“Are you trying to make me vomit here?”
I laugh. “No. I just wondered.”
“Obviously, they’ve had sex or Lilly wouldn’t be here, but I’m sure they’re not doing it now. And if they are, I don’t want to know. We need to talk about something else.”
“Okay,” I say, still laughing. “Should we head back? I want to clean up before everyone starts arriving. What should we do with all this stuff?”
“I’ll pack up everything except the coolers and the tent. Sean and I will come back later for those. You can go ahead and walk home. Or do you want me to walk with you?”
“You’re going to carry all this stuff back?”
“No, the car’s here. Harper and Sean brought it over when she brought us breakfast.”
“Then I’ll help you pack up.”
“You don’t need to. It won’t take me long.”
“Don’t be crazy. I’m helping.” I pick up a blanket and start folding it. As I’m doing so, a flashback pops in my head of me doing this exact same thing back in May in the tent in Connecticut. Folding up blankets and sleeping bags before I had to say goodbye to Garret.
“Jade?” Garret’s staring at me, his face full of concern.
I look down and see that the blanket I was folding is now in a heap on the ground. “Maybe you could fold the blankets and sleeping bags. I’ll pack up the other stuff.”
“Jade.” He holds my chin with his hand, his eyes on mine. “Don’t think about that anymore, okay? I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere. We’re married and we’ve got our whole future ahead of us.”
I nod. “Yeah, I know. It just reminded me of . . .”
He pulls me into a hug. “I know. Me, too.”
I hug him back really tight, remembering last spring and realizing how lucky we are to be together.
Garret doesn’t let me go until I let my arms fall back down at my side.
“Why don’t I walk you back?” He wraps his hand around mine. “I can clean this up myself.”
“No, I’m fine now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” I smile at him. “I don’t know why I was freaking out like that. You’re not going anywhere. You promised me 80 years, right?”
“It wasn’t really a promise. It was more of an estimated guess of my lifespan based on the Kensington family genes.”
“Still. Nobody can take you away. You’re mine now.”
“And you’re mine.” He leans down and gives me a slow, sweet kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
We finish packing up all the stuff, load it in the car, and drive home. When we get there, Sean is outside. He comes up to the car.
“Need some help?” Sean’s dimples appear as he smiles. He’s in a good mood, as usual.
“Sure. Thanks,” Garret says. “Jade, you can go in and get ready.”
“I’ll just get my bag.” I grab it from the back seat.
Harper comes out her door just as I’m going into mine. She runs over, meeting me inside and giving me a hug. “So? How was it?”
“It was great! Thanks for helping Garret do all that.”
“I had fun setting it up. Sean and I might do the same thing before the summer ends.” She follows me upstairs to the bedroom. “Come on, Jade. I need details! Did you guys get any sleep? Or did you just do it all night? How many times did you do it?”
“Harper!” Her questions just prove that people are thinking these things about Garret and me. That’s just great. Now I’ll be blushing the rest of the day whenever anyone looks at us.
“What? You’re not going to tell me?” She sits down on the bed, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to her chest.
“No. I’m not giving you details. You know how embarrassed I get about this stuff.”
“Did you wear the lingerie I packed?” She watches as I take some clothes from the bag and toss them in the hamper.
“Um, no. I never had a chance to.”
She takes a moment to think about what that might mean.
“Just forget it, Harper. I don’t want your mind even going there.”
She laughs. “Too late.”
“I hope you don’t talk with Sean about this stuff. You don’t, do you?”
“No, this is just between you and me. So did the juice work?”
Now I’m laughing. “Would you please not talk about this?”
“It worked for Sean. We were up all night.”
I shake my head. “I’m gonna go take a shower before you start giving me details.”
She hops off my bed and disappears into the hall.
“You’re such a prude, Jade!” I hear her yelling from downstairs.
“I am not a prude!” I yell back. “I just don’t like talking about my sex—”
I stop when I see Garret walking in. “Who are you talking to?”
“Harper. Why?”
“She’s outside.”
“How’d she get out there so fast?”
“I don’t know. Hey, Sean and I are going to run down and get the tent and the coolers so we don’t have to do it later. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“All right. I’m going to shower quick.”
He turns to leave, then stops. “What were you saying when I came in here?”
“Harper was asking how many times we had sex last night and I told her I wouldn’t talk about it.”
He laughs. “She asked me that, too.”
“When did she ask you?”
“Just now as she was leaving. She didn’t actually ask me, but Sean said she was dying to know and when I saw her I could tell she was about to ask so I just said a number and came upstairs.”
“You did not!”
“I did,” he says, smiling as he leans against the door frame.
“What number did you tell her?”
“Eight.” He keeps smiling.
I walk over and stand in front of him. “You told her we had sex eight times? We only did it four times.”
“Guys always up the number when it comes to sex. And I wanted her to think her juice drink worked. Sean said she drove like 20 miles to get whatever herbs she put it that drink.”
“You said it did work.”
“I didn’t need it.” He flashes his cocky smile.
“Eight times? You seriously said eight times?”
