As I said, I'm just skipping around time as one-shot ideas come to me. I'll warn you that I was in a melancholic mood for this one, which takes place when Ella is in her mid-late twenties. I'm sure I'll go back to childhood next time…
Ella accepted a glass of red wine from her father. She'd arrived just after nightfall and had beaten the snowstorm that started outside (which made Joe a nervous wreck the entire time she was making the three-hour drive).
"What's new with you?" Joe asked.
"Well, there's this doctor who started at the office a couple of months ago…" Ella folded her long legs beneath her, perching on the couch next to the Christmas tree. The soft glow of the white lights illuminated her face in the otherwise darkened room. "He's young, very intelligent, handsome…"
"Oh?" Joe tried to keep his tone neutral, shifting the sleeping toddler on his chest to rest on his other arm. The two-and-a-half-year-old didn't stir, remaining cozy against his grandfather's chest in his red footed fleece pajamas.
Part of him was still the protective father who never wanted Ella to get married; but she also spent all of her time working and taking care of Jeremiah, and he was afraid she'd never settle down and share her life with someone.
"Yeah, I can't stand him." Ella said, taking a drink of her wine.
Joe raised his eyebrows. "Why?"
"He's an arrogant prick. He looks down on the nurses because he's our superior."
Ella was a registered nurse in a cardiology office. She'd worked in a hospital first and loved it, but the structured hours and days of the offices were friendlier for a single mother.
Joe chuckled, remembering what it was like to have Natalie as a boss. "Boy, does that sound familiar…"
Ella had heard the pieces of the story of her parents' courtship (minus the dirty details) numerous times throughout her lifetime – of how the antagonism between them had turned to respect and friendship and eventually to love.
But it was a story she'd never tired of hearing.
"Your mother used to torment me for sport. Every time she'd leave my office, I'd throw something at the door. Almost hit someone else coming in one time with a stack of Post-It notes."
"How did you get past that?"
Joe fast-forwarded past all the hate sex they had in his mind to the part he felt he could tell his daughter. "I got her job, and I realized how damn hard it was."
"Well, I'm never going to have his job." Ella pointed out.
"Maybe not, but you can realize that he's probably projecting his stress onto you and try to empathize with him. Realize he's human."
"And that's what you did with Mom?"
"Ehhh, sort of. I also wooed her with karaoke on our first date, of course." Joe's eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled.
"I still can't believe she actually got on the stage with you."
"I think that's when it shifted, and we realized we didn't really hate each other." Joe said. "I thought she was going to kill me at first, then she did some of the most awkward dancing that I've ever seen."
"I miss her." Ella said softly, looking down into her wine glass.
Joe sighed, shifting his eyes to the mantle to look at a framed family photo – one of their last. "So do I."
"Are you okay?" Ella's face turned concerned. "I know you were hoping to have one last Christmas together…"
It was only eight months before that terms like "adenocarcinoma," "stage four," and "metastasized" became part of their lives; it was only two months after the diagnosis that Natalie was gone.
"If we had, she'd have suffered a lot longer and been in more pain. It's better that it was quick." Joe said softly. He told himself that frequently; sometimes, it was the only way to get through the day.
Ella frowned at him, a very familiar frown. Sometimes, Ella reminded Joe so much of Natalie that he could hardly look at her without feeling a pain in his chest. Her hair was lighter than Natalie's and her nose was more like his own, but her eyes were her mother's. She even sounded like Natalie; there were times when Ella would answer the phone sounding just like her mother, rendering him momentarily speechless.
Inside, Ella was like Natalie in many ways, too. After her relationship with her son's father, who was her college boyfriend, hadn't worked out, she'd built walls around her heart to keep people out. A master of sarcasm and wit, Ella used them both as a defense mechanism – just as her mother had, but not quite as biting.
Ella locked eyes with her father. "I've been thinking. I could get a job at the hospital here, and Jeremiah and I could move back closer to home."
"Are you crazy?" Joe shook his head firmly. "You love living in Connecticut. You're not moving back here to babysit your old man."
"I just hate to think of you being here and lonely." Ella sighed.
"I'm fine." Joe gestured toward the golden retriever lounging under the tree, gnawing on a candy cane-shaped dog toy. "I'm not alone. I have Bailey."
Bailey's ears perked up at the sound of her name, but she didn't leave her spot under the tree. Joe had put up the Christmas tree out of obligation to Ella and Jeremiah, not for himself. It was artificial (Natalie had never wanted pine needles all over the place), and when he'd carefully hung the ornaments, he'd wistfully marveled over the memories attached each – the porcelain rocking horse ornament from Ella's first Christmas, the clay ornament they'd struggled to imprint her tiny hand into, the Rudolph made of popsicle sticks that she'd brought home from school. There were ornaments from the vacations they'd taken and framed pictures of Jeremiah's baby photos. It looked the same; but it wasn't.
"Maybe we can visit more."
Joe smiled a little. "That I would like. I happen to love this little guy. And you too, I suppose."
Ella laughed. "Gee, thanks. Having a baby took me from spoiled only child to chopped liver really quickly."
"Boy, Natalie loved you too." Joe murmured to the still-sleeping toddler, lightly stroking the pale blond curls on the back of his head. "Being your grandmother was her favorite."
"It sure was." Ella whispered her agreement.
"Just remember this, Elli Jo…" Joe used the nickname he'd had for her since she was a baby. "Sometimes, you get hurt before you find the love you need. With me, it was an ex-girlfriend. With your mom, it was an ex-husband. We didn't end up together until we were over 40, and I didn't think I would have ever had a family life when I was that old. I got the chance to love her, to have and raise you, and now, you have your own child… We had a beautiful life together, and I wish it had been longer, but, I was still lucky to have it."
Ella laid her hand over Joe's. He turned his hand over and squeezed hers.
"All I'm saying is don't rule the jerk ass out just yet. There might be more to him than you think." Joe smiled sadly. "There was certainly more to Nat."