My Dad’s Valentine by greenday0418

His answer was, “I’d rather see Miss Lily.”

Betty’s mother covered her mouth with her hand and said, “That’s what my mother told me you’d say. Come along then, and I’ll show you the way to father’s study where she is preparing to eat her breakfast now.”

“May I call you grandmother now?”

Kathy nodded.

“Grandmother, I can find my way to study,” and he walked toward the stairs like he’d lived in this house all his life.

“Of course, Bobby, I’ll send your breakfast up.” Kathy seemed a little depressed until Bobby turned and ran back to her, hugging her legs and saying, “Just because I like spending time with Miss Lily, I also want to spend time with you,” and he looked up at her face and gave her a big smile.

The last day before we left, I spent an emotional thirty minutes speaking with Betty’s parents in private. Betty asked me what we talked about, and I told her I would reveal my conversation in a couple of months.

***

Bobby’s seventh birthday arrived, and Betty went with us to the cemetery to visit Marta’s grave. As we walked across the grass, Betty was in the middle, holding my hand and Bobby’s. As we laid flowers on the grave, the voice, which didn’t come around as much anymore, spoke to me.

‘Now remember what I agreed to and what you promised.’

I mouthed the words, “I will.”

***

Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday this year, the perfect day for what I had planned. Betty was ready when I picked her up at 10 AM in a town car I had rented. We stopped to pick up Bobby, who spent the night with my parents but surprised Betty when my mom and dad got into the back seat with their grandson.

As we drove north out of the city, Betty kept peppering me with questions, and every now and then, I answered, “All your questions will soon be answered, one at a time.”

Fifteen minutes later, she said, “We’re going to my parents’ house, right?”

When we pulled up to the house, she saw all the cars parked beside the house and said, “Is the whole family here?”

Walt and Kathy greeted us at the door to the mudroom and escorted us into the living room, where everyone gathered around, cheering and clapping as we entered the room.

“What is this?” Betty managed to get her question out feebly, which Bobby answered, “It’s your gagement party.”

Mom whispered in his ear, and he corrected himself.

“Oops, I meant n-gagement party.”

“But you haven’t proposed to me, Luke.”

I knelt in front of her, holding a box in my left hand and her ring hand with my right, and spoke to her, “Betty, before I ask that question, I need to explain everything first. On Valentine’s Day, nine years ago, I proposed to Marta. She accepted, and you know about our marriage and Bobby and how and why she left me. I was a wreck, and I hid my mental state from everyone. I could barely sleep enough to function and ate food only to survive for Bobby. Then I met you, and the layers of pain and heartache began to strip away. First, I was able to sleep more than four hours a night, and the first food I could taste was your hamburger helper.”

Everybody laughed but stopped quickly because I didn’t want to interrupt the moment.

“After that first weekend, when I fixed your leak, I began thinking about you a lot, and I made up excuses to call you at night, which I did until we discovered the forged Thanksgiving card that I allegedly sent to you via Bobby, Mom, and back to Bobby.”

I paused as I located my Mom before continuing, “Mom, after reading what you wrote, I couldn’t deny that I agreed with every word. Betty, when I left your house that night, we both agreed that we had strong feelings for each other, and we began dating. I’m not going to review any details of these dates when you cooked dinner for me, but we did spend family time with my parents, and a few weeks later, I met your family, and everything felt right. Do you remember the private meeting I had with Kathy and Walt? In that meeting, I told them everything I’m telling you now about my feelings and what this day means to me.”