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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

JADE

After we shower, I search through the dresser trying to remember where I put stuff yesterday. As I find some shorts, Garret comes out of the bathroom, naked of course. The guy has no problem being naked. He’ll walk right past an open window completely naked and not even give it a thought. Me? I never leave the bathroom without a towel around me or a robe or a long t-shirt. And the few times I’m not covered up, I at least make sure the blinds are shut.

“What’s on the agenda today?” Garret joins me at the dresser.

I try not to look at his naked body. If I do, we’ll end up right back in bed. I swear that’s why he does it.

“I have to do some cleaning and then I need to go to the grocery store.”

“Why do you need to clean? The place looks fine.” He opens the top drawer and pulls out his boxers.

“Because your dad’s coming on Thursday and I want our place to look nice.”

“Don’t worry about it. My dad doesn’t care.” Garret puts his boxers on, making him a little less distracting. But then my eyes drift up to his tan, muscular chest.

I go to the walk-in closet, distancing myself from him before I end up dragging him back to the bed.

“Are you kidding? Your dad’s house is spotless. I’m sure he’ll notice if ours isn’t.”

“Jade, I swear to you, my dad doesn’t care. Katherine’s the one who’s obsessed with things being spotless. I mean, yeah, if we had day-old sandwiches sitting out and piles of dirty clothes everywhere, he’d notice. But a little dust or whatever else you’re worried about? He won’t notice.”

“I still think I should clean at least a little.” I put on a lightweight, button-up shirt because it’s supposed to be really hot out again today.

“Then I’ll help.” He meets me in the closet, shirtless but wearing shorts. “What do you need me to do?”

“I can do it. Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t want you cleaning all day. I want us to go do something.” He takes a red t-shirt from the hanger and yanks it over his head and through his arms. “So let’s get this shit done. Tell me what you need.”

“Could you make breakfast?” I adjust his shirt a little so that it sits right on his shoulders.

“I would, but we don’t have any food.”

“Then I guess we should start by going to the grocery store.”

“Let’s go out for breakfast and then we’ll go to the store. We need to resume our pancake breakfast tradition.”

“That’s on Sundays.”

“Yeah, but we need to find a place to go. Come on.” He takes my hand, dragging me out of the closet. “We passed a diner on our way back here last night. They probably have pancakes.”

The diner is off on its own, about a mile from where we dropped the van off last night. It’s an old building that needs to be painted. It reminds me of the truck stop restaurants they have back in Iowa off the interstate.

When we get inside, there’s a sign that says to seat yourself so we find a booth in the back. The place isn’t very crowded but it’s 9 on a weekday so most people are at work.

“They only have buttermilk,” I say, perusing the small menu. “They don’t even have blueberry.”

“You have to lower your pancake standards, Jade. There aren’t many restaurants in this town.” Garret turns my coffee cup upright, then does the same to his own as the waitress approaches.

“Coffee?” She pours it without waiting for an answer.

“Sure,” Garret says, trying not to laugh.

“Ready to order?” The waitress looks hungover, her bleached-blond hair in a messy ponytail, her eyes tired and a little red. She’s probably my age but she looks older.

“We’ll both have the buttermilk pancakes,” Garret says. “And I’ll have a side of scrambled eggs. And bring two orange juice, please.”

She glances at me. “That it?”

“Yes. Thanks.” When she leaves I shut my menu and drop it in the holder at the end of the table. “Do you have to do that?”

“Do what?” Garret puts his menu next to mine.

“Order for me. It’s embarrassing. Did you see how she looked at me?”

“I wasn’t paying attention.” He takes one of the little coffee creamers from the bowl and opens it, then pours it in my coffee.

“Now what are you doing?” I pull my cup back.

“Fixing your coffee.” He reaches over and pours another creamer in. “Three creams, right?”

I glance toward the kitchen and see the waitress staring at us.

“Would you stop? Now she’s watching us.”

“What do you care?” He adds another creamer to my coffee.

“What if she goes to Camsburg? I don’t want her telling people I’m so incompetent I can’t order my own food and add cream to my coffee.”

He smiles. “She won’t say that. She’ll tell people how you have the best husband in the world who takes care of your food and beverage needs.”

I move my coffee out of his reach. “Thanks, but I got it. She’s coming over here again.”

“Do you want regular syrup?” She asks it only to Garret since she now assumes I have no say in the matter. Her jaw moves up and down as she chomps on the wad of pink bubble gum in her mouth.

“Jade, what would you like?” Garret’s grinning at me from across the table.

The girl looks at me and waits, smacking her gum.

“Um, I don’t know what that means. Are there different types of syrup?”

She sighs. “We have regular, light, sugar free, or blueberry. I can bring them all if you can’t decide.”

“Regular is fine. Thanks.”

She takes off again.

I watch as she gets the syrup from behind the counter, then fills two glasses with orange juice. “I don’t think I like this place.”

“Yeah, something’s missing. It doesn’t feel right, does it?”

“It’s definitely not Al’s Pancake House. Maybe we could call Al and see if he could open a restaurant here.”

“I think Al died 20 years ago. That place has been there for like 50 years.”

A few minutes later, the waitress appears with our food, setting the plates down and walking off without saying a word.

“She forgot the orange juice. It’s sitting on the counter back there.” I see the girl take her apron off and walk out a side door. “And now she’s on break. Or maybe she left.”

Garret shakes his head. “I’ll get it.” He comes back with our juice. “So I guess we won’t be coming here again.”

“The pancakes are really bad,” I say as I try them. “They’re almost as bad as the ones in the dining hall.”

He takes a bite. “These are worse. They aren’t even edible.” He shoves his plate aside. “Let’s just go.”

“What about breakfast?” I take a drink of the juice.

“We’ll go to the store and make our own pancakes. A mix would be better than this.”

