by Heather Gray
Gavin, driving his well-used sports utility vehicle, pulled up to Avery’s house. This was going to be their first real date. He was looking forward to their time and hoped that ringing in the New Year together would bode well for things to come.
He climbed out of the car and began walking toward her front door. Partway up the path, he stopped and stared, confused. “Am I running late?” he asked Avery, who was sitting on her front stoop, a scowl on her face.
She looked weak-in-the-knees fantastic. Her brown hair was piled atop her head. She wore knee-high boots and a wine-red dress that somehow managed to flow loosely while still clinging in all the right places. Draped around her neck was a black silk scarf. He liked her penchant for scarves. One of these days he was going to have the freedom to reach out and tug on her scarf, drawing her in close for a kiss. They weren’t there yet, but he hoped tonight would be the night that would start to change that.
Avery still hadn’t answered him, so he approached and held out a hand to help her up. “Any particular reason you’re sitting out here in the cold without a jacket?”
“My son locked me out of the house.”
Gavin tried not to smile. “Why’d he go and do a thing like that?”
In her irritation, it didn’t appear that Avery even noticed when he looped her arm through his and began leading her toward curb.
“I might have been having second thoughts.”
I’m going to have to buy something nice for that kid.
“Second thoughts?” he asked casually.
Avery’s free hand climbed distractedly toward her hair and fluttered for a second before falling back to her side. With a loud sigh, she said, “It’s been eons since I’ve gone on a date. I’m kind of nervous.”
Gavin opened the door with a sweeping bow and said, “Your chariot awaits, my lady.”
Her eye-roll wasn’t lost on him. Neither was the way her mouth tipped up at the corners or the touch of red that climbed up past her scarf.
Once he climbed behind the wheel and buckled his seat belt, he let out a chuckle. “This feels like familiar territory, doesn’t it?”
This time she couldn’t hide her chuckle. “There’s nothing familiar about this roomy, sturdy vehicle.”
Gavin turned to her and waited for her to make eye contact. The uncertainty in her gaze tugged at his heart. “You have nothing to be nervous about.”
She looked away.
He waited. When her eyes returned to his, he told her, “You are drop-dead gorgeous and a great conversationalist to boot. And, to top it off, you’ve already seen me at my worst.”
“I’m not sure that getting upset with the way our road trip went counts as ‘worst’.”
He winked at her, “I was talking about Rattlesnake Rest Area. Whimpering in pain and doubled over with cramps from food poisoning. Not exactly a stellar first impression.”
Her smile widened. “To be fair, that wasn’t the first impression you made.”
Lifting an eyebrow, he asked, “Oh?”
She shook her head as he turned the key and listened to the ignition turn over. “Drinking some sort of hideous yellow concoction at a coffee house… that was the first impression I had of you.”
Wincing, he pulled out onto the street, pleased to hear the strain leaving her voice. “Great. I’d happily forgotten about that.”
At the first stoplight he came to, he turned and asked, “Did Mitchell tell you about his fight with Corporate?” When she shook her head, he told her, “He’s trying to force them to buy a special kind of insurance policy to cover any disasters we run into when we’re on an assignment they require us to take. It makes sense. Mitchell shouldn’t have to foot the bill if he’s not the one sending us on the trip. Corporate refused to take out the policy, but the last I heard, they finally said they’re willing to amend the contract in regard to ‘unforeseen disasters and the expenses therein incurred’ – Mitchell’s words, not mine.”
“Good for him,” Avery replied. “He needs to put his foot down. When the rental agency tried to bill him fifty thousand dollars for a replacement vehicle, he about hit the roof. He had no trouble telling them they were out of their minds. Corporate’s not that different, I suppose.”
“Mitchell’s never been very good at allowing people to take advantage of him. He’s the right man for the lead job at the Times.”
Another couple of blocks passed by before anything else was said. “Thank you,” came Avery’s soft words from beside him.
