A Summer to Remember

chapter 24





It felt good to be waking up in his arms again. I was a little disappointed knowing that this would be the last day we’d be spending together before he was going to be working all week again. I loved hanging out with Lily but I always wished I had a little more time with Adrian. I felt like the time he spent working was wasting time we could be spending together but I knew he needed the money before the move.

Since he always made me breakfast in the morning, I decided it was my turn to return the favor. I had to carefully slip out from under his arm. I grabbed my pink robe off the hook behind the bedroom door and pulled it on.

“Where are you going?” he asked sleepily, barely opening his eyes enough to see me.

“I’m just going to the bathroom. I’m coming right back,” I lied.

“Okay.” He turned over and was out in a matter of seconds.

I tip-toed out of the room, closed the door quietly behind me, and went into the kitchen. I pulled some biscuits out of the fridge and pre-heated the oven. I knew biscuits and gravy were his favorite breakfast, so I had picked up the ingredients when I went grocery shopping last week. I put the biscuits in the oven, pulled a frying pan out of the cabinet, and started cooking the sausage. It didn’t take long before the smell of sausage lured Adrian out of the bedroom.

“Is that biscuits and gravy you’re making?” He yawned and stretched on his way over.

“How did you know?” I grinned.

“I would recognize that smell anywhere. And I may or may not have noticed we just so happened to have all the ingredients to make it.” He kissed me softly on the forehead.

“I guess someone might notice that.” I laughed as I dumped the sausage bits into the gravy. “Breakfast is served!” We dished up and took our plates to the couch.

“So what do you think about going to dinner with my parents tonight?” He stuffed a fork full of food into his mouth.

“Tonight?” I almost choked on my food.

“Yes, tonight.” He smirked at my reaction.

“A little short notice, don’t you think?” I wiped the gravy from the corners of my mouth.

“Well, I was going to tell you Friday night, but, yeah.” He paused to take another bite. “I already made plans with them, but I can cancel if you want me to.”

“No, that’s fine.” I could feel my stomach turning with nervousness. I suddenly didn’t feel so hungry.

“Don’t look so stressed out. They’ll love you.” He placed his hand on my knee. “I promise.”





When dinnertime rolled around I wore a black knee-length dress with a scoop neck and quarter-length sleeves. It was the most conservative thing I had. I put my hair up in a neat bun on top of my head and slipped on a pair of heels just before we went out the door.

We walked down the stairs of the apartment and through the small backyard. There wasn’t anything special about it. It had a chain-link fence and there weren’t any trees or bushes, just some small shrubs by the deck. We walked up the two steps on the deck and Adrian slid open the sliding glass door and gestured for me to go in before him. I walked into the dining room. The space was tight, so I took a few more steps in so Adrian could come in and close the door.

I glanced around the room. We were standing in a small dining area. To the right was the kitchen, which had the same wood floor as the one we were standing on, and in front of us was the living room. There was a staircase that led to the second floor.

“Mom! Dad! You guys ready?” Adrian yelled through the house.

“We’ll be down in a second!” a lady’s voice responded from upstairs.

“Let me show you around.” We walked around the downstairs of the house while we waited for his parents. The hallway was lined with all sorts of family pictures and it led to a bathroom and two bedrooms. He pointed out his brothers and sisters to me and with each photo he had a story to tell about when they were kids.

“We’re ready,” a lady’s voice said from behind us.

“Hey Mom, Dad, this is Ava.” I plastered on my best smile and I tried to hide the fact that I was extremely nervous. “This is my mom, Cheryl.” He gestured to the lady standing in front of me. I reached out and shook her hand. She was shorter than me with natural blonde shoulder-length hair and blue eyes. You’d never be able to tell she had five kids with her petite frame. She wore blue jeans and a nice purple top. “And this is my dad, Craig.”

“Nice to meet you guys.” Craig was tall and had dark tanned skin. You could tell he’d spent a lot of years working out in the sun. He had a thick gray mustache and matching gray hair that stuck out from under his baseball cap. He wore blue jeans and a nice green and black button down collared shirt.

“So you must be the owner of the mystery vehicle in the driveway,” Craig joked. I could feel my checks becoming warm.

“Yes, that would be me.”

“We’ve heard a lot about you.” Cheryl smiled at Adrian.

“Good things, I hope.” I looked at Adrian.

“Of course.” He smiled at me. “You guys ready to go?”

“Yep. I just have to grab my purse,” his mom answered.

It didn’t take long before we were at the restaurant. When we got inside, we sat at a tall table in the bar. I felt a little overdressed, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“So your parents don’t mind that you two are living together?” Cheryl asked after the waitress took our orders and collected our menus.

“I thought they would, but when we told them, they were a lot more understanding than I thought they would be.” Adrian grabbed my hand and I smiled at him. Craig wasn’t paying much attention to our conversation. He was busy drinking his beer and watching the baseball game on the big screen behind us.

“Are you close with your family?” she asked.

“Yes.” I nodded and took a drink of my soda. “Very close, actually.”

“How do they feel about you moving to Florida?” I looked at Adrian, trying to figure out the best way to answer this question.

“Actually, she’s not going to Florida. She’s staying here since she’s already enrolled at Brant.” I was relieved Adrian answered for me.

“Really?” Cheryl sounded surprised.

“Just for the semester!” I blurted out. Adrian looked over at me with a confused look on his face. “I mean, I’m just enrolled at Brant for the semester, and we’ll see where things go from there.” I couldn’t believe I just said that out loud. I wasn’t really thinking of going to Florida, or I didn’t think I was. It crossed my mind, but I didn’t want to say anything or make any decisions until the semester was over.

“Good for you guys. Long distance relationships can be hard, but if you really want to, you’ll find a way to make it work.” The waitress brought our salads and sat them down in front of us.

The rest of dinner went pretty smoothly, and by the end of the night we were all cracking jokes and having a good time. On the way home, we listened to Cheryl tell us about the latest news on Adrian’s siblings. I found it interesting that Adrian didn’t spend much time with his family. His parents seemed great, and the way his mom talked about his family, it made it seem like they were all really close. They seemed like the type of family that would get together for family vacations and holidays. I felt like I must be missing something. When we pulled into the driveway, we said our goodnights and headed our separate ways.

“Well, that seemed like it went well,” I told Adrian when we walked in the door.

“Yes, it did. I’m pretty sure they loved you, just like I said they would.” He picked me up and sat me on the kitchen counter. I slipped off my heels and tossed them on the floor.

“Why don’t you guys spend more time together?” I asked.

“Well,” he sighed, “it’s kind of a long story. So to make a long story short, we don’t all get along. For as long as I can remember, we’ve never been able to get together for a dinner, holiday, or cookout, without a blowout argument. Someone is always fighting with someone, so then so and so wouldn’t come because so and so was going to be there. Over the years, family gatherings turned into nothing because no one wanted to pick sides or get involved in more arguments. So it’s just better we do our own things.” I could tell it made him a little irritated that they couldn’t put their drama aside even for one day.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, me too. Maybe someday everyone will learn to grow up, but until then, I’m fine spending dinners, holidays, and cookouts with you.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him gently on the lips.

“Me too.” Before I knew it, he had me off the counter, wrapped around his waist, and heading for the bedroom.