“Hey.” I touched his arm gently. He turned to look at me, his brown eyes on me. “I’m nervous too, but it will be okay. My parents are going to like you, I promise. But fair warning: my dad will interrogate you, but just answer him and that should be it.”
“Your father isn’t huge, is he?” he asked. I couldn’t help but laugh softly.
“Not necessarily,” I said even though he was a bigger guy, or at least bigger than Gage.
“Great, that was a big help,” Gage muttered sarcastically.
“You’re welcome.” I grinned at him.
“This is the first time I have ever met a girl’s parents before,” he admitted as he stared up at the house.
“Don’t worry, you will be great.” I squeezed his hand and sent him an encouraging smile. “We better go before my mom starts to peek through the window at us,” I said before I untangled my hand from his to unbuckle my seatbelt and to get out of the car.
When we came around the car, I once again grabbed his hand. I gave him another smile, and we started for the front door. Gage’s grip on my hand tightened the closer we got, and I knew what he was feeling. I was just silently praying this afternoon went by fast and painless. If someone was up there listening, now would be the time to do some good.
“If you don’t want to be here anymore, just let me know and we can go, okay?” I said, looking up at him from his side.
“Okay, thank you.” He sent me a smile back. Just as I reached for the doorknob, I realized something.
“You aren’t scared of dogs, are you?” I asked quickly.
“No, why?”
“We have a family dog named Sam. I may have forgotten to mention him before.”
“It is okay. I’m cool with dogs.” With a nod, I took a deep breath and opened the door.
Thank goodness that when we entered we weren’t attacked by my mother. As I glanced around, I was relieved to see there wasn’t a banner up above us like with Macey and Luke, or that Aunt Kay and Uncle Nick were here as well. It would be even more awkward if anyone else were to have lunch with us. I had to tell Luke to stay away today and not to come over. It would just make things worse.
Not seeing anyone else, I tugged Gage deeper into the house and yelled out my mom’s name.
“Mom? Dad? We are here!” I yelled. Just as I finished I heard the familiar sound of nails on the hardwood floor. I saw our dog, Sam, running toward us. I dropped Gage’s hand and kneeled down to greet him. Even though I saw him last week, I had missed him so much. I was a huge dog lover and that meant I was that annoying person who would gravitate toward the dog first before saying anything to the owner. Like if there were a dog at a party, I would instantly find it and be there all night long.
“Sammy!” I giggled as he licked all over my face, getting me all nice and slobbery. Once I was all good and loved up, he moved onto Gage. He took a minute to sniff all around him before Gage kneeled down as well, and Sam went to town on kissing his face. I grinned as I watched Gage scratch the back of Sam’s ear, and he smiled. There was nothing better in my opinion than a guy and a dog. It just instantly made a boy ten times hotter.
“Someone likes you,” I heard a voice say a few minutes later. In walked my mom, coming from the kitchen. She was wiping her hands off on a towel as she headed in our direction. As usual, my mom looked very pretty. Her dark brown hair, similar to mine, was up in a messy ponytail. She had some makeup on, but since my father liked her without any, she hardly ever wore it unless we went to an event somewhere. She was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans and a cute blouse. To me, she screamed “Mom,” but I could see why others all called her beautiful.
“Hey Mom,” I said as she pulled me into a hug. I hugged her back for a second before I pulled out of it and turned to Gage.
“Mom, this is Gage Harper. Gage, this is my mom, Layla Miller.” While my mom was hugging me, he had straightened up and was smoothing out his shirt.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Miller.” He went to shake her hand, but in true fashion for my family, she pulled him into a hug. Just like me, she only reached his shoulder.
“Call me Layla, please,” Mom said as she pulled away, a bright smile on her face. “Welcome, by the way. It is great to finally meet you.”
“It is nice to meet you too. Carter talks about you guys a lot.”
“Only good things I hope.” My mom chuckled.
“Where’s Dad?” I asked, looking around for him.
“He had some last-minute things to do for work, so he is up in the study. Why don’t you go get him for lunch while I show Gage here around a little bit?” Mom offered.
“Uh, you alone with him, Mom?” I asked, my blue eyes widening a little. I had no clue what my mother would say to Gage when they are alone.
“Yes, I won’t bite, honey.” She waved me off. “Go grab your father so we can eat. Come with me, Gage, I’ll show you the kitchen.” I stood there watching as they passed. When Gage passed me, he softly touched my hand before he followed after my mom. With them occupied, I headed up the stairs to my father’s study to get him for lunch.
As I went up the stairs, I realized how much I missed this house. It had only been a few months since I moved out, but it has felt like years since I was last here. When I reached the study, I knocked softly before opening the door and peeking my head inside.
“Dad?” I called.
“Sweetie, you are here,” my dad said as I stepped fully into the room, the door opening all the way behind me. “I didn’t hear you guys come in.” He came around the desk and pulled me into a hug. I hugged his sturdy frame back.
“Mom told me to come get you for lunch,” I said once I had pulled away.
“Is this Gage Harper downstairs with your mother?” my dad asked as he shut down what he was doing on the computer and coming back around to me.
