Page 155 of Finding Us

I smile. “I’m not sad. I’m good.” My phone rings. It’s my dad. “Hey, Dad. You still coming tomorrow?”

“Yes, I’ll be there around 4. Does that work?”

“Sounds good.”

“Pick a place for dinner. It’s your belated birthday dinner so it’s on me. Are there any good restaurants around there?”

“No, not really. Shitty diners. Fast food.”

“Is there someplace nicer that’s near there?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to check.”

“Well, find a place. Wherever you want to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Dad.”

I hang up just as Jade returns from tossing out the bowl of liquid ice cream. She joins me on the blanket. “We should probably go to the grocery store. We didn’t buy much last time and now we’re having a guest. We need to stock the fridge. What are your dad’s favorite foods?”

“We don’t have to get him anything. He’s only here a couple days and we’ll be going out to eat. I doubt he’ll eat anything at our place.”

“We should still have stuff for him, just in case.”

“Why are you doing all this for my dad? First you want to clean the house and now you want to get his favorite foods? You weren’t this way when he came to our place for the wedding.”

“We’re married now. It’s different.”

“How is it different?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s not.”

Jade’s getting nervous about my dad’s visit. She really wants to impress him, which is sweet, but totally unnecessary. He’s already impressed by her. And after everything we’ve been through the past year, he sees her as his daughter. He’s almost as protective of her as I am.

Jade has come to really like my dad, which is shocking given how he treated her last year. But the past few months, she’s seen him step up and be a real father to me, and that’s when she really started to like him. Then at the wedding, he took her aside and talked to her for several minutes. I don’t know what he said to her, but after that, she liked him even more. She even talks to him on the phone when he calls. Sometimes she talks to him longer than I do.

“My dad likes you, Jade. You don’t have to try to impress him. He’s already impressed by you. You took his irresponsible drunk son and turned him into a respectable mature man.” I smile. “I am respectable and mature, right?”

“Sometimes.” She laughs. “Not always.”

“Either way. He likes you, so stop stressing about his visit tomorrow. By the way, he wants us to find a restaurant for dinner. Remind me to check online later. There’s no place here he’d want to eat at. We’ll have to drive up the coast.”

“Why don’t you ask that football player friend of yours? He knows the area. He probably knows of a place.”

“He’s not my friend. I just met the guy.”

“He seems to want to be your friend.” Jade picks up my phone and hands it to me. “Just call him.”

I scroll down to Kyle’s number. When he answers, I put him on speaker.

“Hey, Kyle. It’s Garret. You busy?”

“Not at all. What’s up? You need directions for the party tonight?”

“No, I just called to see if you knew of any decent restaurants around here. Like a nice dinner place.”

“There’s nothing around here but there’s a seafood place about 30 minutes north.”

Jade scrunches up her face at the mention of seafood, so I ask, “Does the place have more than just seafood?”

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