Chapter 15

On Thursday, I got a call from one of my crew chiefs that all was not well with one of our renovation framing jobs. Apparently, the plans didn't correspond to the actual building. That wasn't uncommon, but what to do about it required either a revision from the owner or some creative thinking on our part. I preferred the latter before suffering the usual delays when we went back to the owner for a decision on a change.

I told Dana not to let anyone she didn't know into the apartment and if her father called, keep him on the line as long as she could and then call me right away. I was uncomfortable leaving her on her own, but she was adamant that she could handle whatever came up, and she would call 911 if anything happened that might be dangerous. I wasn't completely convinced, but I need to resolve the problem on the jobsite. At least Dana knew that she had some backup with the detective service watching the apartment.

I headed for the job and as I expected, it was more complicated than we could solve with a couple of changes. The building inspector would dump all over us if we didn't get it approved ahead of time, and that meant a change approved by the owner first and then the building inspector. That just added a few days to the job unless we could figure out a way to make the corrections simple and not cause major changes to the design.

I huddled together with our guys; we went over the problem and looked for the simplest solution. In days gone by, I would be going off and acting out my anger and frustration at this problem. Somehow, that had all changed. I think Dana had a lot to do with it, but maybe I was maturing as well. Most of the time, my guys could contribute something toward solving the problems and I was hoping that was the case today.

It took us several hours before we worked out a solution that would avoid having to move the plumbing and change the shape of an ensuite in the new section. One of the crew chiefs, Terry Dreyfus, came up with a suggestion that was simple and didn't alter the main look of the addition. It meant taking a few inches out of the huge walk-in closet and another few inches out of the large bedroom, but overall, it didn't really make a big difference to the living space and wouldn't add any cost.

I slapped Terry on the back and congratulated him.

"Well done, guys. You just saved us a lot of grief and delay. Nice work." I looked at my watch and saw that it was one thirty and none of us had eaten.

"Terry, why don't you take the guys to lunch on me? When you're done, take the revisions to the owners and see if you can get an okay to submit them to city hall. Give me a call on the cell if you run into any problems you don't feel comfortable with. The guys can have the rest of the day off with pay. It's worth it to solve our problem this easily." I was smiling as we broke up. I thought I might have found my back-up man.

I called Dana to let her know I was on my way back and she said everything was fine. I stopped off at my place to get some more of my clothes. I had been gradually moving my stuff into her apartment. We were living there, so it didn't make any sense to have two separate places. My lease was up for renewal at the end of January, so the timing was perfect. I had already notified the landlord that I would be leaving.

When I walked into our apartment, I stopped immediately when I realized Dana wasn't alone. An older man was sitting on the sofa and Dana was in her usual chair. I didn't recognize him and I was about to say something when Dana stood up and came over to me.

"Vin ... I want you to meet someone." She was calm and composed and I didn't sense any upset, but I was tense and wanted to know why she would let a stranger into our place.

"Vin ... this is my father, Donald," she said in a steady voice.

I was stunned. She had let this bastard into our apartment. I couldn't believe it. Why? I was so taken aback that I couldn't form any words. I just stood there and stared, wide-eyed at the both of them.

Her father had stood up from the sofa and was looking at me warily, but with a steady gaze. I guess I must have shown some sort of anger or alarm, because Dana grabbed my arm and held it tightly.

"No, Vinnie! No! I'm not in any danger. It wasn't what we thought. I'm alright with it." She said it calmly, and with obvious confidence.

I let my breath out and tried to relax a bit. I was still in shock and finally I took my jacket off and hung it on the coat tree beside the door. I realized I hadn't said a word since I'd entered the room.

"What's going on?" I finally managed.

"Dad came to ... apologize, Vin. He's been trying to see me because he needed to apologize for ... what he had done." She said it quietly, but again, I was struck by how calm she was. I didn't understand it. It didn't make sense, especially after what he had done to her all those years ago.

"It's a bit late, isn't it?" I snarled.

"Yes, it is." He had finally spoken. "I can't make it right with just an apology, but it's all I have to offer. I can't change what I did, but I can't forget, either." His voice was even and he didn't really show any signs of fear. This was a very strange situation.

"Vinnie, Dad has finally gotten some help. He's in AA and he's trying to turn his life around. He knows it won't change the past, but maybe he can be a better person in the future."

"That won't be very difficult." I spat out the words. I wasn't feeling very charitable right then.

"Vinnie, you're the best thing that's happened to Dana in a long time. I'm very happy that you two have found each other. I didn't come here to mess up your lives. I came here because it's part of my rehabilitation. I needed at least to acknowledge what I had done to Dana and how it had hurt her. Not just then, but until you came along."