Episode 27
Episode 27
Meet the Parents Part 1
JACK
Summer slept like the dead the entire flight to California. The second she sat down, she yawned, kicked off her heels, curled her legs up into the supple leather seat, and claimed she needed a few winks. Then the woman crashed. It was mind-boggling. I’d never seen anyone who could slip into dreamland so quickly. Then again, I’d never met anyone like Summer Belanger. Not only was she a true beauty, physically speaking, she had an ease about her that called to me. Made me want to be closer to her. Almost like a gravitational pull.
When the plane landed in Humboldt County right outside of Eureka, which is, apparently, where her family lived, she popped up and out of her seat, grabbed her heels, and took my hand.
“Let’s go! They’ll be expecting us.” She grinned, nearly vibrating with excitement.
I frowned. “How will they be expecting us?”
She shrugged and her eyebrows lifted. “They just will be.”
I led her into the Land Rover I’d rented, and she navigated since she was familiar with the area.
“Oh!” She pointed out the window in Old Town Eureka. “There’s my favorite restaurant. I’ll take you there tomorrow maybe,” she gushed, clearly happy to be home.
It was a gorgeous area. The houses were incredibly unique, each building a different color, reminding me of Nyhavn in Denmark. Only the architectural style was completely opposite. The homes here were Craftsman, beachy, or looked like doll houses with jutting spiral lookouts and pointed roofs. The location had a free-spirited, artsy feel that put my mind at ease.
The coastline spread out parallel to the town, the breeze off the channel making the air feel crisp and fresh. The pine trees surrounding the area enhanced the clean, nature-focused atmosphere.
“This place is magical,” I stated, admiring a bright yellow house with burnt orange trim. It shouldn’t work together but somehow, it did.
As we stopped at the crosswalk to let a family walk by, I spied a familiar name on a cute little building. “Eureka’s Pizza. Should I pop in and see if you’re there?” I teased.
Summer’s cheeks turned hot pink. “I’m sorry I lied. That was uncool of me. But in my defense, we’d just survived a very harrowing experience, I’d melted down, had a panic attack, and thought you were stuck up and snobby about me smelling like weed.”
“Mmmhmm,” I clicked the turn signal and followed the road out of the main part of town toward a mountain blanketed with large pine trees in the distance.
“It was pretty nice of you to try and check up on me. Proves you’re a good guy, Jack Larsen.”
I chuckled. “If I’m being honest, I did want to check up on you, but my intentions weren’t pure of heart.”
She grinned wickedly. “Oh. Are you admitting to being into me?”
“If into you means I think you’re gorgeous, your eyes are the prettiest I’ve ever seen in my life, and your body makes me want to fuck you into next week. Then yes, I am most certainly into you , Summer.”
“Hot damn. Don’t hold back or anything.” She snorted playfully then suddenly started bouncing in her seat. “Pull in right there. That’s the driveway to my parents’ house.” Summer wiggled like a brand new puppy who’d just met its new owner. She was so excited she could hardly contain it. A lightness filled and expanded my chest watching her, my fingers tingling with the desire to reach out and touch the living, breathing energy this woman exuded. I held back but just barely. There would be time to connect. Three years of time.
I tamped down the urge to touch her as we continued down a long dirt road that eventually ended on the top of a hill. A sprawling one-story white, wooden, ranch style home greeted us. There was a tree line surrounding the property miles off in the distance. It reminded me a lot of what Erik’s parents had back in Oslo. This home, however, had a wraparound porch with several rocking chairs, pots of every color bursting with flowers, and lush greenery trailing the banisters.
“Wow,” I whispered as Summer bolted out of the car.
Before her feet even hit the steps leading up to the porch a flash of color raced out of the house. A woman with blonde, waist-length hair spread her arms out wide, the fabric of her dress draped to the sides like a butterfly’s wings in flight as Summer crashed into her.
The woman curled her arms around Summer and swung her from side to side. As I exited the car, a tall, slender, redheaded man approached the two. He cupped the back of Summer’s head, closed his eyes and kissed the crown of her golden hair. His red beard and mustache combo disappearing into her hair.
I leaned against the front of the car to give them some time. The door to the house opened and a tall, slender, fair redhead with corkscrew curls and bare feet padded down the steps. She wore a tie-dyed skirt and a black strappy tank. Hanging from her neck were at least ten different necklaces, and her wrists were circled by stacks of beaded bracelets. On her long fingers were a plethora of silver rings of various designs I couldn’t make out from such a distance.
Summer let go of the woman who had to be her mother, and plowed into the younger woman’s arms. The redhead ducked her head straight against Summer’s neck and held on.
I waited a few minutes for the group to pull themselves together. The entire spectacle was astonishing. This homecoming was one you’d expect to see when someone returned after having been away for months or years, not a two-hour flight away in a neighboring state. It said a lot about how connected this family was to one another.
