Page 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

As we drive to Garret’s house, I mentally prepare myself to see Katherine. I’ve come up with all kinds of good comebacks if she tries to insult me or tell me I can’t see Lilly.

When we get there we walk up to the front door, and just as Garret’s about to open it, Katherine does. She’s wearing a long black coat, her purse hung over her shoulder and a set of keys in her hand.

“Oh, goody, Pearce,” she says, keeping her eyes on me. “Look who’s back. Your little charity case.” She darts past me, purposely bumping my shoulder as she goes by.

Wow. She’s not even trying to hide how much she hates me. At least before she tried to fake being nice.

“What the hell, Katherine?” Garret reaches for her arm but she’s too quick. She’s already in the circular driveway headed to her silver Mercedes. The rain has stopped but the wind has picked up, blowing her long blond hair around.

“Katherine, get back here!” Mr. Kensington steps between Garret and me to the driveway. “You need to take Lilly. You know she can’t be here.”

“She’s your daughter, too,” Katherine says as she gets in the car. “You really should spend more time with her. I’m sure she’d love to attend your little meeting.”

Mr. Kensington’s face is red with anger. “When are you coming back?”

She doesn’t answer. Instead, she slams the car door in his face, starts the engine, and speeds off down the long driveway.

He storms past us into the house. “Garret, I need you to watch Lilly. Keep her quiet and up in her room.”

We follow him into the house.

“Dad, what’s going on?”

“Your stepmother’s out of control. That’s what’s going on.” He goes in his office and shuffles through a stack of papers. Garret goes in there, too. I wait outside the office door, not sure if I should be listening in on this.

“What are you two fighting about?” Garret asks him.

Mr. Kensington lets out an angry laugh. “What are we NOT fighting about?” He sits down at this desk and types something into his computer.

Garret glances back at me, then back at his dad. “Why do you need us to watch Lilly? Are you going somewhere?”

“No, but some very important people are coming over any minute now and I can’t have a 6-year-old girl running around while I’m trying to do business.”

“Who’s coming over? Clients from work?”

Mr. Kensington looks up at Garret and notices me standing just outside his office door. “It’s not work. It’s some other business I need to take care of. Now please just deal with Lilly, will you?”

“Yeah. Sure. How long do you need us to stay?”

“It shouldn’t take longer than a couple hours. I’ll come up and get you after they leave.” He checks his watch, then gets up and stands in front of Garret. “They’ll be here soon. You need to go upstairs.”

“Um, yeah. Okay.” Garret walks out and we both head to the staircase.

“Oh, and welcome back you two,” Mr. Kensington says from his office doorway. “It’s good you stopped by.” He shuts the door.

“That was weird,” I whisper to Garret as we’re walking up the stairs.

“Welcome to my family. There’s always plenty of drama to keep you entertained.”

When we get to Lilly’s room, I go in first. As soon as she sees me she bursts up from her little chair and runs over to me.

“Jade!” She holds her arms up like I’m supposed to pick her up. Why not? She can’t weigh that much. I pick her up and her little legs and arms wrap around me. “You came to play with me! I knew you would. I missed you.”

“Hey, what about me?” Garret acts offended. “You didn’t miss me, too?”

She smiles and reaches her arms out to him. He takes her from me. “I missed you, Garret.” She buries her head in his shoulder.

It’s so cute to see them together. He’s really good with her. He’ll make a great dad someday. What am I saying? I don’t want kids! If he wants kids he’ll have to marry someone else.

“Mom and Dad were yelling.” Lilly’s voice goes from happy to sad. “They were fighting. Are they gonna get a divorce?”

How does she know about divorce at that age? Do they talk about it with her? Maybe she heard about it on TV.

“Sometimes moms and dads fight,” Garret tells her. “It doesn’t mean they’re getting divorced.”

She lifts her head. “But if they do, will you still be my big brother?”

He smiles. “Yes. I’ll always be your big brother.” He sets her down. “Let’s watch a movie, okay? You can pick out one of your cartoons.”

She shakes her head. “Tea first. Then a movie.”

I look at Garret, smiling from ear to ear. I’ve been dying to see him attend one of these tea parties and now I’ll finally witness it.

“Come on, Lilly,” he says, trying to get out of it. “We do the tea party thing all the time. Let’s play a game instead.”

“Please?” She gives him her sad face and tilts her head.

Garret lets out a long sigh and I can’t help but laugh.

“This never leaves this room,” he says as he walks past me to the tiny white table set with little pink tea cups and pretend cupcakes. It makes me laugh even more.

