Loving You (The Jade Series #3) (28 page)

“I thought you weren’t going to say anything.”

“I won’t have to. Katherine’s not that smart. She’ll screw up and say or do something that will give it away. Plus, my dad’s already suspicious of her. He’s probably having her followed.”

“Why would he be mad that she’s cheating? He’s doing the same thing.”

“Doesn’t matter. He’ll still be furious. Especially since it’s with his CFO. A guy he plays golf with. The guy he trusts with the company finances.” Garret puts his phone away. “Stephen better start looking for a job. Did you see his face when he saw me? I thought the guy was gonna have a heart attack.”

“Why do you think your dad and Katherine called off the divorce? She said they’re not even separated anymore.”

“I guess they don’t want the social embarrassment of a divorce or the bad publicity. Or maybe they’re actually being decent parents for once and thinking about Lilly.”

I run my finger up and down the stem of my water glass. “You didn’t need to make Katherine apologize to me. It was kind of a waste. She would’ve bought you another car, or a trip, or what was the other thing?”

“Golf clubs. Like I need any more of those.” He reaches over and takes my hand from the water glass and holds it in his. “It was important to me that she apologized to you. I can’t promise you she’ll follow through on the being nice part, but she might at least make an attempt now.”

“Well, thank you for doing that.” I smile. “But next time go for the car. Then you can loan it to me, so I can actually drive places.”

“Do you seriously want a car? Because you know I’ll buy you one. I just didn’t think you’d let me.”

“I’m kidding, Garret. Do not buy me a car. I don’t need one.”
 

“What kind of car should I get you?” He lets go of my hand and sits back in his chair, pretending to contemplate this while I shake my head. “I think you’d like a convertible. What color do you want? White? Red?”

“Real funny. Let’s talk about something else.”

“I didn’t even think of that. We totally need a convertible. We’ll be living in California all summer. We have to get one.”

“I think your current car will work just fine.”

“No, it’s all wrong for California. It’s black for one, so it’s too hot in the sun. We should get a white convertible. Or red.”

“Are you done yet?” I give him my fake annoyed-at-him face.

The waiter brings our salads. He seems much more relaxed now.

“Jade, you really need to start using the BMW. It’s ours, not mine. If you need to go somewhere, just take it.” Garret picks up a roll from the basket and spreads it with butter that’s been molded to look like a rose.

“That car is too expensive. You’d kill me if something happened to it.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” He sets his butter knife down with a now deformed butter rose stuck to it. “Why would you even think that?”

“Because that’s how guys are with their cars. You get one scratch on it and they go crazy.”
 

I look down at the salad that came with my meal. I rarely eat salad, but I decided I’d eat this one because it’s just lettuce and it’s really small. But there’s no dressing on it. They didn’t even put any on the side. And there’s no way I can eat lettuce unless it’s drowning in dressing.

“First of all, you’re a very cautious driver,” Garret says as he eats his roll. “And second, I don’t care about the car. If something happens to it, I’ll get it fixed. It’s no big deal.”

“Then maybe I’ll take it sometime. If you’re sure it’s okay.” I spot a silver serving dish next to Garret that looks like a gravy boat but contains something white with black flecks. I pick it up and drizzle what I hope is dressing over my salad.

“If you don’t take it, I swear I’m going to get you your own car,” he says, completely oblivious to my salad conundrum. “Can I have the dressing?”

 
I notice that I’m still holding what he’s now confirmed is dressing. “Yeah. But why is it in a gravy boat?”

“They always put it in one of those.” He takes it from me and pours some dressing over his salad. “A lot of restaurants do.”
 

They do? I really need to get out more.

We finish our salads just as our meals arrive. I’m glad I went with Garret’s recommendation. The steak looks really good.
 

When we’re finished eating, Garret puts his napkin on the table and leans back in his chair. “So for dessert, we could either order one of the fancy desserts here or we could go to the diner and have that sundae we ate on our first date.”

“You’re calling that a date now? That time you barely knew me, but took me to the diner and had the audacity to order for me without even letting me look at the menu?”

“Yes. That’s the one,” he says seriously.

“So why is that suddenly considered a date? I thought our first date was at the bowling alley.”
 

“I was thinking about that and I think we should make the diner our first date. It sounds better for the kids.”

“What kids?” I take a sip of water.

“Our kids.”

I cough a little as I choke on the water. “Excuse me?”
 

“Let’s say I were to propose to you in the next, I don’t know, few months or so.” He’s completely casual about it, like we’ve already discussed this. “We wouldn’t want our kids thinking we dated such a short time before getting engaged. It would set a bad example.”
 

I stare at him, trying to process this, but also trying to see if he’s serious or just doing this to get a reaction out of me. I assume it’s the latter and play along.

“There aren’t going to be any kids, Garret, because I don’t like kids. And since you already know that, I’m pretty sure you won’t be proposing in the next few months, or even the next few years, because I know for a fact that you want three kids. So I don’t think you need to worry about the timing of our first date.”

His cocky smile appears. “Just give me some time. I’ll wear you down on the kids thing. And if three’s too much, I’m willing to compromise at one and a half. A half a kid might be nice. Not as much work.”

An image of that pops in my head making me laugh. “Okay, enough about kids. Let’s go to the diner and split a sundae.”

Before falling asleep that night, I relive the entire weekend in my head. I don’t want to forget a single detail. The way the ocean sounded. The way the sand felt on my feet. The way it felt to kiss Garret as the salty breeze blew around us. It was almost too perfect.

