Page 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Friday morning, I wake up excited that Garret is coming back. Then I remember all the other times he’s told me he’d tell his dad to back off and my excitement fades. He keeps saying he won’t listen to his dad and then he does. It’s frustrating. I don’t understand his situation so it’s hard for me to know if he’s really trying that hard. If I didn’t like him so much I would’ve told him to get lost months ago.

I go to morning classes then meet up with Harper for lunch. She’s in a much better mood now. She’s already over Cole and ready to meet someone new.

“You should come out with us tonight,” she says as she peels her orange. She’s such a healthy eater. Every day for lunch she has a huge salad and a couple pieces of fruit. Must be a California thing.

“I’ve told you a thousand times I don’t like parties.” I look down at my lunch, which consists of a plate of French fries and a brownie. I really need to eat better.

“I know, but you need to get out. It’s Friday night. I promise I won’t leave your side. We can just go to the party and talk. Maybe you can help me find a hot guy.”

“Your other friends can help you with that. I’m not good at picking out guys.”

“You picked Garret.” She drops her orange and reaches over the table, putting her hand on my arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up his name like that. I wasn’t even thinking.”

She’s been avoiding any mention of Garret since our talk on Sunday. She’s all worried it will upset me.

“It’s okay. You can say his name. I was just going to tell you that he called last night.”

She looks annoyed. “Finally. After how many days? So what did he say?”

“He’s been in Houston at some meeting for his dad’s company. They left on Sunday.”

“And he couldn’t call and tell you that?”

“He said his dad was with him the whole time and he couldn’t get away. But he’s been calling every night. I just haven’t answered the phone.”

“Why wouldn’t you answer the phone?” She’s peeling her orange again and the strong citrus smell is interfering with the taste of my fries. I take a bite of my brownie, then push my tray away.

“It was late at night. I thought it was a wrong number.”

“Wrong number?” She says it like I’m crazy for even thinking that. I guess it would be odd for someone to keep calling the same wrong number every night. I need to get better at lying about this stuff. “So you finally answered and what did he say?”

“Not much. He just told me about his trip. He’s coming back today. I’ll see him later.”

“If you’re seeing him later then he must’ve worked this thing out with his dad. That’s good. You two can finally date.”

“No. He hasn’t talked to his dad yet. He says he will, but he’s said that before.”

“This sucks, Jade. I hate that his family is treating you like this. And I don’t like the way Garret says he’ll take care of it and doesn’t. I’m gonna have to have a talk with that boy.”

“Harper, no. Don’t you dare! He’d kill me if he knew I told you that stuff. Just let me handle it.”

She sighs as she takes her phone out to check the time. “So you’re going out with him tonight? Is that why you’re refusing to hang out with me?”

“I don’t know what his plans are. But either way, I’m not going to a party.”

“I still think you should go out and do something.” She gets up. “I have a quiz to study for. I’ll see you at dinner?”

“I don’t know yet. Don’t wait around for me. Just go ahead and eat.”

“If Garret blows you off tonight, call me. I’ll skip the party and we’ll do something else.”

She leaves and I finish my brownie before heading to class.

My only class on Friday afternoons is art history. It’s a great class for Fridays because it’s so easy. The tests are basically nothing more than memorizing stuff, which has always been a talent of mine. For today’s class, the professor must’ve needed some time off because she put in a DVD about famous painters and then sat at her desk. My mind wanders to Garret as the DVD plays. I’ve pretty much convinced myself that he won’t show up tonight.

After class, I head back to my room. A cold sleet is falling from the dark sky. Of course I forgot my umbrella and my class is way across campus. By the time I’m back in my room, I’m soaked and freezing. I change into dry clothes and towel off my hair. Then I grab a blanket and lie on my bed trying to get warm and end up falling asleep.

I wake up to knocking sounds. The clock by my bed says it’s 6. I fell asleep at 3. How could I have slept that long?

Assuming it’s Garret, I stop at the mirror quick to see how I look. It’s pretty bad. My sleet-soaked hair has dried into a knotted mess. I quickly pull it into a ponytail as the knocking continues.

When I open the door, Harper is there with some of her tennis team friends.

“Hey, Jade. We’re going to dinner. Do you want to come with us?” Harper looks behind me, trying to sneak a peek inside my room.

“No, I’m not hungry.”

“Is he here?” she whispers.

“Not yet.”

“Jade! Don’t wait around for him.”

“I’m not. I fell asleep after class. I just got up.”