After the tea party, Garret helps Lilly get a movie going while I go to the bathroom. As I’m heading down the hallway, I hear Garret’s dad talking downstairs.

“Don’t worry about Iowa. It’s too late to get votes there now. You don’t need to win that state anyway. You need to focus on New Hampshire. My guys have everything set up. You just need to smile and read the teleprompter.”

“My numbers are way down in New Hampshire. A smile and some scripted speech isn’t going to get me where I need to be. I told them that at the meeting last night.”

“Let us worry about getting you there. The convention is still months away. We have plenty of time to make you the nominee. The public hated Sinclair in the beginning and he ended up the frontrunner.”

“Sure, but he had—”

“Stop comparing yourself to other candidates. Just do as we say and you’ll have nothing to worry about. We’ve got this thing locked away. You’re the one, Kent. You’re the next President of the United States.”

I haven’t moved from my spot in the hallway. I hear footsteps on the tile floor in the foyer and glance down the stairwell to get a glimpse of the man Mr. Kensington is talking to. I’ve seen the guy on TV. He’s one of the remaining six candidates trying to win the nomination for president. What is he doing here? Does Garret’s dad know all of these guys? First Sinclair, and now this guy? Kent Gleason. That’s his name. Mr. Kensington seems awfully sure this guy is going to win. Not just the nomination. But the presidency.

He opens the front door and four men in suits walk in. One man is holding a laptop.

“How did the video turn out?” Mr. Kensington asks him.

“Excellent. You’d think Kent was really there. You gotta love CGI. Makes things so much easier.”

“Let’s go in my office and you can show us.” He leads the way and the men all follow him into the office.

I hurry down to the bathroom. When I come back out I see Garret walking down the hall. “There you are.”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” I say. “Did you start the movie?”

“No. Lilly insisted we wait for you.”

We only get halfway through the movie when Mr. Kensington comes in. “If you two need to go, I can watch Lilly now.”

“No, Daddy,” Lilly says. “Don’t make them leave.” She’s wedged between Garret and me on her tiny twin bed.

“I think we can stay.” Garret looks at me for confirmation.

“We have to. We can’t leave in the middle of the movie.”

“You’re welcome to stay for dinner as well.” Mr. Kensington notices our hesitation. “Katherine won’t be joining us.”

“I do miss Charles’ cooking,” I say to Garret.

“Then I guess we’re staying for dinner.”

“Yay!” Lilly gets up and jumps on the bed, nearly knocking Garret and me off.

Mr. Kensington seems pleased as well. “I’ll tell Charles. And Garret, I need to speak with you downstairs.”

Garret gets up and follows him out. Lilly scoots up next to me and holds my hand. The poor girl is in serious need of some friends and a normal mother. It’s odd how much that sounds like me at her age and yet my environment was so much different than hers. Rich or poor, I guess you can have the same problems.

* * *

When Garret and I leave later that night, Katherine still hasn’t returned. The second we’re in the car, I start quizzing him.

“What’s the deal with Katherine? Did your dad tell you anything?”

“Yeah. They’re separating.” He almost seems sad about it.

“So she’s moving out?”

“They haven’t decided the living arrangements yet. She might still live in the house for Lilly’s sake. It’s a big enough house. They could live there together and not even see each other.”

“Why aren’t you happy about this? You hate Katherine.”

“Because I feel bad for Lilly. I told her they weren’t divorcing.”

“Separating isn’t divorcing.”

“Yeah, but it’s the first step.”

“How’s your dad handling this? Or did he ask for the separation?”

“I don’t know who asked for it. The way the two of them fight all the time they probably should divorce, but it’s going to be hard on Lilly.”

“So is that all your dad said?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Well, when I was on my way to the bathroom, I overheard your dad talking to Kent Gleason.”

“The guy trying to win the nomination?”

“Yeah. We just saw him on TV. He was in Des Moines last week while we were there. Is your dad friends with him?”

“Not that I know of. But my dad latches onto politicians all the time. He throws money at them, hoping they’ll do stuff that benefits our company if they ever get into office.”

“Your dad acted like the guy was actually going to win. He told him it was a done deal. That Gleason would be president.”

Garret shrugs. “He’s just boosting the guy’s ego. That’s all.”

“So you don’t think it’s odd that he was involved with Sinclair and now Gleason?”

“No. He does this every four years with presidential candidates. Now that Sinclair’s gone, he had to find someone else to throw money at. He must think Gleason has the best chance of winning.”

“Have any of the guys your dad gave money to actually become president?”

“Yeah. Most of them. My dad seems to be able to pick the winners.”

