Page 45 of A Very Grumpy Father's Day
He nods. “Son. Hello, Maddie.”
“Happy Father’s Day, Tony!”
And then he lights up and a huge smile spreads across his face. “Hello there, Ciara. Hello, pretty girl.” My daughter waves at him, without anyone asking her to, and it makes everyone’s day.
“Awwww, look at that, Tony. She waved at you.”
“Yeah, I saw.”
“Well, it’s not Mother’s Day, so I don’t want to hog the FaceTime. Don’t touch any of the keys or the screen, Tony, okay? Lovely to see all of you, my precious beauties, even if it’s just on my laptop.” She blows kisses at us. Kisses that are laced with equal parts Irish coffee and Irish-mammy guilt-tripping control-freak love.
“Enjoy the rest of your day, Mamie,” Maddie says as she encourages Ciara to keep waving.
“Wonderful to see you, Ma.”
“Well, I’ll let you daddies spend a little time alone with Ciara,” Maddie says as she lifts the baby up and places her on my lap.
We both hold our breaths for a couple of seconds and exhale with relief when Ciara doesn’t fuss or burst into tears.
“Talk to you later, Tony,” she says.
“Good to see you, Maddie.”
Maddie gets up to leave and mouths to me that she’ll be in the kitchen.
“She got so big all of a sudden,” my dad says.
“Yeah. Well, supposedly she’s at a stage where she isn’t going to have a lot of growth spurts for a while.”
He chuckles. “It’s all one long growth spurt.”
“That too, I guess. You have fun at lunch?”
“Yeah, y’know. Your ma was in the kitchen all day yesterday and this morning. Started cleaning up as soon as the last of them left.” He rubs his forehead with the same kind of agony my mom has when she’s talking about him.
We’re both quiet for what feels like an eternity, but we’re both just looking at Ciara, kind of in awe.
“It’s nice, huh?” my dad says, quietly. “Having kids.”
Hearing him say those five simple words gets me all choked up in ways that I was not expecting. My dad was always so busy working when I was growing up, to feed and clothe a wife and five kids. He never complained, he just seemed a little tired and annoyed and exasperated all the time.
“It’s really nice. I like it a lot.”
“Yeah. I always figured you would. Having grandkids is maybe even better though.”
“I could see that.”
My dad, who I swear I’ve only seen smile maybe a dozen times in my life, gets his face up close to the monitor and says, “Hey, little Ciara. Hi, pretty girl.”
She giggles and starts shaking her head and moving her legs around.
“I think seeing you as a grandfather is pretty great too,” I say without looking at him. It is definitely the cheesiest thing I’ve ever said to my dad, but there’s no better day than today to say it.
He nods in acknowledgment. “Well, you probably have more plans for your day over there. Good to see you’re doing well, Dec. Especially after seeing those pictures of you from last weekend.” He smirks, ever so slightly.
“Great to see you, Dad.” I am not even going to acknowledge that last weekend happened. “Wave bye-bye to Grandad?” I wave to him, and Ciara headbutts my arm, which is weird but also the kind of thing she’s been doing lately.
My dad follows my ma’s orders and just walks away from the laptop without touching anything, so it’s up to me to end the FaceTime call.
