Always Us (The Jade Series #8)

by Everhart, Allie

“What do you mean?”

  “You want guest rooms, but you also need rooms for all your kids.” He snickers as he reaches in the cupboard for some glasses. “You’ll need at least eight bedrooms to accommodate the guests, along with you and Garret and your four kids.” He snickers again.

  Garret rubs my arm. He thinks I’m upset because of the kid comment, but Ryan teases me about this all the time because I tell him I don’t want kids. And for whatever reason, his kid comments never bother me.

  “Ryan, don’t—”

  I interrupt Garret. “Four? We were planning on having five or six. Right, Garret?” I smile at him.

  He looks totally confused. “Um, sure. As many as you want.”

  “Six grandkids?” Frank smiles. “It’s a good thing I bought a big dining room table.” Frank motions to a room off the kitchen. “That’s where we’ll be having dinner tomorrow.”

  I go and peek around the corner at the dining room. There’s a long table that seats 10. The table has an orange runner down the center topped with small white pumpkins and greenery.

  “Did you decorate the table?” I almost laugh imagining Frank doing that.

  “No, Chloe did it,” Ryan says. “You guys want something to drink?”

  “Just water.” Garret and I both say it, then I say, “We’re both thirsty from the plane.”

  We take a seat at the kitchen island as Ryan hands us our glasses of water. The kitchen is big and open. It has stainless steel appliances, dark cabinets, and the counters are covered in granite that has a brown, black, and beige swirl pattern.

  We talk some more and then Frank shows us the bedrooms, which are on the other side of the house. The room Garret and I are staying in has its own bathroom and a walk-in closet.

  I’m impressed with how well Frank did picking stuff out. The wall colors, the lighting fixtures, the flooring. It all looks good together and it fits his style, not too contemporary but more of a traditional look. Frank told me his girlfriend, Karen, helped him pick stuff out.

  Ryan’s phone rings. “It’s Chloe. I’ll be right back.” He goes in his bedroom to talk to her while the rest of us go back to the kitchen.

  “So Karen’s coming over tonight.” Frank says it casually, but his lips are creeping up just mentioning her.

  “Good. I’ll finally get to meet her.” I gulp my glass of water down.

  “She wanted to meet you before the race tomorrow. She’ll be here at seven for dinner. Ryan’s going to throw some steaks on the grill and Karen’s bringing over a salad.”

  “Are you going to the race?” I ask him.

  “Yes. Karen will meet us there. Ryan is staying here with Chloe. She’s coming over early in the morning to start the turkey. Are you going to the race with us, Garret?”

  “Yeah, I’m going.” He gets up and refills my water glass from the fridge dispenser. “I’ve never seen Jade race before.”

  “I’m not going to race. I’ll just keep pace with Karen.”

  Garret gives me my water. “I’m gonna go unpack.”

  “Right now? Why don’t you do that later?”

  “I want to clean up a little. Change my shirt.”

  “Okay.” I watch him walk away. He’s still acting strange. It’s subtle and Frank doesn’t notice, but I do.

  Frank starts telling me more about Karen. His face lights up as he talks about her.

  I can’t wait to meet this woman. I still can’t believe Frank has a girlfriend.

  CHAPTER TWO

  2

  GARRET

  I go in the bedroom and shut the door. I need just a few minutes to myself. I need to get my mind focused on tomorrow and this weekend. I want this Thanksgiving to be a good one for Jade, so I need to put on a smile, act happy, and pretend nothing’s wrong. I did that for most of my teen years so this should be easy. Of course, back then I had alcohol to help me out. And I didn’t have this huge secret to hide.

  But so far, I’m doing pretty well. I’ve managed to act halfway normal since my grandfather’s visit a few days ago. I’ve shoved that whole conversation in the back of my mind and when it makes its way to the front again, I tell myself it never happened, then shove any memory of it back in its place. If I don’t, Jade will know something’s wrong. She picks up on stuff, even the tiniest things, so I need to be aware of my tone, my expressions—anything that might give me away.

