My Favorite Mistake(54)
Every day he mentioned the apartment, and every day I said no. He tried every which way to convince me, but I refused. He always asked at the most inopportune times, usually when my mind and body were busy with something else that I had the feeling he was doing it on purpose. Ambush me in a moment when I was otherwise occupied and spring it on me, hoping I’d be too distracted to say no. Nice try, dude.
Mom kept calling me with little questions, asking what Hunter would like to eat, if we wanted to stay over, etc. I took her up on her offer to have us stay over because it would be kind of fun to show him around Waterville and my old haunts, especially the library.
Saturday morning we got up late, both of us a little sore after we’d tried something slightly ridiculous in the bedroom department that had led to more giggling than anything else.
“I think we can cross that off our list,” Hunter said, getting slowly out of bed.
“You have a list?”
“Well, there is a Periodic Table of Sex. And there’s always the Kama Sutra.”
“You’d have to have no spine to do most of those things,” I said, stretching my arms up as he ticked my stomach.
“You never know until you try.”
“True.”
“Breakfast?”
“I heard Paul out there rustling around. Maybe he made something?”
“I hope so.”
Paul had made French toast, and luckily, he’d made enough for all of us.
“Morning,” he said, wearing just a set of pj pants and a rumpled hairdo. I grinned at Renee, knowing what caused it. She winked and gave me a huge smile. I gave it back to her.
“So you’re meeting the parents today. You ready?” Paul asked Hunter.
“I’m hoping the apple didn’t fall far from the tree in this case,” Hunter said, passing me the syrup.
“My mom isn’t as angry as I am. She’s much nicer.”
“How could anyone be nicer than you?”
“I’m thinking of two words to describe you, and they are ass and kisser.”
“I love kissing your ass.” This was true. He’d done it the night before.
“Ugh, I’m eating here,” Renee said. I wrinkled my nose at her. “I think I liked you two better when you weren’t having sex.”
“But we weren’t as much fun,” I said.
“You mean you weren’t having as much fun.”
“What do you think? More fun now?” Hunter asked me, putting his arms around me and rocking side to side.
“Definitely.”
We finished breakfast and it was Renee’s turn for the dishes, so Paul did most of them.
“Okay, what to wear?” Hunter said as we were getting dressed.
“You never have a wardrobe crisis. That’s all me.”
“It’s not every day that you meet the mother of the girl you adore.”
“True. What are your options?”
He had a dark blue shirt and khaki combo, a black t-shirt and jeans combo and a white button-up with brown pants.
“This one says, ‘I’m a nice boy who would never hurt your daughter,’” I said, pointing to the first. “This says, ‘I’m casual and probably own a motorcycle that I drive too fast.’” I pointed to the second. “And this says, ‘Hey, I look amazing in this shirt and I’m reliable.’ So it all depends on what you want to go for.”
“Reliable it is,” he said, taking the white shirt and putting it on over his white tank.
“Let me,” I said, reaching for his buttons. Dressing him wasn’t nearly as fun as undressing, but I still liked treating him like a human Ken doll every now and then.
“What are you wearing?”
“That,” I said, pointing to my bed. I’d chosen a plum sweater and dark brown skirt along with black boots.
“It says, ‘I’m a nice girl who would never, ever do anything bad.’”
“It does?”
“I hope it does. Your mom doesn’t own a gun, does she?”
“Ah, no. That would be a negative.”
“Good.”
“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll protect you,” I said.
“I’m not scared.”
“Liar.”
“Sex goddess.”
“Wuss.”
“Beautiful.”
I sighed. “You’re going to make my head gigantic.”
“I’d love you even with a giant head.” He kissed the top of my head as I pulled my skirt on.
“So sweet.”
“Don’t tell anyone. I didn’t get these tattoos for people to think I was sweet. Speaking of that, your mom isn’t one of those people who thinks guys with tattoos are thugs, is she? I can cover up most of them and just keep my hand on this side of my head,” he said, putting his hand over his ear to cover the tattoo behind it.
