Sweetest Touch (ManxMan)

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Gavin’s POV

After introducing everyone, we finally got to eat. Clyde, being my best and close friends for all the years had arrived earlier to help out. Blake was also helping out and learned how to chop woods using an axe. It was sloppy but he was quick to decide. “I’ll stick to cameras instead of an axe,” he said sheepishly. Clyde was like a third son to my parents so they ‘accepted’ Blake with open arms just as they were with Ivan.

“How long has you’ve been together, Gavin?” my mom suddenly asked out of the blue as she sipped her cocktail. I stopped eating and looked up to see Ivan was looking at me, caught off guard as well. “Uhh…just recently…few months in…” I answered and turned to Ivan to see his reaction. He just grinned and continued eating the grilled wings. “I heard you’re a lecturer in Croxton,” my dad chirped in, setting down another plate of wings and corns. Clyde immediately swooped in for the wings and Blake just shook his head. “Not a lecturer, I’m a researcher for the earth science faculty, same faculty Gavin and my brother were in,” Ivan answered. “Oh? What are you researching?” my mom leaned in. “Is that how you two meet?”

“Maaaa!” I exclaimed, knowing she was interested in my romance life. My parents laughed and I swore I heard Gabriel made a low chuckling noise. Ivan just smiled. “My field is soil, rocks and occasionally plants. We study the minerals in it and see what is good or bad with them and such. Gavin was in the same undergraduate research group project with Blake that the faculty has. It’s a project where all earth science students from different level and year to come together and learn from each other. Gavin was a senior back then. So, that’s how I knew him,” he answered.

“But that was like…2 years ago? And you just dated recently?” my dad asked.

Both Ivan and I choked and coughed on our food.

“He was just playing hard to get,” I replied and earned a smack behind my back and Ivan quickly withdrew his hand, forgotten we were in front of my parents. However, to our amusement, my parents just laughed out loud. My mom was already leaning against his chair laughing while my dad repeatedly smacked his stomach. “For two years? That’s how long you celibated yourself, Gav?” my dad exclaimed and laughed again.

“Oh my god…” Ivan said covered his face with his hands. I couldn’t help but laughed. “I told you, they’re good people,” I leaned in and managed a quick kiss on his neck. I caught Devon’s eyes on us and I blushed, knowing he caught me. He just grinned and looked away.

Sad kid, actually. He was afraid of being open with his feelings due to his bad experience. I hoped he would open up soon. He looked like he was a nice and good kid. Well, he was 18 now but a kid nonetheless.

The sound of wood fire cackling went into the night. The sound of the ocean waves below and the cold winds concluded our feast and we went inside after cleaning up. We were full, tired and comfortable and my parents decided to let all of us sleep over. Ivan would be sharing a room with me and Blake and Clyde will take the guest room on the ground floor. However, the problem was there was only one guest room which was taken by Blake and Clyde and we didn’t have any more room to put Devon in.

“It’s alright, mom. I have an early flight to catch tomorrow. I’ll go back to my apartment. Devon can take my room,” my brother said as he fetch his car keys from the bowl. “Clyde, can you move your car? It’s blocking mine,” he said. Clyde nodded his head and grabbed his keys. “Gotcha!”

“Is it okay?” Ivan asked, he looked uneasy. “It’s alright. My room has lots of books too. I noticed you were so interested in the library earlier. You can read anything there. Just don’t break anything, okay?” he looked at Devon and the younger man nodded his head, while peering from Ivan’s back. Well, glad to know someone else thought of my brother as intimidating too. Gabriel leaned down and kissed my mom’s cheek before nodding at my dad as he left.