Chapter 6: Meet the Parents

We're meeting in Dallas, where I am attending a conference, and I can't wait to see him.  Leaving is getting harder and harder at the airport when we part ways.  After five months of criss-crossing the country, we're enjoying every "vacation weekend" together and we're at the all-consuming phase, thinking of each other constantly.

Since we work at the same company, our relationship is under wraps, and although word is spreading that I'm dating someone, I've told people that my paramour works for a competitor, and I can't reveal who it is.  Only one of my colleagues knows that it's Will, and she giggles when we call him by another name.  It's an easy subterfuge, since we live across the country from each other anyway.

Because of our secret, we scoot around the main lobby and he meets me at a side entrance to the hotel to avoid running into any of my co-workers also in town for the conference.  After a joyous greeting, he takes my hand and leads me to the elevator to the top of Reunion Tower, to see the lights of Dallas from above.  The skyline twinkles, and the future has never looked so good.  I can't believe how lucky I am.

When the coast is clear and the crowd has cleared out, we head back to the lobby to into his rental car, a beautiful new silver Lexus, and we talk about the car.  He knows how much I love cars and he indulges my inspection of every button and feature before we start out.  As he turns the key in the ignition, he turns to me and says, "By the way, we're going to Austin this weekend to meet my parents." 

Oh, that sounds - wait.  What did you just say?

I play it cool.

"Sounds great.  I can't wait to meet them."

I've heard about his family, and I know his parents' names and professions, and I know Will loves them dearly, even when they drive each other crazy, as families sometimes do.  I try not to be nervous, but I am, a little bit.  What if they don't like me?  Come on, you've never met a parent who didn't like you, Ms. Parent Pleaser.  What if they don't approve of me based on my past and the fact that I'm recently divorced?  I decide I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

We meet Will's parents for the first time at The Oasis, an Austin landmark with beautiful views and marginal food.  They welcome me with open arms - literally, as his mom is a hugger of the best kind - and their West Texas sweetness shines through.  As we talk at dinner, I get to know them, and Nancy tells me about the phone conversation that transpired when Will asked them to meet us in Austin.

"My son doesn't tell me much," she says.  "He has shared with us a little bit about you, but the most telling thing is the way he describes himself when he's with you.  I can tell when he's with you because when I call him and I ask him how he's doing, he says, 'I'm fabulous!'"

I smile, because I know what she's talking about. 

She continues, "When Will told us that you all would be in Austin and whether we'd like to meet you, we jumped at the chance.  I just had to see for myself who this person is that is making my son so happy."

This is definitely going somewhere.

The rest of the weekend flies by, and we visit the neighborhood his parents lived in as college students at UT, we sit on the porch at Barton Creek Resort and look out over the golf course at the rolling green hills, and we talk.  I'm falling in love with Austin as I'm falling in love with Will and his family, and I don't know it yet, but Texas is getting into my blood.

Now, I need to get this Texas boy to Atlanta - permanently.  I'll be working on that...

* * * 
Next chapter:  A leap of faith (leaving Phoenix in the rear-view mirror)

Read the whole story, chapter by chapter, right here.