Page 118 of Finding Us

“Yeah, I know. A lot can happen in a year.”

“Just think.” She lies down on the beach towel, staring up at the umbrella. “Next summer I’ll probably be an aunt.”

“An aunt? Your sisters don’t even have boyfriends.”

She jabs my arm. “I’m talking aboutyou. You’ll have a baby and since we’re like sisters I’ll be an aunt.”

“Sorry, Harper, but Garret and I are not going to have a baby next summer.”

“So when do you think you’ll have one? Because I really want to be an aunt.”

“I don’t know. But not anytime soon.” I haven’t mentioned my fear of motherhood to Harper because she doesn’t know about my issues with my mom. And I don’t want to get into it with her. It was hard enough telling Garret all that stuff.

“But when you have kids, I get to be their aunt, right?”

I smile at her. “Absolutely.”

She flips on her side, propped up on her arm. “This summer went way too fast, Jade.”

I turn to face her. “I know. I can’t believe you’re leaving tomorrow. It seems like we just got here.”

“We’ll still be friends, right?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t we be?”

She gives me a look that tells me she’s just as worried as I am about our friendship. It’s hard to keep a friendship going when you live so far away.

“We’ll call each other. We’ll text. We’ll still be friends, Harper. I promise.”

She nods, but I can tell she’s not convinced. I’m not either.

She stands up, brushing the sand off her legs. “We should get ready for dinner. And I need to finish packing.”

Tonight we’re having Garret’s early birthday dinner. But it’s also a farewell to Harper and Sean dinner. So it’s both happy and sad, but mostly sad. I’m really going to miss Harper.

We go to a restaurant that’s right on the beach and eat outside on the patio. They have a small band out there playing current pop songs, but the singer is like 70 years old, maybe even older. He’s wearing cut-off jean shorts and a tie-dye t-shirt and sandals and has really long white hair. And he gyrates his hips when he sings. It’s hilarious. It’s even funnier than the mariachi guy back in Connecticut.

“Jade, don’t laugh at him,” Garret scolds, just like he did when I laughed at the mariachi guy.

“I don’t think he cares,” Sean says. He and Harper are also laughing. “I’m pretty sure that guy’s high.”

The old guy starts rapping. Garret sees me to trying to hold my laughter in.

He smiles. “Okay. Now you can laugh. I’ll give the guy a break on the singing, but the rapping? This is pretty bad.”

When the song ends, Harper nudges me. “Go ask him if he’ll sing Happy Birthday to Garret.”

“No, that’s okay,” Garret says. “It’s not my real birthday.”

“Maybe he’ll do a birthday rap.” I get up. “I’m gonna go ask.”

“Jade, don’t.” Garret reaches for my hand, but I slip past his chair and walk up to the singer.

“Would you mind singing Happy Birthday to my husband?” I ask the guy. “He’s right over there.” I point at Garret.

The guy gives me this big, goofy smile and his eyes look half asleep. Maybe heishigh. “What’s your name sweetheart?”’

“Jade. And my husband is Garret. So will you sing it?”

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