Always Us (The Jade Series #8)

by Everhart, Allie

  “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” I peruse the menu. “He’s so good he probably got a better job, like in Vegas or something.”

  “I’m getting the burrito platter.” Garret sets his menu down. “What are you getting?”

  “Nachos.” I set my menu on top of his.

  “Why don’t we get that as an appetizer and you can get something else?”

  “Nope. I just want nachos. And I want the whole platter all for myself.”

  “You’re going to eat the whole thing?” He smiles. “Have you seen how big the nacho platter is here?”

  “No. But I can eat it.”

  “I bet you can’t finish it.”

  “I bet I can.” I lean back, folding my arms over my chest.

  “So are we really betting here?”

  I shrug. “We can, but I already know I’m going to win.”

  “Pretty sure of yourself, huh?” He cocks his head. “What do you wanna bet?”

  “Hmm. Okay, I got it. If I eat the whole platter, which I will, you owe me a massage every day for a week.”

  “Jade, I’d do that anyway if you asked me to.”

  “Doesn’t matter. That’s the deal. Now what’s yours?”

  “If you can’t finish it, you have to wear the cheerleader costume every day for a week.”

  I smile and hold my hand out. “Deal.”

  We shake on it. I wouldn’t mind losing the bet. I like the cheerleader costume and I love the effect it has on Garret.

  The waiter appears at our table. “Have you decided, my dos amigos?”

  The way he says ‘dos amigos’ makes me laugh but I try really hard to suppress it.

  “Jade, go ahead.” Garret’s smiling at me. He knows I can’t speak when I’m all giggly like this.

  “What would you like, Seniorita?” The waiter grins really wide and I see that there’s a shiny gold cap on his front tooth. His dental work should not be funny, but to me it is. What is wrong with me? A laugh sneaks out but I pretend it’s a cough.

  “She’ll have the nachos,” Garret says, handing him the menus. “And I’ll have the burrito platter.”

  “Gracias.” He walks away.

  “Is there a problem over there?” Garret takes a drink of water.

  “I think they pump laughing gas into this place. I swear they do. There’s something about this place that—” I stop as the familiar voice rings out from the side of the room. He’s back. And still off tune.

  “Jade, look who’s here,” Garret says.

  My laughter bursts out again. There’s no stopping it now.

  “He’s coming over.” Garret’s smiling. He’s loving every minute of this.

  “Make him go away.” My stomach hurts I’m laughing so hard. “I’m begging you, Garret. Wave him away.”

  Instead, he waves the guy over to us. The singer nods and smiles. When he gets to the table, I clamp my mouth shut and try to smile. About a minute later, his song ends, but he remains there, looking at us.

  “I know you two.” He points at Garret and me. “You come here last year. I sing at your wedding.”

  “Actually, we already got married,” Garret says. “But the wedding was in California. We didn’t think you’d want to travel that far.”

  “Si.” He nods. “You have babies?”

  “No,” Garret says. “No babies.”

  “I sing for you. Very romantic.” He grins. “You have babies. Lots of babies.”

  Garret just smiles but, of course, I’m laughing. I try to suppress it, but once the guy starts singing, I lose it. He’s so loud and so off key. I cover my mouth, pretending to cough. Garret holds my hand and gazes at me, like he did last year when this guy sang to us. The song ends just as four people are seated at the table across from ours. Thankfully, the singer goes over to them.

  “He needs to come back,” Garret says. “I have to give him a tip.”

  “No. Please don’t tell him to come back.”

  “The guy is giving us babies, Jade. He deserves a tip for that.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think so.” My laughter goes away as I think about the baby comment. I’ve finally come to a decision about that and I need to talk to Garret about it when we get back.

  Garret squeezes my hand. “What happened?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You stopped laughing and the guy’s still singing.”

  “I must be getting used to it now.”

  More customers arrive and the mariachi band greets them as they’re seated. The singer doesn’t come over to our table again, but he’s so loud his voice fills the entire restaurant.