Gavin glanced over at her and didn’t want to pull his eyes away. She looked perfect, sitting there next to him. He’d already known she was beautiful, smart, and funny. Tonight was different, though. She was sitting in his car, a part of his life, and the emotional punch of it took his breath away. He finally managed to ask, “For what?”
“For asking me out, making me feel better about it, and maybe just a little for not laughing that it took my fifteen-year-old son locking me out of the house to get me to go on this date.”
Gavin reached out and took her hand in his as he drove. He brushed his lips along the back of her hand and said, “Anytime.”
Epilogue
Holland, Michigan
December 25th (a year later)
“You have got to be kidding me!” Gavin’s voice boomed through the hotel room.
Avery and Eli came running in through the door connecting the adjoining room.
“What’s wrong?” Avery asked.
“No way!” Eli yelled.
“Shut it off!” shouted Avery.
“That’s so cool!” from Eli.
Gavin reached out and hit the clear button on the microwave. “All I wanted was to heat up some of my leftover Hunan Chicken.”
Giving him a puzzled look, Avery asked, “Did you put a fork in there with it?”
Holding up the plastic fork still in his hand, Gavin said, “No fork, and even if I did, it’s not metal.”
“I’ve heard of this,” Eli said as he examined the charred remains in the bowl. “That was some light show, man. I’ve never seen a microwave explode before.”
“It didn’t explode,” Gavin corrected.
“Try and tell the manager that when it’s time to check out,” Eli countered.
“What could make Hunan Chicken set a microwave on fire?” Avery wondered.
“Iron,” Eli said.
“Huh?” Avery and Gavin both asked.
“Broccoli’s high in iron. There have been documented cases where a microwave has responded to broccoli similar to how it would metal. Look here,” he said, pointing to pieces of broccoli that were black and smoking. “If you look, you can see the broccoli’s burned, but the chicken is still cold.”
The smoke from the microwave reached the slow-witted and outdated smoke-detection system. Sputtering to life, the sprinklers in the room drowned them all in a sea of foamy mist. Gavin and Eli both dove for the bed where the camera cases sat, thankfully closed.
Avery, thinking to escape the shower, stepped over the threshold back into the other room. She enjoyed a few seconds of peace before the sprinklers in that room came on as well.
Picking up her purse, she strode out into the hallway and stood there waiting for Gavin and Eli to join her. The hotel’s manager came running from the elevator. An alarm must have tripped downstairs to let the front desk know the sprinkler had been set off.
“The fire department’s on the way! Is everyone okay?” he huffed in between puffs.
Avery gave him a weak smile. “No need to call the fire department. Apparently microwaves aren’t always happy with broccoli.”
Standing to his full height, all five foot three inches, the manager thrust his chest out in importance. “If a fire was started because of guest negligence, then the guest is responsible for any damages.”
“Nobody did anything wrong. The microwave went wonky,” Eli said.
“I can’t cancel the fire department,” the manager said, hands on his rounded hips. “Th
e smoke alarm automatically alerts them when it’s triggered, and hotel policy requires they come. If they arrive and there’s no fire, they will issue a bill, and said bill will be passed on to the guest who led to a false alarm being sent in the first place.”
Avery lifted her eyes to look at Gavin who stood there, two camera cases by his feet, and a black plastic take-out bowl of charred Hunan Chicken still in his hand. She lifted an eyebrow in question, and he gave a slight shake of the head. Then he mouthed the word Mitchell to her.
She nodded and took out her phone.
Fire at hotel. Not really. Pretty much just smoke. Blame the broccoli. Manager says you have to pay for fire department being dispatched. Plus damages to room. Sprinkler probably destroyed televisions and beds. And at least one microwave has given up the ghost.
After she sent the text to Mitchell she faced the manager and said, “You’ll find the rooms were reserved by the Albuquerque Times. I’ve alerted our editor there to the dilemma. He can take care of everything for you.” Putting on her best win-’em-over smile, she said, “Now, we need new rooms.”
The manager shuffled his feet for a few moments before saying, “We’re all booked up. There aren’t any other rooms.”
