Seasons (14 page)

*   *   *

I arrive home in the early afternoon and find a car in the driveway. I walk through the open red door and the good old screen door slams behind me. “Mom, I’m home!”

Mom is in the kitchen, and I hear a giggle, followed by, “Shhhh.” I walk into the kitchen and there is a man standing next to my mom by the island.

“Brynn, you’re home! I wasn’t sure if you were coming this weekend,” Mom says with a too-bright smile. What is going on and who is this guy? “Brynn, this is my friend, Henry O’Malley. He just finished fixing the kitchen sink for me.” She’s lying. Mom is flushed, her hair is a mess, and one of the buttons in the middle of her shirt is undone.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. O’Malley,” I walk over offering my hand to shake.

“Please, call me Hank.” He smiles taking my hand in a gentle handshake.

I kiss mom’s cheek. “All right, well, I’m going to go put my stuff upstairs,” I say, heading to the hallway. I couldn’t get out of that awkward encounter fast enough.

I drop my bag and plop on my childhood bed. The front door slams and a few footsteps later, Mom wanders into my room. “Brynn, I thought we could go to a movie and grab some dinner tonight. What do you think?”

“That sounds good, Mom. Let me freshen up real quick and we can go.”

“All right, meet you downstairs in a few.”

“Okay. Oh, and Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“You missed a button.” I just barely contain my laughter by biting down on my lip as Mom stops and then scurries out of my room.

Mom and I take in a chick flick and then opt for ice cream for dinner. We’re walking through a local garden eating our ice cream and talking when I can no longer take it, and I blurt out, “Is Hank your boyfriend?” This stops Mom dead in her tracks.

“Hank is a friend. I like spending time with him a lot, but I don’t know if I would call him my
boyfriend
,” she says, seeming to consider it as she says it.

“He seems nice,” I add hoping to get a better feel from her.

“He is very nice.” She smiles from ear to ear staring off over the flowers.

“So what is the problem?”

“I don’t know.” Her smile falls and she seems lost in thought.

“Mom?”

“Hmm?” She looks up at me.

“He isn’t Dad. Give him a chance.”

She looks shocked for a split second but then recovers quickly. “I know, B.”

“I met a guy at school,” I offer, changing the focus to me in order to get Mom out of her own head. It works and she smiles from ear to ear once more.

“What’s his name? Where is he from? What’s he studying?” she spits out in rapid fire, excitedly.

“Whoa, calm down, Mom!” I laugh. “His name is Aden Riley, he’s from Iowa, and he’s in sports medicine. He is…” I sigh. “Sweet and smart and hot!” I laugh.

We finish our ice cream while I tell Mom all about how I met Aden, and then fill her in on the latest with Trevor.

Sunday, we have a lazy, bad movie marathon day together. I pack up early Sunday evening to head back to school so I can study before bed. As soon as I back out of the driveway and start off, the same car from yesterday passes me and turns into the driveway of my house. It makes me smile. I know many people probably would not be too ecstatic about their parents dating, but I really am. I hate that Mom is all alone with me gone. Hank seems like a nice guy, and Mom has been alone for so many years now. She raised her children, and we’re both out of the house now. She deserves someone to make her happy, especially after the havoc I know my dad leaving reeked on her.

*   *   *

Monday, I work after class and recount the weekend for Trevor, who is ecstatic to hear my vagina will not need antidepressants after all. During the week, Aden and I text back and forth making plans for the weekend.

Aden: Can you disappear for the weekend?

Me: Define disappear?

Aden: Come with me to my family’s summer place to go jet skiing for the weekend?

Me: Mr. Riley, a weekend away together, so soon? What kind of girl do you think I am?

Aden: The sweet, beautiful kind with a naughty side =)

Me: Touché, I think I could use a weekend of fun. Where is it?

Aden: About an hour from here.

Seems he’s quite the adrenaline junky between his motorcycle and now jet skiing.

I’m waiting downstairs Saturday morning when he picks me up. Aden is not on his motorcycle as I was expecting though. Instead, he pulls up in a huge, shiny black pick-up truck. He hops out of the truck and kisses me hello.

When he pulls away, he says, “Hey, beautiful, ready to go?”

Still reeling from the kiss I manage, “Yep.”

He has to boost me into the truck because it’s so high off the ground. On the drive, I learn that a love for old country music is something we have in common. We go through two entire Alan Jackson CDs on the trip to the cottage.

We pull up a cobblestone driveway to a beautiful little bungalow on the lake. The cottage is white with light blue shutters and a light blue door. There are window boxes full of yellow flowers under each front window of the place. A cobblestone walkway leads to the front door on one side of the driveway and an identical walkway leads around the small garage and down a hill to the dock. The houses are all spread apart, and there are very few around the lake, from what I can see.

“Aden, it’s so pretty here!” I gush.

“You like it?” He smiles, putting the truck in park.

Aden comes around and helps me out of the truck. We grab our things and walk into the house. The inside of the house is just as adorable as the outside. He gives me the tour in about two minutes. A small, mint green kitchen opens to a slightly larger living area with a navy couch and two overstuffed chairs. Next, he shows me two small rooms, each with a queen sized bed and a dresser. In between the two bedrooms, there is a small bathroom. We leave our stuff in one of the rooms and go to put away a few food items Aden had picked up for the weekend.

After a quick lunch, we go to change into our swimsuits. I make it halfway to the bedroom to change before being violently spun around and Aden’s lips attack mine in the best possible way. He walks me back into the bedroom I was walking toward while still kissing me and kicks the door closed behind him.

“I missed you this week,” he says between heated kisses.

“I missed you, too,” I whisper breathless from his sneak attack.

