by Addison Cole
But it didn’t help.
She felt like she was in the wrong house. They’d been staying at Andre’s cottage for almost two weeks. She hadn’t made a concerted effort to bring her things to his place, but her own closet was looking sparse. That was how it had happened in Ghana, too. One day she’d woken up in Andre’s tent surrounded by her own belongings. It had been a wonderful feeling then, and it was even better now, despite making her cottage feel strange.
But her stomach was still in knots.
She felt like an imposter in her black skinny jeans, black-and-white long-sleeve sweater, and fringed boots. Emery had said she looked polished and beautiful, but she felt overdressed and fake. The sweater covered the tattoos on her arm and chest and there were no tears in her jeans to expose the ink on her thighs, but still she felt more exposed than she did when she wore miniskirts and tank tops.
She turned away from the mirror, telling herself she would be fine. They’re only clothes, for Pete’s sake. She’d worn a dress for Desiree; she could cover up for Andre. Besides, she’d have a big enough strike against her once his parents found out how she’d left the last time they were together. She didn’t need to add fuel to the fire.
Oh no. Had he told them how she’d left in middle of the night?
She sank down to the edge of her bed, feeling dizzy.
She heard the front door open, and a second later Andre called out, “Babe?”
“In the bedroom.” She stood up, breathing deeply.
He was smiling when he walked in, looking casually sexy in an army-green bomber jacket over a white T-shirt, jeans, and brown boots. The loving look in his eyes took her anxiety down a notch.
“Hey, beautiful.” He leaned in for a kiss, smelling deliciously familiar. “Great sweater.”
She looked down at her clothes. “Do I look okay?”
“You look gorgeous, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you all covered up.”
“I thought it would be better not to let your parents see all my tats the first time they meet me.”
His brow wrinkled. “That’s why you’re covered up?”
She nodded.
“Off with the sweater, babe.” He started pulling it up, but she pushed it back down.
“I don’t want my tats to be a thing, a stumbling block I have to overcome with your parents from day one. Let’s first see if they like me.”
His jaw clenched, and his eyes turned deadly serious. “First of all, I love who you are, and your tats are part of you, just like your green eyes and that smirk that tells people to back off. I love all of you, babe, and my parents will, too. Please give them a chance to get to know the real you. Don’t hide anything about your beautiful self, and I know they will adore you as much as I do.”
Her eyes teared up. “Darn it. I’ve been so nervous I felt like an imposter, and then you come in here and say really sweet, sappy stuff, and I get all teary-eyed. I haven’t cried so much in my entire life.” She pulled her sweater off and threw it on the bed. “You make me feel real, and seen, and appreciated, and stupidly emotional. It’s got to be nerves.”
He gathered her in his arms and said, “It’s got to be love, babe. Embrace it.”
She groaned. “What if they hate who I am? Sometimes I curse and I don’t mean to.”
“Don’t you think I know that about you? They curse, too.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. Now, put on that slinky black halter top I love, grab your leather jacket because it’ll be cold on the ferry, and let’s get out of here before I tear off that black lace bra and we miss lunch altogether.”
An hour later they were on the ferry that ran from Provincetown to Boston, something neither of them had done before. They stood on the deck despite the cold air, wanting to experience every second of their romantic adventure to the fullest. Andre wrapped his arms around her from behind, his body heat keeping her warm even as the brisk air burned her cheeks.
As Provincetown fell away, all she could see was water, reminding her of how adrift and lonely she’d felt without Andre. She had no idea how it was possible to feel those things while at the same time finding stability for the first time in her life with Desiree, but she’d felt it just the same.
When the Boston skyline came into view, another sensation came over her—one she’d been tamping down for a very long time. She missed experiencing even this little sense of adventure, of walking into the unknown. After a lifetime of not knowing what the next day would hold, how had she pushed her adventurous soul aside for so long? She tried to figure out what she was feeling. It wasn’t regret. She was glad for all she’d found on the Cape with Desiree and her friends, but a deep sense of longing was forming inside her.
They took a cab to the Union Oyster House, and when they stepped onto the busy sidewalk, Violet’s nerves went crazy again.
Andre put his arm around her and kissed her temple. “Breathe, sweet Daisy, it’s going to be fun. I promise.”
“Fun? I don’t exactly have a good track record with my own parents. I’m not sure why yours would be any different.”
“That’s hardly fair to you. Your real father was clearly a selfish jackass for not sticking around, and that sucks, but it’s not in any way a reflection of you. And Ted may not be your biological father, but he and Lizza do love you, even if Lizza has a strange way of showing it. In fact,” he said as they stepped inside the restaurant. “I think we should try to get reacquainted with Ted. Remember, babe, it was Lizza’s decision to take you overseas. He could have fought hard to keep you, but how can you ever know without asking?”
“You’re going to be the death of me,” she mumbled.
“Bug!” A tall woman ran toward them with her arms outstretched, eyes dancing with excitement. She threw her arms around Andre and proceeded to smother his cheeks in kisses. She had the same wavy desert-sand hair as he did, only hers hung to the shoulders of her silk blouse, which she’d paired with jeans, giving her a youthful appearance. “I’ve missed you so much! Oh, Bug, you’re as handsome as ever. It’s been too long.”
