Chapter 5: Relationship Questions

“I can’t believe she’s taken to him that fast,” a voice said as I started coming out of my slumber. “Vicki’s usually so nervous around new people. Are you sure they’ve never met before today?”

“No, Grandma, they haven’t. I’ve told him a little about my girl, but I’ve never brought her to work on Tuesdays when he comes in.” That was Liv, the first voice was Natalie. “It’s been more than two hours. I should get her up, or she won’t sleep tonight.”

“You should take a picture, they look so peaceful that way.” I sensed Natalie leaning over, rubbing Vicki’s back. “If you didn’t know better, you’d think they were related. Something just doesn’t add up, Olivia. He’s not after your money, so he has to be trying to get into your pants. Why else would he do all this for you?”

“Grandma! He’s never once behaved in that manner towards me. He’s a gentleman, a regular customer who lost his wife and is lonely. I don’t know why he decided to do all this for me, but he’s never once shown interest in dating me or any of the other girls at work. Even the divorcees gave up on him years ago, and they’ll go after anything with a pulse! He’s not the kind of man who uses women.”

“And I won’t,” I said as I opened my eyes. Their eyes got wide as I looked over towards them. “You should be proud of the woman your granddaughter has become. No matter how bad a day I was having, I could count on her to smile and make me feel better. She works her butt off, she’s raised a beautiful daughter and is the kind of daughter I wish Catherine and I had been able to have. If you want to know what I think of her, that’s it. She’s the daughter I wish I had.”

I looked at Liv, who had tears running down her cheeks. She flushed red, then ran out of the room; I heard the bedroom door closing. Looking back at Natalie, she was shocked as well. She sat down on the chair, staring at me. “I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, it’s not what you said about how you felt that caused her to run off. It’s more that you said it instead of the two who should be telling her that themselves. I’ll go talk to her, why don’t you wake Vicki up and keep her busy until we come out.” She got up and headed down the hall, knocking on the door.

I twisted my body, sitting up while keeping an arm around Vicki. She stirred, opening her eyes. “Tired, Leo,” she said as one fist rubbed an eye.

“Well, if we sleep any longer, I’ll miss the rest of Christmas,” I said. “What do you do after presents and dinner?”

“Watch shows and drink cocoa,” she said. “Can we go see sharks now?” I had to laugh as she gave me her best ‘please’ face.

“They aren’t open today, Vicki, it’s Christmas.”

“Sharks are ALL alone?”

I laughed. “The sharks have each other to play with, and I’m sure they left someone to babysit. You’ll have to ask Mom when you can go.”

“No school tomorrow. Sharks!”

“Maybe on vacation,” I said. “Do you want to see what it’s like?” She nodded. I pulled out my phone and brought up some Youtube videos of the aquarium. We were watching sharks swimming around when the ladies came back out. “I had to tell her the aquarium was closed, so we’re watching videos of it,” I said.

Liv leaned over the end of the couch, watching for a few seconds with her daughter before she kissed her head. Her eyes were still puffy and red, but she’d washed the tear tracks off. “Who wants cocoa,” she asked.

“ME! Marshmallow, please,” Vicki said.

“Vicki said your cocoa is the best, so I have to try it too,” I said. It was as good as advertised, made with heated milk and cocoa powder, with a bit of peppermint extract. The rest of the evening flew by; we watched animated Christmas programs, drank cocoa, played Uno, and snacked on leftovers until it was time for Vicki to go to bed.

“Goodnight, Unky Leo,” she said as she climbed in my lap to hug me around the neck. She’d picked up on something Natalie had said, that I was like an uncle because I was Liv’s friend.

“Goodnight, Vicki.” Natalie took her back to her small bedroom, leaving me with Olivia. “You have questions,” I said.

“Many. Grandma has a lot more than me,” she said with a laugh.

“I’ll save the interrogation for later, then. In the meantime, I have a few questions for you. What can you tell me about Vicki’s father?”

“He’s not in the picture,” she responded defensively. “I don’t see how it matters.”

“It’s important. I’ll explain why later, but if you can humor me and tell me what you know.”

She looked down the hall to verify the door was closed, then nodded. “I was a good Catholic girl; my parents were strict about boys, not letting me date in high school. They sent me to Marquette, thinking a Jesuit university would keep me on the straight and narrow, but they had NO idea how wild those dorms were. I lost my virginity the first night there and had a lot of sex the rest of my freshman year. My roommate lived up by the Wisconsin Dells, and she invited me to stay with her over the Fourth of July back in 2014. My parents agreed, and I drove down to her house. We didn’t tell anyone her parents were in California at the time.”

“The father?”

