Chapter 14

It was 6:40 p.m. according to the clock behind the bar at the Pasture. I was a little early. I wanted to get me a drink before I had to look at the woman who was once the love of my life and was now my singular worst enemy, Penelope Hardy. I already had my manhattan in front of me and it was half empty.

I saw her come in. Maybe she needed a drink too. I smiled inwardly at the thought. Guilt can be the cause of any number of psychological reactions. She saw me and waved. I did not wave back. She came up to the table I’d secured toward the back of the B&G and stood for a moment looking down at me.

“We okay?” she said. I shrugged.

“We have work to do. You gonna eat?” I said. I’d already ordered my chef’s salad. “Don’t worry it’s Dutch tonight. You won’t have to pay for my salad.”

“And I had planned on paying for the meals,” she said. “I know you can afford it, but I just kinda...”

“No, we’re not on a date. This is strictly a business meeting to see where we go from here,” I said. She nodded, but did look more or less frustrated.

The waitress had been alerted by me early on and she showed up right at that moment to ask what the lady wanted.

“Whatever he’s having,” she said.

“Drink?” said Lily. Penelope looked over at mine.

“I’ll have a manhattan too,” said Penelope Hardy.

“Can I ask, how have you been?” she said. I shrugged.

“I get along okay,” I said. “The meeting with my daughter was good. So, well, that is why I decided to meet with you tonight.”

“Well, okay, good, right?” she said.

“Like I said, so far so good. There is still a lot of bad stuff out there, primarily the truth that you kept my fatherhood from me. And I only know about it now, because I overheard you and the other guy talking smack about me that night,” I said.

“Look, Lee, I was way out of line that night, So, was Grant. We really are sorry for that. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us, you know, as time goes on,” she said.

“We’ll see how it goes. Actually, tonight may tell the tale,” I said.

“Huh?” she said.

“You know, if you see my relating to my baby the same way I see things; well, we may be having more meetings. Like I said, tonight may tell the tale,” I said. She was nodding.

“Yes, I fully realize that this is an important meeting between us. Actually, if I may, Grant and I talked long about it. And like you I guess, we’re hoping to arrive at a good understanding as to how we might go forward,” she said. I was nodding.

The food came right at that moment. Oh, and her manhattan as well. She raised her glass and made a kind of informal toast. To the future,” she said. I nodded my stem-glass in her direction and sipped as she did hers; I kind of gave her that one.

We decided to eat before we got into anything heavy. And we did, eat that is.

Done eating we ordered another round of drinks. They came and we settled in for the big show.

We kinda stared at each other for a long moment. She broke the ice.

“So, Lance mentioned that weekends would be best for you at least most of the time. Is that right?” she said.

“Yes,” I said. “I work, during the week, and she is still too young to be staying up late in the evenings. Holidays may be a different kettle of fish, but usually weekends, yes.”

“Done,” she said. “But, like I told Lance, we also have dos sometimes on weekends. But I figure we can work those out between us. You know, just a little notice. What do you think?”

“Yes, I can agree with that,” I said.

“Holidays?” I said. “I mean over the long haul?”

“Over the long haul?” she said, not getting my meaning.

“I mean do we split up the holidays now. Or maybe alternate them on some kind of basis. Or, well, what? I said.

“I have to admit, I haven’t given that any thought, so far. Do you have any ideas along those lines?” she said.

“This is June, next month is Fourth of July. I’ll take that one and you get Halloween. I’ll take TG-Day, you can have Christmas. Well, I mean if you’re amenable to me going first,” I said.

“Amenable? Yes, I’m good with those. But if I may, Any chance that we could do Thanksgiving together?” she said. “And Christmas?”

“Remotely possible. We’ll have to see how the first ones on the list go before I’ll commit to sharing holidays. Splitting them, yes, sharing them...” I said.

“Okay, I understand,” she said. We’d been sipping our drinks more or less in unison for the while; but the glasses were almost empty signaling the near end to our meet up.

“So, anything else?” I said. She looked down.

“Maybe,” she said, kind of squeaking out the word. I could feel my eyes narrowing.

“Okay?” I said.

“The name thing,” she said.

“Yes, I noticed that when she came to see me that she addressed me as Mister Wyatt at Lance’s urging. I did tell her that my name was Lee Wyatt and that I was a daddy, same as her other daddy. She seemed good with that,” I said. “I did my best not to denigrate your husband. I did. That in spite of the fact that the two of you hid my fatherhood from me for so long.” She was nodding.

“And you are her father too,” said Penelope.

“Actually, I’m her only father, unless he’s adopted her without my being notified about it,” I said.

“No, no, he’s not adopted her,” she said. “But, well, Grant is the only father she’s known, and yes, I admit that’s because of us keeping you in the dark for so long. But I just want to be clear that Grant does, in spite of everything, deserve to be her daddy.”

“You mean too, right?” I said.

“Well, yes, of course, but since she’ll be living with us. She will be seeing him as kind of her main daddy. I mean would that be okay by you?” she said.

“No,” I said. “I can—reluctantly—accept equal, but in no way will I accept being second string. You got that?’ I said.

“Look, Lee...” she started. Her tone told me she was determined to relegate me to second place. I pinned her.

“If you intend to put me in second place on any level; then, we’re done here,” I said.

“Lee, he’s been there for her one hundred percent of the time so far, and will be most of the time as we go forward because she will be living with us...”

“You mean unless I get her to stay with me part of the time?” I said.

“Lee, please,” she said. I was beginning to snort and felt my blood roil.

This is the first time I’d seen her since I got back from the military. I downed the rest of my drink. Pushed back from the table, making sure she saw my stumps, and rolled out. There would be no going forward with her, not ever. I was done with the Hardys.

I was gratified when I saw her eyes focus on my stumps. She was clearly stunned by the sight of them. I knew that she knew about them, but knowing and seeing were totally different animals.

It turned out that our little meet up wasn’t Dutch. I’d left her with the bill for the whole dinner and the drinks. I actually felt good about that. I may have lost my fatherhood, but I was a few bucks ahead regardless.