“You should’ve seen her face when I told her. At first it was shock, but then I think she was impressed.”
“Thanks a lot, Garret. Now she’ll ask me even more about last night. Don’t tell her anything else, okay?”
“I won’t.” He kisses me. “I gotta go. Sean’s waiting.” He takes off.
Eight times. I can’t believe he told her that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
27
At 1, Pearce arrives along with Lilly and Grace. I greet them at the door, giving them each a quick hug as they come inside.
I pick Lilly up. “Did you have fun at the wedding yesterday?”
“Yes! Can we do it again?”
“No. You only get married one time.” As I say it I realize her dad, who is standing right next to me, has been married three times. “I mean—”
Pearce interrupts. “Lilly just wants to be a flower girl again, don’t you honey?”
She nods. “Did I do a good job?” she asks me.
“You did a great job. You were the best flower girl I’ve ever seen.”
“And I’ve never even done it before,” she says, her face all excited.
“But you practiced a lot so you got really good. If you practice, you can get good at stuff.”
“I’m practicing swimming so I can be good like my brother.”
“You are?” Garret appears behind me. He was upstairs when I answered the door.
“Garret!” She reaches out to him and he takes her from me. “I missed you.”
“You just saw me last night.”
“I always miss you.” She says it softly and
rests her head on his shoulder.
It makes me sad seeing how much she misses him. I knew they were close, but I didn’t realize how close until we moved away.
There’s silence as we all notice Lilly’s sadness. Then Pearce says, “Should we sit down?”
“Yes. Go ahead.” I motion them to the couch and chairs.
“I’m going to put you down, okay?” Garret says to Lilly.
“No.” She clings to him.
Garret looks at his dad as he sits down on the couch with Lilly still attached to him.
“So I hear Sean is making us lunch,” Grace says. “That young man is very talented. The food last night was delicious. He should have his own restaurant.”
“Yes, he’s an excellent chef,” Pearce agrees. “But I’m sure he’s tired after cooking for us the past few days. I would’ve been happy to hire a caterer for lunch so he didn’t have to prepare anything today.”
“He likes cooking,” I say. “He finds it relaxing, which I don’t understand at all.”
“I don’t either,” Pearce says. “I’m a horrible cook. When Garret was five and his mother was out of town, I tried to make dinner and almost burned the house down.”
“You did?” Garret asks. “I don’t remember that. I remember when I was eight and you almost burned the house down. The fire trucks came and everything.”
“They were there for the other fire as well, but I took you over to the neighbor’s house before they got there. I didn’t want you around all the smoke.”
“What caused the second fire?” I ask him.
“I was trying to install a light fixture in the dining room. I don’t know why I didn’t just hire someone. I knew nothing about electrical wiring. Anyway, there was a spark and then a small fire started.”
“He’s not very handy around the house,” Garret says.
“Meaning I didn’t teach my son how to be handy,” Pearce says to me. “So if you want a light fixture installed, call an electrician. Don’t let Garret even try.”
We all laugh.
“I would have to agree with that,” Garret says. I look over and see Lilly now sound asleep on his shoulder.
“Should he take her upstairs?” I ask Pearce, pointing at Lilly. “She could sleep on our bed.”
“No, she doesn’t need a nap. She falls asleep on him like that all the time.”
She does? Why haven’t I ever noticed this?
“I have a very comfortable shoulder,” Garret says.
But I think it’s more than that. I think Lilly feels content and relaxed when she’s with her brother. Garret practically raised her. He made her feel loved and cared for. Katherine isn’t loving at all. I’ve never even seen her hug Lilly. And Garret said Katherine never plays with Lilly or reads her stories. And Pearce is always at work so he doesn’t do that stuff either, or at least he didn’t used to. When Garret lived at home, he was the one who took care of Lilly. That’s why Lilly misses him so much.
“So what was Lilly saying about swimming?” Garret asks his dad.
“She’s taking lessons now. She started last week. The instructor comes over to the house.”
“I already taught her how to swim.”
“Yes, but—” Pearce checks to make sure Lilly’s still asleep. “You’re not there now and she wants to get better at it and I can’t teach her anything about swimming. She keeps saying she wants to be on a swim team someday, just like you. She looks up to you, Garret. She wants you to be proud of her.”
“Yeah, I know.” He glances down at her.
The front door swings open and Harper walks in. “Hi! I didn’t know you guys were here yet. My parents are over at my place if you want to come over. The food’s almost ready. We’ll eat as soon as Frank and Ryan get here.”
“Okay,” I say. “We’ll be right over.”
Harper spots Lilly sleeping on Garret’s shoulder. She goes over to her. “Aww, she’s tired from last night, huh?”
Garret moves and Lilly wakes up a little. She rubs her eyes and notices Harper standing there.
Lilly smiles. “Harper, look!” She holds her tiny hands up, showing off her nail polish. “They’re still pink!”
Harper smiles back at her. “I know. It stays on a really long time. You want to come with me and get some pink lemonade?”
