Becoming Us

by Allie Everhart

  The door to the pool swings open and Jade shoves away from me and swims into the other lane.

  Keith, the swim coach, walks in. “I didn’t think anyone was in here. Hey, Garret. Haven’t seen you here much.”

  “The physical therapist said I need to start upping my time in the pool, so I’m doing the exercises he taught me.”

  “How’s the shoulder feeling?”

  “It’s a lot better.”

  “Even if it’s better, make sure you keep going to therapy.”

  “I will.”

  “Hi, Jade. I see you decided to go for a swim as well.”

  Jade’s cheeks are bright red. “Yeah, I thought I’d do some laps.” She takes off down the lane before Keith can say anything else to her.

  “Garret, I’d like you to start coming to practice. Get to know the team. You don’t need to be at every practice, but you could drop in once or twice a week.”

  “Sure. That’d be great.”

  “All right, then. I’ll let you get back to swimming.” He walks off. “Bye, Jade.”

  She waves at him as she swims. When she reaches the end of the lane, he’s gone.

  “That was so embarrassing!” She wipes the water from her face.

  “Why? He didn’t see anything.”

  “He would’ve if he’d walked in just a few minutes sooner!”

  “But he didn’t, so we’re good.”

  “It doesn’t bother you that your coach almost walked in on us?”

  “No, it doesn’t bother me at all.” I pull her into me. “Are you saying you regret what we did?”

  She grins. “No. It was great.”

  “You still need a better adjective.” I let her go and hear her laughing as I swim down the lane.

  We stay in the pool for an hour. Jade mostly sat at the edge with her feet in the water while I did my workout. I like having her here. Even if she doesn’t swim, it’s nice to just have her here with me at the pool.

  We get out of the water and I hand her a towel to dry off, then grab one for myself. “Thanks for coming with me.”

  “You didn’t give me a choice.”

  “Yeah, I guess I didn’t. But you had a good time, right? Even after the sex?”

  “Don’t say that out loud! Someone will hear you.”

  I glance around. “There’s nobody here, Jade.”

  She checks the door, then reaches up and kisses me. “Yes, I had a good time. I love watching you swim.”

  “I didn’t do much swimming. Mostly just shoulder exercises.”

  “I still like being here with you.” She wraps the towel around her waist. “I’ll go change. Meet you in the hall outside the locker room?”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  I finish changing before she does, and as I wait in the hall I check out the bulletin board that’s hanging just outside the locker room. There’s a sign asking for volunteers for a kids’ swimming class and some flyers underneath it with more information. I take one of the flyers.

  “That’s a program we started a few years ago.” Keith appears in the hallway. He must’ve seen me standing here from his office. “My church sponsors it. The college agreed to let us use the pool. They were hesitant at first because of the liability issues, but we got that figured out and now we’ve been doing the program for three years.”

  “What is it exactly?”

  “It’s free swim classes for kids whose parents can’t afford swimming lessons. We just teach them the basics, mainly so they don’t drown if they ever find themselves in the water. And if they get the basics down, we teach them a few strokes. You know how kids are. They’re eager to learn.”

  “How old are the kids?”

  “We get all ages. Mostly younger kids but sometimes we get some teens. Anyway, the program goes throughout the year, one Saturday a month. There’s a class in a few weeks. If you’re interested, let me know. We could really use more volunteers.”

  “I’d be happy to do it. Go ahead and sign me up.”

  “You don’t have to decide right now. You can think about it.”

  Jade comes out of the locker room. “Hi, again,” she says to Keith, her cheeks turning pink. He didn’t even see anything and she’s still blushing. She would’ve been so embarrassed if he’d walked in on us while we were doing it.

  “Jade, I was just telling Garret about a program we have here at the school that teaches kids how to swim. He was thinking of volunteering.”

  “Oh, yeah? You should do that, Garret.”

  “Yeah, I told him I would. It’s one Saturday a month.”

  “Would you like to volunteer as well?” Keith asks Jade.

  “I’m not a very good swimmer. I don’t think I could teach someone how to swim.”

  “We need volunteers to help with snacks and to supervise some of the younger girls in the locker room.”

  “Um, sure, I could do that.”

  “Great! Then I’ll sign both of you up. If you have any questions, you know where to find me.”

  On the way to the car, I link hands with Jade. “You sure you want to volunteer?”

  “Yeah, it sounds fun.”

  “You do know it involves kids, right?”

  “Yes.” She laughs. “I’m just handing out snacks. I think I can handle it.”

  “What ever happened to your babysitting gig? Are you still going to watch Caleb?”

  A few weeks ago, Jade agreed to babysit for her friend, Sara, when she goes on job interviews. Sara’s trying to find a job that pays better than the coffee shop because Caleb’s dad won’t give her child support and she really needs money.

  “Sara has to get an interview first. She hasn’t had much luck finding anything, but when she does, she still wants me to babysit Caleb. Oh, speaking of babies, did Harper say anything to you when she was here for my birthday?”

  “About what?”

  “Babies. She’s obsessed with us having one.”

