Page 54 of Reaching Gavin

“You must be Cassie.” Richard looked up and smiled warmly before returning his attention to the sizzling griddle.

“Are you hungry?” Gavin’s mother asked me.

I had just entered an episode of The Twilight Zone. Gavin told me last night that they wanted to meet me. I tried to think back on when he possibly could have called them to invite them up here, but I’d kept him pretty busy. Had we all just conveniently wound up here?

“I was going to make some eggs,” I said lamely. My fingers found a lock of hair and began to twirl it absently. Was the polite thing to do to excuse myself and go get dressed? Warn Gavin his parents were here before he showed up naked? Sit down, half naked myself, and make conversation? It didn’t seem like there was a way to win the situation.

“I’m sorry for the intrusion.” Richard lifted a pancake off the griddle onto a plate and then turned to face me. “We couldn’t help ourselves. When I saw that Gavin filed a flight plan for the weekend… Well, we decided to surprise him.”

“I told you that we should have called him first,” his wife said archly. “The girl looks like a deer in the headlights. We scared her. That won’t do. We promised Imogen that we wouldn’t ruin this for Gavin.”

It wasn’t coincidence. His family had ambushed us. After having met Imogen, I couldn’t say that I was surprised exactly. Except that I was—as was evidenced by the fact that I was standing half naked in their kitchen.

“I’m going to go tell Gavin you’re here.” That seemed like a safe way out of the situation. It would also provide an opportunity to put on underwear.

“Tell him I made chocolate chip pancakes,” Richard called after me.

I heard Gavin’s mother scold him as the door closed, “Oh Richard!”

They didn’t seem shocked to meet their son’s girlfriend in this way. Nor do they seem terribly put off. In fact, it felt as if they were falling all over themselves to impress me. I hustled back up the interconnecting walkway, muttering under my breath the whole time. The first time I had met a boy’s family and I hadn’t been wearing panties. What were the girls going to say about that one?

Gavin, unlike me, was dressed when I entered his bedroom. He was towel drying his hair, and he dropped it on the bed when he spotted me.

“Hey, I was just about to come…” He stopped the moment he caught sight of my face. “Is everything okay?”

I planted my hands on my hips, took a deep breath and said, “Everything’s fine. Your dad wants you to know that he has chocolate chip pancakes downstairs.”

I was pretty certain the stricken look on Gavin’s face mirrored my own. He definitely hadn’t known they were coming. “They didn’t.”

“Oh they did.” I huffed as I started tugging his shirt off. I couldn’t find my clothes fast enough. “I’m pretty sure breakfast is getting cold, so we better hurry.”

Gavin didn’t move. He just watched me as I dashed around the room hoping to pull myself together enough to not look like a crazy person.

“I’m so sorry,” he said

“Don’t apologize,” I said, glancing over my shoulder to find he was still standing still, “and don’t just stand there. Help me find my bra.”

Why didn’t I pack another? The one from last night was missing in action. I would be damned if I was going downstairs without both a bra and panties this time.

“I can tell them to leave.” He joined the search, lifting the covers on the bed and checking on the floor. “Or we can leave. You don’t have to meet them like this.”

“That would be rude.” I stood up and whipped around to face him. “They’re here. They came to see you. I’m your girlfriend. That’s how this works.”

A strange look came over Gavin’s face and he strode across the room, grabbed me around the waist and kissed me. Breaking away, he looked past me. “I see a bra.”

It had fallen—or been tossed—onto the bookshelf.

I hadn’t packed anything that was meet the parents appropriate. Not that I knew exactly what would fall into that category. It wasn’t like I’d brought a bunch of stripper clothes or anything. But I hadn’t brought another dress or a blouse. Those seem like the appropriate attire for what I was about to do. Instead, I was stuck with a pair of cropped jeans and a nice but somewhat casual tank top. I thought this weekend was about going away. I hadn’t expected that I would need to be dressed up. I considered the dress I’d wore to last night’s dinner, but I’d left that on the floor as soon as we got in and it had turned into a wrinkled mess. Since Gavin was also in jeans and a T-shirt, I decided to follow suit. I couldn’t remember what his parents had been wearing downstairs. I’d been too preoccupied by what I hadn’t been wearing.

We made our way toward the main house with grim determination. Gavin still hadn’t said much, but I got the feeling he was a little pissed.

“What your mom’s name?” I whispered, clutching his hand like a life preserver.

“Rebecca,” He told me. He breathed a heavy sigh and paused before we went in. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I asked him.

“For being you. I’m still sorry to put you in this position. You have every right if you want to run.”