A Summer to Remember

by Jessica Gunhammer

  “I am! It’s just that now I have to tell my parents and I’m kind of nervous about it. I had talked to them a while ago when me, Lily, Jason, and Steven had talked about moving in together at the beginning of the school year. I thought they would be okay with it since Jason and I had been dating for a while, but they were never too fond of him. You can imagine how they were when I pitched that idea to them.” My parents had always been nice to Jason but I always knew they didn’t really care for him much. He wasn’t exactly parent-friendly and I could always tell by their behavior when he was around. They weren’t exactly…well, let’s just say, very excited to see him.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be there with you when you tell them, if you want me to be. I’d love for your parents to get to know me. I’ll do whatever it takes for them to be okay with you living here. I don’t want you to be upset or uncomfortable with your decision in any way.” I swear he was almost too good to be true.

  “That would be great, but you don’t have to do that. Speaking of getting to know you, my mom was wondering if you wanted to come to dinner sometime this week or maybe this weekend?” I opened the pizza box and pulled out another slice.

  “I know I don’t have to. I want to. And of course I’d love to have dinner at your parents’ house.”

  “Okay. Would you rather do it this weekend? I know you don’t usually feel like doing much by the time you get off work.” I watched as he poured himself another glass of soda then sat back on the couch.

  “Sure. There’s actually a storm rolling in tonight, so I might have tomorrow off. If we get rained out, maybe we can do it tomorrow night. You should stay here tonight, just in case.” He smiled at me and it caused a warm fuzzy feeling to wash over me.

  “I don’t have any clothes or anything with me.” I set my empty plate on the table and moved closer to him.

  “You don’t need clothes. You can wear some of mine to bed and wear what you have on in the morning. I have an extra toothbrush under the sink.”

  “You’ve been planning this all day, haven’t you?” It was kind of cute how much he wanted me to stay here with him.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I could see the corner of his mouth curl up. He put his hand on the side of my face and pulled me in for another kiss.

  “You’re so full of it.” I climbed onto his lap and kissed him. Every night we spent away from each other felt like an eternity. I daydreamed about his kiss when we were apart. Now to be here and have him right in front of me, it was hard to stop.

  “You want to go to the bedroom?” he asked.

  “Here is fine.” I pulled my shirt over my head. He looked me up and down and didn’t ask any more questions. He ran his hands slowly along my hips and waist; I could feel the electricity between my bare skin and his fingertips. He carefully picked me up and laid me on my back on the couch. As he kissed my lips and trailed kisses down my neck and collarbone, goosebumps formed on the surface of my skin. He pulled off my sweatpants. He sat up and admired me in my bra and panties; I could feel my cheeks becoming warm. Even though I could feel the butterflies moving rapidly in my stomach, it didn’t stop me from feeling like I was in total control of the situation. The way he looked at me, I knew I could make him do anything I wanted.

  Later that night I was lying in Adrian’s bed and I could hear the raindrops falling on the rooftop. I’d always loved the sound of rain at night, especially during the summer months. It relaxed me and helped me sleep like a baby. I could see the lightning flash through the curtains onto the bedroom wall, which was followed by a loud boom of thunder a few seconds later. I turned to see if it woke Adrian, but he was sound asleep. He looked so peaceful when he slept, like he didn’t have a care in the world. Well, I guess I had better prepare myself, tomorrow night will be the night I tell my parents I’m moving in with Adrian.

  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 frea
king 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.

  Chapter 22

  The rest of the week I spent going to the pool and going shopping with Lily until Adrian got off work. Lily came over to check out our place, and of course, she loved it! She thought it was “so cute we were shacking up together.” That’s Lily for you.

  When Friday night rolled around, Adrian came home from work and told me about a party a friend of his was having. We hadn’t done much since going to the lake, so we decided tonight would be a good night to get out for a little bit. This would be our first night out together as an official couple in front of all of his friends. The only friends I’d met of his were the ones up at Brian’s cabin that weekend, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect when we got there.

  When we entered the neighborhood, I knew the house we were going to was probably going to be a mansion. When I say mansion, I mean swimming pool inside the house kind of mansion. I was beginning to think this party was going to end up being a lot bigger than I’d imagined.

