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CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

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.”

“You’re being too nice, Dad. Katherine’s a horrible mother. Thank God you’re getting custody. Even though you’re at work all the time, you’re still a better parent than Katherine.”

“Yes, well, I’m not going to be spending so much time at work. I need to establish more normal work hours so I can be here with Lilly in the evenings and weekends.”

“So is Katherine planning to buy a house around here?”

“No. She’s thinking of moving to France for a few months and living with her sister. After that, she might get a place in Manhattan. Or she might stay in France. She hasn’t decided yet.”

“She doesn’t want to see Lilly?”

“She’ll see her. Just not very often. And frankly, I’m glad she won’t be around. I don’t want Lilly turning into Katherine the way Sadie turned into Victoria. By the way, I had no idea Sadie would be here last night.”

“Yeah, that didn’t go well. Sadie found out about Jade.”

“How did that happen?” He leans back in his chair. “Did Jade tell her?”

“No, Sadie overheard Grace calling Jade her granddaughter. Instead of being nice to Jade, Sadie was a total bitch. She called Jade’s mom a whore. It was bad.”

“How much of the story does Sadie know?”

“She knows about the rape, but she doesn’t know Royce tried to kill Jade. And of course, Sadie didn’t believe us about the rape. She blamed Jade’s mom for the whole thing. Before she left, she told Jade not to tell anyone about this, and that she never wanted to see Jade again. So yeah, Sadie has pretty much become Victoria. Total bitch.”

“I never understood why you dated Sadie.”

“She didn’t used to be that way. Plus, she’s hot. The problem is, she knows it.”

My dad shakes his head. “I’m glad you didn’t end up choosing a woman based solely on looks.”

“Jade’s way hotter than Sadie. So I got lucky. I found someone I love who’s also the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

He nods, smiling. “I felt the same way about your mother.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t ask, but are you still seeing that woman from DC?”

“No. That ended a long time ago. I’m not seeing anyone right now. I’m trying to spend my free time with Lilly, especially now that her mother’s never around.”

My phone rings. It’s Jade.

“Yeah, I’m coming,” I tell her. “The sled is in the gardening shed. I’ll be there soon.” I put my phone away as I stand up. “You want to go sledding, Dad?”

“Sure.” He closes his laptop. “Although I probably won’t fit on the sled.”

“You’re seriously going sledding? I was kidding. I didn’t expect you to say yes.”

“I want to spend time with my children.” He hangs his arm off my shoulder as we walk out of the office. “I haven’t been sledding since you were a kid. Remember when I took you to that hill by our old house? That was a steep hill. I didn’t think you’d go down it.”

“I loved that hill. You could really get some speed going on that thing.”

We get our coats and head out back. Jade and Lilly have a small snowman already built. I check it out while my dad gets the sled. Lilly’s shocked when she sees my dad out there. I’m a little shocked myself. He keeps surprising me with this stuff. I keep thinking that one day he’ll return to the cold, uncaring father he was during my teen years. But instead, he’s becoming more and more like the dad I knew as a kid. And if Katherine’s out of the picture, I think he’ll become even more like that dad.

The four of us go out to the small hill that Jade and I took Lilly sledding on last year, but my dad thinks it’s lame. He’s right. It sucks. So we take the sled and pile into his SUV and head to a real sledding hill. Jade keeps giving me this look like she can’t figure my dad out. I just smile and kiss her and tell her to go with it.

On the way to the sledding hill, my dad stops at the store and gets three more sleds so we each have one. We go to the same park Jade and I went to last year. It has a big, steep hill that’s great for sledding. Lilly’s too scared to go down it by herself so my dad goes with her. It’s good he’s doing this. It helps take her mind off her grandfather being gone. She’s smiling and laughing as the sled hits some bumps on the hill. It reminds me of myself at her age, out sledding with my dad.

We stay there all afternoon, then go home and change into dry clothes. My dad orders pizza and asks Charles to join us for dinner. After Lilly goes to bed, my dad, Jade, Charles, and I play poker at the kitchen table.

