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“Dad, what do you think you’re doing?”
Danny glanced up from where he was stirring a pot of minestrone to see Grace standing in the kitchen doorway, hands on her hips and an accusatory look on her face. “I’d think that would be obvious. I’m cooking dinner.” He raised up the spoon he was holding as evidence.
“I'm not talking about dinner," she huffed out. "I'm talking about Mom.”
“Uh, I not sure what you mean.” Danny lowered his eyes and turned back to stirring the soup. This really wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have with anyone quite yet, especially his teenage daughter. The only person he wanted to have it with less would be Steve.
“Yes, you do. You know exactly what I mean. This, right here,” Grace waved her hand towards the stove, “inviting her over for dinner and cooking one of her favorite dishes. Staying for coffee at her house after you drop off Charlie. Digging the old family albums out of the attic. I may have suffered a concussion, but the wreck didn’t turn me into a complete idiot. I can see what’s going on and I’m here to tell you to knock it off.”
“What?” Danny couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He half expected it from Steve, even though his partner had been uncharacteristically silent on the matter, but not from his own daughter. Didn’t every child of divorced parents want them to get back together?
“Knock it off, right now. You and Mom together can only end in disaster and heartbreak for everyone involved, including me and Charlie.”
“But…”
“But nothing, Dad. Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
“Einstein didn’t actually say that, you know.” Okay, maybe Grace inherited her snark from him.
“Ugh.” She threw her hands up in frustration. “It doesn’t matter who said it, it’s true. You and Mom getting together again is insane.”
“Why? Why would it be insane?” Danny realized he really wanted to hear what she had to say because he had obviously been working under a misapprehension that Grace would be happy if he and Rachel decided to give it another go. Not that anything had been decided. It had only been a few weeks since Grace’s accident and his and Rachel’s conversation in the waiting room. Only a few weeks since he’d finally let go of his latent anger towards her. “Not that I’m saying I want to get back together with your mother, but hypothetically speaking, wouldn’t it be nice for you and Charlie if we were a real family? Then the two of you wouldn’t have to be shuttled back and forth all the time and I wouldn’t have to be just a part-time dad.”
Grace’s expression reflected her obvious surprise at his words, but that look was quickly replaced by one of sadness. Danny was silent as his little girl, who wasn’t so little anymore, walked over and took the spoon out of his hand and laid it down, before she led him over to sit at the kitchen table. “Danno, where is this coming from? You’ve never been just a part-time dad. Even when Mom used Stan’s high-priced lawyers to screw you out of joint custody and then moved us to Hawaii. You could have taken the easy out and gone on with your own life in New Jersey and nobody would have blamed you, not even me. But you didn’t because I was your number one priority. Instead, you uprooted your whole life and moved 5,000 miles from your home just so you could see me a few days a month. No part-time dad would have done that. The same with Charlie. The minute you found out Mom lied about him being Stan’s, you became his full-time father. Charlie thinks you hung the moon.”
“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be nice if…” For some reason he couldn’t let go of the idea that Grace secretly longed for him and Rachel be together.
“Dad, of course it would be nice if you and Mom were married and we were one big happy family. It’d be nice if we had a billion dollars too, but the reality is that you and Mom just don’t work as a couple. You’ve never figured out how to be partners. She’s always resented your job, even though she knew from the beginning that all you ever wanted to be was a cop. She’s betrayed you and lied to you more than once to get what she thought she wanted. And let’s face it dad, you’d do anything for me or Charlie, but you’ve always put your job ahead of Mom.”
“I’m sorry, Grace.”
“Danno, you have nothing to be sorry to me about. I couldn’t have asked for a better father. Of course, I wish you and Mom could have worked things out, but do I wish the two of you would have stayed in an unhappy marriage just for me? Definitely not. Look, I love Mom. She’s a great mother. Yeah, she made some huge mistakes in the parenting department, but I like to think she truly believed at the time that she was doing what was best her children. On the other hand, I don’t see how you could ever truly trust her again. And, you’re still a cop. The fact that you’re getting along now is great, but the two of you giving it another go would just be a train wreck waiting to happen. And I, for one, don’t want to witness it.
Danny didn’t know what to think. On some level, he knew Grace was right, but he and Rachel had a history that was hard to let go of. When everything was going well between them it was so easy to forget about the bad parts of that history, the arguments, the bitterness, the betrayals, and just remember the good times, the fun, the passion, the fact that they had two beautiful children who deserved an intact family. On the other hand…
“But hey, moving to Hawaii turned out alright, didn’t it?” Grace asked. “I mean, you and I both love it here.”
“What?” Danny was pulled out of his musings by Grace’s ridiculous statement. “Love this pineapple-infested hellhole. Are you kidding me?”
“Give it up, Dad. You haven’t hated Hawaii since that first year.”
“Hmph.” Even if she was right, Danny refused to admit it, even to himself.
“Which brings me to the next reason why you and Mom would never work. Uncle Steve.”
“Steve? What does that thickheaded Neanderthal have to do with me and your mom?”
