Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen (26 page)

“
Yeah, but what if Calvin
said something about us to her?”

He took a deep breath. “He would never
do that to me. He’s known about you for some time, I’m sure we’ll
talk later.”

“
What do you mean some
time?

“
Well, he knew I was
interested in someone at Wesley; but he didn’t know the exact
details.”

“
Oh.”
Wait, he’s been interested long enough to talk to his brother
about me?

“
Okay, so are you
ready.”

This was it. My heart throbbed fast in
my chest. I was going to meet his parents.

He pulled my door open and helped me
out. His arm circled around my waist, his hand memorized the space
on my hip. He pressed his lips to my temple as he shut the
door.

“
You’re so tense. Relax,
there’s nothing to worry about.” He laughed against my hair. “Their
bark is worse than their bite.”

Simple for him to say, he wasn’t the
one in the hot seat. He was getting off easy with me. The only
family he had to face was Joanie, my best friend. I’d have to
admit; she was very protective of me and could be a real pistol.
She was the only family I had.

I noticed a couple of cars parked in
the driveway and none of them were the black Toyota Sequoia Nick
drove. Max directed me up the steps of the porch. He pulled open
the front door and pressed against me to enter. I stopped
breathing. When I was here earlier, we came through the garage, I
never saw the entry. It was amazing.

The stone that greeted us on the porch
continued past the door. Splashes of warm sunflower yellow wrapped
the walls. A heavy but intricately delicate black iron chandelier
hung centered from the ceiling. Its cascading arms held antique
white candles that created shadows on the walls that flickered and
danced. They looked so real. Rustic wooden loveseats stressed with
stories to tell, hugged a colossal armoire that matched.

Max pulled my jacket off and hung it
in the closet behind the front door. I took off my boots and handed
them to him. He just smiled as he pulled off his boots
too.

He shut the closet; dragging his hand
down my arm he grabbed my damp hand. His eyebrows tightened around
his eyes.

“
Don’t be scared. It’s
okay, they’ll love you.” He pulled me to his body, wrapped his arms
around me and kissed me, determined to change my mood. It
worked.

Voices filled the house. Max pulled me
to the great room. His stride was fast, I slowed my pace pulling
back on him. He stopped and turned to me. His eyes locked on mine,
without words, he reassured me. We turned the corner to the dining
room and my heart leapt into my throat. His mom saw us and stood
up.

“
Oh Maxi, you made it.” She
came over to him and kissed his cheek. The room went silent as she
stepped back to see me. Her eyes revealed her warmth. Her velvety
brown hair wrapped picture perfect around her face. Max had her
smile.

“
Mom, this is Wilson.
Wilson this is my mom, Nancy.” He stepped behind me, keeping his
hands secure around my waist and his chest against my
back.

“
Wilson, welcome to our
home, it’s my pleasure.” She grasped my upper arms and pulled me to
hug her. Instinctively I wrapped my arms around her; she was so
soft and smelled like a bouquet of spring flowers. All the fear I
had was washed away in her embrace. She was genuine and I craved
that.

“
Mom,” Max mumbled. She let
go of me first but kept her hand around my back.

“
Wilson, this is my dad,
Frank,” Max continued. I waved to him.

“
Nice to meet you Wilson.”
He stood up, came over and took my hand.

“
Thank you for having me,”
I was barely able to speak. I was overwhelmed with their warmth. I
felt Max tighten around my waist.

“
My sister, Camille.” He
held his hand out to her.

“
Nice to meet you Wilson.
This is my husband Dan.” She pushed her hands to the chest of the
man next to her.

“
Hi,” I said, as I looked
at them and gave a slight wave.

“
Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn,” Max
introduced me to the other dinner guests. Mr. Vaughn stood up and
nodded, his wife only smiled.

“
This is our daughter,
Emily.” Mrs. Vaughn pointed across the table. My eyes caught her
and I lost my breath. It was the same girl that was with Max today
at the ski resort. She was even more striking than before. Her
crystal blue eyes danced, her smooth perfect complexion radiated
and she oozed a self-confidence she had to have been born
with.

“
Nice to meet you.” Her
eyes met mine for a moment and then looked right through me to Max.
She smiled.

“
Hi Max.” Her head tilted
and a sparkle appeared in her eyes.

“
Hey Em,” he said to her, a
familiar comfort bounced between them. Something I wasn’t prepared
for. He slid his hands from my waist up to my shoulders.

“
Oh I wish you had gotten
here just a bit earlier. You could have met Calvin.” Nancy broke
the triangle between us.

“
Mom, she already knows
Calvin. They met yesterday,” Max told her.

“
Oh good, well come and
sit, join us, we are just about to have dessert. Did you eat
already?” She stood behind her chair holding the back.

“
We had a small taste of
something.” He told her, pulling out my chair. “Wilson might be
hungry still.” He smiled at me.

“
No, thank you. I’m fine,
really.” He sat next to me and grabbed my hand under the
table.

“
Well then, berry cobbler
it is.” She left to the kitchen.

Mr. Vaughn and Frank continued their
conversation inviting Max to join them.

My eyes traced back to Emily who sat
across from me.

“
Wilson. That’s an
interesting name. Is it a family name?” I heard Mrs. Vaughn ask. My
attention switched to her.

“
No, it’s not,” I answered
short.

Do you know how many
people ask me that when they meet me? I used to get really mad and
come up with elaborate stories about how I was named. Now I just
tell them no and it tends to end the conversation.

“
Have you ever thought
about legally changing it?” she asked me with all
seriousness.

Are you frickin kidding me?
The audacity of this woman to ask me something so ridiculous. Cindy
was right about these Vaughns’—they are so last
season
.

“
No, never.”

“
Oh, I hope I didn’t offend
you,” Mrs. Vaughn apologized. I felt Max grab my leg under the
table and comfort me.