  I open the car door for Jade, then go around to the other side. Whenever the kid topic comes up, I never know what to say. It’s such a sensitive topic that I just let Jade lead the conversation and try not to say too much.

  I start the car but leave it in park. “Jade. Seatbelt.”

  She always forgets to put it on. She clicks it in place, then says, “Harper keeps telling me to hurry up and get pregnant so she can play with our baby this summer.”

  “It’s already mid-October. It’s getting kind of late for that.”

  “That’s why Harper’s been telling me this for weeks now. She’s driving me crazy with all this baby talk.”

  “She’s just joking.”

  “I don’t think so. I think she’s really counting on this.”

  “She knows how you feel about kids so you know she’s not serious.”

  Jade’s quiet the rest of the drive home. She goes and unlocks the front door as I grab my gym bag from the back seat.

  When we get inside, she lies down on the couch and stares up at the ceiling. “Harper doesn’t know.”

  “Doesn’t know what?” I set my bag down and get a bottle of water from the fridge.

  “She doesn’t know about the kid thing. How I feel about it.”

  I go to the couch and Jade moves her legs so I can sit. “You guys never talked about this? You’re best friends. You talk constantly.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want to tell her this. It’s private.”

  “Again. You’re best friends. This seems like something you would talk about with your best friend.”

  “Well, I don’t, okay? I don’t want to tell her.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because then I’ll have to tell her about my mom and my childhood.”

  “You haven’t talked about that, either? What exactly do you talk about with her?”

  “You. Sean. Other stuff. She doesn’t need to know about my past. And she doesn’t need to know how I feel about being a mom. She’d never understand. She loves kids. She’ll probably have five
of them if she ever marries Sean.”

  “Are you afraid she’ll judge you because you don’t want kids? Is that why you won’t tell her?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know. She just wouldn’t understand.” Jade climbs onto my lap. “Garret, don’t say I don’t want kids. Because I don’t know yet, so I don’t want you saying I don’t want them. And I don’t want you thinking that.”

  She lays her head on my shoulder.

  I kiss her forehead. “I think you should reconsider telling Harper about this. She’s your best friend. She’s not going to judge you. And it might be good for you to talk to her.”

  “No. It’s something I need to deal with myself.”

  Jade says that, but the thing is, she’s not dealing with it. Like I said, it’s a sensitive topic—so sensitive she won’t even talk to me about it. But she needs to talk about it, if not with me, then with someone. Otherwise she’ll never come to a decision about having kids.

  Jade sits up. “I’m really tired. I’m going to bed.”

  “I’m going to stay up a little longer.”

  “Goodnight. Love you.” She gives me a kiss. “Oh, and, um, thanks for the pool sex.”

  “No need to thank me, Jade,” I say as she walks away. She always makes me laugh when she thanks me for sex. Like it was a chore or something.

  I watch TV for an hour, then call my dad back.

  “Hey, can you talk now?” I ask him.

  “Yes. Let me just go in my office.” I hear him walk in there and close the door.

  “So what did William say when he called you?”

  “He asked how long I’ve known that Jade was a Sinclair. I went with the story you told him and said I didn’t find out until after Royce died. Then he asked if I knew anything about Jade’s mother and I told him I knew nothing about her.”

  “What did he ask you about Jade?”

  “Not much. I assured him Jade’s not the type of person who would try to con someone out of their money. Grace told him that as well. I think William believes Jade’s story now. He just needs time to accept it. He’s still trying to understand how his brother was able to hide a secret like that all these years.”

  “Yeah, he was shocked when we told him. But he seemed more accepting of Jade when we saw him a few hours ago. Jade and I had dinner with him.”

  “Yes, he mentioned you were having dinner. How did it go?”

  “It was fine. He seemed okay. Actually he seemed like a nice guy, but you know him better than I do.”

  “I’ve always liked William. We’ve gone out for drinks several times. But you know how it works. It’s a thin line between friends and enemies and I don’t want to risk him crossing that line. I don’t want you trusting him any more than you’d trust any of the other members.”

  “Jade really wants to get to know him. He asked her to come out and visit him and Meredith at their house in New York.”

  “We need to get to know him better before she does that. I’ll invite him to dinner, maybe have drinks with him after the next meeting. And although I’d prefer not to, I’ll talk to your grandfather. Now that he’s in this higher up position, he has access to all the information we have on our members. If William is hiding something, your grandfather will know.”

  “He won’t help us if he knows this is for Jade.”

  “He has no idea Jade is a Sinclair. You know that.”

  “Yeah, I wasn’t thinking. It’s been a long day.”

  “Anyway, I’ll just make up an excuse. I’ll tell your grandfather I’m inquiring about William because I’m considering asking him to serve on the board. Your grandfather won’t question that.”

  “Did you do any checking on that Walt guy?”

  “Yes, he’s one of us. Well, he’s not a member, but he works for us. He’s been doing contract work for years. Then William hired him for his own personal security needs and since then, Walt hasn’t had time to take on additional projects.”

  It’s just what I thought. Walt isn’t as innocent as he looks. He may come across as a harmless old guy, but if he’s done work for the organization, he’s done his share of bad shit. ‘Contract work’ could be code for anything from covering up stuff to killing someone.