“Of course not,” Gavin said, as he put down his chicken and picked up his camera cases. “I’ll go load these in the car.”
Eli had shown the wherewithal to run back into the rooms and rescue two suitcases. Extending the telescopic handles so he could pull them down the hallway, he said, “Right behind you.”
Avery lightly patted the polycarbonate exterior of her suitcase as Eli ambled by with it. They had been an upgrade after a run-in with a hurricane during one of Corporate’s edicts for a story in a small Texas town on the gulf of Mexico. Both hard-shelled and waterproof, the suitcases had proven their worth in the months since. As a bonus, buying hers in pink had guaranteed Eli would no longer snag it for his own packing.
“Well then,” Avery said to the manager. “Can you think of any place in town that might have rooms available?”
Face now flushed, he avoided eye contact before saying, “The ice show is in town this week. Everything is booked up. Without a reservation, you won’t find a room anywhere in town.”
Avery picked up the bowl of chicken from the floor, placed it into the manager’s hands and said, “This is what was in the microwave and caused all this fuss. I’m not sure who you want to take that up with, but the fire marshal might need to see it.”
Then she picked up her purse and started walking away, a bounce in her step.
“Mrs. Eastly,” he called after her, “there will be questions and paperwork. You can’t just leave!”
More than halfway down the hall, Avery spun back to him and smiled, “I have a story to write and a deadline to meet. I can’t wait around here. You have the contact information for the paper. The bill goes to them, anyway, and they signed as the responsible party. I’m sure you’ll be hearing from my editor soon. Name’s Mitchell. He’s a bit of a bulldog, but he’s used to things going wrong.”
When Avery joined Eli and Gavin in the large yellow sports utility vehicle, she buckled in and said, “Every hotel in town is booked up. So where to?”
Gavin reached over and took her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing the back of it. “Wherever you want, dear.” Then he released her hand and shifted into gear.
“Gross,” Eli said from the back seat. “You promised this was going to be a working trip with none of that smoochy stuff.”
Avery turned around to look at her son and said, “Can I help it if I’m enamored of my husband, Eli? We may have agreed to do a story while we’re here, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still our honeymoon. In fact, since it is our honeymoon,” she said, winking at Gavin, “I think we should stop to kiss every five minutes. It makes perfect sense, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely,” Gavin said. “I could go for every three minutes, but in deference to the moody teen in the next seat, I’m willing to settle for five.”
Eli rolled his eyes, covered his ears and started singing at the top of his lungs. “La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.”
Avery blew him a kiss, and Eli stuck his tongue out at her.
“You know, Eli,” Gavin said, “I’d have married your mom back in the spring if she’d have let me. I was ready to pop the question by the time February rolled around. She needed time, though, to come around to my way of thinking. So, really, you should thank her. If it had been up to me, you’d have been forced to endure all kinds of kissing for months now.”
“Ugh,” said Eli. “I hope I don’t ever fall in love.” Then he winked at his mom.
Eli had been her biggest cheerleader as she’d struggled with allowing herself to become emotionally involved with Gavin. Her son was the one who’d told her she’d never find anyone if she wasn’t willing to risk her heart. So she’d risked it. What had followed was months of dating, laughing, travelling together to assignments – where something always went wrong – and feeling more fulfilled and alive than she’d imagined possible.
He loved Gavin, too, which made all the difference. Marriage to anyone would have been off the table unless Eli had been completely behind it. Mitchell had told her she was giving her son too much power over her and that she needed to put her foot down as the adult. She, however, had trusted her son, and it had paid off. Besides, it had been a fun year, and there wasn’t much about it she would change. Except maybe being forced out of our hotel on Christmas Day in the middle of small town Michigan.
With a laugh, Avery reached out and took Gavin’s hand. “Well, guys, since this is a business honeymoon, we might as well head toward Grand Rapids. I’ll get on the phone and find us a room. We’re going to need to stop in Wyoming on the way, though.”
