Wil and Lily sat on the expensive leather couches in the living room of the Griffin’s home drinking lemonade and tea, while waiting for Wil’s father to get home from the office. His mother was there force feeding them snacks before dinner and making small talk with Lily about the shower she was planning. Wil’s brother Manny wasn’t around to interrupt their conversation.
“Since you got married so quickly, there wasn’t time for a household shower, so I think it’s a good idea to combine both into one,” Dafne told Lily, “You are good kids and you deserve it! Plus, Wil has tons of cousins you haven’t yet had the chance to meet…”
Dafne went on and on with Lily about apartment plans, at one point they were discussing curtains and rugs, and of course meeting all the extended family. Lily started to worry how her family might react being intermixed with Wil’s family and Dafne saw the look on her face and changed the subject back to her.
“You mentioned your mama said she was willing to help?” Dafne asked.
“Yep, she said just to let her know what you need,” Lily said, trying desperately to think of something her mother could do that would be helpful and not embarrassing.
“Well I’m planning on having all the food catered, just to make it simpler, but if your mama wanted to make some punch to have on the cake table, that would be lovely!” Lily beamed.
“Yes, she could definitely do that!” And she immediately made a mental note to find a recipe for her mother that she could live with, also known as nothing containing Hawaiian Punch…
Raleigh came through the front door and saw they were all sitting in the living room.
“Hey kids, didn’t know you’d be back so soon!” Wil was thankful for the greeting and hopefully good mood from his Pop. He and his father were practically carbon copies of one another, which was why it was often hard for them to see eye to eye. They were too much alike for their own good. “Let me go change my shoes and I’ll be down to sit with you awhile before dinner.”
“Sure thing, Pop,” Wil said as his father went up the stairs.
He switched out of his nicer work clothes into a pair of jeans and one of the famous Griffin Gas Company t-shirts that had their large circle logo across the front. At the stations, they marketed them as retro t’s, since the company had been using the same logo since 1950. He often let kids sell them for fundraisers, giving the profit to a good cause, and providing a nice little tax break for the company. And of course they could be purchased at any Griffin Gas location.
Raleigh also poured himself a taste of his favorite Kentucky bourbon before sitting down to chat with his family.
“Well, how was the resort? Did you guys get to see Herb and Bess?” he asked Wil and Lily.
“We had a really nice time, Sir,” Lily said softly, leaning her back against the side of the couch and stretching her leg against Wil. She might as well be comfortable for what was about to go down.
“Pop, I need some advice,” he got right to the point knowing there was little sense wasting time, “Actually, I guess I need your help. You’re the only one who might know what to do in this situation.”
“What’s wrong, Son?” his eyebrows scrunched and he took a sip of the amber drink in his hand. Dafne looked over at Raleigh and confirmed she didn’t know what their son was about to say either.
“Please don’t be angry with me as we should have told you this sooner, but we didn’t know how and we didn’t want to hurt anybody in the process,” Wil cleared his throat and took hold of Lily’s hand. She wasn’t sure if the gesture was for his own courage or to reassure her, but the conversation had already started off differently than she had imagined.
Raleigh didn’t respond. He just waited for the rest of his son’s words.
“Over spring break, Lily was raped by one of the construction workers on her dad’s job site,” Wil raised his head to look his father in the eyes and continued, “He threatened Lily that if she told anyone at all, he would come back and do the same or worse to her younger sisters.”
Lily squeezed his hand, thankful that her husband was fearless enough to take this burden on as if it were his own and not telling his parents that she had kept the secret from him as well.
“So we thought it would just go away. The guy had skipped town and hadn’t been back, until this week,” Wil looked to Lily.
“We just got back from my parent’s house,” Lily said, “I wanted to get a few things from before we headed here. My dad was so excited to tell me that all his friends were teasing him about being a grandpa so young… He mentioned that he saw him and he asked how far along I was.”
“Is paternity an issue here?” Raleigh calmly broke into the conversation for the first time.
“I don’t know, Sir,” Lily said, “I wish I did, but doing the math the due date aligns around the time of the rape, and Wil and I were together before that too.”
Dafne went over to the couch and sat next to Lily, putting her arm around her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through this, sweetheart,” Dafne said to Lily, kissing her temple and squeezing her while Wil still held her hand.
“Me too,” Lily whispered.
Raleigh looked at Wil and they both knew what the other was thinking in the silence of their stare.
“Regardless of what happened,” Wil told his father, “This is my child she is carrying, there will be no paternity tests, there will be no question whatsoever, she’s carrying my son.”
“A boy?” Dafne looked down at Lily for confirmation.
“We’re not sure yet, we both just feel like he’s a boy,” Lily said rubbing her stomach, “I go for an ultrasound next week and we can find out then if we want to.”
Raleigh brought the conversation back to a more serious topic very quickly, “That’s a big decision, Son, and I’m willing to support you both, but we need to prepare for a few things.”
Wil was thanking the heavens his father was being so easy to deal with, knowing his own hot-headed temper would get the best of him if he were in the same situation with his own son.
“Lily, have you or Wil told anybody else about this?” Raleigh asked.
“No Sir, I had only told Wil until this evening when we shared this with you all,” Lily said continuing to hold both Wil’s and Dafne’s hands. “I was afraid this might be an embarrassment to your family, and I didn’t want to put my sister’s at risk.” A tear fell down her cheek as she tried to hold it together in front of Wil’s parents.
“Sweetheart, something like this is never an embarrassment,” Dafne said to her softly, looking at Raleigh.
“I can just see the headlines, that the heir to the Griffin Gas Empire got swindled into marrying some trailer trash girl who had been raped…” Those words caused more tears to fall down Lily’s cheeks.