Bug?
“Mom…” Andre said a little sheepishly as his mother looked him over with a smile that relayed her deep adoration for her son.
“Don’t you Mom me. I’ve missed you, and if I had to sit at that table any longer I might have burst.” She turned to Violet and said, “You’re Violet, right? I can tell. You’ve got that spark of gumption in your eyes.” She hugged Violet tight, then kissed both of her cheeks. “It’s so nice to finally meet the woman who opened my son’s eyes.”
Before Violet could say a word, his mother took hers and Andre’s arms and guided them through the restaurant as she said, “I’m sure Bug told you he takes after his father. My husband, Chuck, has always been the same way, too impetuous to hold back. He asked me to marry him on our first date! I didn’t take off like you did, but I sure made him work for it.”
Violet looked at Andre and mouthed, You told them?
Andre mouthed, Sorry, with an apologetic expression.
“I dated every man I could for the next six months, trying to get him out of my head,” his mother said. “But Chuck was determined. He showed up at my house every single night, whether I’d gone out or not. He said he just wanted to make sure I got home safely. The little weasel didn’t give me time or space to figure things out. He wasn’t taking any chances.”
“I…um…” Violet stammered as they neared a table in the back of the restaurant, where a man who looked like a younger, shaggier version of Harrison Ford was watching them with an amused expression.
“There were other things going on when I left,” Violet tried to explain. “I thought my sister needed me.”
His mother said, “Whatever the reason, you changed my boy’s life for the better. Every woman should be so strong, so men can become even stronger.”
Violet felt an unexpected rush of relief that almost knocked her off her feet. The worst thing she
’d ever done in her life was out, and his mother didn’t hate her for it or think she was out of her mind.
His mother released them, and Andre immediately came to Violet’s side and said, “I’m sorry. I missed you so much, there was no hiding it.”
“It’s fine,” she said softly. “I like her. She says what she thinks, like me.”
His father dropped a kiss on his wife’s cheek as he came around the table and said, “Kay was a little excited to see you two.” He embraced Andre and said, “Missed you, Bug.”
“Me too. Dad, this is Violet. Violet, this is my father, Chuck.”
His father turned the same warm brown eyes as Andre’s on her and said, “You look a little shell-shocked. Welcome to my world.” As he wrapped her in his strong arms he said, “We’re a crazy family, but Andre’s a good man. Don’t let us scare you off.”
Violet didn’t flinch during the embrace. Maybe it was because Kay had caught her off guard and stripped her of her worst fears, or it could have been because of his father’s casual amusement and easy nature. Violet had a feeling it was because of both of those things, and underscored by Andre’s complete and total support and love for who she was. And in that moment she knew she was exactly where she was meant to be.
When Andre reached for her jacket, she slipped it off, feeling only mildly nervous. His father’s gaze swept over her shoulder, following the tattoos all the way down her arm, and she held her breath.
A playful smirk lifted the side of his father’s mouth, and he said, “I’m glad to see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Shaw men have always fallen for women who aren’t afraid to express themselves.” He pointed his thumb at Andre’s mother and said, “She’s got ink.”
“What?” Andre’s eyes widened. “Mom has a tattoo?”
His mother laughed. “Honey, I’ve got several, but not anywhere I want my son looking.”
THEY ORDERED DRINKS, and as they looked over the menu, Andre noticed his mother watching them with a tender look in her eyes. He glanced at his father, who was busy watching his mother. Andre couldn’t remember a time when things hadn’t been just like this—easy, happy, and real. He’d never had to worry whether his parents would stay together or what their future would look like as a family. As an adult, he realized how special that was, but it wasn’t until he’d met Violet and learned of her family’s history that he truly appreciated the value of his own.
During lunch, his parents peppered Violet with questions about the inn, her artwork, volunteering, and her travels, carefully avoiding the topic of family. Andre had shared with them the basics of Violet’s family history. He appreciated that his parents didn’t put her in the uncomfortable position of trying to explain her mother’s decisions. Violet talked animatedly, and when she cursed and covered her mouth, they all chuckled, and his father immediately went into a story about how Andre had trouble saying truck when he was young and would yell, Look! A fire fuck, leaving them all in hysterics.
They chatted long after they were done eating, and Andre caught his parents up on his visit with David and told them about his next trip into the field.
“Are you going to join him?” his mother asked Violet.
Violet looked down at her lap. Then she turned a thoughtful gaze to Andre and said, “We haven’t really discussed it yet. Right now we’re taking things one day at a time.”
His father lifted his glass and said, “To new friends, reacquainted love, and taking things one day at a time.”
They clinked glasses and sipped their drinks.
Violet set her glass down and said, “Who do I have to pay to hear the story behind the nickname Bug?”
They all laughed.
His mother smiled at Andre and said, “It all started with a little boy who loved playing in the dirt with bugs, until the day he started eating them…”
“I think that’s our cue to leave.” Andre flagged down the waitress and said, “Check please.”