I hate to admit it, but I almost forgot the reason why I’m here. We’re all having such a good time that we’re not even thinking about my grandfather. Is that bad? Maybe. But like I told Jade after Sadie left the other night, you can’t choose your relatives, and just because you’re related doesn’t mean you have to like them. And I didn’t like my grandfather. And after I found out what he’d done, and what he planned to do, I hated him.

My dad and I tried for years to please him, hoping that one day he might actually give a shit about us, but he never did. He wanted us to suffer. He didn’t want us to be happy. So I don’t feel guilty about having fun today instead of mourning his death. I don’t think my dad does either.

I don’t bother asking my dad about my grandmother. She knows I’m leaving tomorrow and apparently has no interest in saying goodbye to her grandson. I don’t understand her. Sometimes, she’s warm and caring, like she is with Lilly, and sometimes she’s cold and distant.

“Maybe we could shower in the morning,” Jade says as she closes the door to my room and locks it. We just came upstairs after finishing our last poker game.

“It already is morning.” I unbutton her shirt as I kiss her. Playing poker with her got me turned on. I don’t know if it’s because she’s so competitive, or that she’s good at it, or just the fact that I find it sexy when a girl plays poker. But I’m all fired up and not the least bit tired.

“It’s one-fifteen. We should get to sleep.”

“Or we could take a shower.” I slip her shirt down over her arms, letting it drop to the floor. “Hot steam.” I kiss her neck. “Wet skin. My warm hands all over your body.” She tilts her head to the side and closes her eyes as my lips move up her neck to her ear. “You sure you wanna wait?”

She smiles. “I swear, someday I’ll say no to you. Just not tonight.”

I strip the rest of her and haul her off to the shower.

And then, a half hour later, we finally go to sleep.

In the morning, as we’re packing up to leave, Sean calls. I haven’t talked to him for days. Every time I call him his phone goes straight to voicemail. He’s in LA now and working at his new job.

“Hey, stranger,” I say when I answer.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been working a lot. I wasn’t able to call you back. Sorry.”

“I’m just giving you a hard time. So do you like the job?”

“Yeah, it’s great. Way better than my last one.”

“How’s your new place?”

“Good. It’s small, but it’s clean and in a decent area. I have to work this afternoon, but I wanted to give you a quick call. Let you know I’m still alive.”

He shouldn’t joke about that. With the organization after him, I feel like I do need to check that he’s alive.

“How was the funeral?” he asks. “I mean, not like it was good or anything, but are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. We didn’t go to the funeral. Just a memorial service here at my house. We’re leaving today.”

“Will you guys be around during Christmas?”

“We’ll be back here for a week, but after that we’ll be home. Why?”

“Just wondering if you guys wanted to come to LA for a few days. You could come to the restaurant. I’ll cook you something.”

“Sure, we can do that. We have four weeks off for winter break.”

“What about the photographers? You think they’ll leave you alone?”

I always forget about that. Where we live, nobody bothers me, but if I go to LA, I risk being recognized.

“I’m not worried about it. I’ll disguise myself. Maybe I’ll grow a beard.”

He laughs. “There are so many famous people around here, chances are nobody will notice you. I’ve already seen three movie stars and I’ve only been here a week.”

“Get used it. They’re everywhere out there.”

“I gotta go, but I’ll call you later. Have a safe trip back.”

“Thanks. See ya.”

“Was that Sean?” Jade asks as she zips up the suitcase.

“Yeah. He wants us to go see him in LA over winter break.”

“What about the photographers?”

I shrug. “I’ll wear a hat and won’t shave for a week. Nobody will recognize me.”

“I wonder if Harper will try to see him when she’s home.”

“She better not. She needs to stay away from him.”

Jade sets the suitcase upright. “It’s ready to go.”

As we walk down the stairs, part of me is hoping to see my grandmother there, waiting to say goodbye. But she’s not there. It’s just my dad and Lilly waiting to take Jade and me to the airport.

As we’re on the plane heading home, I keep thinking about how much has changed the past year. Not just with me, but with my family. And with my grandfather gone, and my dad and Katherine getting divorced, things will continue to change. It makes me wonder what life will be like a year from now. A lot can change in a year.