We get a quickie in before getting dressed in our suits and walking down the path to the docks. There is another garage type building, only smaller, attached to the docks. When we walk in, I see that the other end of the small building is missing a wall. There are two wave runners floating inside, tied to the dock.

We walk down to them and Aden instructs me on the ‘dos and don’ts’ of them. We agree to take out one together first so he can show me exactly how to operate it. It feels like déjà vu when I swing my leg over and hop on behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. We reverse out of the enclosure and then slowly motor out of the dock area. We pause for a minute, and he looks over his shoulder at me. “Hold on tight!” he yells before turning back around and hitting the gas on the handle. We fly over the water at what feels like lightning speed! As we go, we skip over the waves a bit and water is lightly misting us.

In the middle of the lake, he slows us to a stop and turns kissing me on the nose. “This is so much fun! I want to drive!” I say excitedly.

He gives me a nervous look briefly before agreeing. “All right, but remember to slow down before you turn and don’t forget the break is here,” Aden says pointing at the left handle.

We carefully switch places. I’m now in the driver’s seat, and he wraps his huge arms around me protectively—or anxiously, I can’t tell. “Don’t worry, I got this!” I say before I hit the gas. I start off smooth, but then stall us to a jerked stop. I hear quiet laughter from Aden behind me. Crap. I start again and do better this time. I take us skipping over the water just as he had. As I’m reveling in my skill, I forget that I’m supposed to slow down before turning. The turn is sharp, and while the Jet Ski halts on the turn, we keep going. Aden and I are both thrown off and sent sailing through the air before dropping into the water. I come up from the water and see a wading Aden glaring at me. I burst into a fit of giggles. “I’m so sorry!” I say through my laughter. That was so much fun!

I see Aden crack a smile. His smile drops as fast as it came when he reaches on top of his head where his sunglasses were. “Shit, my glasses must have fallen off when you threw us off the ski!” He shoots me a devilish grin and starts swimming toward me. I take off swimming toward the Jet Ski. I’m not fast enough, and a second later, he reaches out and grabs onto my leg. Just as I reach the ski, Aden pulls me backwards and I yelp. He pulls me into his massive chest and pins me against the side of the ski. He gives me another evil smile before he starts tickling me relentlessly. I giggle and scream trying to get out of his hold, but it’s useless. He’s just too big and too strong. He finally releases me only to push me up onto the seat of the ski. He pulls himself up and kisses me fiercely before placing me behind him. “I think I’ll drive,” he says.

“I could totally drive,” I pout.

“Not with me on it, you can’t! We will let you drive on your own later.” He laughs.

“Fine.” I continue to mope. I grab onto him just in time before we take off back toward the dock.

When we get back, we relax on the dock to dry off. We both put clothes over our swimsuits before getting back on the jet skis. Aden says there is a small park with rides and ice cream on the opposite side of the lake. We each get on our own this time, and I follow him at a more leisurely pace to the opposite side of the lake. We drive right up to the dock where there are small boat and wave runner parking spots. Aden offers me a hand to help me up onto the dock.

The entire place is a huge pier with rides and little stands. We spend the day going on carnival rides, share an elephant ear, and walk hand in hand up and down the dock to the different stands. Aden leaves me for a moment to go to the bathroom, and I see a stand with psychic readings advertised on its sign. I have always wanted to have my fortune read, just for fun, so I sneak in really quick. 

There is a woman inside with her back to me. She’s wearing a black peasant skirt and a black tunic. Her head is adorned with a black turban style hat. When she turns around to face me, I can see there is a beautiful peacock feather fixed to the front of her headdress.              

“Hello, I’m Madam Zula,” she says having a seat. “Please sit.” She extends an arm motioning to the chair across from her. I pay her my five dollars and have a seat in her chair

“Hi.” I smile nervously as I have a seat. Madam Zula takes my hand and closes her eyes. I sit for a moment just watching her. This is so strange, maybe it was a bad idea to come in here.

“Your mom has found a new love? Don’t worry, he will be good to her,” she blurts out.

Holy shit. “How did you…”

“You will have many loves in your life,” she cuts me off. “The greatest of all will not be a romantic love.” She opens her eyes and looks at me.

“Um…that’s it?”

“That’s it,” she says matter-of-factly, releasing my hands.

“What does that even mean?”

“You will figure it out, dear.” She smiles.

“Okay, thank you,” I say, getting up to go find Aden.

I practically run out of the stand and find Aden right where I had been.

“There you are.” He lights up. “I figured you ran to the bathroom or something.” He looks over at the stand I came out of and then looks at me questioningly. “Madam Zula Psychic Reading?” He reads the sign aloud.

I shrug. “Always wanted my fortune read.”

Aden takes my hand and brings it a few inches from his face. He runs his pointer finger down the line of my hand. “You will have a long life with many children. Three boys to be exact. You will marry well. Some huge muscular stud,” he says, releasing my hand with a smirk.

“Oh, yeah? Humph. I always wanted to marry Mark Wahlberg, so I hope the muscular stud you see is him!” I tease.

“Come on, brat. Let’s get back to the dock and go grab some dinner. I’m starving.”

“You are like a bottomless pit!”

“I’m a growing boy,” he kids.

Feeling flirty, I pull his arm, pausing us both on our walk toward the dock. He looks over questioningly. I lean in and whisper, “I think I could make certain parts of you grow—without any food.”

“That’s where you are wrong. You’re like Miracle-Gro which is considered food.”

He kisses me ruthlessly before pulling me forward toward the dock. We ride back and practically run up to the cabin.

*   *   *

After a playful shower, we get ready and head out to the truck to go have dinner in town. I’m confused when Aden stops and walks toward the garage. “Come on, I want to show you something.”