What if they found me lacking?
Would Summer terminate our agreement?
Technically, she didn’t need the money.
I scowled as the thought of her not wanting to take this adventure with me wove into my psyche. She could leave me at any time. There wasn’t anything tying her to me until after we officially married. I made a mental note to speed up the wedding date to as soon as possible. Maybe there was a justice of the peace around Eureka I could speak to. I’d have my assistant look into it.
“Jack! Come here, silly!” Summer’s voice cut through the uncertainly clouding my mind.
I shook off the haze and ran my fingers through my messy, windblown hair while focusing on my fiancée who was waving me over. I adjusted my suit, closing the center button of the jacket.
When I got close, Summer looped her arm with mine and pressed to my side. “And this is Jack Larsen, my fiancé. Jack, this is my mama Ann, my sister Autumn, and my father Bernie.”
Ann stepped forward, reached up, and cupped both of my cheeks. Her eyes were the color of emeralds. Freckles dotted her creamy skin in pretty patterns. Her lips were plump, pink, and looked exactly like Summer’s.
“Oh, I see you, dear. So much loss.” Her thumbs traced over my brow ridge, down my nose, and over my cheeks the way a blind person might scan the topography of a person’s features. “We’ll help you, son. The light always shines bright around here.” Her gaze flicked to Summer as she smiled. “Sunshine year-round. Stick with my girl, and she’ll rid you of any darkness.” She patted my face lovingly, reminding me of Erik’s mother Irene. “Come, you both need to eat. It’s well past dinner time.”
I shook Bernie’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Sir.”
“You can call me Bernie, Dad, or Pops. I don’t answer to anything else.” He gave a wonky sideways grin before he took his wife’s hand, and they made their way up the porch and into the house.
Autumn waited patiently for them to leave before she smiled wide. “You are even hotter than in my vision.” She nudged Summer’s shoulder. “Lucky ducky!” she teased. “Come on, let’s get in there. Mom already made tea for all of us.”
As we made it to the top of the stairs, following a few steps behind Autumn, the woman abruptly stopped, turned around and tipped her head to the side. “Where’s your son?” She asked pointedly.
I jolted my head back. “Uh, my son?” I croaked. No clue what she was talking about.
“Yeah, the little boy. About two or three years old?” She frowned and then squinted. “No…yeah, I see you with a small child. A boy. I assumed you had one? The vision is very clear.”
Summer grasped my arm and pressed her cheek to my bicep, her gaze concerned. “You have a child,” she whispered with uncertainty.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I do not have a child. I swear. Some friends of mine are having twin girls. And a very close friend back home has a young boy.”
Autumn said the one name that sliced straight through my heart. “Troy.”
I winced and inhaled sharply. “Yes, the boy’s name is Troy Jack, but we call him TJ,” I clenched my teeth. Summer ran her hands up and down my arm. “But he’s not my son. He’s…” I let out a long breath. I didn’t want to go into everything regarding the helicopter accident, losing Troy, then his wife having her baby without my best friend there to see it. Erik in the hospital and then practically disappearing off the face of the earth for two years, leaving me to be the only one looking after Troy’s wife and kid. It was all so complicated and chock full of some intense feelings I’d pushed way into the back of my mind and didn’t want to resurface now. Especially after Erik finally found happiness and started to heal. Erik, Troy’s wife, Ellen, and I were finally moving on from Troy’s loss. The last thing I wanted was to bring it all to the surface again.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Autumn…um…she has visions that are hard to decipher. She obviously got your connection to the boy mixed up.”
Autumn tried again, her lips pursed into an expression of intense concentration. “Uh, not exactly…”
Summer cut her sister off. “Enough. Obviously you’re upsetting Jack. Lay off a bit, yeah? Maybe go ground yourself.”
“But…” Autumn breathed.
Summer held up her hand. “Enough! Can we come in? Get Jack some tea and a seat. We’ve both had an incredible day. We could use some time to decompress.”
Autumn’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry if I overstepped. You know how it is sometimes. I can’t unsee things, and they push and push. And they just come out.”
I firmed my jaw and gave her a hint of a smile. It was all I could muster after she mentioned Troy and his son. It was a very sore subject and not one I was planning to discuss with Summer’s family. Heck, I wasn’t even sure I’d discuss it with her. Troy and Ellen were an important part of my life, but I was trying to build something of my own too. Ellen made me promise I’d try for her and for the friend I’d lost.
Autumn entered the house, and before I could grab the screen door handle, Summer stopped me. “Hey, you okay? I saw your face when she mentioned Troy and TJ.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. “Honestly, Summer, I really don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want to spend a little time getting to know your family over tea and then maybe find a hotel where we can crash. It’s been a very long day.”
