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Richard Neville was sitting across his daughter, and his son-in-law. He smiled at them as soon as he finished ordering his main entree. His daughter looked like she was about to pass out of happiness as she rested her head against her husband’s shoulder. He had asked what was going on, but neither of them answered. He sighed a little frustrated. He knew both of them; his son-in-law was practically like a son to him. He tried to ignore it but he could see the way that they were both leaning on each other. His son-in-law has his chin resting on his daughter’s head, while Anne had his hands interlaced with hers.
“You two stop it. What is it?”
“Oh Anne, please don’t torture him. I wouldn’t like to be tortured like that!” Richard said before kissing her chin again.
“Now?” Anne asked looking up to see his eyes.
“Let’s not make the old man suffer.”
Richard Neville looked at him and frowned. He was only fifty-five years old.
“Old man?” Richard Neville asked him as the Richard across the table looked for something inside his leather jacket, “You are still a cocky little thing. If your Dad were still alive, he would have been my same age.”
“Oh come on. It is just a joke!” Richard said as he slid across the table the sealed envelop, “There. Read it. This is what we wanted to tell you. Just please don’t have a heart attack. The last thing we need is for that to happen.”
Anne couldn’t help it but to smile.
“If this the check for the car you messed up when you were 20? I should charge you interests too.” Richard Neville said as he tore open the envelop.
“Gently!” Anne cried out loud.
Richard Neville looked at the tiny photo in his hand. It was a black and white rainy picture with a circle in the middle.
“What the hell is this?” Richard Neville asked.
Richard started to laugh, making Anne elbow him in the ribs, “What do you think that is?”
“This— isn’t this a sonogram?”
The big smile that formed on Anne’s face only made him wonder, “Why do you have a sonogram?”
The youngest Richard on the booth started to laugh, “Why do you think we have a sonogram, huh?
A sonogram. Two twenty-seven year olds who were married, and had been trying for a few months to have a baby.
Slowly it started to make sense to him. A sonogram. Anne was not drinking her usual Frozen Margarita. Richard was also not drinking. His daughter looked as if she had stolen the sun, and Richard had hanged it over her head.
“Oh my God!” Richard Neville sighed, “Are you—”
“Yep!” Anne said with a smile.
His eyes started to water. That was his little girl in front of him. The little girl that always wore shiny dresses with big matching bows. At her side was a man that was a like a son to him. A man he helped raise when his best friend died. He had raised him and his brothers, becoming their father figure, which meant that they came with embarrassing questions, needing money and as usual problems. Somehow, along the road, he put himself on the right road and pulled himself together to be a man his Father would have been proud of.
He smiled, closing his eyes. He remembered of both times he had gotten the news from his wife. He felt the same emotions. He touched his heart with one hand, while with the other he reached for Anne’s hand, which he took and held tightly before kissing it as if she was a little girl who had been hurt.
“You are– you are pregnant!” He cried with a smile as he stroked his daughter’s hand.
“Yes!” Anne nodded laughing, “Six weeks, actually. I am due on July.”
“July?”
“Yes. You are not going to say anything? I thought you would have been more talkative. You are too quiet.”
He started to laugh before standing up from his chair. He told Anne to stand up and he pulled her into a big hug. With tears on his eyes, he told his daughter not to cry. Anne couldn’t help it. It could have been the hormones, but she felt the urge to cry and to go to the bathroom.
“I am going to be grandfather!” He sighed with a smile, still not letting go of his daughter.
While he was hugging his daughter, his son-in-law smiled, “Now you understand why I was calling you ‘old man’, right? You are going to be grandfather.”
Richard let go of his daughter by giving her a kiss on the tip of her nose; before pulling his son-in-law into an unexpected hug and kiss on the cheek, “You take care of them!” Richard Neville said firmly, “You be the man, your Mother raised you to be, and I know you can be. You take care of them!”