When they pulled up outside Mac's house, Dick turned off the car but didn't take the key out of the ignition.
"Hey, I was thinking," he said to Mac, "And I'm pretty sure your parents won't like me if you introduce me as Dick, the guy whose brother left you naked in a hotel room." Mac's eyes widened at the last part of his sentence and he shrugged apologetically. "Ronnie was really worried about you after, and she yelled at me a couple times. It came out."
Mac considered it and nodded. "You're probably right. So if I'm not calling you Dick whose brother left me naked in a hotel room, what should I call you?"
"Umm," Dick said, running a hand through his hair and making it stand on end. "What about Rich, who as far as your parents know never had any siblings?"
"That works," Mac said, as she hopped down from the truck. Dick came around the truck and began to stride up the walkway. "Oh, hold on a second," Mac said, turning him away from the house. He looked down at her in surprise, and she realized that they were standing close together and that her hand was still on his arm. She dropped her hand and coughed.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said quickly. "Just…your hair." She reached up her other hand and quickly ran her fingers through his hair to make it lie flat. He gave her a goofy, lopsided grin and she smiled briefly before moving past him and walking in the front door.
"My brother's kind of a pain," Mac said quietly to Dick as she put down her bag. "And my mom will ask you millions of questions, and my dad—"
"Dude, don't even worry about it," Dick said, although he looked rather nervous himself. "It's gonna be fine."
"Hi, honey," Mac's mom said then as she came down the hallway, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.
"Mom, this is my friend Rich. He goes to Hearst, too."
"Hi, Rich, I'm Lorraine," Mac's mom said with a wide smile.
"Nice to meet you," Dick said, holding out his hand.
"Can he stay for dinner?" Mac asked.
"Sure," Mac's mom said. "I think we should have enough food. Do you eat normal food, Rich?"
"Yes ma'am, I'm a hard-core carnivore," Dick said with a smile, which Mrs. MacKenzie returned.
"Good, me too," she said, before returning to the kitchen. Mac led the way down the hall and found her father sitting watching television.
"Dad, this is my friend Rich. He's staying for dinner."
"Oh, hi," Mac's dad said, turning off the TV and standing up to shake Dick's hand. "Sam MacKenzie, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, sir," Dick replied.
"Cindy, how was jury duty?"
"It could have been worse. I ran into Rich there, and we got out by mid-afternoon."
"Oh, good. What did you do the rest of the day?"
"We dominated in laser tag," Dick answered.
Mr. MacKenzie looked at Dick in surprise. "You got her to play laser tag with you? Nice work."
"It wasn't too hard, actually."
"You played laser tag without me?" Mac's brother Ryan asked from the doorway. He walked into the room and looked up at Dick. "Who are you?"
"Ryan, this is my friend Rich. Rich, my brother Ryan."
"Sorry we didn't come get you, little dude, but you can come next time."
Ryan appeared mollified, and Mac smiled shyly at Dick. Mac's mother walked in the room just then and said that dinner would be ready in just a few minutes.
"Rich, what would you like to drink?" she asked. "Some soda?"
"Can I have soda?" Ryan asked.
"You can have milk," Mrs. MacKenzie answered.
"I'll have milk too, please," Dick said. Mac looked at him with raised eyebrows and he shrugged. "I was never allowed to have sugar when I was younger. Don't want to rub it in the little guy's face that I can have it now."
"Do you get hyperactive, too?" Ryan asked.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Dick answered with a solemn nod.
They sat down at the table and Mrs. MacKenzie started passing around dishes, giving Mac a special plate of Vegan food.
"Thanks, Mrs. MacKenzie, this all looks really good," Dick said. "I can't remember the last time I had a home-cooked meal."
"Well, we're glad you could join us," Mac's mother said.
"So what do you like to do, Rich?" Mr. MacKenize asked when everyone had served themselves.
"I surf a lot," Dick told him. "It relaxes me."
"No kidding," Mac's dad said. "I used to surf a lot myself. And now I sell jet skis."
"I've been thinking about getting a jet ski," Dick said thoughtfully.
"You should come by the store, I'll give you a good deal. We just got all the new models in, they're—"
"Okay, enough shoptalk, boys," Mrs. MacKenzie interrupted. "Did you and Cindy have any classes together this semester, Rich?"
"Oh, no, she's way smarter than me," Dick said honestly.
Both Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie beamed at their daughter, who gave them a smile in return.
"Well, Cindy's into programming and all that technological stuff," Mr. MacKenzie said. "What's your major going to be?
"I'm still trying to figure that out," Dick said. "But something like hotel management or event planning could be a feasible option."
Mac was impressed with Dick's vocabulary use, until Ryan asked what "feasible" meant and Dick told him it meant you could charge large fees.
"I'd need help with that stuff though, all the business parts," Dick said. "That was always more of my brother's deal." He put some food in his mouth, then stopped chewing when he realized he's brought up Beaver without thinking. He swallowed and looked at Mac in dismay.
"Oh, you have a brother?" Mrs. MacKenzie asked. "How old is he?"
Dick and Mac were still looking at each other, and Mac put her hand on his. Finally, Mac turned her eyes away from Dick and looked at her mother.
"Mom, Cassidy was Rich's brother," she said quietly.
