Page 34 of Finding Us

“Holidays are a big deal to me. I’m not going to ask just any girl to watch fireworks with me.” He gives me a soft, sweet kiss, then looks at me and smiles. “It had to be the right girl. And she didn’t show up until last September.” He lies on his back again. “Took you long enough.”

I laugh. “Sorry. If I’d known you were waiting around for me, I would’ve moved to Connecticut a lot sooner.”

Another firework shoots off creating a canopy of red and blue sparks.

He puts his arm out and I snuggle up next to him, my hand on his chest, my eyes aimed up at the sky.

“Garret, if I’d gone to your high school, do you think you would’ve dated me?”

“Probably not.”

I jab him. “Hey! You’re supposed to say youwouldhave.”

“It’s not about me. You’re hot. Of course I would’ve asked you out. But you would’ve said no. You never would’ve dated someone like me. I was messed up in high school. I drank constantly and partied every weekend. You probably wouldn’t have even talked to me.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Another blast of color explodes in the sky. “But then why weren’t you that way when I met you?”

“I sobered up a little over the summer when I was living in DC.”

“Why? Because you didn’t want to lose your internship?”

“I didn’t even want that internship. I didn’t care if they fired me.” He hesitates, then says, “I cut back because Sadie’s not much of a drinker.”

Garret and I try to avoid the topic of Sadie, given that she’s my half sister and he dated her for two months last summer.

“So Sadie got you to stop drinking?”

“I still drank, just not as much. But after she broke up with me, I went back to drinking like I used to. And if I hadn’t met you, I’d still be drinking like that, probably even more than that.”

I’m quiet as I try to imagine what Garret’s life would be like if we’d never met. Would he be drinking every night? Failing in his classes? Getting in trouble all the time?

“Well, sorry I took so long to get here.”

“Thank God you did.” He lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses the inside of my wrist. “I love you.”

I smile. “I love you, too.”

Fireworks start shooting off, one after another.

“Check it out, Jade. The ending’s the best part.”

The sky lights up with color, a continuous stream of red, white, and blue. About a minute later it gets quiet and the sky is left with a smoky haze.

“Wow! That was amazing.” I scoot up so that my face is even with his.

“I told you it was a good show.”

“It was agreatshow. It’s official. We have now celebrated every holiday together and they were all great.”

“Some of them were better than others.” He lightly rubs my hand as he says it and I know he’s referring to Easter, which we weren’t able to celebrate together. I never asked Garret what he did that day, or any of the days we weren’t together. I don’t want to talk about it. I try not to think about last spring. Both of us do.

“But this year all the holidays will be great,” Garret says.

“Really? Are you already making plans?”

“Not yet. But this year each holiday will be our first holiday together as a married couple so we have to make each one memorable.”

“You like celebrating stuff, don’t you?”

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