As he gets his wallet out, a man stops by our table.

“Garret, I didn’t know you’d be moving here this early.” The man is tall and thin with dark brown hair, wearing a navy track suit. The jacket has the Camsburg College logo on it.

Garret looks up. “Hey. Yeah, we got here yesterday.”

“How’d the move go?”

“It was fine.” Garret drops some money on the table. “This is my wife, Jade. I don’t think you met her when we were here in May.”

Wow, that sounded weird. My wife, Jade. I think that’s the first time he’s introduced me as his wife. I like it, but it’s still weird.

The guy looks at me. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. Who are you again?”

He laughs. “I’m Keith Altman, the swim coach at Camsburg. I guess your husband hasn’t mentioned me.”

Again, the husband term sounds strange. Since getting married, Garret and I haven’t been around anyone besides Sean and Harper so the husband and wife terms haven’t really been used.

I look at Garret. “Um, no. He hasn’t mentioned you.”

“I did,” Garret says. “I just called him ‘coach.’ I never said his name.”

“Congratulations on the marriage.” Keith smiles at both of us. “How was the wedding? Did the weather cooperate?”

“Yeah, it was great,” Garret answers.

“Good. Well, I didn’t mean to interrupt your breakfast. I just wanted to come over and see if we could set up a time to meet over at the pool. I’d like to watch you swim and see if we can get you on the team this fall.”

Garret hesitates, then says, “Yeah, sounds good. I’ll give you a call.”

“Can we just set a time? Are you free tomorrow? It wouldn’t take long.”

“I don’t know.” Garret looks at me. “I think we’re busy tomorrow. We’re going to the bookstore and then my dad’s coming into town Thursday so—”

“That’s great. I’d love to meet him. I always like to meet the parents and explain how the season runs. See if they have any questions.”

“My dad doesn’t have much time so that probably won’t work.” Garret acts like he’s annoyed. I don’t know why. Keith seems like a nice guy.

“Garret, you can go to the pool tomorrow,” I tell him. “We’ll just go to the bookstore after you swim.”

Now Garret seems annoyed with me . He’s giving me this look like I shouldn’t be butting in. But I didn’t know I was . I was just trying to be helpful.

He turns to Keith and forces out a smile. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe around 11?”

“Yes, that’s perfect. I’m looking forward to watching you swim. I think you’ll be a great addition to the team. See you then.”

He leaves and Garret quickly exits the booth.

I follow him to the car. “What’s going on with you? You don’t want to swim tomorrow?”

“No. I don’t. I’m not ready to. I haven’t even practiced.” He gets in the car, closing the door a little too hard.

“You swam in the ocean all summer. You’re in great shape.”

“I didn’t swim. I surfed.” He backs the car up, then stops. “Put your seatbelt on.” He waits until it’s on, then continues backing out of the parking space.

“I saw you swim in the ocean at least a few times.”

“It’s not the same as swimming in a pool. I need to practice before I swim for that guy. And now I can’t. I’m gonna suck tomorrow and he won’t want me on the team.”

“Are you mad at me?”

He sighs. “Yeah, kind of. But I’ll get over it.”

“Sorry. I didn’t know you weren’t ready to try out.”

“Just forget it. I need to find a grocery store. Do you remember seeing one around here?” He picks up his phone and hands it to me. “See if you can find one.”

“Garret, why won’t you talk to me about this?”

“There’s nothing to talk about. Just find a store, okay?”

He’s mad and I can’t figure out why. He loves swimming and I know he wants to be on the team so what’s the deal? He’s in better shape now than he was last year. And even though he hasn’t been swimming in a pool all summer, it’s not like he forgot how to swim.

He turns down a road and off to the right is a large grocery store. We stop and go inside.

As we’re shopping, I notice that Garret’s in a total daze. He usually takes the lead in the store but today he’s straggling behind.

“Do you want to pick out some meat?” I ask him as we stand in front of the meat case. He always picks it out. I know nothing about cuts of meat and I have no interest to learn. I don’t like handling raw meat or cooking it. Seeing the bloody juice in the package makes me not want to eat it. I also don’t like touching raw chicken. The slippery texture and the bones make me ill, which is why Garret always cooks it for me.

“Garret? Are you going to get anything?”

“Yeah.” He tosses some packages in the cart. I don’t think he even knows what he’s putting in there.

It ends up being a short shopping trip. It should’ve been a long trip because we have no food at the house, but I didn’t feel like shopping when Garret’s acting so out of it.

When we get home, I put the groceries away while Garret disappears in the bedroom. He comes out wearing his workout shorts and a t-shirt.

“I’m going to the gym on campus.”

“Right now? I thought we were having breakfast.”

“I’m not really hungry. You want me to make you something?”

“No. I’ll just have cereal.” I go over to him. “Are you going to the pool?”

“It’s not open but the gym is. I just went online and checked their hours.”

“We don’t have our student IDs yet. How are you going to get in?”

“You just have to show a driver’s license and they’ll look you up in the computer. At least that’s what their website said.”

“I’ll go with you. Let me change quick.”

“Jade, you hate the gym. Just stay here.”

I stare at him, trying to read his face. “Why are you acting so weird?”

“I’m not.” He sits on the arm of the couch and puts on his gym shoes. “I just feel like I need to lift some weights. Maybe do some cardio.”

“Okay.” I decide not to push the issue. Maybe he’ll be back to normal after he works out. “When will you be back?”

“I don’t know. I’ll call you.”

“You said you wanted to spend the day together. You don’t want to now?”

He walks up and kisses me. “I’ll be back around lunch. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

He takes his keys from the counter and leaves. I guess he just needs some time alone to deal with whatever’s bothering him. He’ll talk to me about it when he’s ready to. At least I hope he will.