An Innocent Thanksgiving

Watching my dad now, I felt like all of my worrying was for nothing. Dad smiled at both of us without a trace of disapproval or hesitance.

“Cal has been my best friend for decades,” Dad said. “I was hoping for years that he would find the right person to spend the rest of his life with. When you see someone that’s a great person and you care about, you want them to be as happy as they can possibly be, and I knew how happy being with Violet had made me—I wanted the same thing for my best friend.

“Most of you don’t know this, but Cal was married once. It didn’t work out. Nobody’s fault, really. I certainly told him not to blame himself, but I think he did a little. I think he felt like he just wasn’t cut out to love someone properly. Which was horseshit, if you asked me, since Cal was, and still is, one of the most loving people that I know.”

“But he’s an artist, and he loves what he does, and I don’t think he realized how much more there could be in his life besides that art. Until Maggie came along. As her friend Jenn told you all, my daughter is a very, very stubborn person. I can’t recall the last time I won an argument with her while she was growing up. I tried, Lord knows, because I was her father, but I remember quite a few times looking at her mother and asking her, being the parent means we’re supposed to be in charge, right? Isn’t that how it works?” Dad shook his head, a fond smile on his face. “Not with Maggie. A brick wall gives way more easily than my girl.

“She saw all the great things in Cal that the rest of us saw and she decided that she was going to make him the one for her. I admit… I didn’t agree with it at first. I felt that it was a bad idea. Their age difference, and, well, I’m sure you can understand why it was awkward for me to have my best friend and my daughter in a relationship together.

“But I should’ve thought about it differently, because if I had, I would’ve realized immediately how good they are together. If Cal was anyone other than my best friend and I’d met him, if my daughter had introduced him to me as her boyfriend, I would have been ecstatic. Cal adores Maggie the way that she deserves to be adored. He acts around her the way that I always hoped my daughter’s partner would act with her. I want only the best for my child—what parent doesn’t—and Cal is the best.

“And on the other side of it… Maggie is all that I had wanted someone to be for Cal, as well. She grounds him and helps him to be responsible. She makes him happy. She appreciates and understands his art. They balance each other out perfectly. More than anything, they love each other, so very deeply.” My dad took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and continued. “As a parent, all you really want is for your child to be loved and happy. As a best friend, all you want is for your best friend to be loved and happy. And these two really, really do make each other happy. And they even spread that love by giving Violet and me the best granddaughter anyone could ask for. Fern brings such love into our lives and she has from the moment of her birth. Cal was already family before, but now he is officially, and it feels like that’s how it should be.”

I could feel my eyes watering, and underneath the table I grabbed Cal’s hand. He squeezed my hand tightly, interlacing our fingers, and I didn’t dare look at him or I knew I’d lose my composure completely, but I was certain that his eyes were watery, too.

We knew that my dad approved, of course. But to officially have his blessing and to have his love and approval… it meant more than I could even begin to say.

I stood up and hugged my dad, without even stopping to think about it. It was a good thing that my dad’s speech was over, because I didn’t care if I was interrupting him or not. I just wanted to hold him tight and to feel my dad hug me and let him feel how happy and grateful I was.

Cal and Dad hugged next, clapping each other on the back. I couldn’t hear what they said to each other as they were pulling away, but I didn’t need to. That was just between the two of them.

Cal turned to everyone else. “Thank you all for coming,” he said. “Our family might not be the most conventional, but it’s full of love, and that’s what matters. I feel like the most loved person on the planet, and I only hope that I make those I love, especially my darling wife and daughter, feel half as loved as all that.”