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CHAPTER FOUR

GARRET

I wasn’t sure how that dinner would go but it went better than I thought it would. I was predicting awkward silence, or worse, that William would want to just talk about his job. Guys like him tend to make their whole lives about work so it’s all they have to talk about. Shit, the guy runs one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. He must spend every waking moment at the office. I’m sure he works even more than my dad. I know he does, because my dad’s cut his hours significantly the past year. And thank God he did. He was headed for a heart attack if he kept working like that. William’s probably headed for one as well. He looked tired and stressed.

When we get home, Jade calls Grace and tells her about the dinner. They don’t talk long because it’s late on the East Coast and Grace was getting ready to go to bed.

When Jade hangs up, she says, “William called Grace and told her our dinner went well.”

“He already called her, huh?” I pull Jade in for a kiss. “See? You won him over.”

“He didn’t say that.”

“He raced back to his room and called Grace to tell her how much he liked having dinner with you. Plus, he invited you to his house and wants you to go sailing with him. That means you won him over.”

“That’s not what—”

“Don’t argue with me.” I kiss her again, then smile at her. “I know these things.”

“Oh, really? How do you know?”’

“The guy runs a massive international corporation. He works 24/7. So if he’s willing to make time for you, that means he likes you.”

“It means his mother’s making him do it.”

“Once again, you’re wrong, Jade.” I walk off toward the bedroom.

“Hey! I’m never wrong.” She laughs as she says it.

I turn around and she’s right behind me. “You’re always wrong about this kind of stuff.” I hug her, lifting her off the ground. She needs a good hug. It’s been a rough day.

“What stuff?”

“People stuff. You always think people don’t like you and you’re always wrong.” I walk in the bedroom, still holding her. “That’s why it’s good I’m here to set you straight.” I put her down. “I need to go to the pool. I got yelled at today by my physical therapist for not being in the pool enough. So grab whatever you need and let’s go.”

“What? I’m not going.”

“Yeah, you are. I’m not leaving you here alone.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not. So let’s go.”

I don’t want Jade sitting here all alone. If I leave her here, she’ll think about William, overanalyzing every word that came out of his mouth and every expression that crossed his face. Then she’ll be back to thinking he doesn’t like her or she’ll wonder what he does for the organization. I need to get her mind off all that, which is why she’s going with me.

“You’re being kind of bossy.” She says it jokingly as she goes to a stack of books on the floor and picks up her calculus book.

I go over and take it from her. “No studying tonight.”

“But I need to read chapter ten.”

“You already read it. I saw you reading it earlier.”

“Well, I need to re-read it.”

I swear, the girl never takes a break. I thought my laziness would wear off on her by now but it hasn’t at all.

“You can read it again tomorrow. Your brain needs to rest. Now get your swimsuit.”

“You’re making me swim, too?”

“We’re going to the pool. That’s usually what people do there.” I smile at her.

“I’ll bring my suit, but that doesn’t mean I’m swimming.” She takes her swimsuit from the dresser. “I’ll decide when I get there.”

“I just want you in the water.” I grab my gym bag from the closet, then meet her at the door to the bedroom. “I never said you had to swim.”

“Yeah you did.”

‘“I said, in general, people swim when they go to a pool. I didn’t say you had to.”

“Then why would I go in the water?”

I lean down and whisper in her ear, “We can find plenty of other things to do in the water.”

She shivers as I lightly kiss the side of her neck. “Okay, I’ll get in the water.”

“I thought so.” I grab her hand and head out the door.

I can always distract Jade with sex, although I don’t plan to have sex in the pool since there’s a good chance someone will walk in. But I can do plenty of other things to distract her and keep her mind off the earlier events of today.

We arrive at the pool at eight. Nobody’s there, which isn’t unusual for a Monday night. The gym is always empty as well. It was the same way at Moorhurst. People partied over the weekend and were too tired to work out on Monday nights.

“You get in first.” Jade’s standing at the edge of the pool in her black bikini, looking hot as hell. “Tell me if the water’s cold.”

I jump in, splashing water on the tile around her feet. “It always feels cold when you first get in. You’ll get used to it.” I hold my arms out to her. “Come on. Get in.”

“Don’t you want to do your laps first?”

“I’ll do them later. Come on.”

She steps closer and dips her toe in the water. “It’s cold.”

“It’s not that cold. And once you’re in here I promise I’ll warm you up.”

She smiles. That did the trick. I should’ve started with that.