The mention of something pink gets Lilly all excited. “Okay.”
Garret sets her down and she walks over to her dad. “Can I go with Harper?”
“Yes, honey, go ahead,” he says.
“Lemonade sounds good.” Grace gets up. “I think I’ll have some, too, if that’s okay.”
“Sure. Follow us.” Harper stops and waits for Grace and the three of them go outside.
“Dad, you’ve gotta do something about Lilly,” Garret says.
“I know. I’ve talked to someone about it. A child psychologist. And as I suspected, she said that Lilly needs to get out more and be around other children. She’s too isolated. The psychologist wanted to meet with Lilly for a couple sessions but Katherine wouldn’t allow it. But she’s at least agreed to let Lilly have some supervised play dates. And just last week we enrolled her in a private school for the fall.”
“Did you tell her yet?” Garret asks.
“No, but we will soon. She knows about the play dates. I can tell she’s nervous about it. She’s used to being around adults so it will take some adjustment being around other children. This will be a big change for her. Combine that with the changes between her mother and me and you can see why she’s struggling right now. That’s probably why she’s so attached to you, Garret.”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen her act like that before.”
“It was hard on her when you moved. It still is. She talks about you constantly, to the point that Katherine now scolds Lilly whenever she mentions you.”
“What the hell?” Garret almost yells it. “She can’t do that.”
“You know Katherine. She does what she wants. But it’s only making things worse. Lilly needs to talk about this in order to move on. I discussed it with the psychologist and she thinks Lilly saw your move to California as a loss, almost like a death, and that she’s now going through the stages of grief. I’ve watched her go through them. First she was in denial that you were gone, then she was angry about it, then she tried bargaining with me to get you back, and now she’s—”
“Depressed,” I say, because I know those stages all too well. I went through each one of them after my mom died and I didn’t even realize it until one of my classes in high school taught us about the stages of grief.
“What can we do about it?” Garret asks.
“Well, hopefully making some friends her own age will help. And I’ve been cutting back on my hours at work to spend more time with her. Your grandfather has agreed to temporarily come out of retirement to help run the business until things get better at home.”
“Dad, you should’ve said something. I could’ve helped with—”
“No.” Pearce shakes his head. “I don’t want you involved in it. If you showed even the slightest interest in the company your grandfather would take that as a sign that you want to take it over someday and I don’t want him even thinking that. He’s already furious that you’re—it doesn’t matter.”
Furious that he’s what? Not taking over the company? Or furious that Garret married me? Or is it more than that?
“What about Lilly’s birthday?” Garret asks. “Did you talk to Katherine about it?”
“Yes, and she still doesn’t want you to attend the party.”
“I don’t care. Jade and I are going. I’ve never missed Lilly’s birthday.”
Pearce sighs. “I know Lilly will be disappointed but I don’t think you should come, Garret.”
“Why not? I thought you wanted us there.”
“After the incident with your grandfather on the Fourth of July, I don’t think it’s a good idea. He’ll be at Lilly’s party and I don’t want her to be around any mor
e conflict right now. It’s too stressful for her.”
“I won’t fight with him. I promise. I only got mad at him on the Fourth of July because of the way he treated Jade. But I’ll stay away from him this time. I won’t even talk to him.”
I can feel the pain in Garret’s voice as he says it and I can see it in his face.
“You’re not the one I’m worried about,” Pearce says. “My father is the one who’s acting like a child. He’ll make a scene just like he did before the fireworks show.” He hesitates, then says, “And Katherine’s parents will be there as well.”
“Great.” Garret looks at me. “Then I guess we won’t be going.”
“Why? Are her parents just like her?”
“Worse.” Pearce and Garret say it at the same time.
“Multiply Katherine by about a million and that’s her parents,” Garret explains.
“You understand why I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be there,” Pearce says to him.
“So who’s going to tell Lilly?”
“I can tell her.”
“Just let me do it. I’ll tell her tonight since you guys are leaving tomorrow.”
“All right.” Pearce stands up just as Harper walks in.
“Frank and Ryan just got here,” she says. “So we were going to start lunch if you guys want to come out.”
We follow her outside. Frank and Ryan are talking to Harper’s dad. I wave at Ryan but he doesn’t notice. He’s too engrossed in whatever Kiefer is saying. Ryan’s totally star-struck by Kiefer, who’s directed some of Ryan’s favorite movies.
Garret, Pearce, and I walk over to the table which is set up with platters of grilled burgers and hot dogs along with side salads and chips. It’s nothing fancy but it’s perfect for lunch on the beach.
Harper’s mom is helping Lilly fill her plate. She stops when she sees Pearce approaching. “I’m sorry, Pearce. I should’ve asked you before helping her. If I remember correctly, Katherine is very strict about Lilly’s diet.”
“It’s fine.” He looks at the hotdog and potato chips on Lilly’s plate. “She can eat anything.”
I smile because I love the new Pearce. And I love that he’s not letting Katherine have all the control anymore, especially when it comes to Lilly.
“Did you hear your dad just now?” I say quietly to Garret.
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