“You know,” Johnny said, with a wistful expression, “I hope I meet a girl someday who will look at me with as much contempt as April looks at you.”
“Don’t worry, bro.” I slapped him on his shoulder. “I’m sure there’s a soul-crushing woman out there for you too. You just gotta believe.”
“It’s so hard to wait,” he sighed. “But when I do find that someone special, I’ll be sure to drop my seed in her, so I too can feel every second of those eighteen long years together.”
Flipping MGM around so he could ‘drive’ my truck, I reveled in his innocent giggles. “At least I got this little dude out of it.”
“Yeah, that’s not a plus, McKallister. You should’ve run when you had the chance.”
My smile slipped as I held my son a little tighter. “Don’t listen to him,” I whispered into his tiny ear. “I’m not going anywhere. Not ever.”
Johnny cracked another deadbeat dad joke, but I didn’t hear it. He didn’t get it—none of them did. They thought I stayed because I had to. Out of obligation or guilt, or maybe even fear. But the truth was quieter. Heavier. It lived in the pit of me, where no one could see.
I didn’t run because I knew exactly what it felt like to be left behind.
And I’d be damned if I let that story repeat.
Eight o’clock came and went.No April. I fed and bathed the baby and had just laid him down in his crib when Meg appeared in the doorway. She caught my eye and shook her head.
“No April?”
“Not yet,” I replied, bending down to kiss my son. “But it’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. We have a schedule for a reason.”
Meg entered the room and stroked MGM’s head, quietly soothing him until his heavy eyes closed. She and I might not agree on all things, but when it came to the baby, we were a surprisingly good team. Meg was the reason any of this worked. She’d single-handedly taught both April and me how to be parents. I shivered to think of the kind of life our son would have had without her.
We left the room and walked back into the kitchen, where Meg immediately poured herself a glass of wine and sank onto the barstool. She lifted the bottle to me. “Wanna glass?”
“I’m good.”
“Aw. That’s right. Sorry. I forget you’re only nineteen sometimes.”
My twentieth birthday was right around the corner, but it might as well be my thirtieth.
“You and me both.”
She observed me through weary eyes. “You’re a good father, Scott. I have to admit, I didn’t have high hopes for you when… I found out. But you’ve stepped up. Way more than my daughter has.”
The front door opened, and the sound of April’s flip-flops slapping on the concrete gave us ample warning to end the discussion.
“Sorry. Sorry,” April called out from down the hall. “I know I’m late.”
“I’m out,” I whispered. Last thing I wanted was another angry outburst that might wake the baby. I was already halfway out the back door when I heard April squeal.
“The most amazing thing happened, Mom.”
Then Meg’s response. “What the hell? April! Dammit! I won’t allow it!”
“I’m eighteen now… and I said yes.”
I swung back around. The fluorescent box light in the ceiling caught on April’s ring finger.
It was sparkling.
9
MICHELLE: DYNASTY