  Our food arrives and Garret’s right. The nacho platter is huge.

  “Dig in,” he says, eyeing the platter.

  Ten minutes later I’m stuffed, but half a platter of nachos remains.

  “You done?” A smug smile crosses Garret’s face.

  I don’t answer. I just push the platter away.

  “Looks like I’ll be having sex with a cheerleader when I get home.”

  “I said I’d wear the costume. Sex wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “It’s implied.” He gets some money out and sets it on the check.

  “Actually, it’s not, but I’ll throw it in as a bonus.”

  “You ready to go? Or would you like to stay and listen to the music?”

  “I think I’ve heard enough. Let’s go.”

  As we walk out, Garret hands some money to our waiter, telling him to give it to the singer.

  When we get outside, Garret draws me into him and kisses me. It’s a sweet, gentle kiss that reminds me of the kiss we had in this same parking lot last year.

  “Are you recreating our kiss?” I ask him.

  “I am. Was it the same?”

  “It was better. Because now I love you.”

  He pulls back. “You didn’t love me back then?”

  “I’d just met you.”

  “We’d been going out for months.” His cocky grin appears. “You totally loved me.”

  I roll my eyes. “I don’t think so.”

  “Yeah, because you know so.”

  “Fine.” My lips turn up. “Maybe I loved you. Just a little.”

  “And when that mariachi singer said he’d sing at our wedding, it made you think of us getting married. And you liked the idea of that.”

  “Now you’re just being ridiculous. I did not think about our wedding. And technically, it was only our first date. That’s way too soon to think about marriage.”

  “You thought about it,” he says confidently as he walks me to the car.

  Damn, how did he know that? Was I that obvious?

  He stops and gives me another kiss, then says, “Jade.” He points up at the sky. Tiny snowflakes are falling. “Must be something about this restaurant. It snows whenever we come here.”

  “It’s beautiful.” I watch it fall as he opens my door.

  As we’re driving back, the snow gets heavier, covering the road and the trees.

  “We should go for a walk in the woods behind your house. I love seeing the white snow on the dark trees.”

  Garret glances over at me, smiling. “Are you trying to recreate Thanksgiving last year?”

  “I guess I am. Which means you have to kiss me again in the snow.”

  “Kissing you is not something I have to do. I want to kiss you. And if we’re recreating that weekend, we’ll be doing more than kissing.”

  “Garret, you know I don’t like doing it in your dad’s house.”

  He laughs. “And yet we always do.”

  “Well, not this time. Your grandmother is staying two bedrooms down from yours. She might hear something.”

  “Then you’ll have to tone down your moaning. And be a little quieter when you yell out my name.”

  I swat his arm. “I do not moan. And I do not yell out your name.”

  “You do both those things, Jade.” He smiles at me. “I guess you’re just so consumed with passion you d
on’t even realize the sounds you’re making.”

  It’s embarrassing, but true. I get so caught up in the moment, I don’t know what’s coming out of my mouth. And I do get kind of loud.

  “That’s just all the more reason not to do it,” I tell him.

  We’re back now and Garret parks in front of the house. He comes around the car and takes my hand and walks to the door, opening it for me. The foyer is empty and there’s nobody in the living room.

  “Where is everyone?” I ask him. “You think they’re having lunch?”

  “Probably.” He slides my coat off, then hangs it on the coat rack, along with his own.

  “I thought we were going outside. I want to walk through the woods.”

  “Later.” He takes my hand and leads me up the stairs and we go down the hall to his room. He kisses me as he shuts the door and locks it without looking.

  “If we’re recreating our first time together,” I say, walking backward to the bed, “it should be the middle of the night. And I should be sneaking in here.”

  “I didn’t say we were recreating our first time.” He eases me on the bed and hovers over me. “I said I wanted to do what we did that weekend, which was have sex.”

  “We did it a lot that weekend, didn’t we?” I smile as he inches my sweater up, leaving soft kisses along my stomach.