“Really, Dad?” Where did Grace learn to raise one eyebrow like that? It made him feel like she could read all his secrets. And wasn’t that a terrifying thought?
“Steve’s my partner. And alright, I’ll admit it, my best friend, but he has nothing to do with my relationship with your mother.”
“Are you really that deep in denial or are you intentionally lying to me?” Grace didn’t even try to hide her exasperation with him.
“Gracie.” This was not a conversation he wanted to have with his teenage daughter. With anyone, for that matter.
“Don’t ‘Gracie’ me, Dad. This is 2019 and I’m seventeen years old. Do you really think I’m that naïve?”
“Hmph. I guess not, but it’s complicated.” God, he sounded like he was updating his relationship status on Facebook.
“How complicated could it be? You’re in love with him and he’s in love with you. Ergo, you should be together.”
“Ergo? Really?”
“Yes, ergo. I have an extensive vocabulary. I am your child after all.” Grace shot him sassy grin.
Danny shook his head at his daughter’s precociousness. “Okay, I admit that I might … wait. What did you just say? What do you mean Steve’s in love with me?”
“Seriously, Dad. It’s so obvious. Besides, when I confronted him, he admitted it.”
“You confronted him? When? Why? What did he say?” Danny’s voice had gone up a full octave by the time he got to the last question.
“Yes. Last week. Because I realized what was going on with you and Mom and I needed him to get his head out of his ass. He admitted that he is in love with you, has been for years, but he didn’t think you felt the same way and he didn’t want to ruin your friendship by saying anything. He said that if you really love her, he isn’t going to stand in the way of your happiness. You should have seen him Dad. He tried to hide it, but I could tell it was killing him.” The sadness that seeped into Grace’s words made Danny’s heart clench.
“Damn jackass, always the martyr. When is he ever going to realize that his feelings and his happiness matter just as much as anybody else’s?”
“Maybe when you tell him that he can actually be happy because you return his feelings,” Grace told him bluntly.
Danny sat there for several moments, amazed by his daughter’s insight and maturity, and tried to wrap his mind around the fact that Steve may actually return his feelings. Feelings that he himself had viciously tamped down and relegated to the never going to happen part of his brain. Feelings that came flooding back to the forefront with just a few words from his interfering daughter. Eventually, he made a decision, jumped up out of his chair and started towards the door. Then he stopped and turned back towards Grace who was watching him expectantly.
“Okay, your mother and Charlie should be here soon. The minestrone needs to simmer for another 20 minutes. I picked up some fresh bread at the bakery on the way home. Pop it in the oven at 400 for 15 minutes. I’ve already made the salad. It’s in the fridge along with my homemade tiramisu for dessert.”
“And you are giving me these instructions because?” The grin on her face told him she knew exactly why but wanted him to say it out loud. He guessed his owed her a hell of a lot more than that.
“Because I’m going to go find your Uncle Steve and tell him I’m in love with him.”
“Hot damn.”
Danny marched back to the table and grabbed Grace’s face in both hands before leaning down to smack a kiss on her forehead. “Danno loves you, monkey.”
“I love you, too, Danno.”
“Wish me luck,” he said, voice gruff with emotion.
“You don’t need luck,” she assured him. “You just need to tell him how you feel.”
Twenty minutes later, Danny knocked on Steve’s front door. It swung open immediately, as if Steve had been standing on the other side waiting for him to arrive. Grace strikes again, he thought. The kid was turning into a real yenta.
When Steve just stood there blocking the entrance, Danny prompted him, “May I come in?”
“Yeah.” Steve answered without meeting his eyes. He simply stepped back and opened the door wide enough for Danny to pass through. Once he was inside, Steve quietly closed the door but didn’t let go of the knob. He just stood there facing the door, shoulders tense, pointedly not looking at Danny, almost like he was afraid to find out why Danny was there.
“Steve?” Danny reached out and laid a hand on his arm, silently encouraging him to turn around. When he finally did, the look in Steve’s eyes made Danny heart stutter and then it started to race. It was if every emotion the other man had kept tightly contained for years was fighting to break free and Steve was doing everything in his power to hold back the torrent.
Danny reached up and gently cupped Steve’s cheek. “Apparently, we’ve both been blind. I think we need to talk.”
It was like a dam burst and all Steve's carefully contained emotions came flooding out so swiftly that Danny thought they both might drown. Then Steve surged forward and captured Danny's mouth in a kiss that was nothing short of desperate. Years of suppressed love, desire, longing, and hope were conveyed in that one frantic kiss. After several minutes, the kiss slowly changed, and while still passionate, it no longer held the desperation of a drowning man, but instead reflected the joy of one who had made it safely to shore. Two different, but equally fervent, emotions, and with the shift came the acknowledgment that they were both, finally, right where they wanted to be. When they reluctantly pulled apart, Danny realized his hands were buried in Steve's hair. He took the opportunity to gently draw him down until his forehead rested against his own.
“Enough said,” Danny whispered, and his heart sang when he felt Steve’s smile.
Fin.