“Wyoming?” Gavin and Eli both asked, their voices as skeptical as their faces.
“Yep, Wyoming. It’s a small town on the outskirts of Grand Rapids. At least according to the map. Exactly the sort of piece they enjoy at Corporate.” Then, nodding enthusiastically, she said, “Maybe we can even find a room there.” She held the map up and gazed at it, twisting it this way and that.
“You’ve got to invest in GPS, Mom.”
“Ah, come on. What’s the fun in that? Name once in the past year when having GPS helped us. Did it protect us from broken-down cars, spoiled food, bad hotels rooms, or blizzards? Did it keep us safe from power outages, tornadoes, hurricanes, or chocolate shortages?”
Her phone chirped to life, and Avery glanced down at it with an, “Ah, how sweet.”
“What is it?” Gavin asked.
She showed him the picture on the screen. Norma Sue had sent her a picture of Laura Jean, her son Joe, and her daughter-in-law all huddled around a tiny little sleeping baby.
“Well, look at that,” Gavin said. “Looks as if Laura and Joe’s wife got over their differences.”
“Norma Sue said as soon as Laura Jean’s chemo finished and she started feeling closer to her old self again, she and Joe’s wife started getting along better. Having the promise of a grandbaby to dote on helped, too.”
“When’s the last time you talked to Norma Sue? How are she and Herm doing?”
Avery laughed. “Last time I talked to her, she was mad because Herm had suggested she try a different hairstyle. It seems her beehive is too tall for the cockpit of his plane, and her hair keeps getting smashed.”
“Are they ever going to tie the knot?”
With a nod, Avery answered, “Don’t dare tell Norma Sue this, but they’ve got a Valentine’s Day wedding coming up. We’re invited.”
“She’s getting married in less than two months and doesn’t even know it?” Eli asked.
Avery shrugged. “Herm wants to surprise her. The whole town is getting in on it. There’s not a person there that Norma Sue hasn’t helped at one time or another. I can’t wait to go.”
“Oh no,” Eli said. “We’re going to have to drive, aren’t we?”
Gavin laughed. “No rental this time. We’ll take my truck.”
Eli let loose with a hoop and a holler. When Gavin stole a look at him through the rearview mirror with a lifted eyebrow, the boy responded, “Rental agency insurance says I can’t drive. Your insurance says I can.”
With a pronounced wince, Gavin pulled the big, ugly, rental vehicle onto the highway and said, “Tell me which direction to go. Wyoming, Michigan, or bust!”
About to put his earbuds back into place, Eli said, “You know, I almost miss Nowhere. Almost.”
Avery laughed as she eyed her son. “Nothing says adventure quite like the stink a skunk makes, you mean.”
“Hey,” Gavin said. “Don’t knock the place. I met my new family on the road to Nowhere.”
When Eli and Avery stared at him, he shrugged. “Too corny, huh?”
“Uh, yeah,” came the reply from the back seat.
“A smidge,” Avery said. “It’s okay, though,” she added. “We love you anyway.” Then, for emphasis, she leaned over and gave her new husband a kiss on the cheek and said, “Right, Eli?”
“Sure, whatever,” came the reply, “but I’m not kissing him.”
Acknowledgement
We all have those special friends who are beyond precious to us. I want to acknowledge some of those people who, despite knowing my faults, foibles, and idiosyncrasies, have still managed to love me.
An amazing person, a loyal friend, and an outspoken advocate – I lift my coffee mug in toast to Shari Schroeder, a woman whose belief in me has seen me through times when I haven’t known how to believe in myself. She has allowed me to borrow her strength and common sense more times than I can count. It takes a brave friend to say, “Stop making her spit out the water. It’s getting old.”
An endless source of wise council, uplifting words, and lots of shared laughter – I salute Travis and Betty Best. It is an honor to know you both and a privilege to have you in my life. Thank you for loving my family in such a special way and for sharing your life stories with me, including the one about a young New Mexico police officer and a skunk…
