Mom appears again, edging Daddy out. “Well, thank GOD -- ”
Drew pulls me close. In the tiny little window on the screen, I see how we appear to them. Drew’s shirtless, my shoulders are bare other than the covers up to my armpits. I have a raging case of sex bedhead. Drew grins like a fiend.
He kisses my cheek. “But we can get right on that, Monica! Thanks for the suggestion!”
Mom looks flustered. “Get right on what?”
“You seem really eager for us to start producing grandchildren for you.” He looks at me with wide, joking eyes. “Can you imagine ‘Grandma Monica’?”
“Oh, I can imagine it, all right,” I choke back.
“Harry! Harry! Say something to them! Dear God, Harry, I’m too young to be a grandmother. And besides, if you’re going to time a grandchild during an election, there’s a protocol for this. For maximum positive press, you need to...”
Mom’s voice fades out as Daddy looks at the screen, deadpan, shaking his head.
Drew leans toward me and whispers, “I can turn this off whenever you want.”
“No. It’s okay.” I smile at Daddy, who smiles back, his eyes full of love.
“We can get this sham marriage annulled!” Mom shouts in the background. “We can undo this! For God’s sake, Harry, step in! Don’t you have anything to say to Drew?”
One corner of Daddy’s mouth tips up, and he looks at me, then Drew, eyes narrowing as he stops and really studies my new husband.
“What do you want me to say, Monica?” he asks in a weary voice, giving her an epic eye roll only we can see.
“Something to fix this!” she shoots back.
Daddy smiles, fixated on Drew, who stares back, matching him, unwavering.
And then my father says:
“Welcome to the family, son.”