  We turned down what I thought was a road, but when we finally reached the house, I realized it was actually their driveway. There were about thirty cars sitting outside in the drive, which circled around a large fountain. Some were even parked on the lawn. I had no idea how Adrian knew this guy, but someone had some major cash.

  “Wow. There are a lot of people here.” I watched all of the people walking in and out of the house.

  “Yeah, this is how Shane’s parties usually turn out. He knows a lot of people in town. His dad owns Boseman Auto Sales.” Okay, now the huge house and party were making sense. Boseman Auto Sales was one of the biggest car dealerships in town.

  “His parents don’t care that all these people are trashing their house?” It looked like hundreds of abandoned cans and bottles were lining up the stairs to the front door.

  “His parents don’t know. Every summer they take a trip to Cabo and Shane throws a few ‘get togethers’, as he calls them, while they’re gone. Then his housekeeper cleans up and he pays her to keep quiet.” He pulled up next to an SUV on the grass and parked the truck.

  “If this is a ‘get together’, I’d love to see what a party looks like.”

  “No kidding.” We got out of the truck and walked up the driveway to the front door. Adrian stopped to greet and shake hands with a few guys on the way up.

  “How do you know Shane?” I asked once we got to the bottom of the steps.

  “We played football together at Brant.” A smirk spread across his face. “We didn’t get along very well at first because he can be kind of a jackass, but we learned to get along.” We reached the top of the stairs and waited for a few people who were squeezing in and out of the doorway.

  “If his parents are loaded, then why did he stick around here to go to school? Shouldn’t he have gone to some bigwig school or something?” Adrian laughed.

  “You would think. He claims he stuck around because he wants to run his dad’s dealership someday, but everyone else thinks it’s because he’s too lazy to do anything else with his life. He just graduated college, has never worked a day in his life, including working at the dealership, because his dad doesn’t think he’s responsible enough yet, and he still lives under his parents’ roof. His parents, especially his mom, aren’t about to cut him off, so it’s just easier to stick around and do whatever he wants.” We were finally able to walk through the front door just as some leggy blonde and the guy she was clinging to were walking out.

  The inside of the house was amazing! There were two curved staircases that followed the walls on each side of the room and came together in the center on the second floor. The ceiling in the entry was huge and shaped into a dome that had what looked like hand-painted artwork covering the inside. The crystal chandler that hung in the middle of the dome was gorgeous! I bet this place was really something when it wasn’t covered in red Solo cups and beer bottles and didn’t reek of alcohol and weed.

  “Adrian!” A tall, tanned brunette was waving her arms crazily and running in our direction. When she reached us, she threw her arms around Adrian’s neck and hugged him.

  I guess it never really crossed my mind that we might run into some of his ex-girlfriends, or flings, or whatever they may be. This girl was being a little too friendly with him to be just a friend, or if she was just a friend, then she wanted something else. We’d never spent much time talking
about the people we had been with before we were together. The only reason Adrian even knew about Jason was because we ran into him the night we met.

  “Hey, Sam. How’s it going?” I could sense Adrian was feeling a little uncomfortable.

  “Oh my gosh! I’m so happy to see you! What has it been? Like six months? I’m so glad you came tonight! Let me get you a drink!” She grabbed his hand and started leading him into the kitchen.

  “Actually,” he pulled his hand from hers, “I’m kind of here with someone.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me to his side. “This is my girlfriend, Ava.”

  “Oh.” She looked me up and down with a look of disapproval in her eyes. She was clearly annoyed. “Nice to meet you, Ava.” She did a horrible job plastering a fake smile on her face and trying not to sound disgusted as she said my name.

  “Yeah, you too.” I sounded a little more bitchy then I had intended, but I wasn’t one to be fake when I knew someone was being fake with me.

  “Well, you two enjoy yourselves. I’m going to go get myself a drink.” She flipped her amazing long dark hair as she turned and walked into the kitchen.

  “Well, that was awkward,” I said.

  “Yeah. Sorry about that. I didn’t know she was back from Florida.” He sighed with relief; obviously happy that went as smoothly as it did.

  “And she is?” I asked, trying not to let my jealousy creep into my question.

  “Sam.”

  “Yeah, I got that.” I was a little irritated because he knew what I was asking and he was just trying to get out of answering the question. “I mean how do you know her?”

  “She’s Shane’s sister.” He paused for a brief moment. “We dated a few times.”