“Son.” The word was coarse coming from his mouth, but it was a word I smiled at. “Don’t get cocky now, boy.”
He turned to leave me in the dust to follow him inside. When I stepped inside I was more in awe of what I saw. Crisp white walls with gold and silver accents. I felt like I had walked onto an extravagant movie set. There were marble busts of lions at the end of the stairwell that led up to a second and third floor.
“Follow me.” Lilly’s father waited as I looked around and I followed him up the stairs and into a study off the main hallway. The door closed loudly behind me, causing me to jump but having no effect on her father as he took his seat behind his mahogany desk in his giant leather chair. Well, to me it looked giant, but it fit him perfectly.
“Sit.” I followed his command, still not able to say anything yet because I didn’t know what to say. I had thought I was coming here to see Eric, not Lilly’s father.
“You must be Greg.”
“Yes, sir.” I was shocked I could even get the words to come out of my mouth.
“There is no ‘sir’ here.” He waved his hand in the air, moving the smoke that he had just billowed around us out of the way. “Oscar. You call me Oscar.”
“Ok, Oscar.”
He took another long drag of his cigar and continued on.
“So, you’re the man who wants to marry my daughter.” He said it matter of factly.
“Umm,” I sat up in the chair, not sure how ready I was to tell him this. “I’m actually already married to your daughter. We’re having a real ceremony now though. Something she deserves to have, not the Vegas wedding we first had.”
He took another drag, and I hoped he understood what I meant.
“So, you marry my daughter, but don’t have the decency to ask my for permission first.” I cocked my head to the side at the audacity he had to say this to me.
“Excuse me,sir, but if you would had been in your daughter’s life more, I’m pretty sure you would know. I pretty sure you would have been there for Christmas’ and every other damn holiday I have been at for the past five years and seen the way I looked at her, but you weren’t. I was there saving her every time she wanted to come home to see you and your wife but you both went somewhere else instead.I’vebeen there through everything, so forgive me for not asking someone who hasn’t been there for permission to marry his daughter.”
I was winded by the time I finished my rant. Oscar sat there wide-eyed with his cigar dangling between his fingers.
“I—”
“Don’t try to deny it.” I stood up from the chair. I wasn’t going to just sit still while Oscar thought he was doing nothing wrong in Lilly’s life. “I’ve seen the messages, heard the phone calls, and seen the tears in her eyes. I won’t let you ruin this for her, for us.”
I held up my hand as he tried again to talk.
“I don’t care if she is the youngest in this family and that you have grandchildren almost the same age as her, I don’t care about the excuses. She’s yourdaughterand you’ve treated her like she was a nuisance. She might have put up with it for this long, but I won’t let her suffer any longer. As far as I am concerned, we don’t need you in our lives.”
I turned to leave, hand on the door knob to the study when Oscar called my name.
“Greg.” For a moment I thought I heard Lilly in him. The way he pleaded my name to understand where he was coming from, even though he hadn’t said anything. I stayed where I was facing the door, as he continued. “I know I haven’t been there for her, but the moment Eric told me that my little girl was getting married, I made sure both her mother and I made our way home.”
I waited in the silence for him to continue.
“We never expected to have Lilly, and once she was out of the house, I think Mary and I went a little too overboard with the vacations and having the house to ourselves. When you are almost seventy and finally have the house to yourself, you start to get a little crazy with the trips.”
He laughed but I stood stoically still where I was. Lilly wasn’t a laughing matter.
“All things aside, we should have been better parents, but from what I’ve heard, you’ve taken quite good care of my daughter. Got her a place to stay, gave her a job, kept her well entertained and happy. I don’t think I could ever thank you enough for that. For doing what I wasn’t even able to do as a father.”
I turned around just in time to see Oscar wiping away a tear and snuffing out his cigar.
“Please let her know how proud we are of her, and I hope you two have a great wedding.” I wasn’t going to let Oscar get off this easily.
“Oh, no you don’t.” I walked back towards him and leaned over the desk, palms flat on the top. “You’re here, you’re coming to this damn wedding. You will walk your daughter down the aisle as she deserves, and you will give her away to me. After that, I don’t care what you do, but if you do anything, itwillbe that.”
I pushed off the desk and found my way out of the house by myself. I didn’t need to see anyone else or say anything else because, with those words and the scared look that crossed Oscar’s face, I knew he was going to show up in Helen tomorrow night.
I was going to get to see my girl walk down the aisle with her father, the fairy tale dream I knew she had always wanted but never thought she would have.