“Just come to dinner with us. You don’t have to eat if you don’t want to.”

I grab a sweatshirt and lock my door and the six of us head to the dining hall. The other girls Harper hangs out with aren’t as friendly as her but they’re still nice. They live in a different dorm but they join us for dinner now and then.

After dinner, we all walk back to Harper’s room. Garret is standing there waiting at her door. I swear he gets better looking every time I see him. Or maybe it’s just because I haven’t seen him for almost a week. He has on dark jeans, a white polo shirt, and a brown leather jacket. He must have been out in the Houston sun because he has a golden brown tan that makes his eyes an even more vibrant shade of blue.

“Jade. There you are.” He smiles and I can almost hear the girls around me sigh. It just confirms that he looks even better than normal. Must be the tan.

“Did you just get here?” I ask, trying to remain cool. I don’t want to be one of those girls who acts overly eager to see a guy, especially when other girls are watching.

“Yeah. I called a few times but you didn’t answer so I figured you were with Harper.”

“Hey, Garret.” Harper doesn’t use her usual friendly tone. She’s clearly still mad at him. “Haven’t seen you around for a while.”

“I had to go out of town.”

“So what are you doing tonight?” she asks him. “Got any big plans?”

I give her a look to butt out but she ignores me.

“I don’t know yet.” He looks at me as if I should have plans for us. I wasn’t even sure he’d show up.

“Well, we should go.” I tug on Garret’s arm. “Have fun tonight.”

They all say goodbye, with Harper’s friends keeping their eyes on Garret the whole time.

“What’s up with her?” he asks as we walk down the hall.

“Nothing. She’s just in a bad mood.” I unlock the door to my room. I’m barely inside and Garret has me in his arms.

“I’ve missed you, Jade.”

He hugs me so tight it makes me laugh. “I’ve missed you, too, but you can let go a little. And maybe take your coat off.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He lets me go, then takes his jacket off and drapes it over my chair.

“It hasn’t even been a week, Garret. You couldn’t have missed me that much.”

He comes back over, putting his arms around me again. He seems taller for some reason. I wonder how tall he is—maybe 6’3, 6’4? His dad’s at least 6’5. Both of them tower over my 5’5 height.

“I don’t how long it’s been. I’ve lost track of the days. But it’s been too damn long.” He leans down to kiss me but I stop him.

“Wait. What happened to our friends-only agreement?” I’m dying to kiss him, but I want to know where we stand first. I need to know if his dad is going to keep driving us apart.

“That agreement is over.” He tries to kiss me again. I feel myself weakening but I somehow manage to hold him back.

“But we haven’t even been on a date yet. You promised me a date, remember?”

He smiles. “You’re right. I did promise you that.”

“So we should probably keep the friend thing going until we at least have a first date.”

“Seriously? You’re killing me here, Jade. It’s just a kiss.”

“Our date is tomorrow. I think you can make it.”

He pulls me closer. “I really don’t think so.”

Crap! Why does he have to be so damn irresistible? Be strong, Jade. It’s just one day. You can wait one day. But I can’t. I seriously can’t.

“Okay, just one kiss. And that’s it until our date. After that you—”

“I got it.” He whispers it against my mouth, then slowly and softly kisses my top lip, then the bottom one, then both. I guess that’s technically one kiss but there’s no way I’m ending this. Not yet. I part my lips and feel his breath mixing with mine as his tongue begins teasing my mouth. My body relaxes and nearly collapses into his. I feel him tighten his arm around me as his other arm travels up my back, his hand supporting my neck as the kiss heats up even more.

One kiss. Yeah, right. Five minutes later and we’re still standing here. I finally pull away and see him smiling, happy with himself for making that one kiss last so long.

I go over and sit on the bed. “We need to talk about stuff, Garret. I need to know what’s going on with you. And with us. We can’t keep doing this thing with your dad. Did you talk to him?”

Garret kicks his shoes off and sits back on the bed. “Do we really have to talk about this now?”

“Yes. I want to know what happened. And I need to know if your dad will be knocking on the door any minute now to yell at us again.”

“You don’t have to worry about him. I took care of it.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. “See? I even got my phone back. And my car’s right outside.”

“So what did you say to him?”

“I told you. I had a talk with him and persuaded him to leave us alone.”

“You mean you blackmailed him. Do I even want to know with what?”

“It doesn’t matter. He won’t bother us anymore, at least for now.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means he’ll try to find a way to blackmail me now so he can control me again.”

