“Grandfather, maybe we should all?—”
“Michael.” He waved me off without even looking at me. “Your wife and I are going to have a conversation. You’re not invited.”
“I’m not what?”
“Not invited. Go do something useful. Take a shower. You smell like carnival food.”
“This is my house,” I pointed out.
“And she’s my new granddaughter-in-law. I flew all the way here to meet her properly, not to watch you hover.” He settled onto the couch. “Go. We’ll call you when we need you.”
I looked at Claudette. She shrugged, clearly fighting a smile.
Fine. Apparently I was being dismissed from my own home.
I headed down the hallway, pulling off my jacket. Behind me, I could already hear them settling into conversation.
In the bedroom, I grabbed fresh clothes before heading to shower, letting the hot water wash away the carnival. When I finally emerged, dressed in clean clothes, I could still hear their voices from the living room. Low and comfortable.
I started down the hallway, then slowed as I got closer. Something in my grandfather’s tone caught my attention.
“—his parents would have loved you, you know.”
I stopped walking.
His voice was softer than I’d heard in years—maybe ever. Softer than I could remember. “Michael’s mother especially. She was warm like you. Had that same way of making people feel at ease.”
There was a pause. Then Claudette, speaking gently, “I’ve heard they passed when he was young.”
“He was just a toddler. Car accident. Barely remembers them, if I’m honest.”
My hand pressed flat against the wall.
“That must have been incredibly hard,” Claudette said. “For both of you.”
“I didn’t handle it well.” My grandfather’s voice was different now. Tired in a way I’d never heard before. “I was running a company. Drowning in work. Hired nannies to raise him because I didn’t know what else to do. I thought providing for him was enough. And now he barely visits home anymore.”
I could remember the parade of nannies. Kind women who fed me and put me to bed and left when their shifts ended.
“I saw him maybe once a week back then,” Grandfather continued. “I thought that was enough. Providing everything he lacked. By the time I realized I’d missed his childhood, he was already grown. Already distant.” His voice cracked slightly. “I taught him business because that’s all I knew how to teach. Gave him the company because that’s all I knew how to give.”
I stood silently, still listening.
I thought about my ten-year-old self. Meeting Jack had been part of the best things that happened to me. His friendship, and then his family had saved me in ways I’d never been able to articulate.
“But what I really want now—” Grandfather’s voice shifted. “What I should have wanted all along—is for him to be happy. Really happy, not just successful. I want him visiting more.Bringing you around. I want to know him as more than just my successor.”
“He cares about you,” Claudette said softly.
“I know. After everything I didn’t do, he still cares even though he desperately refuses to give me the great grandkids I’ve been asking for.”
I stood there in the hallway, listening to my grandfather sound older and more tired than I’d ever heard him. This man who’d been so stern, so demanding—now he sounded more human than I’d known him to be.
Something shifted in my chest. Something old and tight in my chest loosened. He’d done what he could. What he knew how to do. And he was acknowledging it now.
I pushed off the wall and walked into the living room, making enough noise so they’d hear me coming.
They both looked up. Claudette’s cheeks were faintly pink. I couldn’t believe this old man still found a way to sneak in talks about grandchildren. And he wasn’t as slick as he thought.