She took my hand, put it to her cheek and rubbed against my palm. “Okay. But we’ll stay at my house back in the middle of town, if it’s okay with you.”
“I’d love to see your house.”
She grinned. “Remember you said that,” she teased before opening the door and dragging me behind her.
We went through a massive living space that had big picture windows. There were bookshelves from floor to ceiling across almost every wall. Books, knickknacks, picture frames, crystals, and plants filled every shelf, everything meticulously placed.
Candles burned on small tables that weren’t already lit with warm lamps in varying colors. The smell of frankincense mixed liberally with lavender in the air. It wasn’t overbearing, but we’d definitely leave here smelling like a walking stick of potpourri.
I followed Summer through the kitchen where her father was dishing out heaping bowls of stew. Steam wafted in the air above each large bowl, and my mouth watered.
My stomach growled and Summer chuckled. “He’s definitely hungry, Dad,” Summer announced as she walked me past him to a well-lit covered patio. Here the lighting matched the environment. Moody, charming, and relaxing.
Autumn and Ann were already seated at a large round table with a loaf of bread on a cutting board placed in the center. Next to Ann was a side cart that held a pot of tea and several dainty teacups, a bowl with sugar cubes, and a metal pitcher that I imagined contained milk.
“Sit you two. Take a load off,” Ann suggested. “Bernie’s ladling up the stew as we speak. We figured if you were coming straight from Vegas and the auction, you might not have eaten.”
The auction.
How did she already know about that?
I gripped the chair closest to Ann and held it out for Summer to take her seat. Her mother smiled, obviously approving of the gesture.
I took my own chair. “So, you know about the auction?”
“Tea, Mama?” Summer interrupted.
Her mother pushed the cart over to Summer, then picked up a stack of worn looking cards and started to shuffle them.
“Sugar and milk?” Summer asked me.
“However you make it will be fine, solskinn ,” I answered, then focused on Ann. “The auction? You’re aware I purchased your daughter’s hand in marriage tonight?” I wanted to get right to the truth. If she knew, there was no reason to pussy-foot around our current situation. And I preferred to plot every possible move on the chess board even before I played.
Ann smirked. “I was the one who suggested she enter. A beautiful girl like my Sunny can’t spend her life hiding in the greenhouse with her plants and her old man.”
“And why not?” Bernie touted playfully as he entered with a tray of steaming bowls. He set the food down and passed out each bowl, then offered napkins and silverware. “She’s a chip off the old block.”
Ann sighed as she stirred her stew. “Yes, love of my life, but my daughter needs a man of her own. Passion. Friends. Kids. She can’t spend all of her days in the fields or locked up with her father in the greenhouses. It’s not healthy. She needs more.”
“She needs dick is what she needs,” Autumn grumbled around a bite of bread.
“That too,” her mother agreed wholeheartedly.
I choked on a sip of tea. “ Jesus Kristos !” I cursed and wiped at my mouth, shocked at the candor of this family.
Summer laughed and pointed her spoon at her sister. “So do you. How’s Raquel anyway…the bitch .” She whispered the last part.
“I heard that!” Autumn fired back, anger suffusing her pale cheeks. “You never liked my girlfriend. Not ever. Admit it!” she snapped.
“Because she’s a bitch who doesn’t deserve you!” Summer snarled and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Well, that is the truth,” Bernie grumbled, agreeing with Summer.
“Bernie,” Ann countered. “Do not get involved in their squabbles.”
“I’m just saying, Raquel has never treated you the way you should be treated. That’s all. And she hates me. She also doesn’t like coming here. That’s a sign right there that she’s not good for you,” Summer stated.
Autumn rolled her eyes. “Puh-leeese. She doesn’t hate you. She’s afraid of how smart you are. Says you talk to her like she’s stupid.”
“Because she is stupid,” Summer fired back. “The woman knows how to play pool, drink beer, watch sports, and boss you around like you’re her personal maid. And you put up with it. Why? Because she knows how to finger the G-spot!” Summer crooked her index finger in a mocking manner.
My mouth dropped open at the same time Autumn’s did.
“How dare you! You wish you had a person to fuck you stupid like Raquel does me.”
“Being good in bed isn’t everything,” Summer sneered.
“No but it’s a damn good start! Maybe try it with your own man and lay off my girlfriend, why don’t ya,” Autumn huffed.
“Fine! I’m sorry. I just love you and want more for you.” Summer huffed.
“Let’s change the subject, shall we?” Ann interrupted. “So, how much did you pay for my daughter in the auction?”
“Eight million, but I would have paid more. Please pass the bread,” I pointed to the loaf in the center.
“Eight million dollars?” Ann croaked disbelieving. “Whoopie!” She squealed and the entire table burst into laughter.