“And you must be Mr. Greys. It’s so nice to meet you, sir. My dad shook his hand firmly.
“And you as well, Luke. Nice, firm handshake.” He winked at Luke and I felt my face turn bright red. “We’ll take a large sausage pizza and a pitcher of coke.” My dad said pulling out a $20.
“It’s on the house, sir. A welcome to Coopersville gift.” Luke grinned. My dad took the $20 and placed it back in his hands.
“Thank you, son. Although, I have visited here before. Here’s a tip for you personally and here’s another: Take good care of my daughter.” My dad winked and laughed. Luke gulped and faked a laugh.
“Oh my gosh! Sutton said you got a puppy Luke, is that her?” Gia stood on her tippy toes and peered over the counter. There was a small dog bed and laying on top of it was Poppy chewing on a tied up old sock.
“Oh yes, Gia. This is Poppy. She's been waiting to meet you. Maybe one day soon we can all take her out somewhere special.” Gia’s eyes lit up and stayed focused on Poppy. My dad had to practically drag her away from the counter to the booth.
I slid in next to my dad and he patted me on the back. “Luke seems like a nice young man Sutton. Look at his head of hair, too.” He said gazing over at him chuckling to himself. “You approve of Luke?” he asked, nudging Gia.
“I love Luke, daddy. He’s great. Now you have to meet Ronnie.”
My dad sighed and rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Not both my girls with boyfriends. You’re too young Gia.”
“Dad, Ronnie is just my best friend here.” Just then, we were interrupted by Luke bringing over our food.
“Enjoy, my friends,” Luke said, placing the pizza onto the table.
“Thank you, Luke. Would you be available to do breakfast tomorrow morning? I’d love to go out the four of us.”
“Sure thing sir. What time were you thinking?”
“I know you kids like to sleep in but how about 9 o’clock? I want to enjoy all the time I can here in Coopersville.”
“Sounds great, sir. Looking forward to it.” Luke saluted my dad and shot Gia and me a big smile as he made his way back to the kitchen.
After we stuffed ourselves with pizza and soda, dad drove us back to the house. To my surprise, mom and aunt Helen were in the front yard. Aunt Helen was in her wheelchair, clearly barking orders at my mom as if she didn’t know how to garden. As soon as they came into sight, my dad’s eyes were glued on them.
“I guess I should uh probably get out and say hi.” My dad said looking in his car mirror and smoothing his hair. We all stepped out of the car and neither of them noticed us at first. Aunt Helen was repeating “no, there Lynn there!” over and over pointing out of her own reach.
My dad slipped his hands into his slack pockets and mumbled “some people never change”.
“Hey, mom! Hi Aunt Helen!” Gia ran up and hopped onto my mom’s back.
“Oh, hi sweetie! Did you guys have a good time?” My mom asked, still not noticing my father in her shadow.
“Yes, and daddy came to say hi!” My mom fumbled around with the gardening tools and swung around to look at us.
“Hi, Lynn. It’s nice to see you.” My dad said, hands still planted in his pockets.
“It’s great to see you too, Dean. I would give you a hug but you know?” My mom said shrugging dirt falling off of her onto the ground. My mom tapped Aunt Helen on the shoulder as she clearly and rudely was ignoring my dad’s presence. “Helen, did you see Dean is here?” Aunt Helen stuck a hand up in the air and subtly waved without looking in my dad’s direction at all.
My dad just chuckled under his breath and said “It’s so nice to see you, Helen. You look great!” Aunt Helen blushed a little bit but continued to attempt to ignore my dad. “Well, I’m going to go rest up at my hotel. It was a long time traveling. Um. Lynn, would you be interested in catching up over dinner tonight?” My heart dropped. I was shocked. I could tell my mom was, too.
“Oh yes. Of course Dean.”
“Great. Great. I’ll give you girls some money to order some burgers or something.” My dad kissed Gia and I each on the head and strolled back to his car.
“What the fuck Mom!” I said out loud covering my mouth afterward, realizing I had said it right in front of Gia.
“Yeah what the fuck Lynn!” Aunt Helen said. I chuckled. Gia looked around both confused and in shock from our language.
“Sutton! Do not talk that way! Besides, you shouldn’t be saying that to me you should be saying it to your father!” I was so confused and in utter disbelief; my parents had always been civil but they had never been on a level where they would go out to eat without Gia and I to “catch up”.
I loved my mom and my dad but they had been separated since Gia was three and I had gotten used to a life with just mom, Gia and I. My dad had always traveled for work anyway, so he wasn’t around often the first thirteen years of my life. It had always been crazy to me that my parents had been together for 10 years and still gave up on their marriage.
My mom sprayed on tons of perfume. I sat
