I think I got lucky that my mother saw me first. She rushed down the stairs, and enveloped me into a huge hug. I had to admit, it felt good to see my mom. She hadn’t changed since I last saw her, she still have the long wavy blonde hair, just like mine, except I got my dark color from my dad. I had finally grown enough to be as tall as her, although she was still skinnier than me. I don’t know how she does it. She was wearing exactly what I had expected her to be wearing, a nice blouse, a pencil skirt and heels, her usual big-shot-real-estate-agent outfit.
“I’ve missed you!” She exclaimed, before looking me over. “You are so pale! Is there no sun in New York! You will definitely need to soak up as much vitamin D as you can while you are here! Here come inside and you can help with-“ her sentence stopped there, because that is when she saw the boys.
“Haven?” was all she asked, eyeing each one.
“Yes mom?” I pretended to play dumb.
“Who are these young men?”
“Oh, these? Well the blonde one is Ryan, the tall one is Aaron and the skinny one is Danny. These are the friends that you told me to invite, remember?” I knew she couldn’t come up to an argument to that. She seemed angry for a moment, but then it all vanished, and she put her hostess face back on.
“Well you boys are more than welcome to stay here! It is our pleasure to have you here with us for Thanksgiving.” she said genuinely, hugging each one. I saw Ryan smirk a little bit when she hugged him, and I shot him a death glare that immediately wiped the smirk off his face. He would not be allowed to hit on my mom during the trip. Aaron grabbed my bag, and even though it weighed nothing to him, I still felt honored at the motion. I felt myself blushing again. What the hell was wrong with me?
“It’s a good thing we have lots of guest bedrooms, what with these three and your dad all staying here.” my mom chuckled to me. I was really glad that we had chosen to come spend the break out here, I had really missed my home and family. “Haven honey, would you show your friends to their rooms?”
I nodded, and my mom disappeared to somewhere in the house, probably the kitchen. We walked through the huge foyer, to the staircase. The first floor was made up of the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the family room, the game room and my father’s old study. The second floor held the master bedroom, the laundry room and two guest bedrooms, one of which my mom had turned into her piano room. I led the boys past the second floor all the way to the third floor, where my room and two other guest bedrooms were.
“Alright, so there are only two guest bedrooms up here, so two of you guys are going to have to share.” I said, and the guys eyed each other.
“Actually, I think one of us needs to bunk with you Haven, whatever is after you could have easily followed us to California, and we need to keep an eye on you.” Danny said, and I had to admit he was right. But which guy would it be?
“I’ll do it.” Aaron answered. I felt myself start to blush a little bit. “I’m the strongest so I’ll have a better chance at fending off whatever is after you, and with my speed I will be able to hide fast if someone, say your mom, walks in.”
I agreed that it should be Aaron, he made a good point. After the boys set all of their stuff in their rooms, we made our way back downstairs. We hadn’t run into my dad yet, and I kind of hoped it stayed that way. I loved my dad to death, but I doubted he would be as accepting as my mom was of the boys. The sound of music playing could be heard from the kitchen, and I walked in to find my mom and my dad talking and laughing. My mom was mashing potatoes, and my dad was checking the turkey in the oven.
“Well, hello there.” My dad said as we walked into the kitchen. His eyes focused on the boys. Before now, I had never realized how intimidating my dad could really be. He was only forty three and was tall and muscular, with dark hair that was slicked back and matching stubble. He was wearing a dark grey suit; there wasn’t a time I had seen my father in regular clothes. It was always either a suit or his lab coat and scrubs. My dad walked across the huge kitchen, stopping in front of us and crossing his arms. My father, as strong as he was, would be no match for any of the boys, but they still shied away from him. I felt a rush of pride for my dad.
“It’s nice to meet you,” my dad said, holding out his had to Aaron, who was standing closest. He then proceeded to shake both Ryan and Danny’s hands. “I’m glad that my daughter has you boys to take care of her while she is so far away from us.” I think my jaw might have dropped all the way to the floor. I had never been so surprised in my life, not even when I had found out that vampires really did exist. I was also relieved; glad that the boys wouldn’t get beat up by my dad after all, which I feared would happen.
“Do you need any help?” I asked my parents, after I regained my composure.
“Hmm,” my mom looked around the kitchen in thought. “I don’t think so, but you all can help set these on the table.” she motioned towards all the dishes on the counter, and the boys scrambled to pick them up… what suckups. Once everything was cooked and the table was made, we all took our seats. My dad took the head of the table, my mom to his right and me to his left. At the other end sat Aaron, and on either side of Aaron sat Ryan and Danny.
“So why aren’t you boys spending Thanksgiving with your families?” My mom asked.
“This is our family.” Aaron said. “We are brothers, our parents died in a car crash when I was sixteen and these two were fifteen and fourteen. I didn’t want to be split up in foster care so I became their legal guardian.”
“Oh that’s terrible!” My mother exclaimed, shock on her face.
“Yeah,” agreed Ryan. “It was awful. Sometimes I still even have nightmares. We had to live on the streets for almost a year before we found out about our parents inheritance. When we did, we enrolled in the boarding school. No more living off food scraps for us.” I couldn’t tell whether I wanted to smack Ryan or laugh at his expression. He was way, way overdoing it. I had to give them credit though, they were excellent at making up stories.
There was no more depressing talk over the dinner, instead my mom quizzed me over how I liked New York and how I was doing in all of my classes.
“So tell me, Haven, is there a special someone in your life?” she asked. I rolled my eyes. This had to happen sometime.
“No, mom. I don’t have a boyfriend. I haven’t found anyone that’s right for me yet.”
She nodded her head, but I saw her glance at Aaron from the corner of her eye. She had a knowing expression on her face. So that makes two of them. Both Danny and my mom thought that I liked Aaron. What was this?
By the time we finished dinner it was already late, and we were all jetlagged from the long plane ride. I really hoped I would get a long nightmare-free night of sleep tonight. We headed up to the third floor, where Ryan and Danny each went to their respective rooms. Aaron followed me into mine.
