Once more, Julie and Monica arrived at the Golf club first, but this time waited for Fiona outside. When they saw her car pull into the lot they waved her over. “I don’t want her to walk in there alone.”
“You’re a good friend,” Monica stated, giving Julie’s hand a quick squeeze.
Julie gave Monica a quick, tremulous smile accepting the compliment, but Monica could tell she wasn’t believing it. It didn’t reach her eyes.
Fiona parked her little Ford Avalon next to Julie’s sky blue convertible. “I’m so nervous,” Fiona stated the moment she slid out of her car. She walked towards the two women waiting a short distance from her on the sidewalk.
The three beauties began to walk together towards the entrance. It was a busy day at the club and they had to follow the signs to the additional parking on the left side of the facility. They didn’t even notice the large white catering van pull up and park in front of Julie’s convertible as they made their way to the entrance.
“Don’t be nervous. Congressman Reynolds is probably more nervous than you are.”
“I doubt that very much,” scoffed Fiona. Her father was a politician after all. And he was her father. Tex had confirmed that. After Congressman Reynolds revealed his big secret two days ago, Patrick had confessed to Cookie that he had their friend, Tex, on the East Coast dig into the man. He told Cookie that he had noticed him looking at Fiona in an unusual way and it had set off his alarm bells, so when he’d asked to meet the girls for lunch, he’d immediately called Tex to find out if the man was who he claimed to be.
Cookie asked Tex to expedite his research. And everything Congressman Reynolds had told the girls had been true. He’d spent a summer in Vegas where he had met Fiona’s mother. The timing of Fiona’s birth made the probability that he was her father highly likely. All that was needed to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt was a DNA test.
But Fiona didn’t really need the DNA test. She’d been looking at pictures of the congressman’s family that Tex had sent over and the resemblance between her and several of his cousins and even him had convinced her of the truth. Tex sent her a DNA kit though if she wanted to be 100% certain.
* * *
By the time they went into the restaurant of the golf club, they met a very nervous and tired looking Percy Reynolds. “I’m so glad you came.” His welcome included them all, but Monica didn’t doubt for a second that he was overjoyed Fiona was giving him a chance.
“Thank you, um, father,” Fiona murmured as he pulled out a chair for her first. The shock on his face and then the smile that spread across his features warmed Monica’s heart. It was clear he wanted nothing more than to make amends for the past. He wanted to be this girl’s father in every way.
“I guess from that remark, you believe I am your father,” and at her nod of acceptance, he added, “Thank you.” To have her use those words so soon meant the world to him.
“I still have questions and I do want to have a DNA test run just to be sure. Although I know in my heart you are who you say you are.”
“My husband had a friend check out your story,” Julie put in as he helped her to sit. “Everything checked out.”
“I don’t blame you for doing your research or for the DNA test. The most important thing to me right now is that my daughter believes, had I known she existed, I would have made sure she was in my life.”
The congressman helped Monica be seated and as soon as he rounded the table and sat down a waiter appeared and took their orders.
“So,” the congressman paused for dramatic effect, “let the interrogation begin.”
The girls all laughed and it eased the tension somewhat. “I know this might sound strange, but I’d actually like to know more about my mother. I didn’t know her very well and from all the information Tex dug up on you, I feel like I know you already. Sadly, all I can remember about my mother is her not being home a lot when I was a kid and when she was, well, let’s just say the memories aren’t pleasant.”
All saw a painful expression cross Percy’s face. It must be hard for him to hear from his daughter’s lips what had become of the woman he had loved so fiercely. “I did my research to know what happened to your mother, to my sweet and full of life Corrine, and frankly, it is something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life. But what you are describing is not the girl I knew. I want you to know that. And I know my leaving probably had a big part to play in what she became. I was young and naïve and my parents had my life planned out for me the moment I was born. I was caught between pleasing them and disappointing her. I made the wrong choice. I see that now.”
“We all make wrong choices. Don’t keep second guessing yourself,” Julie advised. Her glance at Fiona clearly showed her own emotions.
“But we can make amends,” Monica stated.
“And we can forgive.” Fiona’s look when she made that statement took in both Julie and her father. Monica was grateful she had included Julie in that remark.
The congressman nodded silently and Julie wiped away a stray tear before it trickled down her cheek.
Percy Reynold’s cleared his throat before speaking again. “You want to know about your mother, well, let me tell you what I remember.” It was clear he was lost in thought as he didn’t speak for a few moments. “She told me she was 17 the summer I met her, but she seemed older. Though I know now she had lied about her age. But she was incredibly smart. Wise beyond her years. I had just turned 18, but the moment I saw her I was smitten. She was the most beautiful young woman I’d ever seen. My friends and I had just come out of the casino. We didn’t know it, but Siegfried and Roy were performing there and they had this act with lions. It was one of the most popular shows at The Mirage Hotel and Casino. But we were there to drink and gamble. She was outside when we came out. We were on the way to Caesar’s Palace. She was with some friends protesting against animal cruelty.” He had to laugh at the memory. They had accosted him and his friends.