After narrowly escaping what Andre was sure would have been several more embarrassing stories, they said their goodbyes in front of the restaurant.
His father slung an arm over his shoulder, guiding him a few feet away from the women, and said, “I’m happy for you, son.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“I try not to stick my old nose into your business, but I want to tell you something, and you can decide what to take from it, if anything. Heaven knows I spout garbage sometimes. Violet’s obviously smart, strong, and she really likes your ugly butt, for some unknown reason.” He laughed and patted Andre on the back.
“So far I’m not hearing any garbage.”
“I’m getting to it. This is the part you’ll hate. I can see how much you love her, but you said something to me before we met you for lunch that’s got me thinking. You said she’d been at the Cape the whole time since she left you. For a woman who you described as someone who didn’t know the meaning of roots, it sure seems like she’s put some down.”
Andre glanced over his shoulder at Violet chatting with his mother, who was listening intently to her every word. “She has,” he said. “She reconnected with her sister and has a family of friends there now. A few families of friends, actually.”
“Well, Bug, I know you want her with you, but tread carefully. You’ve had roots, and you chose to uproot them. She’s just starting to grow her own. Like I said, I might be way off base, but my instincts tell me that you need to exercise caution there if you want her in your life.”
“I know, Dad. Believe me, not a second goes by that I don’t think about it.”
His father said, “Okay. I’m here if you need me,” and they headed back toward the women.
“I was just telling Violet that we still live in the same three-bedroom condo where we lived when we first moved to Boston, before Andre was born,” his mother said.
“Too many happy memories to leave behind,” his father said, reaching for his mother’s hand. “It also afforded us the opportunity to travel as a family for a few weeks at a time without the stress of money issues or a large yard to deal with.”
“In a society where people think bigger always equals better,” Violet said, “that’s fu—sh…Damn it. Oh my gosh!” She covered her face and groaned, causing everyone to crack up. Then she lowered her hands and said, “Awesome, okay? It’s awesome!”
Andre pulled her against his chest and kissed her. “I love you so much.”
“I fu—freaking love her, too,” his mother said, causing them all to laugh again.
His parents hugged them too hard, his mother kissed them too much, and by the time his parents climbed into a cab, Andre couldn’t have imagined the get-together going any better than it had.
“Your parents are amazing,” Violet said as their cab drove off. “I didn’t know parents could be like that. Everyone I know has messed-up parents. Well, not everyone, but a lot of the people I know got ripped off in the parental department.”
“They’re pretty great. I’m glad you liked them.”
“What’s your parents’ address?” she asked as he flagged down a cab.
He told her, and as they climbed into the cab, she repeated the address to the cabdriver. He hauled Violet across the seat, and she was smiling so big her cheeks had to hurt.
“Why are we going there?” he asked as the cab pulled into traffic. “They just said they were going to see friends. They won’t be home.”
“I know. I don’t want to go inside, I just want to see where you grew up, the street, the building. I want to see the high school and that park where you used to go to draw.”
“Why on earth do you want to see those boring places?”
“I spent my childhood wondering what it would have been like to have stayed in Oak Falls, to have the same bedroom until I decided to leave, to have the same friends, a favorite spot to do art. There’s nothing boring about those things. I loved seeing different cultures and living in all those different places, but you know I longed for stabili
ty. I feel so close to you right now, and seeing those places will bring us even closer together.”
He touched his forehead to hers and said, “Gosh, baby, everything you do, everything you say, guts me.”
“That sounds bad.”
He kissed her softly and said, “No, Dais. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
They took a curbside tour of the 1900s brick condo building in which he’d grown up, the schools he’d attended, and the parks where he used to sit for hours and draw and where he played ball with his buddies. Violet got excited about each and every place, asking dozens of questions and commenting on how different it was from what she remembered about Oak Falls, which was apparently a town the size of a fist.
He gave the cabdriver another address and then he kissed Violet and said, “We have to get to the waterfront soon so we don’t miss the last ferry, but first we need to get ice cream.”
“I’m not going to argue with that. I just realized we’ll be able to watch the sunset from the deck of the ferry. Remember how sunsets in Ghana sometimes looked like fire in the sky?”
“Yeah, and I remember how sexy you looked beneath them.”
The cab stopped in front of the infamous forty-foot tall Hood Milk Bottle across from Fort Point Channel. As they climbed from the cab, Andre asked the driver to wait.
Violet shielded her eyes, looking up at the gigantic structure. “Holy cow. I had no idea this even existed.”
“It’s been here since 1930, when Arthur Gagner built it to sell homemade ice cream next to his store. When I was growing up, my mom took me here nearly every Tuesday afternoon for Treat Tuesday.”
“It’s not Tuesday. You sure we should be here?”
“Yes.” He kissed her again and said, “Every day with you is a treat.”
“I’m going to start calling you cheeseball if you don’t stop the sappy stuff.”
They got ice cream, and on their way back to the cab Violet stopped in middle of the sidewalk and said, “How much time do we have before the ferry gets here?”