Dad’s Words of Wisdom Part I
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January looked up in surprise to see her father standing in the entrance of her workspace. Gulliver had left to pick Kaylee up from school. He was going to spend time with her and bring her back home in time for bath and bedtime.
“Hey Dad.”
“You had the entire town in here with guns again, faced with Davis and you didn’t think to call?”
The accusation from her father stung.
“We were fine. It wasn’t a big deal.” She shrugged and set down the pliers in her hand. “I’m sorry. I should have called.”
“Yes, you should have. Digger brought his car in to get looked at and told me what went down. I shouldn’t be hearing that shit from others, January.”
“I apologize.” She stared at him.
“Your mother said you were in a mood this morning. I wanted to know if perhaps you were just punishing us?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she stared at her father incredulously. “Did she tell you what she said to me?”
“No. She said you woke up on the wrong side of the bed,
<Dad’s Words of Wisdom Part I
snapped at her and then said you were moving out.”
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“Oh, I’m moving out.” January said and watched her father pale. “Dad, I love her. She’s my mom and you guys have sacrificed so much for me and I’m forever grateful, but she gave me shit for leaving Kaylee alone with Gulliver yesterday when I came to work. I got here, Ernst called me, and I needed to explain what was going on since our kids are tight. We met for coffee. Mom told me off because Gulliver looked sad that I went on a date. Then she told me I was shirking my responsibilities by leaving her there with Gulliver. He’s a grown man with experience with children. He could have been left alone with Kaylee. Nobody asked her to stay there. Nobody asked her to supervise his visitation. She took it upon herself and then she reamed me out this morning for going on a date and leaving her to supervise.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, “that’s a lot more information than she told me.”
“Let me guess. You went home for lunch. She was crying on the sofa about how I hurt her feelings. Told you that I snapped at her, and she doesn’t know what she did wrong? Dad, she does this all the time. She earned her right to live on her own. I get it. She raised me and she’s a great mom and a great grandmother. She never wanted to raise a baby again. I understand that. I do my best to take care of Kaylee as much as I can. Yet, every time she’s stressed or feeling out of sorts, she drops those comments which make me feel like we’re a burden to her. I can’t keep living like that. We’re going to move out, Dad. That way Kaylee and Mom can have a normal grandparent and child relationship. I
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won’t be in her way. She can do all the things she wants to do without checking in with me or without me asking for availability.”
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“I don’t want you to move out,” Terrance moved into the space. “I’ll talk to your mother, but I like having you and Kaylee there. I love the sound of her singing and the way she chews with her mouth open at dinner. I like knowing you are home, safe and sound and where I can protect you.”
“But Mom is miserable with us underfoot. It’s not fair to her,
Dad.”
“She’s going through stuff.”
“Yeah menopause,” she snorted and waved her arm. “Another reason I need to get the hell away from her. She’s cranky and emotional. This morning, she was coming at me hard with Kaylee in the room.”
“Kaylee was there?”
“Yeah. Mom was doing Kaylee’s hair while she gave me shit. It’s not good for Kaylee to see us at each other’s throats. Gulliver found us. We have a security team. I’m not going to get murdered by the incoming vovoi of the Raptis family. There’s no need for us all to be crammed into one house to get on each other’s nerves.”
“I don’t like it.”
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< Dad’s Words of Wisdom Part I
“Well, I think it needs to happen for mom’s mental health and ours. She’s given up enough of her life.”
“Are you going back to New York?”
The question came out of left field and she shook her head. “What? No.”
“I just presumed you would go back with Gulliver.”
“Dad I am not back with Gulliver. He’s the only man I ever really dated aside from the boyfriend I had in high school, and we never went beyond holding hands and kissing behind the bleachers. I am not going to fall into the same mistakes I made in the past. I’m going to go on dates and explore who I am as a woman.”
“He’s not going to like that.”
“He doesn’t get a choice. I’ve had to put my entire life on hold for the last eight years.”
“Well, if Davis wasn’t such a twat freaking us out,” he grunted and moved to sit on the seat where Gulliver had spent much of the day.
“Did you know he was crushing on me?”
“What the fuck?”
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Her father’s response caused her to erupt into giggles.
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“Yeah. Lottie noticed something about the way he was looking at me and he admitted it. Said he’d developed feelings over the years.”
“He’s got to be twenty years older than you!”
“Close I think. He’s five years older than Gulliver. Gulliver is ten years older than I am. He was freaking out when he saw Gulliver was here. Turns out, they knew each other when they were younger. Davis changed his name when he moved to America. He used to work for Gulliver’s grandfather. His older brother stole from Gulliver’s grandfather and went to jail for it and he died in jail. Davis wanted revenge. The day we called him and said Gulliver’s name, he realized he was going to get his chance to take something away from Gulliver that he cared for.”
“Mother fucker!”
