"Nate, I don't understand why it's such a big deal."
Nate paced the living room. "You don't know him, Soph," he all but growled.
She frowned, leaning forward on the couch. "I met him at the wedding and he was perfectly charming. Perhaps a little rough around the edges, but no one is perfect."
Nate barked a laugh. "Being a charming person and being a good person are two vastly different things."
"Maybe he's changed," she tried.
He shook his head, his shoulders tight. "I don't want him coming here."
"Nate," she said gently, standing and going over to him. "He's your father. And he hasn't even met any of the kids. Maybe he just-"
"I especially don't want him meeting the kids!" he interjected, moving away from her. "He's not coming here! And if he does, I'm sending you and the kids away."
"Oh," Sophie said, hurt and a little angry. She was only trying to help. "You're going to send us away, are you?"
"Yes! Yes I am. He is not going to get anywhere near any of you!"
"Well in that case, you'll be pleased to know he's in town and I invited him over Sunday afternoon."
"You what? When did you talk to him? Don't even talk to him, Sophie! He ruins everything he touches."
"That's a little dramatic, isn't it? He just wants one afternoon. Maybe it will be good for both of you to reconnect!"
"It won't. You're just obsessing about this because you haven't had any contact with your parents since you were a teenager and you regret that. But this is not the same! If you want the kids to know their grandparents, find yours but don't pretend you're doing this for my benefit!"
His words stung. She turned her back and walked down the hallway. "Goodnight," she said loftily, and slammed the bedroom door.
The next morning, after a night on the couch and being woken up by an exuberant Parker who wanted to play dinosaurs and witches, Nate wasn't in much better of a mood. But if Sophie was so insistent on inviting his dad over, then he would allow her to see just what a terrible person Jimmy Ford was.
"He can come tomorrow," he said, pouring Parker a bowl of cereal.
Sophie dropped a kiss on Parker's head as she came into the kitchen and for a moment he thought she was ignoring him. "What changed your mind?"
He could tell she was still mad at him. "A hunch."
She shook her head, her lips pressed together tightly.
"Who's coming tomorrow?" Parker chirped.
"Your grandfather," Sophie said just as Nate put in, "A guy named Jimmy."
Parker's brow furrowed. "Huh?"
Jimmy Ford was there the next day by lunchtime. They were gathering in the kitchen when the doorbell rang and they all jumped, reacting to the tension that had been present since the day before. Sophie had been coaching the kids to get them to be polite and Nate had been snapping at everyone.
Alec made it to the door first, Nate close behind, and flung it open. "Hi, Grandpa Jimmy!" he exclaimed in his usual friendly exuberance.
Jimmy smiled through his mustache. "Heya, kid," he said, glancing at Nate then back at Alec.
"You must be Alec."
The boy beamed. "How'd you know?"
"Your mom told me all about you," he said. "She said you're awfully smart for a first grader."
Alec nodded even as Nate shot a look over his shoulder at Sophie.
"You going to let me in?" Jimmy said, and Alec stood aside, the rest of the family wandering over as the old man stepped across the threshold.
"We're glad you could make it, Jimmy," Sophie said warmly, stepping forward.
Jimmy smiled broadly at her. "Good of you to invite me."
Sophie gave Nate a pointed look. "Dad," he said after a moment's hesitation.
Jimmy nodded at him. "Nathan, can you believe I haven't seen your home or your children yet? Your own father."
Sophie saw the tight look on Nate's face and intervened. "Jimmy, this is our oldest, Eliot," she said, pointing to him.
Eliot was watching with his usual wariness but he'd promised his mother he'd be polite so he stuck out his hand. Jimmy gave it a firm shake.
"This boy's got a good arm. You play baseball, son?"
Eliot shook his head. "I like football."
Jimmy looked at Nate. "An arm like that and you don't have him playing baseball?"
"He likes football," Nate said coolly.
Jimmy shrugged and bent lower to be eye to eye with Parker, who was half-hiding behind Sophie's leg. "And who's this pretty little thing?"
"This is Parker," Sophie offered when it became clear that the little girl wasn't going to introduce herself.
"You have got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen," Jimmy said, trying to coax her out.
Parker watched him, "Do you have any candy?" she asked after a moment.
