A Summer to Remember

chapter 21





It rained all night and into the next day, so Adrian didn’t have to work. We decided to lounge around the house and watched bad TV and movies until it was time to go to dinner at my parents’ house. The ride over was rather quiet—we were both nervous about how the night would go down. The good thing was at least they had all gotten off on the right foot. My dad and brother seemed to love him after all the football talk the night he picked me up for dinner. They had a lot in common. My dad used to coach my brother’s football team up until he got into high school.

When we walked in the back door, we could smell the roast cooking in the crockpot. It filled our nostrils with a smell so delicious it made my stomach rumble. I could hear my mom in the kitchen finishing up the cooking, so we went in there first.

“It smells delicious!” I startled her as we snuck up from behind.

“Thank you, honey.” She kissed me on the check. “Hello, Adrian. Good to see you again. Glad you could join us for dinner.” It was strange how fast she seemed to have taken a liking to Adrian. I could tell just by the tone of her voice.

“You too, Mrs. Adams.” He walked over and shook her hand. “Thank you for having me.”

“Mrs. Adams is my mother-in-law. Please, call me Kelly.” She pulled a few dishes out of the oven and set them on the counter.

“Do you need help with anything?” I asked.

“If you could set the table, that’d be great.”

“Of course.” I picked up the plates and silverware that she already had stacked neatly on the counter.

“Your father and brother are in the den watching TV if Adrian wants to join them.” She gestured Adrian in the direction of the den. “Dinner should be done in about fifteen minutes.”

“Yeah, Adrian. Go join them. I got this.” I walked into the dining room and he followed behind me.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help?” He sounded a little nervous about being left alone with my dad and brother, anticipating our upcoming conversation.

“Yes, I’m fine. Go have some guy time before dinner. The more sucking up you can do, the better.” I winked at him before he headed to the den.

When I finished setting the table, I decided to run up to my room and change before dinner. On my way, I snuck past the den and peeked in. Both my dad and Adrian had beers in their hands and were talking about whatever show they were watching. So far, so good.

I ran up the stairs to my room and rummaged through my closet. It had been so rainy I didn’t feel like wearing something that took too much effort, so I decided on a sweat suit. I changed and put on a little makeup, since I had some more time to spare.

When I went back downstairs, I rounded up the guys for dinner. Now, I just had to decide when would be the best time to bring up moving in with Adrian. During dinner or dessert? Or after we’d eaten? I guess we’d just have to go with the flow and see where the conversation took us.

“Adrian, what are your plans now that you’re done with school?” my dad asked.

“I actually got offered a scouting job in Florida.” He looked at me as he said this.

“Florida?” my mom asked. “Are you going to have to move there?”

“Yeah. I’m leaving the end of July.”

“Oh.” Mom looked at me as she took a drink of her wine. “So is it going to be a permanent situation?”

“I’m hoping so. It’s a great opportunity.” You could tell by the way he talked about it that he was really excited to have this job.

“What an amazing opportunity! I know people who had to work years to get that kind of job.” My dad sounded impressed. He’d known a lot of people in the sports industry from all the coaching he did for my brother and being a former athlete himself.

“So where does that leave you two?” Mom asked, looking back and forth between Adrian and me. I looked at him and nodded to let him know this was it.

“Actually, I wanted to tell you guys…I’m going to be moving in with Adrian for the summer.” I held my breath, waiting for their response. Mom and Dad both looked at each other, then looked back at us. They weren’t freaking out…yet. I looked at Adrian and slowly exhaled. Weird! Not what I had expected, but I must say I was definitely relieved. By the look on Adrian’s face, he was, too.

“You’re not living with him already?” my dad joked.

“No,” I answered, still a little confused by their reaction.

“Oh. Well, you’ve been spending a lot of time over there, so I just figured you were going to be staying there all summer, anyway.”

“So you guys are okay with this?” I was still a little shocked. This wasn’t at all how it went down last time.

“You’re eighteen years old, Ava. You’re an adult and you will be making your own decisions from here on out. We may not always agree on the ones you make, but we have to trust that you’re going to make responsible ones,” my mom answered. Okay, double weird…they’ve obviously seen something in Adrian they like or this wouldn’t be happening right now. Don’t get me wrong, my parents let me have my freedom, but they weren’t ones to hide their feelings when they didn’t like someone.

“I guess you’re right and I thank you for that.” I looked over at Adrian and watched relief wash over his face. Mission accomplished.

After dinner I helped my mom clean up the dishes before I took Adrian up to my room to gather some of my things. I wasn’t going to take a lot over to his place since I was only going to be over there for the summer, it was mostly just going to be clothes and toiletries. I grabbed a duffle bag from my closet and filled it up with a few things while Adrian wandered around, scoping out my room.

“So what do you think?” I asked him.

“I expected there to be posters of shirtless guys covering your walls.”

“Funny you say that, because I thought the same thing when I walked into your place. Of girls I mean.” We laughed.

“Our place,” he said suddenly.

“What?” I was pretty sure I knew what he said, but I wanted to double check.

“It’s not my place anymore. It’s our place.” I hadn’t really thought of it as our place, to me it was still his place.

“When am I going to meet your family?” I asked him.

“Oh yeah. I guess we better do that. I don’t think you’ll be seeing too much of my brothers and sisters. John and Dan both took jobs in North Dakota working in the oil fields. Melissa’s husband was stationed at a base a few hours away, and Lexus moved with her boyfriend in Silver Springs, since his brother gave him a job. The last time I saw any of them was about two years ago at Christmas. But I should probably have you meet my parents, since you guys might be bumping into each other in the driveway every once in awhile.”

“That would probably be a good idea.” I grabbed a few more shirts out of my closet and tossed them into my bag.

“I’ll talk to them and we can set up a time to go out to dinner or something.” I watched him as he looked over the pictures I had hanging around the mirror on my vanity. I suddenly realized how happy I was that I had taken the time to take down all the pictures of Jason and me a few days ago and hide them in the closet. I had been thinking about throwing them away, or burning them, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it quite yet. Not all of my memories with him were bad, and those pictures captured some of our best moments together.

“You ready to go?” I asked when I snapped back to reality.

“I am if you are.” He grabbed my duffle bag off the bed and tossed the strap over his shoulder. He walked out the door in front of me and I glanced one last time around the room to see if there was anything else I might need. When I was pretty sure I had everything, I shut off the light and pulled the door closed behind me.