“So you’re saying this is only temporary?”

“Just forget it. I don’t want to get into this right now.”

“Well, I do. I want to know what’s going to happen. I hate these surprise visits from your dad. And what about your fake girlfriend? Do you still have to go out with her?”

He lets out a deep sigh. “Katherine, my wicked stepmother, still expects me to attend social functions with Ava. But it’s just some social functions. Once or twice a month. It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s a big deal to me . I don’t like Ava going out with you, acting like she’s your girlfriend. Doesn’t this blackmail you used on your dad work for Katherine, too? Was it something having to do with company secrets?”

“No.” He hesitates. “It’s something he doesn’t want Katherine to know.”

“He cheated,” I say quietly.

“Present tense. Not past,” he says quietly back.

“Oh. Well, you don’t have to listen to Katherine. She’s not your mother.”

“I’ll deal with her next. I’ll figure something out. Now can we just not talk about that right now?”

“So what do you want to do?”

“Come here.” He opens his arms, inviting me in. I lie next to him, snuggling against his chest. “Let’s just do this for a while.”

I love being back in his arms again. And I’m happy that he finally stood up to his dad. But I don’t understand why he’s still agreeing to go to social events with Ava.

Ava lives on my floor. She went to some fancy prep school with Garret. She was on a reality TV show last year so she tends to get photographed a lot. The show was on a cable channel and Frank doesn’t have cable so I never saw it but apparently it was very popular. Anyway Katherine wants Garret to be photographed with Ava, thinking it will boost the social status of the Kensington family.

But Ava acts like she wants to date Garret for real. Only because she doesn’t want him dating me. That’s why she’s been telling his dad that Garret and I have been hanging out together. So to think of her even pretending to be his girlfriend makes me beyond angry.

“What did you do all week?” Garret asks.

“Not much. Just went to class. Did homework. Speaking of that, aren’t you way behind missing a week of classes like that?”

“I got all the assignments online. I’m not that behind. Although I do need to do some homework tomorrow. If you want, we could study together.”

“I don’t think you’d get much work done.”

He laughs. “Yeah, that’s true. Hey, after I’m done studying I have to spend a few hours in the pool. Do you want to come with me? You seemed bored last time, so you don’t have to.”

“I wasn’t bored. I liked it there.” Garret’s on the swim team so he spends a lot of time in the pool. I actually love going there with him. I get to hang out and stare at his almost-naked, extremely hot body. What’s not to love? “Maybe I’ll swim, too.”

“Then let’s go after lunch. The pool is usually empty on Saturday afternoons.”

Last time Garret and I swam together we’d just met. Things started heating up between us to the point that we quickly moved out of the friend category. And then my mother’s voice started getting into my head and ruined everything. It was awful. I started yelling at Garret and pushing him away. I don’t even remember everything that happened. But it changed things between us. Ever since then, he’s been cautious around me, afraid to do anything more than kiss me.

The room gets silent and I know Garret wants to talk about the letter and the threatening phone call. I’m sure he’s waiting for me to bring it up.

“Garret, I haven’t heard anything more from that guy who called, so let’s just forget it ever happened, okay? Just forget I said anything about it.”

He sits up, forcing me to do the same. “That guy isn’t going away. He wouldn’t make that call and then never contact you again.”

“Well, I still have the letter and he hasn’t called back.”

“Where’s the letter? Can I see it?”

“No. Because you’ll take it and get rid of it. And I’m not ready to do that yet.”

“I won’t do anything with it. I just want to see it.”

“I don’t want you to read it. It was only meant for me to read and I don’t want anyone else to. Not even Frank. Besides, I already told you what’s in it.”

“But there were no names mentioned, right? She didn’t say who did that to her?”

“No. That’s why I don’t get why this guy is harassing me about it.”

“I don’t know either. But don’t go trying to dig up more about this, Jade. You’ve already talked to Frank about it. So just let it be. Don’t go looking for more answers.”

“I don’t like being bullied like this. I should be able to find out stuff about my own mother without being threatened.”

“Yes, but that’s not going to happen. Promise me you’ll let this go.”

“Fine. Whatever. But I’m keeping the letter.”

I can tell Garret isn’t happy with my decision but I can’t get rid of it. That letter showed a side of my mom that I’d never seen. She was like a whole different person. A person I would’ve actually liked and maybe even loved. And the letter is the only thing I have to prove that person existed.