The screen door bumped closed, and he glanced over his shoulder at Melanie, who had her shoes on now. She also had all of her hair stuffed under the cowboy hat she wore.
“Nice hat,” he said.
“I wouldn’t want to offend your parents with my bed hair,” she said.
He almost said that if his hair didn’t offend them, nothing would, but his hair did offend them. “You look cute,” he said, “but you know I love that hair of yours, even when birds are eyeing it as nesting material.”
She laughed. “Not birds,” she said. “Raccoons.”
Since it was only a mile to his parents’ house, he convinced Melanie to ride with him on one of his ATVs and take the scenic route. He made her trade her cowboy hat for a helmet and zoomed across a pasture, weaved through trees in a bumpy wooded area, and splashed through a creek at the bottom of a heart-stoppingly steep hill before skidding to a stop behind his childhood home. While Gabe’s log house blended with the woods and the scenery, his parents’ stately colonial looked like it belonged in a Louisiana bayou. It was impressive, to say the least.
“That was fun!” Melanie said breathlessly.
“Better than fishing?”
“Well, dryer than fishing,” she said.
He wiped a few splatters of mud from her bare leg. “Potentially,” he said.
“Gabriel!” his father called from the back porch. He pulled himself out of his favorite rocking chair, using a heavy wooden cane for assistance, and hobbled down the steps on his stiff left leg to meet them in the yard. Melanie took off her helmet and attempted to smooth her untamed hair. It was a losing cause; raccoons were already closing in.
“Is this the young lady that has your mama mooning about grandbabies again?”
“Nice, Dad. Let’s terrify her before you’ve even been introduced,” Gabe said. “This is my old man, Luke. And this is my new girlfriend, Melanie.”
Melanie’s gaze darted to Gabe’s as he tried out the girlfriend word for the first time, but she didn’t make him retract the statement, so he was feeling pretty good about his prospects of making it a reality.
His dad extended his tanned and weathered left hand because his right was tightly gripping his cane. Melanie naturally extended her right hand so instead of shaking hands, they ended up awkwardly holding hands, but her charming giggle melted the old man on the spot. Gabe was feeling pretty good about that too.
“Come up on the porch in the shade,” his dad said. “You’ll bake your brain in this heat.”
By the time they made it to the porch, his mother had brought out a pitcher of iced tea and four glasses.
“So glad you stopped by,” she said. “Even though my Gabriel only lives a mile down the road, I hardly ever see him.”
“You saw me yesterday,” Gabe reminded her.
“How’s Lady?” his dad asked. “Mom told me she was hit by a car.”
“I visited her this morning. She’s going to be fine.” It was a perfect opening to ask if they’d be willing to take care of her while he was on tour, but he reached for a glass of tea instead.
“That’s great,” his dad said. “Kathy made it sound like your dog was pretty banged up.”
“I thought she was,” his mom said. “Will she be okay by herself while you’re gone?”
Opening number two, gaping wide. Gabe took a sip of his tea and glanced at Melanie, who gave him an odd look.
“I wish I could stay and keep an eye on her,” Melanie said, “but I have to work.”
Opening number three slipped right by.
“Do you need someone to watch her?” his dad asked.
“Well…”
Melanie squeezed his leg beneath the table.
“I could probably use a hand with her,” Gabe said, “but I know how busy you both are.”
“Yeah, watching this grass grow all summer keeps me overextended,” his dad said and then laughed.
“Aren’t you doing research this summer?” Gabe asked.
“Didn’t we tell you?” his mom asked.
“Tell me what?”
“Your dad is starting to hand off his unfinished projects to the junior scientists in the department so he can retire next spring.”
“Dad’s retiring?” Gabe sputtered. But only old people retired. Sure, his dad was in his sixties, but he was far from old.
“I know we told you,” his mom said, patting his father’s hand. “We told him, Luke. Didn’t we?”
“No one told me anything,” Gabe said.
“We told you on the phone months ago,” his mom said.
Gabe shook his head. He would have remembered that his father was retiring. It was sort of a big deal.
“Maybe we told Leslie and Jennifer and forgot to tell him,” his dad said, looking reflective.
“All anyone in this family ever tells me is what a huge disappointment I am,” Gabe blurted.
“What are you talking about, Gabriel?” his mother said sternly. “No one ever—”
“He had such a promising future before he joined that rock band,” he mimicked her exact words from the night before. “Leslie is our MD and Jennifer our PhD and Gabe, well, let’s just say he turned out a little different from what we expected.” He’d heard her tell some stranger that a couple of months before.
“We aren’t disappointed in you, son,” his dad said, “but you are a little different.” He chuckled at Gabe’s expense
“I’m glad he’s different,” Melanie blurted. “It makes him that much more wonderful.”
Stunned, Gabe glanced at Melanie, who covered her mouth with trembling fingertips and looked from one of his parents to the other, a horrified expression on her face. He couldn’t tell if she was about to cry or punch someone in the nose, but he could tell that she was upset. And once again standing firmly in his corner.
“I can’t believe you think we’re disappointed in you, Gabe,” his mother said. “I never thought you’d take my bragging the wrong way.”
“You have a right to brag about Leslie and Jennifer,” Gabe said, “they’re both everything you expected them to be.”
His mom reached over and patted his face, rather harder than necessary. “You, hush. I was bragging about you. Every family has a doctor. Hell, ours has twelve, but not everyone can say they have a rock star for a son. But I still hate those damned tattoos. On. Your. Head. Gabe. Why did you have to get them on your head?”