Into the Light

Lex even played the ‘I’m offended you won’t come out in the open with our relationship’ card; it came across like he was mocking me. Maybe it was my imagination.

One week later I was standing here on the porch at the place I once called home. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell my dad that I’m back together with Lex, (more to the point, I was now married to him) I was just anxious that his gun collection may have tripled in seven years and the last thing I wanted was a Benny Hill chase all over town.

“It’ll be okay. It’s been seven years, Charlotte,” Lex spoke calmly.

“I don’t feel well,” I moaned.

“Morning sickness again?”

Whoever came up with the term morning sickness must have been a male. It should be called all day sickness. The list of food that repulsed me was growing longer by the day; on the plane ride here I officially added oranges to my list. The man beside me had the need to eat three of them in a row and I had the need to puke three times in a row in the tiny ass restroom.

“Yes…err no…” I mustered up the courage and knocked on the door.

Seconds felt like hours, my heart rate picked up, but then I remembered Lil Bubba and I tried my best to calm down. Lex was right, seven years is a long time.

“Charlie?” Dad stared at me in shock as he opened the door.

“Daddy!” I cried running into his arms.

It had been a year since I had seen him last, but unlike every other time I saw him, this was so much more emotional. I was here, no longer his little girl, but a woman pregnant with the baby of the most amazing man that existed. I held onto him, his smell embraced me, a mixture of Old Spice and laundry detergent, a sign that he had a good woman taking care of him. He pulled away, no smiles but a stare so cold that I could have sworn the birds flew out of the trees like a sixth sense as to what was about to go down.

“What the hell is Edwards doing here?” he raised his voice.

“Dad please, we need to talk.”

“He’s not welcome here.”

“Dad! Can we please act like mature adults and talk?”

“Mature adults? He was an adult, Charlie, when you were a teenager. An adult who took advantage of you,” he shot back.

“Dad…” The walls of my stomach weakened and I knew the signs “I need the bathroom!”

After a nasty ‘let’s see what I had for lunch’ situation in the bathroom, I stood at the basin, splashing my face with cold water. Seriously, when the fuck was the morning sickness going to stop? I opened the door and heard my Dad and Lex speaking, the voices were muffled and I couldn’t really hear the conversation. However, I’m guessing it wasn’t be pleasant.

I entered the kitchen and interrupted what looked like a heated debate.

“Errr Charlie…”

“Dad. If you are talking about the small minded folk in this town, I really don’t care what people say, they can talk about us as much as they want. I know who I am. I am a woman that fought hard to put that behind me. I studied and graduated from Harvard Law School. I opened up a law firm in New York City. I have been given a second chance with the only man my heart has ever belonged to, and now… now…we are having a baby.”

There, I blurted it out, no sugar coating, it was the real deal. I decided to hold onto the information about us getting married on a whim in the Hamptons. One piece of information at a time, Charlie…

His face changed; it was a look I had never seen before. I looked nervously at Lex who shrugged his shoulders, obviously just as curious as I was.

“I’m going to be a granddaddy?” he asked with a slight croak in his voice.

I nodded, and instantly he pulled me into a big hug. Thank fuck! The tension eased and right on cue, my stomach grumbled. Oh shame.

“Time to get some grub in you… doesn’t mean you’re off the hook Edwards,” he warned.

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“Dad, let it go. And please don’t use the word ‘grub’. That sounds like something you found dead on the road and decided to barbeque.”

“I was thinking your favorite Buffalo chicken wings,” he said proudly.

“Nothing with wings,” I answered queasily.