Page 51 of Sweet Escape at Bayside
“Too many happy memories to leave behind,” his father said, reaching for his mother’s hand. “It also afforded us the opportunity to travel as a family for a few weeks at a time without the stress of money issues or a large yard to deal with.”
“In a society where people think bigger always equals better,” Violet said, “that’s fu—sh…Damn it. Oh my gosh!” She covered her face and groaned, causing everyone to crack up. Then she lowered her hands and said, “Awesome, okay? It’sawesome!”
Andre pulled her against his chest and kissed her. “I love you so much.”
“Ifu—freaking love her, too,” his mother said, causing them all to laugh again.
His parents hugged them too hard, his mother kissed them too much, and by the time his parents climbed into a cab, Andre couldn’t have imagined the get-together going any better than it had.
“Your parents are amazing,” Violet said as their cab drove off. “I didn’t know parents could be like that. Everyone I know has messed-up parents. Well, noteveryone, but a lot of the people I know got ripped off in the parental department.”
“They’re pretty great. I’m glad you liked them.”
“What’s your parents’ address?” she asked as he flagged down a cab.
He told her, and as they climbed into the cab, she repeated the address to the cabdriver. He hauled Violet across the seat, and she was smiling so big her cheeks had to hurt.
“Why are we going there?” he asked as the cab pulled into traffic. “They just said they were going to see friends. They won’t be home.”
“I know. I don’t want to go inside, I just want to see where you grew up, the street, the building. I want to see the high school and that park where you used to go to draw.”
“Why on earth do you want to see those boring places?”
“I spent my childhood wondering what it would have been like to have stayed in Oak Falls, to have the same bedroom untilIdecided to leave, to have the same friends, afavorite spotto do art. There’s nothing boring about those things. I loved seeing different cultures and living in all those different places, but you know I longed for stability. I feel so close to you right now, and seeing those places will bring us even closer together.”
He touched his forehead to hers and said, “Gosh, baby, everything you do, everything you say, guts me.”
“That sounds bad.”
He kissed her softly and said, “No,Dais. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
They took a curbside tour of the 1900s brick condo building in which he’d grown up, the schools he’d attended, and the parks where he used to sit for hours and draw and where he played ball with his buddies. Violet got excited about each and every place, asking dozens of questions and commenting on how different it was from what she remembered about Oak Falls, which was apparently a town the size of a fist.
He gave the cabdriver another address and then he kissed Violet and said, “We have to get to the waterfront soon so we don’t miss the last ferry, but first we need to get ice cream.”
“I’m not going to argue with that. I just realized we’ll be able to watch the sunset from the deck of the ferry. Remember how sunsets in Ghana sometimes looked like fire in the sky?”
“Yeah, and I remember how sexy you looked beneath them.”
The cab stopped in front of the infamous forty-foot tall Hood Milk Bottle across from Fort Point Channel. As they climbed from the cab, Andre asked the driver to wait.
Violet shielded her eyes, looking up at the gigantic structure. “Holy cow. I had no idea this even existed.”
“It’s been here since 1930, when Arthur Gagner built it to sell homemade ice cream next to his store. When I was growing up, my mom took me here nearly every Tuesday afternoon forTreat Tuesday.”
“It’s not Tuesday. You sure we should be here?”
“Yes.” He kissed her again and said, “Every day with you is a treat.”
“I’m going to start calling you cheeseball if you don’t stop the sappy stuff.”
They got ice cream, and on their way back to the cab Violet stopped in middle of the sidewalk and said, “How much time do we have before the ferry gets here?”
“Thirty minutes. Why?”
“Because we’re inBoston, and if I don’t bring Serena back Kane’s Donuts, she’ll give me grief for weeks. Do you think the cabdriver can find out where it is?”
He scoffed. “Babe, everyone here knows where Kane’s Donuts is.”
