Chapter 31

Well, as the world turns things change as some wise man once said, can’t remember who.

My Tina has a boyfriend that turns out to be my first wife’s son. How weird is that. Well, they did go to the same school, HTS, so I guess it wasn’t exactly a wonder how they were able to get close enough to hook up, so to speak.

And then there was my first born, Zoe Hardy: yeah and it did piss me off that she’d taken, been given, the other guy’s last name. And, as it turned out, Tina wasn’t the only one hooking up. My twenty-four-year-old Zoey “Hardy” was also involved, read engaged; to a policeman named Herman Dorne, age thirty-one, tall, good looking, and a cop as I would later discover! How freakin’ wonderful was that. Oh, and they were planning on a wedding: scheduled for June 29th, three months hence. And, no, I was not the first one to know about it, the wedding.

I didn’t even hear about it from her. I heard about it from Lance, who’d heard about it from Grant when they’d bumped into each other at the Pasture. But not to worry, Grant showed up the next day—today—to clue me at lunch.

“Yeah,” I said. “Lance told me this morning at work: the 29th of June, right?”

“Yes, and you’ve got to be in it, the wedding,” said Grant. I gave him a look.

“No, but give my best to your daughter and her young man,” I said.

“Look, Lee, she’s not doing things right, but if you give her a chance...” he said.

“A chance? A chance for what?” I said.

“A chance to be your daughter,” he said.

“She’s a Hardy not a Wyatt. You know it, your wife knows it, and I sure as hell know it. So, no. But do give her my best, really,” I said.

I wheeled back and went to the register to pay. I was feeling okay. Lance cluing me early on allowed me to settle down before the senior Hardy had shown up to make his pitch. The good doctor left me alone. I knew I’d likely be visited again, maybe by Penelope, or maybe both of the women, but I wouldn’t talk to them, not about anything meaningful. I was done with them.

“Oh boy, he isn’t hurt, he’s crushed. We’ve got to talk to our daughter, his daughter. We’ve got to do something; and I will be damned if I have a clue what,” said Grant.

“Grant, it’s her wedding. I can’t tell her what to do. We can talk to her, maybe get her to go see him, talk to him; but if he is being as hard core as you say; it’ll likely be a total waste of time and cause more trouble than it’s worth,” said Penelope.

“Shit!” he said. “Well, I am going to talk to her. He saved her life, and mine. He deserves a helluva a lot better than he has so far gotten from her. A whole lot better, damn it!”

“Okay, okay, I agree, but how, when?” she said.

“Tonight, when she gets home from college,” he said.

“She’s having dinner with her young man and his family,” said Penelope.

“Well, when she gets home from that then,” he said. “She’s gonna get both barrels from me.”

“Wow, I just hope this isn’t gonna backfire on us. Zoey is a very strong-willed woman. I just don’t know, Grant, really,” she said.

Tina had visited me a lot in recent memory. And with her coming to me first, to announce the existence of a boyfriend, made me feel good. Zoe on the other hand hardly made contact with me at all which made me feel bad. I had for some time accepted the truth that she had written me off. Grant Hardy coming to me to try and moderate my view of things was more than strong evidence that he was seeing the over the top neglect by Zoe as much as was I.

I’d let him know how I saw things. He’d let me know how wrong he thought I was. And I suppose we had kinda agreed to disagree on the subject. But the bottom line was that Zoe was a Hardy and there was just no getting around that.

And then I got the visit that I should have expected, but did not. It was Saturday and it was lunch time and I was intending to go to the Pasture and get my usual. And then my apartment buzzer buzzed and I answered the door and Zoe Hardy was standing there looking more like she was wanting to ask a question than to visit me.

“Hi Dad,” she said, finally voicing her first words to me. I played along. That it was Grant’s influence that had caused her to be where she was, standing in front of the entrance to my apartment, was so obvious that I actually wanted to laugh. I didn’t but I wanted to.

“Zoe, and what brings you here today,” I said.

“Several things, but may I come in?” she said. I nodded and wheeled myself aside so she could enter.

“Your dad send you?” I said.

“He mentioned that I should come today, but I had intended to come anyway sometime this week; so, yes and no,” she said.

“I hear you’re getting married soon,” I said. “Congratulations.”

“Yes, in June,” she said.

“Yes, that’s what your dad said,” I said.

“I would really like you to come,” she said, and she smiled.

“Need me to walk you down the aisle?” I said. I was being serious. “Give you away and stuff?”

“Well, I mean...” she started. I waited.

“I already have dad to do those. But, I would like you to be at the head table with us, the family,” she said. I smirked.

“I’ll try to clear my schedule,” I said. “It’s supposed to be on the 29th, right?”

“Clear your schedule? And, yes, the 29th,” she said.

“Yes, I often have to work on Saturdays. By the way, what’s your fiancée’s name? Your dad didn’t say,” I said.

“Oh, yes, it’s Herman, Herman Dorne,” she said. “Dad you have to come. You’re my dad too. Okay?” I smiled.

“Like I said, I’ll be there if I can get loose,” I said. “I really am busy.”

“Dad, I will never forgive you if you don’t show up!” she said. She actually seemed angry that I didn’t just give her what she wanted. Fact was I’d already decided in the last minutes to not go. But I figured to not make a big deal out of my decision at the moment.

“Look, I’m hungry. I was about to go to lunch. Maybe we can talk another time. Okay?” I said.

“Look, Dad, let me take you to lunch. Whaddya say?” she said. I decided on the spot to give in to her on that score. I had an ulterior motive. I nodded my okay.

“Okay, but separate cars. I will be going in to the office for a while afterwards,” I said. “But if you’re paying; well, that’s kinda hard to turn down.”

“Good, let’s go,” she said.

The drive to the Pasture took ten long minutes. That was good because it gave me time to think back to the last times, that’s plural, that I’d seen her. One was early December when she’d brought me a gift from the family, a picture album of the Hardy clan’s doings and comings and goings. The time before that had been my birthday over a year gone. She taken me to lunch that day too; I’d been certain at the time that her mom’s hand had been the driving force behind that oh so rare event.