“Yeah, he is, but, Dad, please be good. I don’t want you to scare him off.”
“Why would I scare him off?” Dad asked, raising an eyebrow down at me. I sent him a look.
“I know you. You are going to interrogate him and try to scare him using your whole business demeanor.” I waved my hand to get my point across.
“As your father it is my duty to make sure the young man doesn’t get scared easy.” I rolled my eyes at that. Yeah, that was what he liked to say.
“Yeah, right,” I muttered as we came down the stairs. Before we reached the kitchen, I stopped him. “But seriously, Dad, get to know him before you judge.” I looked up into my father’s blue eyes—the ones I inherited. I even used my puppy-dog eyes to help; my dad could never say no to those.
“I will, honey. I promise.” He smiled at me. Knowing he would stick to his word, I nodded and smiled back.
Entering the kitchen, we found my mom pointing to our backyard talking to Gage, Sam at their feet wanting to be involved with someone new. My dad cleared his throat to get my mom’s attention, as well as Gage’s. I quickly went around my father to go stand by Gage before I introduced them, my dad right behind me. At least my father wasn’t dressed to the nines today. Instead, he was just dressed in a nice dress shirt and a pair of jeans, almost similar to Gage. His outfit must have been something my mom told him to wear instead of his normal suit, which would have made him seem scarier than he actually was.
“Dad, this is Gage Harper. Gage, this is my father, Ashton Miller.” I gestured between them. Unlike my mom, my father put his hand out for Gage to shake. I watched as they shook and paid attention to the pressure both guys were using. I didn’t see Gage wince, so that was a good thing. Their shake didn’t last long, but I did notice a raised eyebrow from my father as he let go of Gage’s hand. I had no clue what that was about.
“It is nice to meet you, Mr. Miller,” Gage greeted with a nod. I noticed he had squared his shoulders a little and was trying to hide his nervousness.
“Nice to meet you as well, Mr. Harper.” It was awkward for a moment before my mom stepped in.
“How about
we eat? You kids hungry?”
“That is a good idea, Mom,” I rushed to say. Gage just nodded, and my father stared at him.
“Ashton, come help me with the plates,” Mom all but demanded of my father. Looking at Gage for another second, he finally turned to help my mother. I sent Gage a small smile, which he returned. It calmed some of my fears a little.
It didn’t take long for all the stuff for lunch to be at the table and for us to be seated. Me and Gage were on one side, while my parents were across from us. In front of us was a bowl of spaghetti with my mom’s homemade marinara sauce, in another bowl was a salad mix with tons of different dressings to one side, and a plate full of garlic bread was in front of us as well, along with some cheese to put on the spaghetti. It all looked really good, and having been too nervous to eat this morning, I was starving.
We all dug in, and only when we had food on our plates did my parents finally break the silence. I was just hoping they wouldn’t fire question after question at us.
“So…how did you two meet?” my mom asked first. I quickly swallowed the bread in my mouth before answering.
“We have an English class together on Monday, so on the first day I ended up sitting next to him,” I said, not mentioning how we truly met the first time. We had already discussed that we shouldn’t say that to my parents. I mean, would you tell your parents that you met your “boyfriend” as you went to pick your drunk friend up from a party, and invited him home to clean up his bleeding face. Yeah, I didn’t think so.
“She sat right beside me even though there was an entire empty row,” Gage added. “I wasn’t really social with her at first, but she broke down those walls pretty quickly.” He smiled over at me.
“That sounds sweet,” my mom commented, grinning across from us.
“How old are you, Gage?” my father asked then, basically already ploughing ahead with the personal questions.
“I am twenty, sir,” Gage replied, looking right at him. It was like he was telling my father he wasn’t that afraid of him.
“Isn’t that a little old to be dating an eighteen-year-old?”
I butted in. “Dad, that is two years’ difference. You and Mom are farther apart than that in age.”
“And you are a sophomore in college? Shouldn’t you be a junior?”
“I was held back a year, sir,” Gage said. Something I didn’t even know.
“Why was that?” my dad asked looking right at him, not even touching his food.
“I had some…family issues that got in the way, so I redid a year.”
“What family issues?”
“Dad!” I gasped. “He doesn’t need to tell you that.” Even my mom looked at my father with a raised eyebrow. He was being really straightforward today. Gage didn’t need to answer that question, especially right off the bat.
“Carter, it is okay.” Gage placed a hand on my knee and squeezed gently. “I was fourteen when my mother passed away, so I ended up living with my grandma. It was tough, so she let me mourn before going back to school. I ended up missing too much and had to retake eighth grade,” he explained.
I stared at him in total surprise. He had never told me his mother passed away. I mean, he never talked about her, but I just thought it was because we weren’t really that close. When he invited me over to his grandma’s, I didn’t really think too much of it at the time. But now it made sense why he was so close with his grandma.
“I am so sorry about your mom,” Mom said, a sad expression on her face.
“It is okay. It was a long time ago.” Even though he smiled, I could see it still pained him to think about. I couldn’t even imagine losing my mom; it would be absolutely terrible.
