An Innocent Thanksgiving

“I know.” I started to say more, to say how sorry I was, but Mark held up a hand.

“But then I thought about how you’re not just the man who slept with my daughter. You’re the father of my grandchild. And I love Fern.” Mark turned to look back at me. “I love that little girl more than anything, and she deserves a father. She deserves a family that puts her first.”

“If I’d known about her, Mark, I swear I would’ve been there from the first.”

Mark nodded. “You always said you weren’t sure if you were the traditional, marrying and kids type. I know it didn’t work out too great the first time.”

“No, it didn’t. But it wasn’t the right person. And Fern… I just love her, Mark, I have since I first laid eyes on her.”

“I’m not going to deny my grandchild her father.” He paused, and took another sip of coffee. “And I suppose… Maggie’s an adult. She can make her own decisions. If you’re what makes her happy—I want my daughter to be happy.”

“I’ll do my best to make her that way. I promise. I know it’ll take some time for both of us to earn back your trust, but I want to.”

Mark sighed, shaking his head. “The damned irony of it is that if you’d brought any other woman around, I would’ve told her that she was lucky to have you. That you had a good heart.”

“That means a lot, Mark. I want to earn your friendship again.”

Mark hummed. “I believe that you will. I just… still need some time. It’ll take a bit. To adjust.”

“That’s fair.” I decided to take a risk. “Mark… you understand why we didn’t say anything back then. It was a mistake, but if we had told you—would you really have respected Maggie’s choices? I thought that we were never going to see each other again. I just didn’t want to hurt you by knowing about this one time. I know it was a mistake to keep it from you, but I hope that you’ll forgive Maggie. She loves you, and she wanted you to be proud of her, and she didn’t want you to lose your best friend. She was scared and trying her best.”

Mark drained the rest of his coffee. “I know. I do. It’s done now, and I want us to move forward.”

“How do we do that?”

Mark stood up. “We start with breakfast.”

That sounded more than all right to me.

26

Maggie

My heart leapt into my throat as I saw Dad come in with Cal. They weren’t touching and being all jovial together like usual, although I hadn’t expected that, not yet, anyway. But they seemed… more relaxed. Poor Dad looked so tired, like he’d been up all night. Maybe he had been. Mom wouldn’t tell me.

Dad set his coffee cup down on the dining room table and walked over to me. I glanced at Cal, who nodded slightly, giving me a reassuring smile.

God, he was so handsome.

Dad took my hands. “I did a lot of thinking.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m sorry for hurting you. I did what I thought was best, but I still lied, and I’m sorry.”

“That’s really all I wanted to hear,” Dad promised me. “I told Cal—it’ll take some time to adjust. But I want to adjust. I want Fern to have her father, and I want you to be with the man you love, and I want my best friend to be happy. So… really. I’ll get used to it. What matters is that you’re well taken care of. And—well Cal can’t do math for shit but he’s a good person. He’ll look after you the way you deserve.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My dad was actually coming around? Actually making an effort to accept this? It was more than I’d hoped for.

I pulled him into a hug, letting a few tears slip free. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you so much, Dad. I love you.”

Dad hugged me back, bone-crushingly tight. “I love you too, Mags.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Mom set down a plate of bacon and rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “You two are so stubborn.”

She pulled me into a hug, kissing my cheek, and then Fern protested that she wanted a hug too, if everyone else was getting one.

I grabbed her and picked her up. “Oh, I suppose,” I said, sighing exaggeratedly. Fern giggled and hugged me tightly.

Breakfast went well, so much better than I’d expected. Cal and I didn’t touch during that time, keeping a bit of distance. I wanted to touch him constantly, but I still had to talk to Fern about the whole… ah… father thing, and how that related to me dating, and I didn’t want to shove my parents into the deep end. They knew about Cal and me, and I figured it was only fair to give them time to adjust to that further before they had to witness Cal and I holding hands or gazing at each other all besotted.