Page 249 of Finding Us

“Do you talk to him much?”

“Just about kid stuff. I tell him about Caleb and he tells me about his grandson.”

“So you don’t ever get a strange vibe from him or anything?”

“No. I think he’s a nice man. He leaves me really big tips. I haven’t told him I’m a single mom but he’s figured it out. He’s one of those people who just picks up on stuff, you know?” The bell in the kitchen dings. “I have to get that order. Yours will be out soon.”

She leaves and Garret puts his arm around me. “Jade, just forget about that guy and stop asking Sara about him.” He leans closer and talks by my ear. “Put your mind on other things, like what I’m going to do to you when we get home tonight.”

His lips touch my ear as he talks and it makes me shiver. He proceeds to describe exactly what he’ll be doing to me later and I feel my cheeks blushing. I’m so hot for him right now I have the urge to forget lunch and race home quick, but then Sara brings our drinks. The place is packed today so she drops off the drinks and leaves.

“Garret, not here,” I tell him.

He sits back and takes a sip of his soda. “I’m just warming you up for later.”

“You went way past warming. Way, way past. Now I won’t be able to concentrate during class this afternoon.”

He laughs. “Then I did my job.”

A few minutes later our lunch arrives. As we’re eating, Garret checks his phone. “Shit, I forgot I’m supposed to meet with my project group in a few minutes. I have to take this to go.” He wraps the rest of his sandwich in a napkin.

“You’re leaving me? After what you did to me? I still haven’t recovered from that.”

His cocky smile appears. “Always leave them wanting more. It’s in the guy handbook.” He kisses me. “I’ll see you after class.”

When we get home later, we forget all about dinner. We head straight to the shower and then to the bed for a repeat performance of last night. I know it’s a lot, but hey, we’re newlyweds and we’re making up for all those weeks of not doing it. At least tonight we managed to get a few more hours of sleep.

The alarm goes off at 9 and Garret rolls over and hits the snooze button. “Too early,” he mumbles.

“I can sleep all morning. I only have one class today.” I yawn and stretch my arms out. “Maybe I’ll go for a run.”

“Jade, we’ve already discussed this. You’re not running alone.”

“I won’t go very far.” I flip on my side to face him.

“No, it’s not safe.”

“Why? That burglar is dead and we haven’t seen anyone suspicious hanging around here.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want you running alone.”

I sigh. “Then what am I going to do all morning? I can’t just sit around until class starts. Maybe I shouldn’t have dropped organic chem. Now I feel like a loser.”

“You’re not a loser. You have plenty of things to do.”

“Like what?”

“Call Grace. Or Harper. Call Brook and set up a time for the four of us to have dinner. And figure out what you want to do when Frank and Ryan are here next weekend.”

“I think I just want to hang out here. Set up chairs on the beach like we did last summer. Do you think you could grill out burgers and hot dogs on Saturday? Or is that too much work?”

“It’s not too much work. Decide what else you want. Make a list of what we need. See? You’ve got all kinds of things to do.”

“I think I’m going to tell Frank and Ryan about med school when they’re here next week.”

“I thought you wanted to wait.”

“I did, but now I just want to get it over with.”

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