Page 198 of Finding Us

“Yeah. I told you that last summer.”

“You haven’t said anything since then so I wasn’t sure if you still planned to.”

“I’m going to. I’m just not sure when. I’m trying to save up for a ring. I’ve been shopping around but shit, they’re expensive. How much did you pay for Jade’s?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Sometimes I forget you’re loaded.”

That’s another reason I like Sean. He treats me like I don’t have money. He doesn’t know I lost my trust fund and he doesn’t know about Jade’s money. But none of that matters. To Sean, I’m just his friend and he doesn’t even think about the money. He’s so different from the fake friends I had back in high school who only hung out with me because of whatever benefits they thought they could get from being friends with a Kensington.

“If you’re not proposing right away, you don’t need to buy a ring yet.”

“I know. I’m just shopping around.”

“Does Harper know you’re proposing? Did you drop any hints?”

“I thought I did, but I don’t know if she picked up on them.”

“You should drop some more hints. Make it clear to her this is what you’re planning. She may not be ready for this. She’s still in college.”

“So are you and Jade. What’s up with you, man? Are you trying to talk me out of this? Or did Jade tell you something? Did Harper say she didn’t want to marry me?”

Shit. Now I have to lie. But I can’t get in the middle of this.

“I just think you might want to make sure you two are on the same page. Maybe she’ll want to wait to get married. Like wait until after graduation.”

“That’s fine. We can just have a long engagement.”

“Are you going to ask Harper’s dad before you propose?”

“I’d like to, but the guy hates me and I really don’t want him telling me I can’t marry his daughter. I don’t know what his problem is. He’s nice to everyone except me. I must’ve done something to piss him off.”

“You didn’t do anything, Sean.”

“Then what the hell’s his problem? Even her mom hates me now. It doesn’t make sense. The only thing I can think of is that they want Harper to marry someone who’s rich. But her parents grew up without money so you’d think they’d be okay with her marrying someone like me.”

“Hollywood people are strange. Don’t worry about them. You don’t need Kiefer’s permission to marry her.”

“I’d still like to ask him. And I know Harper would want me to. She’s really close to her dad and it would mean a lot to her if he gave us his blessing. But I know he’s not going to, which really pisses me off. I don’t care how he treatsme, but I care how he treats Harper and right now he’s hurting her by acting this way. Last week I caught her crying right after she talked to him. She said it wasn’t about us but I know it was. I mean, is that really what her dad wants? To hurt his daughter like that? Would he rather have her dating some rich asshole who treats her like shit?”

“Just give it time. My dad didn’t like Jade when we first started dating. I told you how he kept trying to break us apart. My stepmom still hates her, but she hates everyone, including me. Anyway, the point is my dad eventually came around and now he loves Jade.”

Just as I say it, Jade comes walking out on the deck wearing her bright green bikini and sunglasses. Damn, she’s hot. It causes movement in my shorts, which is awkward when I’m trying to talk to Sean.

“Who loves me?” Jade asks, hearing the tail end of the conversation.

“My dad.” I put the phone on speaker. “Sean’s on the phone.”

“Hey, Sean, how’s it going?” Jade reclines back in the chair, putting her feet up on me.

“Good. How was the first day of class?”

“It sucked. The only good part of the day was eating lunch with this really hot guy.”

“Does Garret know?”

“Asshole,” I mumble.

---