“Yeah, well he can’t have mine,” Randy stated emphatically, as he sprung from his seat.
“Randy, what are you doing?” Nora exclaimed as she followed him. “Randy! Stop! Now! Please!”
“Grant,” Randy said sternly, “get your basketball…we’re going to play some one- -on-one in the driveway.”
“Yeah, that was what Jack and I were gonna do,” Grant laughed. “But there are too many cars in the driveway.”
“So, we’ll move them,” Randy insisted.
“There’s another goal out back at the barn,” Grant sighed, “but I really don’t feel like playing right now anyway.”
“Get the ball,” Randy demanded.
“Randy, didn’t you hear the kid?” Jack shrugged. “He’s not up to it.”
“This conversation doesn’t involve you, Jack,” Randy insisted.
“Yes it does,” Grant scoffed. “Of course it does! I was over here laughing and having a good time with Jack, and you got jealous and decided that, after eighteen years, you’d suggest a game of one-on-one. It doesn’t work like that, Dad.”
“Why don’t you want to play with your old man?” Randy asked exasperatedly.
“He doesn’t feel good, Randy,” Jack intervened.
“No, I don’t,” Grant groaned. “I’ve been getting really tired lately.”
“Alright,” Randy conceded, but he stared at Jack, unable to let it go. “He’s my son, and if I need your input, Coach, I’ll ask for it.” He snickered, determined to get in one more jab at his nemesis. “Besides, you should probably worry less about playing Super Dad to my kid and a pay a little more attention to your own.”
“Excuse me?” Jack fired back.
“What kind of a father lets his little girl play a very physical game with a bunch of hormonally charged high school boys?” Randy laughed. “That’s just begging her to become a little temptress who convinces young men with bright futures to give it all up to build their life around her.”
Jack took a deep breath. “What kind of a father lets his impressionable, teenage son walk in on him having sex with a stranger while he’s still married to his mother?”
Nora gasped, certain Jack was about to find himself flat on the floor. “You are both ruining Christmas!” she cried out.
Melissa stood to walk to the back of the house with Leah, who was squealing uncomfortably now. “David, do something,” she gulped.
“Nora and I don’t need you policing our sex life,” Randy scoffed, “but perhaps you should be a little more concerned with what is going on under your own roof. While you’re busy playing hero to your wounded ex-flame, chances are that your oldest daughter is not quite as innocent as she used to be, if you know what I mean!”
“Stop!” Grant screamed, barging between the two men. “Both of you, just stop!” He looked at his father and then at Jack. “Jack, just stay out of my family’s business,” he breathed. “I’m sorry they’re all here in your house, but you don’t know my dad well enough to criticize anything about him.” He was done with Jack, but he spun on his father, and the anger in his eyes reached a whole new level. “You know, Dad,” he screamed, staring at Randy, “you can say whatever you want to say about me. You can criticize me; you can judge me; you can demean me; you can accuse me; you can resent decisions I make…say what you want to say; do whatever you want to do, and I’ll stand here and take it…but you will never say another negative word about the girl I love, and I don’t care if you throw me through the wall right now for saying so.”
Hailey reached for Grant’s arm, her concern evident, but a distinct sense of pride filling her tone. “It’s okay; calm down.”
Grant let Hailey take his arm, but his eyes remained firmly fixed on his father’s. “I hated you,” Grant said boldly. “I hated you for hurting my mother. I hated you for destroying our family. I hated you for being so disappointed in me without ever taking a second to try and understand me. I hated you for always wanting me to be the son you lost. But, Dad, everything that you did, everything that happened, led me right here…to her…and she saved me from myself….and from you. If anything…you should thank her…because she is the reason I even want to try and understand you.”
The room fell completely void of voice or movement. Grant took a deep breath. “For the record, I don’t hate you. I love you…I admire you…and I’m proud to be the son of the hardest working, most forward thinking and heroic public servant I know.” He looked around at everyone who stood staring back at him, then his eyes moved back to his father. He pulled Hailey close to his side and shifted his glance purposefully to Jack. “For anybody keeping notes during this whole shameful display,” Grant said, his teeth clinched, “I should address the subject that was inappropriately placed into question and mention that your daughter’s virginity remains intact.”
“Oh…my…Heaven, help me,” Hailey exhaled, weak-kneed as she buried her head into Grant’s side and covered her face with her hands.
Grant turned to walk away, with Hailey tucked under his arm. A few steps later, as he reached the front door, he turned around. “And the capital city of Turkey is Ankara,” he said as he slammed the door behind him.
David, his mouth still open, turned to Joanna. “Wow,” he mouthed to his sister.
Outside on the porch, Hailey shook her head in disbelief. “I honestly don’t know whether to kiss you or kill you right now!”
“Grant!” Randy called, opening the door that led to the porch.
“You might want to kiss me,” Grant whispered as he took off his hat and placed it on Hailey’s head. “I think he has dibs on the other.”
Grant faced his father with a shrug that said he had said all he had to say and wasn’t sorry for any of it.
“We need to talk,” Randy gulped. “Privately, if you don’t mind.”
Grant exhaled softly.
Randy smiled remorsefully at Hailey. “Hailey,” he nodded, “my son is right. I had no business dragging you into my argument with your father. I’m deeply sorry, and I hope you will accept my sincere apology. You obviously mean a great deal more than I realized to my son.” He frowned. “Thank you for being there for him… when I wasn’t.”
“It’s okay,” Hailey spoke softly.
Randy cleared his throat. “Grant, can we…?”
“Yeah, let’s just go out to the carport,” Grant grumbled, sure there was nothing his father could say to him that would ease the mounting tension between them.
Randy paced back and forth, not really knowing where to begin, and he wasn’t completely surprised when Grant started for him.
“Thank you for apologizing to Hailey. That meant a lot to me,” Grant admitted.
