Page 255 of Finding Us

“I didn’t, but I will right now.” I pick up the envelope and hand it to her.

Jade opens it and inside there’s a card, signed by my dad and Lilly, and a gift card for Jade’s favorite sporting goods store. The store has tons of running gear, which is Jade’s favorite thing to buy.

“Thank you! I love this store! This will last me forever.”

The card has $1000 on it. That’s nothing to my dad, but to Jade it’s like a million. Even though she has money now, she still acts like she doesn’t.

“You’re welcome. I hope you enjoy it. Garret, are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“I need to speak with you about something.”

“Can we do it later? We’re kind of in the middle of a birthday breakfast here.”

“Of course. But be sure to call me later.”

“Okay. Bye, Dad.”

Jade thanks him again for the card before hanging up.

“Did you see this?” She holds the gift card up. “It’s for $1000! I can get whatever I want. New running shoes. New shorts. Those cute tank tops that have the sports bra built in.”

“Jade, you have money now. You could buy that stuff anyway.”

“I know, but it’s different when it’s a gift from someone. That was really nice of your dad.”

“Now that he knows how much you liked it, expect to get a lot more of those. If he knows you like something, he tends to go overboard. You’ll probably get one every month now, so you should go online today and start buying stuff.”

“This is the best birthday ever!”

“This is just the beginning.” I give her a smug smile.

“What do you mean? What else do you have planned?”

Surprises drive Jade crazy. Now that I’ve hinted about a possible surprise, she’ll ask me questions all day trying to find out what it is.

“I don’t have anything planned.” I lead her over to the donuts.

“Yes, you do. I can tell. So what is it?”

I hand her a princess plate. “Let’s eat breakfast. Then I need to get to class.”

I’m only going to my morning class. Jade’s skipping hers and I’m skipping my afternoon class because Frank and Ryan will be arriving around noon. I won’t be here when they arrive. I’m picking up Grace at the airport. Harper and Sean fly in this afternoon and will meet us at the restaurant tonight.

After Jade and I finish breakfast, I get up to leave. “I’ll be back around 12:30 and then we’ll all go out for lunch.”

“Why are you getting home so late? Your class ends at 11:30.”

“I have things to do.”

“What kinds of—”

“Don’t even ask because I’m not going to tell you.”

She follows me back inside. “Thanks for breakfast. Those donuts were really good.”

I grab my backpack and keys, then give her a kiss. “Bye, Princess.” I laugh as I walk out the door.

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