“We were partying with a group of her friends at the river, and one of them knew a guy with a houseboat. He said we could watch the fireworks from the Wisconsin River and hang out. John seemed cool. He was older, in his late thirties, but he was a good-looking guy. We met up with him after dinner, and he took us out on his houseboat. We went upriver and beached it on a sandbar for the night. The place was wild; kids drinking and partying, swimming, water skiing, and having sex in the water. My roommate and her boyfriend were busy, and I was the only one who wasn’t paired up with someone else. As night fell, I went back to the boat and hung out with John. He made some margaritas, pulled me into his chair to watch the fireworks, and started running his hands over my body. Pretty soon, my bikini was untied, and his hands were running free. I wasn’t fighting it; like I said, he was good looking, and I was having fun. After the fireworks ended, he took me to his bedroom. We had sex a few times, quite good sex actually.”

“You didn’t use protection?”

“I was on the pill, but I’d forgotten to bring it, and I missed a few days. I didn’t think it would matter, but six weeks later, I found out that it did. I was crushed; the fall semester was starting soon, and my parents weren’t going to take this well. I called my roommate in a panic, and she was able to get me John’s phone number.”

“How did he take it when you called and told him?”

She looked down at her hands. “John’s WIFE answered the phone. I couldn’t tell her; my life was ruined, and I couldn’t ruin his marriage too. I pretended I was selling magazines, and she hung up on me.” She wiped away a tear. “I called back the next day and told him. After challenging whether the baby was his, he told me that having the baby was out of the question. I was to get an abortion immediately, and he would send me money for it. I refused both offers.”

“I can’t imagine how you felt,” I said.

“My parents found out, and that’s when everything else fell apart. I’d rebelled against them and everything they taught me. They couldn’t accept the harlot their daughter had turned into, not in their home or their lives. They kicked me out, withdrew me from school, and sent me here to live with Grandma so the scandal of my pregnancy wouldn’t reach them.”

“You haven’t reconciled?”

“The last time I talked to them was after Vicki was born. My mother called me her biggest disappointment and told me neither I nor my bastard daughter, would be allowed in their home.”

With this, she broke down, and I reached a hand across to her. “You’re strong, Liv. You’re raising a special girl, a blessing.”

“I know.”

“Have you made contact with the father since then?”

“No. I did look John up on the Internet once; his wedding photos were in the paper. Would you believe he’d been married for a MONTH, yet he was sleeping with a drunk college student on the river? No, I listed the father as unknown, and moved on with my life.”

“What was his name?” I couldn’t wait to look this bastard up myself; who would impregnate a human with their pup, and abandon her. Who would give up on an ALPHA pup at that?

“John Peterson. He lives up in northern Wisconsin, a place called Marengo Lakes.”

The name hit me like a punch to the gut.

John Peterson was the name my younger brother took when he left to marry the heir of the Marengo Lakes Pack. He mated their only daughter, Brenda, in 2014.

This was bad.

I didn’t get to ask more, as Natalie came back out. She sat at the table with us, an expectant look on her face. “You want to know what is going on between your Vicki, Liv, and I,” I said.

“I don’t want my family being hurt,” she replied. “She’s not a toy for a horny old man.”

I pushed down the anger at her implication. “Before I answer your questions, I’d like to ask a few more questions about Vicki.” I had many questions for her AND my brother. “Has she ever told you that she hears a voice in her head?”

The two looked at each other, then Liv nodded. “I asked my pediatrician about it, and he didn’t think it was a problem. Children have vivid imaginations, and it’s not like the voice is telling her to harm herself. It’s like an imaginary friend. She spends a lot of time alone; she doesn’t always play well with others her age.”

“These play problems; are they because she is aggressive? Maybe acts out physically?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“I know because she and I share a common heritage; it’s why I feel a pull to protect her, and why she feels so comfortable with me so quickly.”

“Heritage?”

“It’s not something I can comfortably discuss until I know more details. I need to make some calls and do some research, and I’ll need a day or two to do this. Vicki mentioned she wanted to go sledding; would you consider visiting my home? There are some good hills there, and if you’d allow her to go on a snowmobile, we could give her a little adventure on her school break.”

“I haven’t been on a snowmobile in years,” Liv said. “Neither of us own the gear for it.”

“That will be my problem,” I replied. “Would Friday be all right? I can’t cook, but I could pick you up at eleven and take you to lunch in town, then out to my property for the afternoon. I will answer all of your questions then.”

“Not tonight?” Natalie looked disappointed.

“Friday, I will explain everything if that is all right.”

The two looked at each other, then Liv nodded to me. “I will see you Friday at eleven,” she said.

“You kids have fun, I’m too old to be on a snowmobile,” Natalie said.

I couldn’t stay around, not with the thoughts bouncing around in my head. “I must be going,” I said. “Thank you for a lovely evening.” It took twenty more minutes to complete the Minnesota Long Goodbye, and I ended up taking a plate of leftovers and some pie with me, but I made it home by seven.

I had to make some phone calls before this situation blew up.