Page 41 of Thanksgiving With Dad's Best Friend

As we pull apart, my father automatically reaches out his hand to shake Flynn’s. Flynn manages to keep his cool better than me and Dad, shaking his hand and pulling out a seat for me to sit down. We all take our seats in silence and my Dad nervously pushes a glass in my direction.

“We never got to celebrate your twenty-first birthday together,” he says in explanation. “I thought we should celebrate.”

I clear my throat. “That’s a lovely thought, Dad…but I actually don’t drink yet.” I don’t want to mention that I’m worried it’ll ruin our chances of getting pregnant and throw him off. So far, this is awkward, but not problematic. I don’t want to give him any reason to get angry.

“Oh, okay. That’s a sensible decision, really…that’s my girl,” Dad stutters. He turns to Flynn. “Perhaps we can share?”

“I’d like that. But just one glass. I’ve got to drive back later,” Flynn says a little stiffly. I can tell he’s on his best behavior, but also massively on guard. He wants to take a backseat and allow me to talk to my father before he interjects, which I think is very gracious of him. He knows that this is important to me. And before we try and move forward, I want to speak about the past.

“Dad…you know I want to talk about what happened.”

Dad nods. “Of course, honey. It’s not something we can avoid forever, after all. And I was so glad when you texted. I was worried I’d screwed everything up. I’ve thought about you both every day for the last six months.”

“You have?” Flynn asks suspiciously. Dad nods.

“Yes. I knew that the way I left things was out of order. I walked out without giving you guys the chance to tell me what you were thinking. And of course, when I got the wedding invitation…well, I realized something that I think I knew all along. You guys are the real deal…and you clearly love each other. I could see it between you from the moment you met, and it scared me. I didn’t understand how it could be possible…my baby girl and my best friend…but I see that the age gap is all that separates you.” He pauses. “I actually think you’re pretty perfect for each other.”

I blush. I can’t believe he’s saying so many sweet things. He actually seems like he’s being genuine, and I never thought I’d get his blessing in this way. I thought he might be willing to accept it for my sake perhaps, but from the way he’s talking, I think he’s giving me so much more. He’s giving me hope that things might be okay.

“Dad…you have no idea what it means to me, hearing you say these things.”

“I get that. I know you’ve waited a long time to have this conversation. I still don’t like that you lied to me and it did take me quite some time to understand what you guys have but I think that’s natural. I’m just protective of you, pumpkin. I’m sure you can understand that.”

I nod. My father turns to look at Flynn, who has been quietly observing the conversation. I think in some ways my father is more nervous to speak to his former best friend. He clears his throat.

“Flynn…we didn’t end things well between us.”

“We didn’t,” Flynn says quietly. I get the sense that he’s still got some resentment toward my father. He’s had to watch me suffer from the aftermath of Thanksgiving, and it’s in his protective nature to be mad at my Dad for that. Of course, he realizes he made his own mistakes back then, but he’s not going to apologize until my father does. Fortunately, I think he’s gearing up to it. Dad takes a deep breath.

“You were my best friend for so long…and we never got to spend that much time together. And when I showed up with my daughter…well, I never expected that you’d fall for each other. No one could’ve predicted it…I’m sure you can understand that.”

“Sure.”

“The shock was what made it so hard for me…in a week, I watched you steal her heart. And then I felt like I lost you too in the process. All that sneaking around…I knew it was happening, and it felt like it was a personal attack on me. I felt like you owed me better behavior on your part. But I understand now that you were falling in love for the first time…I know how that felt with my wife, all those years ago…it makes you reckless. It makes you wild. And I can almost understand why you did everything you did. Even though it hurt me, you only wanted to save my feelings.”

“Given time, we wanted to tell you,” I tell him. “But everything was new to us too…we didn’t want things to blow up the way that they did.”

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