“Since when do you fuck my daughter and not tell me until she’s pregnant?” he fires back.
“Fair enough,” I say.
“Seriously, what the hell?” he says, lighting up. “I mean… Christ, Grant.”
I sigh and say, “Look, I didn’t want to have to come to you like this, Hank.”
“Don’t give me that crap,” he says, “You don’taccidentallyhave sex with a girl. God, I can’t believe I’m talking about my daughter like this. I can’t believe I’m talking aboutyoulike this. I mean for fuck’s sake, Grant. She’seighteen years old!”
“I know, Hank,” I say.
My voice is soft, but steady and my gaze never wavers from his. He takes a drag on his cigarette and says, “When?”
“When what?” I ask.
“What the fuck do you think?”he shouts, “When did you start fucking my eighteen-year-old daughter?”
“A few days ago,” I say.
“A few… After the French arrest?”
“Just before, actually,” I say.
“Just before,” he repeats incredulously. “And it didn’t occur to you to stop at a gas station for a condom so that my eighteen-year-old daughter doesn’t have to be a mother years before she’s ready?”
I feel my emotions rising, but I know better than to react to Hank’s anger with my own. I keep my voice steady as I say, “Hank, you’re my best friend, and I love you, but you don’t have the right to decide what she’s ready for.”
I expect him to hit me again, but instead, he says, “Neither do you, asshole.”
He leaves it at that and stares a challenge at me, not a physical one, but a challenge, nonetheless. Behind the anger in his eyes, I can see pleading—pleading that I will say something, anything to make this make sense or at least reassure him that Mack will be okay.
“Hank,” I say softly, “She told me.”
“She told you that she wanted a baby,” he says contemptuously. “Come on, Grant. At least do me the favor of not treating me like a complete fucking idiot.”
“She told me that she was pregnant, and she told me that she was keeping it whether or not I want to stay with her.”
“So that’s why you’re with her,” he says. “Because you knocked her up.”
“No,” I say. “Because I love her. I’m only telling you what she said so you would know that she really does want this. I would stay with her whether she was pregnant or not. I would stay with her whether she wanted the baby or not. I love her, and I’m sorry Hank, but regardless of how you feel about it, Iwillmarry her. I hope you can see a way to accept this, but if you can’t, then you’re going to be unhappy until you do.”
“And this all happened in just a few days,” he says, making it clear he doesn’t believe it. Well, that’s fine, because in this case, he’s right.
“No, Hank,” I say. “I’ve loved her for a long time. It didn’t develop into anything… anythingmorethan just affection until a few months ago, but I’ve always loved her.”
“And now that she’s legal, your feelings conveniently include sex?”
I feel my anger rise again and just manage to control myself as I say, “Hank, I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk about her like that.”
“Well, I would appreciate it if you didn’t use her like that, but here we are,” he retorts immediately.
I sigh and choose my next words carefully. “Hank, I hope that you can someday recognize that my love for her is real and that I’m not just using her. In the meantime, you’re just going to have to deal with it however you need to. I love her. I’m marrying her. She’s having my baby. That’s how it is.”
He stares at me wordlessly for a long time. Finally, he says, “Hank, I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted any man. For the record, I know I stand no chance against you in a fistfight. Believe me when I say, if you ever give me a reason not to trust you when it comes to McKenzie, you won’t get the chance at a fistfight.”
Hank doesn’t have a chance against me in any kind of fight, but I sympathize with his feelings right now and I know he needs to feel that he has some kind of say in the situation, so I only say, “You have my word, Hank. I will never give you a reason not to trust me.”
He nods and says, “In that case, congratulations, asshole.”