  I hate hiding this from Jade but my dad practically ordered me not to tell her, and he’s probably right. She doesn’t need to know, at least not yet, and maybe not ever. How exactly would I tell her something like that anyway? My grandfather plans to kill you, Jade. Yeah, I can’t even think those words, let alone say them.

  My dad said he’d deal with my grandfather and I believe him. I just need to give him time to do that. I’m worried he’ll sacrifice himself somehow to get my grandfather to back down. Like agree to do whatever his father tells him to do in exchange for him leaving Jade and me alone. My grandfather could make my dad run for public office, something he would hate doing. He has no interest in being a politician and never has. But my grandfather always wanted his son to be in politics because of the power and prestige that comes with those positions. So when my dad didn’t go down that route, my grandfather wanted me to, which is why he was thrilled when I was chosen to be president, then furious when I destroyed my image, thus ending my future political career. So maybe my grandfather will force my dad to run for office, like maybe run for governor, or for Congress. The organization would make sure he’d win.

  I don’t want to see my dad’s life ruined like that, but my grandfather has us backed into a corner. He’s made this ultimatum. Divorce Jade or he’ll kill her.

  I haven’t slept much since he gave me that ultimatum. A couple hours a night, max. The rest of the time I’m wide awake, watching Jade sleep, worrying about her safety, and trying to come up with ways to get out of this. Trying to figure out how to make my grandfather accept Jade, even though I know he never will. I even considered working for the company. Maybe if I agreed to take over Kensington Chemical someday, my grandfather would leave Jade alone. If he did, I would do it. I would dread going to work every day, but I’d do it if it meant he’d leave her alone.

  Problem is, he won’t agree it. He hates Jade and he hates that I’m with her, and he’s determined to break us apart. Which means I have to rely on my dad. He’s the only one who can fix this. I just hope that he can.

  “Hey.” Jade comes into the bedroom. I’m unpacking the suitcase and hanging clothes in the closet. She comes over and gives me a hug. “You want to take a nap? You look tired.”

  “I’m okay. We should go hang out with Frank and Ryan.”

  “Ryan went to pick up Chloe. They’re getting stuff for tomorrow. And Frank is resting in his room. Do you think Frank’s okay? It worries me that he’s so tired.”

  “I’m sure he’s fine. He said he didn’t sleep well last night.”

  “But why isn’t he sleeping well? That could mean something, Garret.”

  “Don’t read so much into it.” I kiss her forehead. “He just didn’t sleep well. That’s all.”

  I don’t know what Jade will do if Frank ever gets really sick. Last year when he was in intensive care, Jade was a mess. She couldn’t handle seeing him like that. I tried to be there for her, supporting her, helping her get through it, and I think she was glad I was there. It was hard to tell back then. She hid so much of herself that I was always left guessing what she needed from me. She’s better now, but I still have to guess sometimes.

  “Come on.” She leads me to the bed. “Just take a short nap. I know you haven’t been sleeping much the past few nights.”

  Shit. How did she know that?

  “I’ll take a nap, but only if you sleep next to me.”

  She smiles. “I will.”

  We lie on our sides, her back against my chest, and I hold her there, not wanting to ever let go. As hard as I try to shove that conversation with my grandfathe
r out of my head, I keep hearing his words and rage erupts inside me, making my muscles tense up, my jaw clench.

  “That’s a little too tight, Garret,” Jade says. “What is with you and these super tight hugs? You keep doing it. You’ve been doing it since Monday.”

  I relax my arms. “I don’t know. I guess I don’t know my own strength.” I use my cocky tone to steer her off course from any suspicions she has that something’s wrong.

  “You are really strong.” She turns her head back and kisses me, then rubs her neck. “My neck still hurts.”

  “You want me to massage it again?” I laugh as I say it. “If I do, you better keep quiet this time or Frank will think we’re doing something in here.”

  She laughs. “I promise I’ll be quiet this time.”

  “Don’t do it on my account. Feel free to practice your porn lines again. I don’t mind. You’re the one who gets all embarrassed.”

