Page 19 of Forget That Guy
Luckily for us, we’d both already graduated from high school when that had happened.
Not so much in love like Joe and Jetty were, but happy enough with each other that we decided to make a go of it.
I’d learned to love her over the years, as I’d thought she’d done the same for me.
But I’d been wrong about her just like I’d been wrong about a lot of things in my life.
“Uh, was going to talk to you, sir.”
I sighed.
This was the last thing that I wanted.
But burying my head in the sand about my daughter and Jetty wasn’t going to fix the problem at hand.
She was still going to have a baby in six months.
There was no amount of ignoring the kid that was going to change that.
“Come out to the porch with me then,” I said.
Joe looked on with a worried expression, but I didn’t tell her it would be okay.
I wasn’t sure it would.
I mean, she was pregnant and hadn’t graduated high school yet. She had a whole future ahead of her before that’d happened, and now she was going to be stuck lugging a kid around wherever she happened to want to go.
That was going to be hard.
And Jetty needed to step up.
When we made it out to the porch, I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the railing.
Jetty cleared his throat a couple of times, shifting from foot to foot in nervousness, before he said, “I passed my GED test. I dropped out of high school.”
My brows rose.“What?”
“I was ahead anyway. Could’ve graduated this fall if I wanted. But there’s no point in wasting time.” He looked out over the land that I loved with all my heart. “If you’ll be okay with it, I’d like to start working full-time here.”
That was a surprise. “I thought you wanted to go to college.”
“I will,” he admitted. “Eventually. But for now, I need to get an income going so that I can pay for the baby. Plus, with my parents making as much money as they do, the Pell grants won’t apply to me. Which, might I add, is really fuckin’ stupid. Myparents haven’t helped me a damn bit since I turned fourteen and got old enough to work without them being deemed bad parents. Food, water, and necessities. I’ve been paying all of that since I was fourteen. I don’t think it’s fair that they base my ability to get need-based grants off of parents that don’t want to have anything to do with you.”
I didn’t argue with him, because he was right.
A parent’s income should only be taken into account if they had anything to do with the children.
That wasn’t always the case for some.
“You want to work here full-time?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Full-time will give you benefits. Room and board.” I thought about it for a moment. “If you can sign a contract for five years of work here, I’ll also pay for your college.”
Because there was no way that I was letting my grandchild’s father fail.
Because what would that accomplish?
