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This man…he was my grandpa.
He studied me with a look of puzzlement.
“Dexter, you have a kid I don’t know about? Or am I getting senile and Ella’s older than I remember?”
“Dad,” Dex stood, putting an arm around the older man. “This is Olivia. She’s Derek’s daughter.”
The man—my grandpa, I corrected myself—crumpled to the ground sobbing.
My mouth fell open and I looked up at Trace hoping he would tell me what to do, but he was as stunned as I was.
“Dad?” Dex knelt on the floor in front of him. “Dad, are you okay?”
He continued to sob and his tear filled eyes met mine. Reflected in his orbs was delight and wonder.
“I never—” He shook his head. “I can’t believe this.” Dex helped him to his feet and I stood, hesitantly making my way to him. He looked me up and down in disbelief. “You…you’re beautiful…and you look so much like your dad. I can’t believe you’re real. I thought after he died—” He choked, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping his face free of tears. “Can I hug you?”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face against his robust chest.
“Olivia,” he said my name softly, like he was testing the sound of it, and patted my head like one would a small child.
I pulled away and my eyes roamed over his face. He had thick brows and a strong jaw. He was handsome, and I’m sure back in the day he’d broken many hearts. I found that my cheeks were stained with tears and I hadn’t even realized I was crying. I wiped them away, laughing slightly in embarrassment. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name but I don’t know yours.”
“Douglas,” he smiled. “But you can call me Dougie.”
“Can I—” I stopped myself, scared to ask, but finally I forced the words out. “Can I call you grandpa?”
He started crying again. “I would love for you to call me grandpa,” he wrapped his arms around me in another bear hug. “In fact, I’d be honored.”
He took my hand and led me back to the couch. I ended up sandwiched between my grandpa and Trace as Dex plopped in the chair once more.
“I’m Trace,” he held out his hand to my grandpa. “Olivia’s husband.”
My grandpa let his hand drop. “Husband? You’re married?” He asked me. When I nodded, he said, “You don’t look older than twenty.”
“Twenty-two,” I blushed.
“You’re a tiny thing,” he chuckled. “Stay around here long and your grandma will have you fattened up,” he patted his round stomach. “She’s an excellent cook.”
I knew there were a thousand and one questions I should have been asking him, but at the moment all I could do was sit and stare at my grandpa in awe.
“Your grandma should be here any minute,” he glanced at his watch. “She always comes home for a late lunch before going back to the shop.”
My heart skipped a beat in excitement.
In a matter of minutes, I had gained an uncle, cousin, and grandparents. I had been content to carry on my life never knowing them, figuring they wanted nothing to do with me. In all honesty, it was unfair for me to have believed that. After all, my mom had confessed to me that she’d never told them about me.
“I’ll call her and see where she is,” he patted my knee. “And then you can ask us any questions you want to know and we can get to know you better.” He heaved himself up from the couch and shuffled out of the room.
“Well,” Dex smacked his hands against the arms of the chair, “my day got a whole lot more exciting. This is like one of those bad soap operas that’s always on TV.”
I giggled at his words. How often in the last two years had I compared my life to a soap opera? A lot, that’s for sure.
“You don’t even know the half of it,” I told him.
Douglas came back into the room a few minutes later. “Maggie should be here in a few minutes. She’s going to be beside herself,” he shook his head in disbelief. “I still can’t believe you’re Derek’s daughter. He’s been gone for twenty-two years. When someone’s been dead for that long it gets kind of difficult to remember that they were ever even alive.”
“That’s just because you’re old, dad,” Dex chimed.