  He doesn’t answer. He’s too busy undressing me, kissing me, touching me. He gets up and takes his shirt off. I reach out for him and he smiles.

  “You miss me?”

  “Yeah, so hurry up.”

  He gets the rest of himself naked, then hovers over me again, his mouth dipping down to my breast.

  I moan a little too loud, then whisper, “Sorry.”

  “Nobody heard you, Jade.” He kisses his way over to my other breast. “Except me. And I love that sound so do it again.”

  “No. I can’t. I’ll be quiet now.”

  I swear he takes that as a challenge because he teases my breast with his tongue in a way he knows gets me all fired up inside. I moan even louder.

  He covers my mouth with his lips, then says, “Thought you weren’t going to do that again.”

  “I wasn’t, but then you do things to me that make me forget where I am.”

  “Which I will do again right now.” His cocky smile appears as he thrusts inside me.

  I suck in a breath, then smile. “Forget it. I can’t be quiet.”

  Although it’s not like I don’t try. It’s just that Garret’s really good at this and sometimes being quiet is not an option. When we reach the point where I tend to yell, he kisses me before I can, and keeps his lips just over mine until my body comes down from its high. And it was a definite high. I’m glad we skipped the walk in the woods. This was way more fun.

  “Not exactly like our first time, huh?” I say as we lie there, still out of breath.

  “Did you want it to be?”

  “No. That time was good. But this time was even better.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  27

  GARRET

  I remember every detail of the first time Jade and I had sex. She came in my room in the middle of the night and crawled into my bed. I assumed she didn’t like being alone in her room and just wanted to sleep next to me. I had no idea she wanted to have sex. I didn’t think she was ready for that. I knew she wasn’t a virgin, but I also knew she’d only done it one time. We hadn’t officially dated that long so I figured she’d want to wait a few more weeks. Or months.

  But that night, she started kissing me and rubbing up against me and finally I just came out and asked her what she was doing. How far she wanted to go. She made it clear she wanted sex, but at first I didn’t believe her. I thought maybe she was kidding around or maybe she was tired and didn’t realize what she was saying. So I asked her again just to be sure and the answer was the same. She was ready.

  As for me? I was more than ready. I’d never waited that long with a girl. Usually I’d do it after a couple dates—a week, max—and I’d had my share of one-night stands. But I didn’t want that with Jade. I didn’t want to rush her. I was willing to wait as long as she wanted, even though it was killing me. She’s so freaking hot. I’d never been that attracted to a girl. I wanted to have sex with Jade from the moment I met her. So all those times we kissed, or did more than kiss? Shit. It wasn’t easy to hold back.

  That first time with her, I tried to take it slow. I wanted her to love every second of it, which meant teasing her, exciting her, getting her ready for me. Then once we moved on to the actual sex part I, again, tried to slow down for her. She felt so freaking good it was nearly impossible, but I had to make sure she was taken care of before I took care of myself. I was determined to make it good for her, or amazing if I did my job right. And I did. She was a very happy girl when I was done. So happy she wanted to do it again later that morning. We did it a lot that weekend.

  “Garret.” Jade kisses my chest. “We should get dressed and spend some time with your family.”

  “Do we have to?” I smooth her hair. “Because I’m kind of liking it right here.”

  “We’re leaving tomorrow. We should go see them.”

  “We’ll be back here in a week for Christmas.”

  She pushes off me. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  “If I go, you have to promise me a shower later.” I pull her back down and kiss her.

  “Definitely.” She rakes her fingers through my hair. “Tonight. After everyone’s asleep.” She gives me a kiss, then gets up and walks over to the window. I watch her, keeping my eyes on her naked ass.

  “It’s still snowing. Let’s go outside.” As she turns around, she pulls her hair up which raises her breasts and flattens her stomach even more.

  “We’re not going anywhere if you keep showing off your body like that.” My eyes trail over her curves.

  “Then I better cover up.” She comes over and picks her clothes up and starts dressing.

