Dad’s strange love making – 02

Mia was a much better dancer than him. Not much of a surprise, with a dozen years of dance lessons behind her, and parents who danced like pros. She was graceful, and covered his mistakes smoothly.

The music slowed, and Oliver guided his granddaughter over, deftly switching partners. His baby girl was in his arms. It was Christmas and everything was right in the world. Well, almost everything.

“What’s our surprise this year?” she said softly.

“What?”

“You know. Every year it’s something new. You remember. The dance lessons 12 years ago, then scuba lessons, tennis, golf, Tae Kwan Do, sailing, art, you were getting kind of nuts about it. It’s like you never wanted us to have a moment free!”

“I just wanted my girl to be happy. As I recall you were bored, once.”

She blushed. “Not anymore.”

“That was the idea.” He looked to the other end of the room where a sullen young man watched everything going on. “I don’t like the looks of him.”

“Dad, we’ve done what we could. She’s going to make her own decisions.” His girl moved her lips to his ear. “He’s toast anyway. Liam can’t stand him.”

Oliver laughed. “I always knew there was something I liked about that bum you married.”

“Hey Dad! Seriously, I’m right here!” Liam cried out in mock rage.

Oliver looked at the man waltzing his daughter over to stir the pot on the stove. “Yes you are. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Liam gazed at his daughter, then at his wife. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be in the whole world.”

“Geez, Dad!” Mia laughed, pushing him away. “Are you crying? What a wuss!”

Charlotte turned her father so nobody could see the tears in his eyes. Or the ones in hers.

“So is the barrage of lessons over, now that she’s graduated?” she asked, pressing her head into his chest.

A crash from the living room interrupted their dance. Charlotte looked over, and saw her son in the middle of it. “No roughhousing in doors! Take it outside!” she bellowed.

She turned around, and he was waving some kind of paper under her nose. She snatched it out of his hand, reading it.

“Spanish lessons?”

He nodded, as she looked over at her daughter working the range. “Don’t let it boil,” she called out.

“I know, Mom,” Mia replied with a huff, before turning the gas down.

“She knows everything,” Charlotte muttered. “Was I that insufferable?”

“To everyone but me,” Oliver laughed. “I have some serious news. I’ve decided that I don’t want to do the alternating holidays anymore.”

She looked at him in surprise. Mia dropped her spoon. Even Liam, ever steady Liam, was shocked. “Crap!” he snapped, sucking on the edge of his hand where he’d touched the edge of the pan, burning himself.

“Dad,” Charlotte said. “I know it’s hard but we’re trying to be fair. We need to spend some time with Liam’s mother, especially now. It’s how we’ve always done it. It’s as much a tradition as the turkey and the roast.”

Oliver checked his watch again. She was late.

The door burst open and the kids tore into the foyer, “Gramma’s here!”

Oliver gave his daughter a wink, and then Liam was running out of the room, toward his Mom. “Fine!” Oliver called after him. “I’ve got the roast! Momma’s boy!”

“What are you up to, old man?” Charlotte asked, looking at him archly.

“I thought it was time to shake things up a bit. Nobody should spend the holidays away from their family.” He turned away from his daughter, and took their latest guest in his arms for a hug. When he pressed his lips to hers, you could have heard a pin drop. “You’re late,” Oliver told her.

She grinned. “Somebody left a pack of heathens outside. I never thought I’d make it to the door.” Liam’s mother reached up and ran her fingers through Oliver’s hair. “You told them?”

“Now what kind of surprise would that be?” Oliver chuckled. “You want the honors?”

“No way you’re fobbing this off on me. You started it!”

“I made the phone call. As I recall—” her hand over his mouth cut him off.

Luna turned to her son, then back to her daughter-in-law. “After Mia’s graduation. Your father and I, well we kind of hit it off—”

“More than kind of. The way I remember it—” the hand was back over his mouth.

“Hush you!” She turned to her son, “I figured I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. He did raise a heck of a girl.”

“Benefit of the doubt? C’mon you—”

“One more word, Oliver, and you’ll be sleeping out on the porch!”

Mia laughed. “So tell me Grandma, if he’s nice and quiet, where’s he going to sleep?”

Luna blushed. “I don’t think that’s any of your business, you little troublemaker.”

“Seriously Grandma? Did you even think this out? The house is full to the rafters. You’re going to be lucky to get a sleeping bag in the attic.”

“Not so long as I have a bed—”

“Oliver!”

The laughter eventually died down, and Oliver pulled Luna back into his arms. “Don’t fight it. I’m irresistible, you know. You said so yourself.”

“Damn it, Oliver! Are you going out of your way to embarrass me?”

“No baby, I’m going out of my way to let everyone know that you’re as crazy about me as I am about you.”

It was a while longer before the chatter quieted. There were a lot of confused looks going around between everyone. Nobody had ever expected that. They lived nearly 700 miles apart after all. He’d been alone for 13 years, dating, but never serious. Her husband had passed away two years earlier, suddenly from a heart attack. They were nothing alike, except for their love of their families.

“So the Spanish lessons?” Charlotte asked.

“We figured a June wedding in Buenos Aires. I’ve always wanted to learn to tango.”

Charlotte laughed. “Never a boring moment with you around, is there Dad?”

“Never again.”