“Are you saying you’ve met the President?”

“Several of them. Last summer when I was interning in DC, I had dinner at the White House. My dad and grandfather were there, too.” Garret says it like it’s no big deal.

“And the President was there?”

He presses the buttons on the dashboard that control the heat. “Well, yeah, along with some other people. The senator I worked for arranged it. All his interns were invited and then we each got to bring two family members.”

“And you never thought to mention this to me?”

“You said you’re not interested in politics.” Now he’s messing with the vents. “Are you warm enough? This air doesn’t seem very warm.”

“It’s the freaking President! I’m interested in knowing that my boyfriend had dinner with the President!”

He gives up with the vents and turns the heat on high. “The dinner wasn’t that great. You sit there and listen to a boring, old, rich guy with way too much power talk about himself.”

“He’s the President of the United States. You’re not impressed by that?”

“When I was younger I was. But then I learned about all the bribes and backroom deals and I lost faith in the whole system. It’s a joke. I don’t have any respect for those guys. And you shouldn’t either after finding out about Sinclair. That guy could’ve been president, Jade. And he was crazy.”

“He never would’ve been president. He wouldn’t have even gotten the nomination.”

“He was ahead in the polls. It could’ve happened.”

“I can’t believe you met a president. Or more than one.” I turn the heat down because now it’s starting to get too hot.

“Hey.” Garret nudges my arm. “Are you staying over tonight?”

“I always stay over on Saturday.”

“Okay. Just making sure you didn’t change the rules for a new semester.”

And just like that he changes the subject. Like he has nothing else to say about meeting the President of the United States. He starts talking about a movie that just came out, but all I can think about is him eating dinner at the White House. With the President!

Back on campus, it’s total chaos. It’s like everyone arrived in the brief time we were gone. Cars are double parked in front of the dorms. Music is blaring from stereos. Drunk people are stumbling down the sidewalk.

“Kensington!” We get out of the car and see Garret’s friend Decker approaching us. “Hey, Jade. When did you guys get back?”

“Earlier today. How about you?”

“This morning.” He removes a silver flask from his coat and takes a swig of whatever hard liquor it contains. He sees me watching him. “Sorry, Jade. I forgot about the no-alcohol thing.”

“It’s fine.” I don’t really care if he drinks around me. It’s a college campus. Everyone’s drinking around me.

He puts the flask back in his jacket. “There’s a party down on Maple Street if you guys are interested.”

“Not tonight,” Garret says. “You go ahead.”

“Okay, see you later.” He starts to walk away, then stops. “Oh, and just so you know. Blake hasn’t left for California yet so you might see him around. Anyway, welcome back.”

My stomach knots just hearing Blake’s name. I’d put the attempted rape incident out of my mind ever since Frank got sick. I was trying to forget it.

Our luggage is still in the trunk, so Garret grabs the bags and we go to my room.

“Why is that asshole still in town?” Garret sets my suitcase by the closet. “He should be gone by now.”

“Garret, relax. I’m not worried about Blake.” It’s not entirely true. I am worried, but I don’t want to admit it.

“Do you still have the taser and the pepper spray I gave you?”

“Yes. But Blake’s not going to come after me.” I go over to my drawer and grab some pajamas. “Let’s go upstairs and start our sleepover.”

He smiles as he pulls me against him. “What’s with the pajamas? You planning on actually sleeping at this sleepover?”

I smile back. “For part of the time.”

“I think we should institute a pajama-free option this semester.”

“I could go for that. But given how cold your room was earlier, I’m taking the pajamas.”

He leans down and gives me a slow, sexy kiss. “You won’t be cold when I’m finished with you.”

“I’m already feeling a little warm.”

He kisses my neck just under my ear. “Warm’s not good enough. I wanna make you hot. Now let’s go upstairs.”

I don’t tell him, but he’s totally making me hot—so hot I could do him right here and now, but we somehow make it up to his room.

* * *

Later that night as Garret sleeps next to me, I think back to last semester and how I felt when I arrived at Moorhurst. The Saturday before classes began was the first day that Garret and I spent together. I was so mean to him. I never thought I’d date him, so I didn’t see a reason to be nice to him. Now I’m in love with the guy, who of course took it upon himself to try the pajama-free option tonight and sleep naked.

I decide to give it a try myself. I slip my t-shirt off and scoot back into his chest until I feel his warm skin pressed against mine. I gently lift his arm up and place it around me. He wakes up briefly and kisses my shoulder as he notices me there, then falls asleep again.

I love our sleepovers.

I can already tell. This is going to be a great semester.