Page 35 of Finding Us

“You got a problem with that?” He kisses me.

“No. I love that about you.” I kiss him back and we keep kissing until Garret pulls away.

“We should probably go back to the house and say goodbye to my grandparents.”

Say goodbye? They didn’t even say hello. That’s what I want to say, but I don’t.

We both get up and I grab the blanket.

“Just leave it.” Garret draws me into him and talks by my ear. “Maybe we’ll come out here later when everyone’s asleep and check out the stars.”

“Check out the stars? Really? That’s all we’d do?”

He laughs and takes my hand, pulling me back toward the house.

When we get to the patio, Garret’s grandparents are standing there like they’re about to leave. They see us coming toward them and Holton takes hold of his wife’s arm, turning her away from us and leading her to the sliding glass door. Garret stops abruptly and watches as they open the door and step inside the house.

“Wait,” Garret calls out. “Aren’t you going to say goodbye?” His comment makes his grandmother stop which forces Holton to stop as well since he’s holding her arm. But neither one of them turns around. Holton gets a firmer grip on his wife’s arm and the two of them walk away.

I see the hurt in Garret’s eyes and on his face. It makes me want to run after Holton and tell him he’s a mean, awful person but I know I can’t do that.

I turn to Garret. “Are you okay?”

He puts his arm around me. “Yeah. I’m good.”

Lilly runs out of the house. She’s in her pajamas. “Did you see the pink ones?”

She’s referring to the pink fireworks that started off the show.

I pick her up because she’s so cute and tiny and I really miss her. “I saw the pink ones. They were pretty.”

“Daddy got them just for me. I like pink.”

Garret laughs. “Yeah, we know.”

Pearce comes out on the patio. “Lilly, honey, you need to get to bed. You were just supposed to say goodnight to them.”

She hugs me. “You want to sleep in my room tonight? I could make my dolls sleep on the floor.”

“I don’t think that would work. I’m kind of big. I need a bigger bed.” I set her down.

“Okay.” She holds her arms up to Garret. “Night, Garret.”

He leans down to hug her. “See ya tomorrow.”

Pearce takes Lilly inside. Garret and I stay out on the patio and take a seat by the pool, enjoying the warm summer evening.

“This is a nice set-up back here. The pool and the lights. I like it. Maybe we could get a pool someday.”

“Jade, I’m a swimmer. Wehaveto have a pool. And I want to teach our kids how to—” He stops, his eyes on the water. “I just think we need a pool.”

I don’t respond. I wasn’t expecting the kid topic to come up and it’s not something I want to discuss right now. I know we should. We’re getting married in a couple weeks and kids should be discussed before we do that. And wehavediscussed it. Garret knows how I feel and says he’s okay if we don’t have them. But I know he’s not.

“Did you enjoy the fireworks, Jade?” Pearce is standing next to me. I was so deep in thought I didn’t even notice he’d come back out to the patio.

“Yes, they were amazing. I don’t know how you did all that.”

He laughs. “I just wrote a check and let other people do all the work.”

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