A few days after the RedOne fiasco, I found myself in the car on the motorway, headed up to Peterborough.
“Why did we think this was a good idea again?” I asked Aston, who was driving.
“You said that it might be nice to get our families together in one place…” started Aston as we hit a spot of traffic and he had to brake the car. “Nooooo…” he whined.
“Keep the road rage to a minimum babe,” I sighed, knowing this was a bad habit of his.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Anyways, if this thing between us is the real deal, our families are going to have to get to know each other soon enough. Might as well get the initial meeting over with.”
“If it’s the real deal Ast?”
“You know what I mean,” he giggled. “And like you said, summer is dying down, we might not have another chance to have a barbecue outside until next year.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
We’d been in the car for well over two hours and were running slightly off schedule. Aston had organized a little barbecue up at his parent’s house, inviting a few of his childhood friends and some people close to his family. On a whim I’d decided to invite my parents as well as I thought it might be nice for them to finally meet the Merrygold’s.
As soon as we got into Peterborough we headed to the store to pick up drinks, like we said we’d bring. We got a few cases of beer, a couple bottles of wine and some soft drinks for any kids that might show up, before jumping in the car again and hauling it over to Aston’s parents house.
Leaving the drinks in the car for the males to carry in, I grabbed my bag and wandered up the front walk. The front door was open with only the screen door blocking anything out so I gave a short call. Immediately Aston’s mum came to the door, flinging it open and pulling me in for a hug.
“Jessica it’s been too long,” she said as she rocked me from side to side.
“How are you?” I asked politely.
“I’m very happy you’re here,” she winked as she pulled away from me. “Now let’s leave the boys to get the barbecue started…”
I grinned at her and followed her into the house to the kitchen. Aston had been intercepted by his father and brother and was in the midst of carrying the drinks around the house.
“I’m just going to get this out here,” started Aston’s mum, “We are sooo happy you two are back together.”
“All of you?” I smirked.
“Yes! Seriously, he was distraught when you left for America, wasn’t the same for months, years even. The second he told me you were back and things between you were how they’d been before, I knew that he’d already perked up and was back to his old self. You really do bring out the best of him.”
I smiled faintly at this, “Well you did a good job bringing him up.”
“Thanks Jessica,” smiled Aston’s mum. I stood in the kitchen helping her get some of the side dishes prepared as we chatted away about how things in my life had changed so drastically. Apparently Aston had told her pretty much everything already, so I spent most of the time answering her questions.
As I excused myself from Aston’s mum I went hunting around for her eldest son. I hadn’t seen him in awhile and I had no idea where he’d gotten off to. I stepped outside and looked around, not seeing him anywhere.
Just then, I heard his giggling from the side of the house and I poked my head around, only to be thoroughly sprayed down by water.
“What the hell?!?” I screamed, shocked to the core by what had just happened.
“Shit sorry babe,” laughed a voice.
“You’re dead!” I yelled, running down the side of the house towards him.
“No!!!” he laughed, dropping the hose and running away. I stopped when I got to the hose, wondering how on earth he’d ended up playing with a hose.
A moment later Aston’s brother Conor came running back around the house, he too was soaking wet.
“Jess, help me get him!” he grinned.
“He got you too?”
“Yeah… He picked it up as I was carrying a case of beer round the house and aimed it at me. Don’t think he realized it was on. Now we need to get him and mess up his perfect hair.”
“You’re on,” I grinned. We took a moment to devise a plan and then I wandered around the house. All sorts of people I’d never met were milling about outside and when they saw me sopping wet, their eyes went wide. I put on a fake strop and slouched down into a chair, crossing my arms over my chest.
“You ok love?” someone asked me.
I just smiled faintly and mumbled back, “Yes, only I’m freezing and haven’t got anything else to wear.”
A few people started coming round me and asking me what had happened. Putting the charm on I attempted to gain sympathy from all of these people who were around me, people I hadn’t even been introduced to yet.
“Awww babe, come here,” said a voice coming nearer to me.
I turned to see Aston, slipping through the crowd, an apologetic look on his face. “I don’t think so,” I said, standing up. “I’m soaked to the skin! And, I haven’t anything else to wear! This is all your fault!”
“But babe…” he started, reaching his arms out towards me.
Instead of humoring him I stalked away from him in a huff… right round the side of the house where Conor was waiting with the hose.
“Noooooo!!!!” Aston yelled as Conor gave him a thorough spray down.
“Got you!!!” I laughed, jumping on his back and tackling him to the ground. Conor, bless him, decided this would be a great opportunity to continue spraying the both of us down. We ended up in a heap on the ground, soaking wet and covered in mud, laughing our heads off, as people began to peek around the side of the house to figure out what on earth was going on.
“Honestly, what is going on here?” shouted a voice.
I stopped messing about with Aston to see his mum stood over us, a scandalized look on her face. Behind her my parents stood looking shocked as the rest of Aston’s family and friends surrounded us.
“Sorry,” I bit out, between laughs.
“Um… we was just having a laugh,” added Aston helping me up. The pair of us were a right state, and Conor wasn’t much better.
“Mum, Dad!” I exclaimed when I clocked that they were there. “Did you meet Aston’s parents?”
“We did…” said my Dad sternly.
“Great!” I said, embarrassed. I felt Aston’s arm wrap around my waist tightly.
“How about we go get into dry clothes and then we’ll have proper introductions?” he asked diplomatically.
“Sounds good,” I mumbled, turning slightly in his grip and running into the house. Did that really just happen?