  She reaches back and swats at my leg. “Which is why I’ll be quiet.”

  She leans forward a little and I massage her neck.

  “Garret?”

  “Yes, Jade.”

  “I’m so happy being here. Having a real Thanksgiving with you and Frank and Ryan. And it’s so great seeing them living in a house that’s new and doesn’t have a leaky roof and peeling paint. All of it just makes me happy.”

  I lean over her shoulder and kiss her cheek. “Good. I love seeing you happy.”

  And that’s why I can’t tell her what’s going on. All her happiness would disappear if she knew the truth. Jade hasn’t had much happiness in her life and now that she finally does, I’m not going to take it away from her.

  “Did you mean it when you said we would have lots of guest rooms in our house?” she asks.

  “Of course I did. We’ll need lots of rooms for when people come visit us.”

  She flips to face me, her face beaming. “That’s what I want. I want both our families to come to our house for the holidays and summer barbecues and birthdays.”

  It’s sweet how Jade gets so excited about family. This family thing is all new to her and she loves having them around.

  I kiss her. “We’ll make sure there’s plenty of room for everyone. Maybe we’ll build a guest house. We have all that land. Might as well use it.”

  “That’s a great idea! Let’s do that. Then people can have more privacy if they want it. They can stay with us or in the guest house.”

  “And that’ll keep the main house from getting too big. If we get too many rooms we’ll end up with a house the size of my dad’s and we don’t want that.”

  “We won’t have that many rooms. Your dad’s house is huge.”

  “I don’t know, Jade. Like Ryan said, with the guest rooms and the rooms for our six kids, it’s gonna add up to a lot of rooms.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I was joking about the six kids. I had to get Ryan to shut up.”

  “That’s a relief. I mean, if you want six, that’s fine, but it seems like kind of a lot. And you’d have to be pregnant for almost six years of your life.”

  “Not if I had two sets of triplets.” She laughs. “Can you imagine us trying to take care of triplets?”

  Jade has been bringing up the kid topic a lot more now. She doesn’t say she wants kids, but she’ll at least talk about it or joke about it like she did just now. I think she’s been talking about it with Jennifer, her counselor. Jade usually doesn’t tell me what she talks about at her counseling sessions, but I can guess by the topics she brings up at dinner or when we’re just sitting and talking. And this kid topic has come up several times the past few weeks.

  “Garret? Are you awake?”

  I realize I haven’t responded to the triplets comment. “Yes. The triplet thing threw me. I was trying to figure out how that might work. I think we could handle it, but I don’t think it’s something we should try for. One at a time seems like a better option.”

  Now that she’s more comfortable with the kid topic, I sometimes just pretend we’re planning to have kids and see how she reacts.

  “I don’t think we have any control over it, Garret. We may try for one but end up with three.”

  “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what we get.”

  “Yeah.” She looks directly at me and smiles. Like really smiles.

  Wait. Did she just agree to have kids? What was the ‘yeah’ referring to? That we’ll wait and see if we have kids? Or that we’ll wait and see if we have one or triplets? And what’s with the huge smile?

  “Jade, did you just—”

  She interrupts my words with a kiss. “Just give me a little more time, okay? And then we’ll talk.” She smiles again. “But yeah, I want that.”

  Holy shit, is she serious? I think she just told me she wants to have kids. But she said she needs more time. More time for what? To be 100% sure? From the look on her face, I think she’s already there. Damn. I did not expect that. At all. It’s not like she’s telling me she wants them right away. Neither one of us wants that. But to have her admit to wanting them at all is a huge deal.

  Ever since we got married, I’ve been telling myself I might just have to accept the fact that kids aren’t in our future. Before today, Jade didn’t really act like she wanted them. She’d joke about having them, but she was never serious. But just now, she was serious. She even seemed a little excited about the possibility. Maybe it’s because she’s around family and it makes her think of us having our own family someday. Who knows? But whatever the reason, it made my heart jump a little. Who knew a simple ‘yeah’ could have so much meaning?