“I don’t really know. This is going to be another first.”
“Did he have tattoos?”
I knew who he was. Travis. Hunter was sensitive about saying his name.
“Nope.”
“Good. The more different I am from him, the better.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. She’s really excited to meet you. I think her hope for grandchildren has been rekindled. She’ll probably try to talk you into proposing.”
“I wouldn’t need much convincing.”
“Yeah, right.” I went to the mirror and started brushing my hair. He put his hands on my shoulders.
“I’m serious,” he said.
“I thought you weren’t the marrying kind.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never told a girl I loved them either.”
My eyes met his in the mirror. “Never?”
“No. I never loved anyone before you.”
“Ditto.”
“I can’t imagine not wanting to marry you.”
“Even though I make a mess?”
“The mess is part of you. I get you; I get the mess. We can hire people to clean.”
“No way. No one is cleaning up after me. That’s just way too weird.”
“Okay, I’ll be the maid. As long as I get you.”
“What if you get sick of me? What if we have a huge fight?”
“Missy, we fight all the time.”
“Not like that.”
“We’ll get through it. We’ve already gotten through more than most couples our age.”
“We’re too young.”
“Age is just a number.”
“We’ll change our minds.”
“Not a chance.”
“It’s crazy.”
“Not any crazier than me tattooing good luck charms all over my body. Those are permanent. I want you to be permanent.”
God, he was stubborn.
“I’m not marrying you.”
“Maybe not right now.”
“I’m not doing this with you, okay?” I pulled my hair into a loose bun so it would be out of my way.
“Missy,” he said, drawing it out so it somehow turned into two words. “Forget I said it. I want this to be a good day, okay?” He kissed my shoulder and tugged a lock of my hair.
“Fine.” He was too irresistible. I turned and handed him my keys. “We are not taking your car, and I know you won’t let me drive, so here you go. Be careful with her, and I will be careful with you.” I gave a certain part of his body a little squeeze so he’d understand.
“Got it.”
It was the strangest sensation to sit in the passenger seat of my own car. It did mean I got to pick the music, and I settled on a mixed CD I’d made last summer.
“Since you didn’t tell me much about your family, I’ll be nice and tell you about mine. You already know Tawny, which is good. Other than Mom and one sister and a few cousins, that’s it. Grandparents are already long gone. Lots of heart attacks and cancer and stuff. So, my house isn’t even half the size of Hope and John’s. There are only three bedrooms, and we’re going to be bunking on a twin that I think is made up with Disney princess sheets right now because I brought all the ones I used with me to school. Um, what else? Oh, Mom’s really into family photos. She’ll probably make us pose for a few while you’re here, so get your picture smile ready.”
“How’s this?” He turned his head and gave me a huge fake grin that did nothing but make me laugh.
“Tone it down, dude.”
“Anything else?”
“I hope you like potato salad.”
“Maybe I do, and maybe I do.”
He started humming along with the CD, and I sat back and watched the highway blur by.
I got more nervous the closer we got to my house. When we got off at the Waterville exit, it all sort of crashed down on me. Hunter and I were together. He was meeting my mother. I’d met his family. We’d talked about marriage. This was really happening.
“Turn here,” I said, pointing to our street, Blackbird Lane.
“And here,” I said, pointing to our driveway.
He stopped the car and looked around. Tawny wasn’t here yet.
“This is nice. From the way you were talking I thought it was going to be a shack in the middle of nowhere. Not that I would have had a problem with that, but this isn’t as bad as you were describing.”
“We don’t have a chandelier,” I said.
“Not many people do.”
“Did your parents?”
“Several,” he said, getting out and grabbing his overnight bag from the back. “They paid people to clean them,” he said as he opened my door and took my hand. I got my bag, and we walked across the porch and to the front door.