Raleigh went over and knelt down before her. “Lily, my sweet girl, I’m sorry if you ever thought that I was being too careful with Wil before you were married. I want you to know that those things you said are plum awful and that’s not how this is going to go down.” Raleigh lifted his daughter-in-law’s chin so he could see her puffy eyes. “You, my darling, are a Griffin now, and that means you’ll be taken care of. You're my family and I take care of my family. And you better start calling me Dad or Pop like this crazy kid next to you does...”
They all chuckled at Raleigh.
“Okay, Dad,” she said. Raleigh reached up and kissed her on the cheek.
He stood and went back over to the living room’s bar cabinet and poured some more bourbon in his glass, then pouring a sip into another glass which he turned around and handed to Wil.
“I think you could use this, kid,” Raleigh said and they both chuckled. “Lily, do you mind if Dafne accompanies you to your appointment next week? She can help you talk with the doctor and find out a more precise due date and conception date, then we can go from there.”
“Sure, I wouldn’t mind the company at all,” Lily said.
“Talk with Dafne and the doctor about when this happened to you. We need to pinpoint the time frame that would be 9 months out from the incident and, regardless of when that ends up being, we need to avoid a public due date close to it so inquiring minds can rest assured that the baby is Wil’s,” Raleigh stayed completely calm through the rest of the evening, making plans to take care of his children and future of his grandchild. “And Dafe, please call Officer Hillsman with Spring City PD, he’s a buddy of mine, and ask him to make a house call here in an unmarked car and wearing casual dress. Lily needs to go to the police with this so they can be on the lookout for the suspect. He’ll be discrete and it won’t make the news unless they catch him, and we’ll deal with that if and when it happens.”
Dafne walked over and squeezed her husband's shoulder before she and Lily went to the kitchen to finish preparing supper while the boys stayed in the living room.
“So…” Raleigh said to Wil once they were alone, “You like bourbon?”
“Ha, it has a bit of a kick to it, but it’s pretty smooth, surprisingly,” Wil told his dad.
“Oh I could have given you something that would have lit you up, but I gave you the good stuff,” Raleigh laughed, “And now you’ll be a snob like me and only want the good stuff.”
Wil took note of how nice it was being able to enjoy time with his father without the added stress.
“I’m not mad at you, William,” Raleigh said to him as he swirled the large ball of ice around his glass.
“I was worried you would be,” he said.
“I figured as much when you started out the conversation by saying, ‘please don’t be mad at me,’” he smiled, “I need you to know I’m always going to be here for you. When bad things happen and good things, I need you to know you can come to me.”
The words out of his father’s mouth sounded much like the words he had said to Lily earlier in the week.
“I know Pop, that’s why we’re here,” Wil reached over and offered a fist bump, which his father reciprocated.
“Raleigh, Wil? Dinner is on the table,” Dafne said from the kitchen. She made a large beef roast, with vegetables, homemade rolls and a fresh salad.
“Well it was certainly obvious the kids were coming for supper tonight,” Raleigh said as he sat down at the table and looked over the spread she had prepared.
“Oh, you hush!” Dafne said swatting him with a dish towel.
“I’d like to invite you both over for supper more often if this is how she’s gonna feed us!” Raleigh had a way of lightening the mood.
They passed the food around the table and filled their plates and salad bowls.
“Thanks, Ma,” Wil said, “Your home cooking is a nice treat.”
“Yeah, she could teach Bess a thing or two!” Lily said as she stuffed her face and they all laughed out loud. “Oh gosh, did I say that out loud?”
“You sure did, honey,” Raleigh said, “But that’s nothing we didn’t already know!”
Bess had served a chicken and rice casserole to Wil and Lily earlier in the week and Lily didn’t really like casseroles, but it was better than the tuna fish casserole she offered her the recipe for to make for Wil at a later date.
“What kind of casserole did she make you, dear?” Dafne asked. Lily immediately looked to Wil wondering how she knew and they laughed some more.
“You know, I just had a thought that might provide a solution to this little predicament we have here…” Raleigh told the table.
“What’s that dear?” Dafne inquired further.
“What did you think of Happy Endings Resort, Lily? I know Wil always liked it there as a kid,” he asked.
“I liked it a lot actually,” Lily said, “I had never been anywhere like it before. And Wil took me out on a boat for the first time, it was really nice.”
“Well, I hope this doesn’t come off sounding like I’m trying to get rid of you because I’m certainly not, but what if the two of you moved to Endings for a little while? There’s a little place in South Carolina that I’ve been doing some market research on and I’m thinking about setting up a new Griffin Gas location.”
They all looked dumbfounded.
“The place I’m checking into is only 30 minutes or so from the Resort. We could get you a permanent cabin and you’d be near Bess and Herbert if you needed anything. Dafne and I would be out there all the time in the beginning helping set up shop and Wil could actually run the place.”
“You’d trust me to do that, Pop?” Wil asked.
“Of course I would, you practically run the original station here anyway,” Raleigh said and took a big bite of roast, while his family members continued to stare at him with wide eyes. “Lily, we could send your parents out, once the baby is born or whenever they wanted to go… we could help with that.”
The tears were starting to well up in Lily’s eyes again.
“Oh honey, just forget it if it’s going to make you cry,” Raleigh said handing her his handkerchief, “It was just an idea!”
“No, no, that’s not it,” Lily said wiping her tears and starting to chuckle. “These pregnancy hormones are the worst! I love the idea, Wil?” She looked at her husband for approval and then over to Dafne.
“Wil would have to postpone college plans for a while, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work?” Dafne said to Raleigh.
“Wil?” Raleigh looked over for his son’s approval.
“Sounds like we’re moving to Endings!”