She sits at the edge of the pool, dangling her feet in. “I have to get in gradually.”

“It’s all or nothing, Jade.” I grab her around the waist and pull her in the water, submerging all but her head.

“Hey! I wasn’t ready.” She pretends to be annoyed, but she’s laughing.

I hold her against me and she instantly wraps her legs around my waist. My face is wet and when I kiss her she feels the slickness of my lips and moans.

Jade loves the water. Shower. Pool. If water’s involved, she’s instantly turned on. What are the odds that the girl of my dreams also happens to love making out in the water? Could I get any luckier? Seriously. I have no idea what I did to deserve this. Maybe I was a saint in a prior life.

I slip my tongue in her mouth and back her up against the side of the pool. My hands are currently under her ass, but I move one of them to her breast, still teasing her mouth with my tongue.

She moans again and it echoes in the open room. I hope nobody walks in. It wouldn’t embarrass me if we got caught, but Jade would be totally embarrassed. But right now, she’s too into this to care. She might not even notice if someone walked in.

“Get me wet,” she whispers.

I look at her, surprised. “I’m pretty sure I already did.”

“No.” Her cheeks turn pink. “That’s not what I meant. I want you to dip me in the water. Get my face wet.”

I pull her away from the wall and lower her into the water. When I bring her up, she leans her head back and pushes the water from her eyes.

She starts laughing. “I can’t believe I said that. I wondered why you gave me that look.”

“I’ve never heard you talk dirty like that, so yeah, I was a little shocked. But hey, feel free to do it again. It’s not like I minded.” I back her against the side of the pool and leave kisses along her chest, then up the side of her neck. “You wet enough?”

She smiles, her eyes closed. “Yes.”

I wet my face, then put my lips to hers and gently kiss her a few times. She parts her lips and I take the kiss deeper as she pulls me closer, pressing herself into my swim trunks. She starts moving her hips, rubbing against me.

Damn, if she keeps this up, we might just do it in the pool. I know I said I wouldn’t, but shit, there’s a limit to my self-control and she’s pushing that limit to the absolute max.

My hand’s still under her ass but I move it down a little and slip my finger under her suit and keep going until she gasps.

“Garret,” she whispers, her eyes still closed.

“Yes, Jade.” I keep my lips on hers.

“We shouldn’t do this here.”

“You’re right. We shouldn’t.” I shove my swim trunks down.

“We could get caught.”

“We could.” I yank the string loose on one side of her bikini, moving the fabric aside as I line myself up.

“But we’re doing it anyway?” Her lips draw upward.

“We are.” I’m already inside her when I say it. To hell with self control. This is way more fun. I don’t know why I was even fighting myself over this. I’ve wanted to do this with Jade since that first kiss we had in the pool. I’m glad we didn’t do it then. It would’ve been too soon. But shit, I was really tempted that day. And now I’ve waited a year and here we are, in a pool with nobody around. So what the hell? It’s about damn time.

We’ve barely started and Jade is already coming close. Just kissing her in the pool got her halfway there.

A wife who loves sex and doing it in the water? I’ll say it again. I’m a lucky son of a bitch.

I’m almost there, too. Watching Jade get this turned on always gets me going. And then there’s the fact that we’re doing it in the water and she feels freaking amazing.

I’ve got my hands wrapped around her tight little ass, trying to go slow. I want to keep this going as long as possible, but from the way Jade’s reacting I think it’s going to be quick. And it is. Moments later, she holds onto my shoulders and lets out a really loud sound that echoes in the room. That’s all it takes for me to finish up, then we both take a moment to catch our breath.

“That was so good.” She relaxes her legs down around me.

I lower us into the water, then run my wet lips along her shoulder. “Just good?”

“It was better than good. I’m just too out of it to find the right adjective to describe it.” Her dreamy sex haze fades and she looks at me, her face very serious. “But we still shouldn’t have done it.”

“No, we shouldn’t have.” I try to be serious.

“But we did.” She grins like a little kid who just stole candy.

“Yes, we did.” I kiss her.

“That was naughty of us.”

“Very naughty.” I kiss her again.

“I kind of like being naughty.”

“Yeah, I could tell.”

“Was I too loud?”

“You were kind of loud, but that’s okay. I like loud.”

She smiles at me. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. You want to let me get some laps in now?” I yank my swim trunks up as she fixes her bikini.

“ Let you? You’re the one who lured me in here. It wasn’t my fault.”

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.