My father seemed okay with that answer and dropped asking any questions for a little bit. We ate in silence, bringing up some conversation every once in a while, so it wasn’t too awkward. Gage was being the perfect gentleman. He praised my mother’s cooking, which she loved. He was present in the conversation and did everything you wanted a guy to do when he met your parents.
Through lunch my parents still asked him questions about his life, what he wanted to do after college, what he was studying, if he had any plans already set for when he graduated. They asked everything under the moon and Gage gracefully answered them all. When they asked when we started dating, we answered just as we said we would.
We came up with a little story earlier during the week, for when they asked. We couldn’t say it was fake, but we had to have some sort of story. We did try to keep it close to what did happen, but make it real. So, we said we went to get ice cream after classes one day and while we were there, Gage asked me to be his girlfriend. It wasn’t a lie; it just wasn’t the full truth either.
During lunch I had learned a lot more about Gage. Besides finding out about his mom, I learned he planned on doing something with math after college, although he wasn’t sure what exactly. He planned on staying here in New York to watch over his grandma and help her.
Everything I learned about him made me like him even more. Seeing another side to him was different and refreshing. It was very open and honest, which I liked. Even when I talked, I noticed he would listen to every word I said, and that he would steal glances at me when it was obvious he thought I wasn’t paying attention. His hand was always on my thigh, warm against my bare skin. It was a comfort, and I could easily grab it when we talked. It was just so natural to have him here with my parents, and with me.
It was after dessert was done that my father decided it was time to interrogate Gage, but alone. I knew this bit. He would take Gage up into his study and do what he did for about twenty minutes, then they would come back down and act like nothing happened. Sure, this only happened once to me for a boyfriend, but my father had done it a few times before: when I got asked to homecoming by a guy on the football team, or to prom. He would take the guy upstairs to have a chat and return later with them looking like they wanted to shit themselves.
When the two of them walked away I watched them nervously, biting my bottom lip. Oh, how I wished to be a fly on the wall upstairs and hear what they were talking about. A touch on my arm jerked me out of my thoughts and back to my mom.
“Mind helping me with these dishes?”
“Nope.” I shook my head as I helped her grab our dirty dishes and bowls, to bring them to the sink. Mom washed while I dried, just like old times.
“Gage is pretty great,” my mom commented after a few moments.
“Yeah, he is.” I smiled down as I put a plate in the dishwasher. Just thinking about Gage brought a smile to my face.
“I can tell you are really smitten with him.” She looked over at me. I blushed under her stare. She was right: I was smitten—maybe even more than smitten, honestly. Just being around him made me feel good.
“I really like him, Mom,” I admitted.
“And that is good. Can you tell me why, though?” I paused in my drying and looked at her confused.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Why you like him is an important question you need to ask yourself. If the answer is because he is sweet and cute, that really isn’t enough to make a serious relationship.” She turned off the water and faced me, leaning her hip against the counter. “I want you to give me a real reason why you like him.”
“A reason why I like him,” I echoed.
“If you can’t answer that, then you may need to rethink your feelings. I just want you to think about it for a minute. Can you truly give me one reason why?” She looked at me expectantly.
As I thought about her words, I nodded. I could give her a million reasons why. I could tell her that I loved the way his eyes sparkled when he saw or did something he loved. I could tell her that I loved the way he tried hard in school but wouldn’t care to admit it to anyone. I could tell her he made me very angry at times, but that I loved when he pushed my buttons. But I didn’t tell her that. Instead, I simply told her, “He makes me feel like I actually mean so
mething.”
Chapter Three
Gage
Carter’s parents were not what I expected at all. I was not going to lie; I thought they would be snooty rich people, like some I had met. Carter was anything but that, but you never know. When her mother greeted me with a hug I was more than surprised, and I couldn’t deny that her hug reminded me of my mother’s. Although her father was just as I expected him to be.
The moment I saw Ashton Miller, I knew he was a man you did not mess with. I recognized him from pictures in magazines, and even a billboard downtown for some advertising he’d done. Almost everyone in New York had heard of the famous CEO of Miller Industries. With the hard look he was giving right now, I knew he was in complete business mode.
Carter was a perfect mix of her parents. Her parents had the same hair, so of course she’d have brown hair. She had her father’s blue eyes, but hers were a lot softer and kinder than her father’s. It was clear that she was a mix of her mother and father’s personalities. She was super quiet, not too outspoken, and didn’t like attention, just like her mother. But I knew from experience Carter could spit fire when she wanted to, just like I knew her father could.
I wasn’t going to lie: when Carter’s father asked to talk to me privately, I started to sweat a little bit. Being alone with Ashton Miller was something I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for. I had no choice, though, so I forced myself to stand up and follow him out of the dining room. I shot Carter an encouraging smile, letting her know I was okay before I was out of view.
Lunch wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and thanks to Mrs. Miller, we had plenty of light conversation. When Mr. Miller did ask about my family, I hesitated for a second. I hadn’t even told Carter about my mother dying, and that was why I lived with my grandma. It just wasn’t something I shared often, and only a few knew about it. I wanted Carter to know about my life, so I answered truthfully. When I felt her squeeze my hand, I knew I telling the truth was the right thing.
Silent Love_Part Three Page 4