  “William suggested Walt keep an eye on our place. He said the cameras aren’t enough.”

  “Walt will not be acting as your security personnel. If you think you need that, I will find you someone else.”

  “I already told him I didn’t want Walt sticking around. But William also said the cameras weren’t working right. Walt was able to mess with the digital signal so when I viewed the images on my phone they were all blurry.”

  “I’ll get it fixed right away. Oh, and I also asked William if he had anything to do with the burglar or that fake police officer. He said he had nothing to do with it, and from his response, I believe him.”

  “You really think he’d hire some guy to rob us? Why would he do that?”

  “He assumed Jade was a criminal. I thought maybe he hired that man to go through your house and see if Jade had stolen anything from Grace.”

  “But the guy robbed the neighbors. If he was targeting us, he wouldn’t have robbed someone else.”

  “It was just a theory. It still bothers me that I can’t find that police report or that fake officer. I might have to ask your grandfather for help. He has more connections than I do. For now, just continue to be careful.”

  “I will. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Goodnight, Garret.”

  My dad’s really freaking me out about this fake cop and that robbery. I’ve been trying to forget it. The cop hasn’t been back and the robber’s dead so I don’t know why my dad’s so concerned about this. I wonder if there’s something he’s not telling me.

  5

  JADE

  The next couple days I keep thinking about William, wondering if he’s really the man I want him to be or if he’s bad like his brother. I want to believe what Grace said about William being a good man, but part of me doesn’t, knowing she had no clue what Royce was capable of until she found out what he did to my mom.

  I’ve been calling Grace every day now that I know the rest of her family never calls. What is wrong with them? She’s all alone and still grieving over Arlin. Can’t they at least call her once a week just to check in? Anyway, I told Grace I needed some time before we get together with William. She didn’t question me. She understands my hesitation.

  I feel better knowing Walt’s not following me around anymore. That guy creeped me out. Garret told me his dad confirmed that Walt’s done work for the organization. And if he’s worked for them, he’s done bad things, even worse things than the members. Maybe that’s why I’m having trouble trusting William. I don’t know why he’d want someone like that working for him.

  Now it’s Thursday and I go to chemistry class feeling anxious because today we get our exams back. It was one of three major exams we have during the semester and we took it last Tuesday. I felt like I did okay on it, but you never know. The professor hands them out at the start of class. I smile when I see the 93 written in red ink at the top of my exam. Finally, my grades are where they should be. I’m so happy about it, I decide to reward myself with a smoothie after class.

  When I get to the coffee shop, Sara’s outside talking on her phone. I wave as I walk past her. I haven’t seen her since last week.

  I find a seat at one of the small round tables and scan the restaurant, making sure Walt’s not there. I know he’s gone but I check anyway, just in case.

  “Hey.” Sara sits down across from me. “I’m on break so I have a couple minutes. I haven’t seen you for forever.”

  “Yeah, I know. How have you been?”

  “Good. How was your birthday?”

  “It was great. A bunch of people flew in from out of town and stayed all weekend. My best friend, Harper, was here with her boyfriend, Sean. I was totally surprised.” Sara doesn’t seem to be listening. She’s staring at th
e wall behind me and hasn’t blinked for a while. “Sara?”

  Her eyes dart back to me. “Sorry. I spaced out for a minute.”

  “It’s okay. Were you up with Caleb last night?”

  “No, he slept the whole night.”

  “So you were just daydreaming?”

  “No, well, maybe.” She rests her forearms on the table and leans across it. “Remember when I had that interview for the secretary job at the architecture firm? It was that week I got sick so I missed the interview and someone else got the job.”

  ‘“Yeah, I remember. What about it?”

  “This guy who works there just called and asked me out.” She smiles really wide. “Can you believe that? He asked me out!”

  “Who is this guy?”

  “His name is Alex. He’s doing an internship there. He’s 24. I met him when I dropped off the application. Actually, I met him in the parking lot. He was parked next to me and he was staring at my car so I asked him what he was doing and he said my tire looked flat. It wasn’t. It just needed air. Anyway, we started talking and he rode the elevator up to the third floor with me and I found out he worked there. He gave me his card and told me to call if I needed help with the tire. I didn’t need help, but I called him just to tell him thanks.”

  “Yeah, right. You called him so he’d have your number.”

  She smiles. “Maybe.”

  “What’s he look like?”

  “About 5’9, dark hair, dark eyes. He had that light layer of stubble on his face that’s intentional, not like he forgot to shave. How do guys do that anyway? Do they have some special razor or something? Anyway, he was wearing glasses with thick black frames. I usually don’t like glasses, but on him they looked good. They give him kind of a quirky, artsy look. He’s really hot. And he was flirting with me. Me!” She pauses. “And then I ruined it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He had on this great cologne.” She sighs. “And I told him he smelled good.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes!” She throws her hands in the air. “Who says that to a total stranger? Only crazy, sleep-deprived, undateable people like me.”

  “Sara, you may be sleep deprived, but you’re not crazy or undateable. He just called and asked you out.”