Page 151 of Finding Us

“Let’s go do something.” He gets off the bed and holds his hand out.

I take it and let him pull me up. “What do you want to do?”

“Let’s take a drive. We’ll check out the area. See what’s around here. And I’ll get you some ice cream.”

“Why would you get me ice cream?”

“Ice cream makes everything better. You’ll see. You won’t be worried about shit anymore once you have ice cream.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“It’s true.” He leans down and kisses me, cupping his hand around my butt. “And you’re getting too skinny. All that running flattened your ass. I don’t like a flat ass, Jade.”

“My ass is not flat.”

“It will be if you keep running for hours and not eating ice cream.”

I laugh. “Okay, let’s go.”

He holds me in place. “I love you.”

“I know you do.” I smile, then break from his hold and walk off.

“Hey! Don’t you have something to say to me?”

I keep walking. “Not after you told me I had a flat ass!”

I hear him laughing. “I was kidding. I love your ass!”

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll see you in the car.”

CHAPTERFORTY

GARRET

That was a good talk Jade and I had. We needed it. I knew moving here would be an adjustment and I knew Jade would stress about it. And I only made it worse by not telling her what’s been going on with me.

I don’t like hiding stuff from Jade but for whatever reason I keep doing it. I tell myself I do it because I don’t want her to worry, which is true, but not telling her just makes things worse. She senses something’s wrong and ends up worrying even more. I need to be more honest with her and tell her when stuff’s bothering me instead of trying to hide it. It’s something I need to work on. Jade and I both have things we need to work on.

“Look what I found.” I pull into the parking lot of an ice cream shop. It’s not an actual restaurant. It just has a window where you walk up and order. There’s a big wooden board on the side of the building with the menu on it.

“Did you see that menu?” Jade says as we park. “They must have 30 different sundaes on there.”

I get out of the car and go around to open her door but she’s already stepped out.

“Jade, why won’t you just wait for me to get your door?”

“I don’t need you to.” She kicks the door shut with her foot.

I grab her around the waist. “I want to. So let me be a gentleman and open your door.”

“I don’t like waiting. I’m very impatient.” She presses herself into me and gives me a long kiss that causes movement in my shorts.

“Jade. Not here.”

“What?” She laughs. “It was just a kiss.”

“You know what your kisses do to me.” I press back into her.

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