Episode 1162: These Are The Days

Of course, even if Hope hadn’t turned out to be like either one of them, if she hadn’t a head for business or a heart full of ambition, this kid would mean the world to him. For a long time parenting had held no interest for him. It was hard now to even fathom that he’d felt that way, that if he hadn’t been desperate for something to win back Michael, he likely never would have gone anywhere near fatherhood and what a staggering loss that would have been.

Nothing made him feel happier, more fulfilled, or more fortunate than this little family they’d built. Even a display like this, a blatant attempt by his daughter to overturn the rules he’d laid out, the precocious way she went about it just made him smile.

This was an impressive presentation,” his wife, Michael, said as their daughter Hope set down her pointer stick after laying out her concluding argument via a poster board chock full of graphs and charts.

“Remind me to offer you a job the day you graduate from college.”

“You’ll be in competition with me for her services,” Curran chimed in loving the sunshine that it brought out in their daughter’s expression, still, “as impressed as we are though, I’m sorry to say our stance hasn’t changed, sweetheart.”

“Curran-”

“It’s best,” he cut off his wife who he could feel waffling on the issue. “We have no problem with you working in the summer, there’s just little sense in you taking on that responsibility when school already demands a lot from you. I really don’t want to see you throw away the opportunity you have right now to spend part of each day enjoying being a kid. That’s a luxury I want to give you, that I’m glad I can give you.”

Michael nodded, back on side apparently. “It means a lot to us, especially to your dad that we’re in a position where you don’t need to work at such a young age. You’ve heard what it was like for your dad growing up, he barely had time for school or anything else, he was too busy supporting his family.”

“But we can support you, Hope,” Curran picked up. “We want to support you. We want you to experience all the fun I missed out on rather than the stress of juggling school and work.”

“Working is fun for me though, it’s not the same situation as it was for you,” Hope countered. “It’s not stressful, it’s like a cool hobby or an extracurricular.”

“Hold that thought, sweetheart, we’ll finish hearing you out as soon as I get rid of whatever this interruption.” Curran proceeded towards the door. Smiling again. Hope really was a bright kid. She knew her way around an argument. Maybe he should let her win this one. He really didn’t want to be the ogre who stood in the way of something she truly enjoyed. His mind was too busy mulling that over to remember to check the peephole which would have stopped him from opening the door to Hope’s biological father.

Episode 1163: Christmas Don't Be Late