As much as I try to ignore it, there’s still that voice in my head telling me that these perfect days won’t last. That something bad is just around the corner. The voice is much softer now, but it’s still there. And maybe it always will be.

Monday at lunch Harper races up to me in the dining hall just as I’m setting my tray down. Her enthusiasm causes her to bump the table, sending my chocolate milk splattering all over my chicken nuggets and onto my tray. “Jade, this weekend was beyond amazing!”

“Mine too,” I say, trying to mop up the nuggets with my napkin. “Go get your lunch so we can talk.”

I haven’t seen Harper since she left for Sean’s place Friday afternoon. She, too, had a Valentine’s weekend and didn’t get back to the dorms until this morning.
 

Minutes later, Harper returns with her usual oversized salad. She sits down across from me, wearing a light pink v-neck sweater, her long blond hair held back with a sparkly silver headband.
 

“Well, basically we never left his apartment.”
 

“Yeah, I probably don’t need all the details. I’m trying to eat here.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” She dips her lettuce in her bowl of dressing. “Well, obviously we did
that
, but not for the whole weekend. Friday night he made me the best pizza I’ve ever had. I told him he has to make one for you and Garret sometime. And then on Saturday, he snuck out of bed and made me a cheese souffle for breakfast. He made every meal and they were all fantastic. He even started teaching me how to cook.”

“So you two cooked all weekend? Did you do anything else, besides that and you know.” Once again, I avoid saying the word sex. I have no idea what my hangup is with that word. Sometimes I have no problem saying it, but other times I can’t. Weird.

“I know it sounds boring, but it wasn’t at all.” She leans across the table, keeping her voice low. “I won’t go into details, but the guy uses food in ways you wouldn’t imagine. It was totally hot. We’d planned to go see a couple movies, but never made it out of his apartment.” She sits back again. “Anyway, Sean and I were talking about the summer and it sounds like he’s going to come out and live with me in California. I mean, he has to find a job and all, but there are tons of fancy restaurants in LA he could work at.”

“So you two are getting a place together?”

“That’s the plan. He’s flying home with me over spring break so we can look at apartments. And he’s going to try to get some interviews scheduled for when he’s there.”

I get my phone out. “I have to text Garret quick and tell him. He keeps asking me if Sean’s going out there this summer.”

“Isn’t it great those two get along so well? This summer is going to be so much fun, Jade. The guys can go surfing while you and I tan on the beach.” She bites into a piece of lettuce. “So tell me about your weekend.”

I give her a rundown of each day, leaving out the part about catching Garret’s stepmother cheating on his dad. Those are Kensington family secrets and I have no desire to share them.

“Garret loved that bikini you gave me,” I tell her.

“It
was
a great suit. Kylie’s sending me some others this week. You can look through them and see what you want.”

“Anyway, that was my weekend.” I say it casually, even though it was one of the best weekends Garret and I have had together. But I don’t want to brag.

“Jade, that weekend sounds amazing. It must’ve cost Garret a fortune. Plus he gave you those diamond earrings. I can’t believe you didn’t yell at him about spending money.”

I shrug. “We have an agreement now. I promised not to bug him about it anymore.”

“Good. Because I gotta tell you, Jade, I was getting really tired of hearing you complain about the money thing, especially since Garret’s family is loaded. And if
I
was getting tired of it, I’m sure Garret was
really
tired of it.”

“Yeah, I still don’t like him paying for everything, but I’m trying to get over it.” I push my tray away. The chocolate-milk-splattered chicken nuggets are not at all edible. “So Garret brought up the marriage topic again at dinner Sunday night.”

“What did he say?”

“I’m sure he was kidding but he talked about us having kids.”

“Kids? You’re 19.”

“I know. He wasn’t talking about having them anytime soon. He was just putting the idea out there, seeing how I’d respond.”

“And what did you say?”

“I told him I don’t want kids. And Garret knows that, so I don’t know why he even brings it up.”

“So what if he asked you?” She dips a carrot in her dressing, holding it above her plate as she waits for an answer.

“Asked me what?”

“To marry him. If he’s already thinking about kids, he obviously wants to marry you and he doesn’t seem like the type of guy who waits for what he wants. So what would you say?”

“I’d probably say no. We’re too young. People who get married this young always end up divorced.”

“My parents got married in college and they’re still together. And my dad works in Hollywood. He should be on his fourth wife by now.”

“They really got married in college?”

“Yeah. My mom was 20 and my dad was 22. They had like no money. My dad was interning at one of the movie studios, but they didn’t pay him anything. And my mom was working two jobs while going to school.”

“And they, um, seem happy together?” I hope she doesn’t think I’m being rude, but I’m wondering if her parents stay together for appearance sake, then have affairs on the side like Garret’s dad and Katherine do.
 

“My parents are totally in love. And they’re not afraid to be affectionate with each other in front of people. I’m telling you that now in case you meet them this summer. My dad can’t take his hands off my mom. I swear, they’re like teenagers.”

“I think that’s kind of nice they’re still into each other like that.”

“It is. I just don’t want to see it. Anyway, I’m just saying that getting married young doesn’t mean you’ll get divorced. And seeing how much Garret loves you, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Maybe if you got married it would stop the—” She gets flustered and starts picking at her salad with her fork.

“Stop the what? Harper, what were you going to say?”

She sets her fork down on her plate. “Jade, do you ever read those celebrity magazines?”

“No, but I read some when I was waiting for Frank at the doctor’s office over Christmas break. I told you how one of them had a photo of Garret and Ava. I was so pissed. I still am. That article made it sound like the two of them are a couple. I can’t believe a magazine can just make up lies like that.”