AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What was this?
“Is anyone here?” Dean Swartz called again.
“Dad, we’re in the dining room!” Cindy called. She then turned harsh eyes toward Michael as she muttered, “Did you invite your grandfather?”
“I don’t see why that’s any kind of problem, Mom,” Michael said. “I’ve been gone for three years, and I want to check in with my grandfather.”
“Yes, but...” Cindy began. “But there’s a lot more at play and...” She turned toward Wayne and said, “He didn’t mention this. I just thought it would be a nice catch-up dinner. Really casual and...”
That moment, Dean appeared in the doorway. He wore a thick flannel shirt, and his mustache was curved up higher than normal, as though he had spent a lot of the day twirling and twirling it with his finger.
“Good evening!” he boomed. His eyes turned from Cindy to Tracey, before catching Michael. “My only grandson!” he beamed. “You’re back. Get over here and give your grandfather a hug.”
Michael leaped up, hustled forward, and wrapped his arms around his grandfather.
If only you could meet Bradley.
You have another grandson.
And he looks even more like you than Michael does.
“Where the heck have you been, kid?” Dean asked, ruffling Michael’s hair.
“Just around the corner, the whole time,” Michael affirmed.
When Dean released his grandson, his eyes met with Wayne’s, before finally settling on Elise. Elise shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She felt like she had been backed into a corner.
“A familiar face,” Dean said as he sat at the other head of the table, opposite from Cindy. “Elise. Good to see you again. How has the Bloomingfeld been treating you?”
“Just fine, thanks,” Elise said.
Her voice quivered ever so slightly. It felt like an earthquake existed only across her tongue.
“Good to hear,” Dean said as he reached for a spatula, ready to serve himself some lasagna. “And Wayne, always good to see you. I assume you introduced Elise to my daughters?”
“Something like that,” Wayne said.
Reality hovered in the air between all of them. All the color drained from Cindy’s cheeks. Michael glanced at all of them with bright eyes, as though he was the puppet master, and they were his puppets.
“And Michael, you’ll have to tell us everything about your travels,” Dean continued. “All my life, I wanted to make my way around the world. I wanted to explore. And my boy, you’ve done it!”
“He could have told us his plans,” Cindy grumbled.
“Maybe that would have taken away from the magic,” Dean returned.
“You’d know all about the magic of doing what you want, wouldn’t you?” Cindy said ominously.
Elise’s stomach flipped twice. She dropped her fork to her plate as Dean furrowed his brow even more.
“What’s that?” Dean asked.
Michael chuckled. “It’s just that, we’ve discovered that you weren’t such a stick in the mud all these years. You’re a little bit different than I always thought you were. That’s for sure.”
Dean dropped the spatula and folded his fingers beneath his chin. His eyes found his grandson’s.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said formally.
It sounded as though he and his grandson were brokering a deal.
“Grandpa, don’t freak out,” Michael said. “It’s just that I got the idea to invite you over here because I’m becoming more and more curious about our family. The Swartz family that is.”
“I see...”
“Imagine my surprise that, after three years away, I find myself with a brand-new Aunt Elise,” Michael said. “So my question to you is this, Grandpa. Who was Elise’s mother, Allison Darby? And why haven’t you mentioned her to any of us, ever, that we have this whole other family member? Did you think your secret would never come to the surface? Did you think you could get away with it?”
**
To be continued...