  There’s a faint knock on the door. “Garret?”

  I bolt from the bed. “It’s Lilly.” I say it quietly to Jade as I gather my clothes from the floor. Jade already has her jeans and sweater back on. “You talk to her. I’ll go in the bathroom and get dressed.”

  When I’m in the bathroom, I hear Jade talking. “Garret’s in the bathroom. He’ll be out soon. Did you see the snow?”

  “Daddy said it’s going to be a blizzard.”

  “We should go sledding!” Jade sounds so excited. I love that about her. She has all this money now and she still gets excited about stuff like snow.

  “Really?” Lilly sounds as excited as Jade. “Will Garret go?”

  “I’ll go,” I say, coming out of the bathroom. I have on jeans and a t-shirt. I go to the closet to grab a sweatshirt.

  Lilly follows me. “Can we go right now?”

  “Did you have lunch yet?” I ask her.

  “Daddy and I had grilled cheese.”

  Katherine must not be around. If she was, Lilly wouldn’t have had grilled cheese for lunch. That’s one of those poor people foods Katherine doesn’t allow.

  I pull my gray sweatshirt over my head. “Where’s your mom?”

  Lilly shrugs. “I don’t know. But Daddy’s downstairs.”

  “Where’s Grandma?”

  “She left this morning.”

  Left? As in moved back to her house? My dad said she was staying here for a few days. Did she leave because Jade and I are here? Or did she just want to go home? Either way, she could’ve at least said goodbye.

  “Are we going sledding now?” Lilly asks.

  “Yeah. Let’s go.” I take her hand and we meet Jade by the door.

  “Do you still have the sled?” Jade asks as we walk down the stairs.

  “I’ll have to ask my dad. Why don’t you two go out in the snow and I’ll find the sled and meet you out there.”

  “Yay! We’re going sledding!” Lilly jumps around in circles.

  Jade smiles at her. �
�Let’s get our coats on. We’ll build a snowman while we wait for Garret.”

  They go down the hall toward the back patio. Jade is so great with Lilly. I wish she could see how good she is with kids so she’d stop worrying so much about being a mom. I know it’s different caring for a baby. The constant crying might get to Jade and make her nervous and stressed, but I’d be there to help her out. If the kid’s screaming, I’d take over and let her have a break. I’m more patient with stuff like that than she is.

  I walk into the foyer and see my dad’s office door open. He’s in there working on his laptop.

  He notices me in the doorway. “Come on in. Lilly was looking for you.”

  “Yeah, Jade and I are taking her sledding but I don’t know where the sled is. You didn’t throw it out, did you?”

  “No, it’s in the shed out back where the gardeners keep their supplies.”

  “Good. I thought Katherine might’ve gotten rid of it. Speaking of Katherine, where is she today?”

  He types something, his eyes on his laptop. “She’s staying with her parents this weekend. She left last night.”

  “So what’s going to happen to her? Do you know yet?”

  He types some more, then turns to me. “She won’t be allowed to continue her relationship with Lyndon Tate, the senator she’s been dating. As I mentioned before, he’s slated to be the next vice president, which was very appealing to Katherine. But given her recent actions, she’s no longer allowed to be with him. Being the wife of a vice president is a role that comes with many benefits and Katherine is no longer deserving of those benefits.”

  “Does Tate know he can’t see her anymore?”

  “Yes, but we can’t tell him what she did because he’s not one of us. But given what we’re doing for him in the next election, we basically own him now and he needs to follow orders. He knows this, and he’s agreed to stop seeing her.”

  “What about the divorce? It’s still going to happen, right?”

  “She killed my father, so yes, it’ll be approved. They wouldn’t make me stay with her after what she did. And they don’t want her benefitting from my money.”

  “How do you think Lilly will take the news?”

  “I think she’s already expecting it. She knows her mother and I don’t get along. And I think Lilly will be okay with the fact that her mother isn’t getting custody. Katherine has never been a decent mother.”