knocks up the girl then they fall in love with some beautiful life. But that wasn’t reality. The reality of this was that I was having a baby with a swimmer who I barely knew—if I made it to the end of my first trimester. I hated to be pessimistic, but I could still lose the littler swimmer inside me. Freaking Johnny for making me call the baby a little swimmer.
And not only could I lose the little swimmer inside me, but the big swimmer sitting next to me could run away at any moment too. I wasn’t his first random hookup, and he did have the hot brunette neighbor who liked to pop up.
I had to prepare for the fact I could be living by myself in my dad’s townhouse with a baby strapped to me while I studied to finish my degree or ended up as the hostess at Conti’s forever. I mean Dana, Lia’s sister-in-law, seemed happy with little Giselle, and I was sure Mama Conti would babysit.
Now, I was just getting ahead of myself.
Before I could open my mouth to change the subject, Dad turned down a side road, and the big white farmhouse came into view.