Page 59 of Reaching Gavin

The Sounds promisedto show me their boat the next time we were all on the island, an occasion I dreaded a little. I’d spent even less time on boats than I had on planes. I suspected if I was going to get serious with Gavin, I needed to look into the best ways to cope with motion sickness.

As early evening rolled around, my stomach began to grumble, our large late breakfast finally wearing off.

“Shall we sit down somewhere?” Rebecca suggested. “Grab a bite?”

I was grateful for the suggestion, but I wondered if she’d actually heard my hunger pains.

“I could cook,” Gavin offered.

“Not tonight. I want to enjoy you,” she said to him.

“How about something quick?” Richard suggested.

Something quick in San Juan Island language apparently translated into going to the drive-in. It was less of a drive-in and more of a walk-up these days with the amount of tourist foot traffic. The small, blue fast-food joint seemed like it had always been there. The Sounds were greeted by name and I was introduced to the man behind the counter who owned the place.

Gavin didn’t let me order. He just returned with a bulging sack of everything. His dad held one for them.

“We lucked out,” he told us. “There’s a movie in the park tonight: Bringing Up Baby.”

“Oh!” Rebecca clapped her hands with delight.

I didn’t want to admit that I had never seen this movie. My face must have given something away, because Gavin looked at me incredulously. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen Bringing Up Baby.”

I shook my head sheepishly “Is it a new one? I don’t get to the movies a lot at school”

Being a scholarship student didn’t allot for much spending money. Plus, I tended to spend my weekends at Garrett’s, the campus bar, with my friends.

“You haven’t seen a lot of classics, have you?” Gavin asked.

“How old are we talking?” I asked suspiciously. I was familiar with the John Hughes oeuvre.

“I think we got a classic films virgin,” Richard said.

“That is one character flaw that we’re going to have to fix,” Gavin told me. “Thank God, I was beginning to think you were too perfect. I was going to start checking to see if you were a robot while you slept.”

The movie in the park was a popular event. Families and couples were setting up picnics and lounging in lawn chairs. I nearly tripped over a renegade toddler. Gavin caught her and returned her to her frazzled mom.

Rebecca and Richard hopped into Island Mercantile and got two blankets for us to spread out on. Thanks to Gavin’s eyes being bigger than his stomach, we had a feast to share. Rebecca lectured both men on their eating habits while they unpacked half of the drive-in’s menu.

“What do you think?” Gavin asked, as I took my first bite of my burger.

I rolled my eyes with pleasure.

“It’s good,” I told him with my mouth still full.

When the movie started, Gavin sprawled across our blanket, resting his head in my lap, and I ran my fingers through his hair. It felt good just to touch him, to be connected and relaxed. The film was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I kept catching Gavin looking up at me with a goofy grin on his face, as if my reactions were as entertaining as the movie. Rebecca and Richard sat on the blanket next to ours, holding each other closely. I couldn’t help but glance over occasionally and see what I suspected we would look like thirty years from now. I haven’t known what to expect from this weekend when Gavin asked me to go away, but I hadn’t expected to feel this way.

I felt like I had come home.

That night there was no discussion after we said goodnight and went to his room. We made love slowly, our eyes on each other and our bodies joined, as though we could fuse our hearts into one.