Page 111 of Zero Pucks Given
So at the beginning of August, Grayson took me on a trip back to Wisconsin to meet his parents.
“Should I have brought a better gift?” I asked while we drove our rental car out of the airport. “This feels inadequate.”
“My mom doesn’t like expensive gifts. A bottle of chocolate liqueur is perfect.”
I stared at the bottle in my lap, a red bow wrapped around the neck. I had this sinking feeling that his parents would hate me.
They lived in a modest house in a middle-class neighborhood in the Milwaukee suburbs. When I commented on it, Grayson said, “I tried to buy them something nicer, in a gated community, but they wouldn’t have it. I did convince them to hire a maid, though.”
Before we could even get out of our car, the front door to the house flew open and a tiny little woman with her gray hair in a bun came running down the steps. “You must be Josie!” she said, immediately pulling me into a tight hug. “Oh, it’s sogoodto finally meet you! Grayson has told us so much about you.”
“Don’t believe a word of it,” I replied while she clung to me. Even when I tried pulling away, she held the embrace a few seconds longer.
“He told me you were funny. So that’sonething that’s true!” Her face pinched into a proud smile as she took me in. “Oh, you’re so much prettier than the other women he’s dated.”
“Mom…” Grayson said.
I glanced at him. “Ohreally?”
“The last thing I want to talk about are my exes,” he said firmly.
I compared the size of the two of them as they hugged—she was afoot shorter, and probably weighed half as much as her son.
“We’ll see where the conversation takes us after a few glasses of wine.” She gave me a wink. “Come on inside. Camille is finishing up dinner, but I whipped up something for us to snack on.”
“You’re supposed to let Camille take care of everything,” Grayson said.
His mom waved a hand dismissively. “She doesn’t need to doeverything. I still have my own two hands to make a cheese plate.”
“Oh!” I said. “Before I forget, this is for you.”
Her eyes lit up when she saw the bottle. “Chocolate liqueur! Oh, this is my favorite! Do you like chocolate martinis? I’m supposed to be watching my sugar intake, but this can be a secret just between us girls.”
“Ilovechocolate martinis!”
She laced her arm through mine and led me up the steps into the house. “Grayson’s last girlfriend was always on a diet.”
“Mom…” Grayson warned.
She kept on talking. “Not that she needed to be—she was rail thin, except for those big fake boobs. I can already tell I’m going to love you much more than her.”
I shot Grayson a look of victory, but he was smiling proudly, too.
Grayson’s dad reminded me of him: quiet, intense, and slow to warm up to you. But he was perfectly friendly to me, and Grayson’s mom more than made up for it.
“You’ve raised an incredible son,” I said while we sat down for dinner.
“It’s nice to hear that,” the dad said.
“We did our best,” his mom said, squeezing her husband’s hand. “It wasn’t always easy, but we made it work.”
I could feel how much love there was in this family. And after a few hours with them, I felt like I was a part of it.
“They love you,” Grayson told me when we were alone in the guest bedroom that night.
“Can you blame them?” I replied. “I’m delightful!”
Grayson removed his shirt and narrowed his eyes at me. “You’ve been known to make a bad first impression.”