“She was into all kinds of things back then. She told me she had just graduated high school a few months earlier and told me she wanted to be an activist. When she and her three friends began to yell at us, some police officers began to drag them away from the entrance, but we asked them to stop. One thing led to another and we ended up having drinks and talking all night with them. We seemed like such opposites. She was so incredibly opinionated. About everything. But she was a real breath of fresh air from the people I normally associated with.
“Lets’ see, she was anti-apartheid, for women rights, anti-drug, and against animal testing. She was a member of PETA and she wanted to do it all. Save the world from itself she said.
“Then I told her that’s what I wanted to do, too, but I was just going to go about it in a different way. She thought I was stuffy and funny. She called me naïve.” His look was wistful before he continued. “I asked her out that night. I picked her up the following day and took her to the Hoover Dam. We had a picnic. Her hair was so beautiful. I wanted to touch it so badly. She had golden brown hair with strands of copper in it. In the right sunlight, it looked like it was on fire.”
“She did have beautiful hair,” Fiona recalled. “I remember growing up that I wished I had her hair. But mine was dark. Sometimes she would ask me to brush it for her. That’s one of the happiest memories I have of her. Brushing her hair for her.”
“You’ve got my coloring, well, before my hair turned gray. But you’ve also got my eyes.”
And lunch continued that way for over two hours. Fiona asking questions and occasionally Julie and Monica adding a question of their own. The congressman reminisced but asked questions of Fiona as well. He asked about her schooling, her friends, some of her foster parents before the conversation turned back to Fiona’s mother.
“We never really committed to each other. I regret that. Instead of saying words, we just kind of went with the flow. Neither of us said, I love you, but we both felt it. When I left at the end of the summer, I saw tears in her eyes. I told her I’d come to Vegas for Christmas. And I’d look her up. She just nodded and hugged me and kissed me. She wished me luck in law school. We exchanged phone numbers and I gave her my address at school. But she never wrote to me, or called, and I just felt so foolish about calling.” The regret was apparent on his face.
He sighed heavily before continuing. “When Christmas time came, my dad had a stroke and I rushed home to be with him and my mother. He recovered, and I went to Vegas with a buddy for New Years. I was so excited to see her. I went to the little trailer she was living in, but she was gone. The place was abandoned. I could have searched for her then, but I figured she had moved on.”
Fiona picked up from the Congressman’s story finishing the timeline for him. “When she found out she was pregnant with me, her parents were so ashamed, they moved. She hated having to live with them. She never told me why, but it was probably because she couldn’t do it alone. Raise me.”
“What happened after that? What happened to your grandparents?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. She eventually moved us out and we moved around a lot. I remember that. She never talked about her parents other than the fact that she was glad they were out of her life.”
“Do you want me to look into that? Them?” he asked.
She shook her head in the negative. “No. If they would have wanted me, I’m sure when my mother died they could have taken me in. But they didn’t, and I ended up in the system.”
“God, I feel so horrible about that.” He threw his napkin onto the table in disgust. What kind of parents had they been to their only daughter, let alone granddaughter.
“You can’t live in the past, father. I know that now. You have to move forward or you just stay still.” Clearing her throat, she added. “How could you have done anything when you didn’t even know I existed?”
He just nodded silently, still wishing things had been different.
“Can I ask you why you didn’t ever marry?”
He smiled. “Well, you know, I did almost get married. I came close twice, but things happened and those relationships ended. And I think I always had your mother in the back of my mind. I wanted to find someone like her. Fresh. Feisty. Full of compassion.”
“I missed knowing that part of her. I remember her as sad, and lonely. Angry and confused. But we did have some good times. They were few and far between. My first day of kindergarten, she cried. I remember that.” Fiona confessed. She looked up into the eyes of the man who was her father. “I’m glad you found me.”
“I’d like to hear about those happy memories you have of her. And Fiona, I’m so happy too. It was a shock! Seeing you last week. But I am so glad that I found you. It would be an honor to have you in my life.” His voice was thick with emotion. He had a daughter. A beautiful daughter who seemed to want him in her life. He would do whatever it took to make that happen.
At that point, he got up from the table and she did as well. The embrace they shared was heart felt, and lasted a good long while. Looking on, Monica knew that both of these people’s lives would be richer by having the other in it. She was glad to be here for her new friend. Looking across the table at Julie, she could see that she was moved as well by the sight they were witnessing before them.
This kind of reunion was special. It was big. It meant something.