"Oh," Mrs. MacKenzie said. "Oh, Rich, I'm so sorry."
Dick looked up in surprise and saw Mac's mother getting up and walking towards him. She shooed Mac out of her seat and set down next to Dick, bringing him in for a tight hug. "You poor thing," she said quietly.
Mac would have expected Dick to look highly uncomfortable in such a situation, but after a second he just shut his eyes and held onto her mother. She wondered when he was last hugged by a parent, or even at all. She made a mental note to try to hug him every once in a while.
"How are your parents doing with everything?" Mac's father asked after a minute. Mac's mom loosened her hold enough so that Dick could turn and answer.
"My mom's been in Europe since before he died, and my step-mom disappeared, and my dad just turned himself in for a jail sentence."
"Oh, you poor thing," Mrs. MacKenzie said again. "Are you still in your house?"
"Right now I'm in a hotel with a friend. I think I'm just gonna sell the house."
Mac's mom squeezed him again, and said to him, "Well, anytime you're lonely and you want some company, just call."
"That's what she said," Dick said before immediately freezing. He then lifted his head and looked at Mac in shock, unable to believe he'd actually said that. She looked back at him with an open mouth. No one moved, until all of a sudden, from the far end of the table, there came a chuckle. Mac's dad began to laugh, louder and louder the more he thought about it. Mac's mother joined in soon, and then they were all laughing, except for Ryan, who kept asking what girl Dick was talking about.
When their laughter died out, Mac's mom ruffled Dick's hair affectionately and moved back to her own seat.
After dessert had been cleared away and Ryan had left the table to go to bed, Dick leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"I guess I should get going," he said reluctantly.
"Are you sure?" Mac's mother asked. "You're welcome to stay as long as you want."
"No, I should probably head home. I had to leave so early this morning, my roommate might think I just never came home last night. And if that's the case I'm pushing that whole 48-hour missing persons deal, so I should get back. But thanks again for having me, everything was delicious."
Dick got up from the table and shook Mac's dad's hand again. Mac's mother hugged him again, and he hugged her back tightly.
"Come back again soon," Mrs. MacKenzie told him, and he promised he would.
Dick waved one more time as he walked out with Mac.
"Dude, your parents are so cool," he said to her once they were out on the front step.
"I think they liked you," she replied.
Dick grinned. "There's a first time for everything, I guess."
Neither one said anything for a minute. Cindy and Rich weren't there anymore—they were back to being Mac and Dick, and they took a minute to readjust.
"My mom really meant it when she told you to come back, you know," Mac said finally.
"I know," Dick said. "I'm glad. Today…today was totally awesome, Mac. It was the first time in a really long time I've had fun without drinking or surfing or doing something stupid."
Mac smiled and Dick took a small step towards her.
"We can do it again, right?" Dick asked.
"In three years, yeah," Mac said.
"Not jury duty," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I meant hang out, spend the day together," he explained as he took another step toward her.
"I know what you meant," Mac said quietly, craning her neck to look up at him.
"Tomorrow?" Dick asked, moving so that he was right in front of her.
"Yeah, okay," Mac said, her cheeks starting to flush.
"Good," Dick said softly, his mouth hovering just a few centimeters away from hers. He stayed there for a few seconds, driving Mac crazy with the feel of his warm breath on her skin. He brought a hand up to her hair, letting his fingers slide through it until they rested on her neck. Finally, he closed the distance between them and pressed his lips against hers.
Mac gasped when he moved his mouth against hers, softly and sweetly. His hands moved to rest on the small of her back, and he pulled her closer. Her skin tingled deliciously everywhere he touched her.
Mac had seen Dick at enough parties this year to know that this was a big moment for him. He wasn't making out, or hooking up, he was just kissing.
He broke away from her a minute later.
"Best jury duty ever," he said, smiling down at her goofily. She found herself grinning back at him, and he tapped her on the nose before turning to walk down the pathway. "So, I'll pick you up in the morning?"
Mac just nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"See you on the flip side, Mackie," Dick called as he hopped into his truck, still smiling.
Mac waved and stood there watching him drive down the street. She turned and went in the front door, finding her mother waiting for her in the living room. She tried not to smile when her mother looked at her knowingly, but she failed and she felt her face heat up even more.
"So," her mother said. "How long have you and Rich been more than friends?"
Mac looked down at her watch. "About four minutes."
Her mother looked ready to explode with this information. "He just kissed you? For the first time? Just now?"
Mac nodded and felt her smile widen as some of her mother's excitement rubbed off on her.
"What was it like?" her mother asked, dragging her over to sit on the couch.
"It was kind of perfect," Mac said, surprising herself with her words. "I never would have thought kissing him would feel so right."
Her mother smiled fondly. "I felt the same way after I kissed your dad for the first time. He's wonderful now, but God, was he a dick when I first met him."
Mac burst out laughing and couldn't stop for a long time. She went to bed that night grinning, replaying her moment with Dick on the front step, and wondering when she'd gotten so freaking girly.
A/N: Hey there readers, sorry it took me so long to get this posted. This was the final chapter of this story, so I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's still hard to write Dick convincingly, but I really feel that, given the brief glimpse we got of Mac's parents (or her mom at least), Dick would get along with Mac's family really well. As always, please let me know what you thought- I'd love to hear your opinions!