"Parker!" Sophie exclaimed.
But Jimmy laughed. "This one knows how to sniff out the goods, eh Nathan?" He pulled a bag of root beer barrels from his jacket pocket and held them out to the little girl, looking back at Nate. "Remember these? You used to love 'em."
Nate didn't reply and Parker grabbed the bag, giving one of the candies a little sniff before unwrapping it and popping it in her mouth.
"What do you say, Parker?" Sophie nudged.
"'S good," the little girl said with a firm nod of approval.
"Thanks Grandpa Jimmy," Hardison filled in for her, grabbing a candy out of the bag.
"My pleasure," he said. "So what's for lunch?"
Lunch went relatively well with Sophie, Jimmy, and Alec providing most of the conversation. Nate was keeping his mouth carefully shut and Eliot was still feeling the tension, preferring to study how things would play out before getting involved. And Parker was too busy sneaking more candy instead of eating her lunch.
As they were finishing up, Alec slid off his chair and grabbed Jimmy's arm. "Wanna see my helicopter?" he asked. "Once I got it stuck in Eliot's hair."
Jimmy raised his eyebrows and allowed himself to be pulled away from the table.
"Stop tellin' people about that!" Eliot grumbled, following them.
"Wait! I wanna show Grampa Jimmy Bunny!" Parker said, leaving her sandwich uneaten.
Nate started to go after them, but Sophie put a hand on his arm. "I'm still waiting," she said, with a pleased smile.
"Waiting for what?" Nate replied, still half out of his chair.
"For the monster you described to show himself." She folded her arms across her chest.
He stood. "He can be charming when he wants to be but there's always a reason for it."
"Are you sure that reason isn't that he wants to get to know his grandchildren?"
Nate paused for just a second before shaking his head and turning away. "I'm going to go check on them."
"People do change," she reminded him.
It was true that so far Nate hadn't seen any evidence of the man he'd grown up with. This Jimmy was more like the person who'd taken him to baseball games and less like the person who'd made him believe he could never do anything right.
"The kids like him," Sophie said gently when he didn't move. "Give them a few minutes to get to know him."
He turned back around to face her. "That's what I'm afraid of."
She came around the table and linked her arm with his. "Just a few minutes."
Nate smiled at her, glad he was apparently forgiven for his earlier behavior and deigned to wait, helping with the lunch cleanup and telling himself that Sophie was right.
But after the designated "few minutes," he hurried down the hall to the boys' room, only to have his heart sink when he opened the door.
Jimmy was sitting across from Parker - Parker, his five-year-old - with three cards face down between them on Eliot's bed.
"Now show me," Jimmy said. "Which one do you think it is?"
Something snapped in Nate. All he could see was his dad forcing him to pick a card over and over and feeling more and more like a failure. "Dad, that's enough," he said, storming into the room.
The kids looked up at him, startled, and Jimmy held up his hands in apparent innocence. "Hold on, Nathan -"
"Get out," Nate ordered.
No one looked more surprised than Jimmy.
"Nate …" Sophie tried to intervene but wasn't entirely sure what was going on.
Nate didn't answer, just stared at Jimmy until the old man gathered up the cards with a shrug. "If that's the way you want it."
Parker frowned. "But I didn't get to pick."
"Next time," Jimmy told her with a little smile. He stood and patted Alec on the head before sweeping past Nate and Sophie.
He walked straight to the door, Nate following him to make sure he left. The rest of the family stayed in the hallway, too confused to say anything.
"You know," Jimmy said, pausing with his hand on the doorknob. "I came here to make things right."
"Goodbye, Dad," Nate said.
Jimmy shot one last half-smile at Sophie and the kids and left the apartment. Silence followed and for some reason, Nate didn't want to turn around.
"What was that all about?" Sophie asked, just a hint of accusation in her voice.
Nate shook his head, still not facing them.
"He said he was gonna take the helicopter on a test run," Alec said with sorrow.
"I didn't get to see the end of the trick," Parker said in the same tone.
Nate scrubbed a hand over his face. "I'm going to take a walk." He left the apartment without saying anything else.
I'm rather delighted to be back to this story. I've got a couple more in the works after this two-parter!