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I step over Charlie and his laptop and head outside to see my dad, Jesse Jones, rubbing his weathered fingers and looking murderous.
“We were going outside to talk,” I protest.
My dad simply nods in his stoic way. “You can talk. I find my way is more effective.” He looks down at Charlie, who’s gathering up his laptop. “Your jaw still work, son?”
“Fuck you,” Charlie spits.
My dad nods to me. “Seems it does. I’ll leave you two to have your summit. Call me if you need a moderator.”
Mariam is shielding Julius from this mess and muttering something about men thinking this is the OK Corral. Charlie, meanwhile, is talking to the sheriff, probably about pressing charges of assault.
To my amazement, Meredith is smiling and heading over to Mariam, her hand extended. “I’m Meredith. Not the way I wanted to meet Nate’s family, but it is what it is.”
Still massaging his knuckles, Dad stands next to me as we watch the two women make introductions.
“So that’s Meredith,” Dad says to me out of the side of his mouth.
“Yep.”
“Looks like a nice girl.”
“She wasn’t cheating on her boyfriend,” I blurt.
“I didn’t ask.”
Meredith coos over baby Shiloh in Mariam’s arms and bends forward to shake the tiny hand of three-year-old Julius, who’s tugging on Mariam’s sweater.
“I have a pet snake! You want to come over and meet him?”
“Soon!” Meredith says without hesitation.
For some reason, standing side by side with my dad rather than face to face is more conducive to serious conversations.
“I love her.”
Out of the corner of my eye, my dad nods. “You better.”
“And she’s pregnant. Not by me, by her ex.”
At this, Dad turns to me. “And what do you think about that?”
I refuse to take my eyes off Meredith. “What do I think? I think I’m going to marry her and adopt that baby.”
Dad nods thoughtfully, then turns back and watches the women replay the events of the evening, shaking their heads in exasperation.
“It’ll be nice to have you settled with an instant family. Dominique will be happy.”
“That she will,” I say. “I already told her I love her. She didn’t respond.”
Meredith turns and gives me a smile, then approaches, introducing herself to my Dad.
Dad shakes her hand. He then turns to me and says, “She will.”
Surprised, I ask, “How do you know that?”
Dad adjusts his hat. “You can tell a lot by a man’s handshake. A woman’s too.”
Just then, the sheriff saunters over and tips his hat up. “Sorry, Jesse. I gotta take you in.”