  “I love you.” They’re the only words I can come up with after hearing her say that. I’m too shocked to come up with anything else. I hope this isn’t just temporary and that this really is what she wants. Because it’s definitely what I want. I love Jade so damn much and I want to have kids with her. One. Two. Six. Triplets. Doesn’t fucking matter to me. I’ll take whatever she’ll give me.

  “I love you, too.” She flips around and pulls my arm down around her middle. “You need to sleep. Let’s just take a short nap.”

  A few minutes later, she’s asleep. But am I? Hell, no. My body is freaking exhausted but my mind is wide awake, even more so now that Jade’s agreed to have kids. Well, almost agreed. We’ve got this whole future ahead of us. We’re making plans. A new house. Kids. Holidays with the family. And instead of being happy about it, like I should be, I’m scared shitless that it’s nothing more than a dream. A dream that will never come true because of my psychotic, controlling grandfather. I don’t know why he won’t just leave me alone. I don’t know why he’s doing this. What the fuck happened in his life to make him this way?

  A half hour later Jade’s still asleep and I’m still lying here, wide awake. My phone vibrates on the nightstand. I carefully take my arm off Jade and reach over to get it. There’s a text from my dad asking if we made it to Iowa. I text him back that we did. Then I slowly move off the bed.

  “Garret?” Jade turns over and notices I’m gone.

  I lean down and kiss her. “I’m just using the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay.” Her eyes are closed and she curls herself into a ball and goes back to sleep. I stand there a moment and look at her. She’s smiling as she sleeps. She’s so freaking happy right now that she’s smiling in her goddamn sleep. All I ever wanted was to make Jade happy, and now she is, but it’s all going to come crashing down if I don’t fix this shit with my grandfather. Or if my dad doesn’t fix it.

  That’s why I got up. I need to call my dad. I need to know if he has a plan. I go in the bathroom, shut the door, and call him.

  “Dad, what’s going on?” I ask when he picks up. “Did you decide what to do?”

  “Garret, I told you I’d take care of it. I don’t want you involved in this.”

  “I already am involved. So just tell me.”

  “This is between my father and me. I told you that yesterday. I also told you t
o stay out it. And I mean it. Do you understand?” He’s got that threatening tone he always used when I disobeyed him in high school. I can’t stand that tone. I always feel like a kid when he uses it.

  “No. I don’t understand. This isn’t just about you. This has to do with—”

  “I am NOT going to say it again!” His threatening tone is replaced by something darker, more ominous. It doesn’t even sound like him. “Stay the fuck out of it.” He pauses, but I hear him breathing. “Now I’m asking you again. Do you understand?”

  My heart’s pounding in my chest. I notice my hand’s shaking a little. What the hell? My hand never shakes.

  “Garret. Answer me.” He lowers his voice, but it’s still fucking scary. “Do you understand?”

  “Yes. I understand.”

  “When this is over, we’ll talk. Until then, don’t call me.”

  “When is it going to be over?”

  “I will see him tomorrow. We’ll be having a conversation.”

  “You think this is going to be settled in one day?”

  “It will be the start of what could be a very long battle if he doesn’t cooperate.”

  “Why can’t we talk?”

  “Rule number one, Garret. You’ve already broken it several times during this conversation, which is the reason we can’t talk. I can’t answer your questions, and all you have are questions. You haven’t said one thing to me on this phone call that doesn’t relate to your grandfather.”

  “Because this is all I can fucking think about!” I said it too loud. Shit. I hope Jade didn’t wake up.

  “Have a nice Thanksgiving, Garret. Tell Jade to as well.”

  And then he hangs up. Just ends the call. No goodbye. Nothing. I call him right back. I know he said not to, but he pissed me off by hanging up like that. His phone goes straight to voicemail. Great. Now my own father won’t talk to me. I slip my phone in my pocket and go back to the bedroom and lie next to Jade.

  “Who were you talking to?” she whispers. Her eyes are closed so I thought she was asleep.

  “My dad. I just wanted to wish him a happy Thanksgiving.”

  “Why? Aren’t you calling him tomorrow?”