“
Mom!” Emily looked
horrified.

“
I’m not saying I don’t
like it,” Mrs. Vaughn piped in.

“
Mom, I think Nancy needs
your help in the kitchen,” Emily told her, gritting her
teeth.

“
Fine.” She stood up from
the table and huffed off to the kitchen.

“
I’m sorry about her. She
tends to talk before she thinks. She drinks a couple glasses of
wine and she loses her manners. Right Max?” She tapped his
arm.

“
Ah yeah, I guess so,” he
answered.

“
Oh come on, remember last
year when we were having the big dinner down at our place and she
asked my brother’s friend if he was gay? You have to remember
that.” She smiled trying to get him to remember. She grabbed his
arm and pushed at him. “Come on, he threw a huge fit and ran out.
Jeff chased after him. Remember?” She pushed him.

“
That’s right, at the
annual Gold-Vaughn family dinner. That was awkward.” He pulled at
my hand under the table.

“
That was the moment we
found out
Jeff
was G-A-Y.” She spelled out the word. “My parents still can’t
talk about it,” she whispered across the table, forcing a
smile.

“
Wow, a year later?” I
asked.

“
Yeah, and they still get
all choked up about it,” she said.

“
That’s right, I missed
that one last year,” Camille interjected.

Nancy came out holding her berry
cobbler pie, meticulously cut into perfect pieces with Mrs. Vaughn
following behind her with plates.

“
Okay everyone, Ta-da!
Who’s having a piece?” Everyone around the table raised their
hands.

Max pushed his mouth to my ear. “Do
you want to share a piece?” I shook my head yes.

“
Mom, let me help with
that.” Max pushed his chair out.

“
No Maxi, sit. Karen and I
can do this.” She placed a piece of pie on a plate and Mrs. Vaughn
brought it over to Camille’s husband Dan.

“
Wilson and I are going to
share a piece,” Max told his mom.

“
Okay honey.” She
delicately put a piece on the plate and slid it over in front of
me.

Within minutes they had everyone
served.

“
Oh, I think the coffee is
done by now.” She got up to get it.

“
Honey, sit down, visit;
Max and I can bring it out.” Frank looked at Max and shifted his
eyes. “It will give us a chance to check the football scores. The
Broncos were up by seven the last time I checked. Who wants
coffee?” He counted everyone who raised their hands, including me.
Max and he disappeared into the kitchen.

“
This is Maxi’s favorite
pie. He and Camille would fight over the last piece. You must be
pretty special if he’s willing to share it with you.” His mom took
a bite and looked up at me. My heart warmed, deeply.

“
He’s a great guy,” I
answered her compliment. I broke off a small piece and tasted it.
It was phenomenal. Chunks of berries burst in my mouth, sweet with
a small twist of tart.

“
So how did you meet my
brother?” Camille took another bite and waited.

The second bite almost
didn’t make it down my throat. Acid would have gone down
easier.
Max and I talked about this, what
was the plan?
My mind went blank and I
shuddered all the way down to my toes. I didn’t want to screw this
up. Was it coffee or a party? I lifted my eyes from my plate and
found everyone staring at me. A pin could have dropped and everyone
would’ve covered their ears.

“
Um, well. We took a class
together.” As the words left my lips I remembered we agreed to say
a coffee shop.
We met over at a coffee
shop, oh shit, what did I just do?
I
better back pedal or start working this out to be truthful enough
to twist it into what we wanted them to see.

“
It was a government focus
group.” I tried to come as close to the truth as possible. I really
liked Nancy and I wanted to be honest with her.

“
So you’re a teacher like
Max?” she asked.

“
You look way too young to
be a teacher,” Karen Vaughn interrupted.

“
They’ve accelerated
programs now. I remember seeing it on TV,” Camille told
us.

“
No, I’m not a teacher,” I
answered.

Max came out holding a couple of
coffee mugs in his hands. His face went a little white, he picked
up where I left off and filled the gaping holes in my lie and made
it real to them.

“
Wilson’s a student. She
doesn’t have time to work. She’s carrying some pretty heavy units
this semester.” He pushed the mugs to Emily and Camille.

“
Oh wow, what school?”
Camille asked. She grabbed the cream and poured it into her
coffee.

That’s it, we’re caught.
Might as well just wrap it up and tell them the truth.
I opened my mouth to come up with some random
excuse for what we were doing.

“
She’s attending a small
school in the east bay,” he said it so fast it took me a moment to
recognize what he said.

“
What’s your major?” Emily
asked. I looked at Max and back at her.

“
I’m undecided but maybe
Sociology or childhood development,” I said as Max’s dad set a cup
of coffee in front of me. Thank God it gave me something to focus
on while they intently listened to what I said.

“
So you want to work with
kids?” Camille asked.

“
Something along those
lines,” I said. Max didn’t go back to help his dad bring in more
coffee, in fact, he sat next to me, keeping his hand occupied with
mine.

“
Do you live on campus or
with your parents?” Emily asked as she sipped her
coffee.

“
On campus.” Drips of
perspiration rolled down the back of my neck. This was way too hard
to keep up.

“
So are your folks nearby?”
Frank asked keeping the conversation about me. A bubble large and
rough stuck in the back of my throat. I looked at Max hoping he
would help me; I didn’t want to go there with all these people in
the room. But what choice did I have. It was going to come up
sooner or later. Might as well get through this fast, go ahead and
rip the band aide off.

“
I don’t have a
relationship with my mother or father. My grandparents raised me.”
I felt the wounds in my heart tear open and a burning sting over
come my body. I didn’t want to say this in front of Max’s mom. I
didn’t want her to know I came from a broken down, shattered
family, splintered even more by living away at a boarding
school.