Page 45 of Finding Us

“I was trying something new. You didn’t like it?” The cocky smile appears. “Because it kind of seemed like you did.”

“I liked it. It was hot. Really hot.”

“See? It’s good to try something new. We needed a change of scenery. The bedroom was getting boring.”

I go over to him as he puts his shorts on. “You still owe me that massage tonight. You’re not getting out of it because of this.”

“I’ll give you a massage this afternoon if you want. And another one tonight, especially if you keep walking around wearing this.” He tugs on the strap of my dress.

His cell phone rings and he checks to see who’s calling. “It’s my dad.” He hands me the phone. “You talk to him. I’m gonna go shower.” He takes off for the stairs.

“Wait. He’s calling you, not me. He’syourdad.”

“He’ll be your dad, too, in a couple weeks. Just answer it.” He disappears up the stairs.

I hadn’t even thought about that. Pearce will be my father-in-law soon. Weird.

“Hi, Mr. Kensington. It’s Jade. Garret’s in the shower.”

“Hello, Jade. And I told you to call me Pearce.”

“Yeah, I forgot. Do you want Garret to call you back?”

“He doesn’t need to. I was just calling to tell you that Lilly and I will be out there this Saturday. I know it’s earlier than I’d planned but we’re going to stay at Grace’s house for a few days.”

“Grace who? You mean my—”

Pearce cuts me off. He always thinks people are listening to his phone calls and it’s probably true. Garret said the organization occasionally monitors the calls of their members. And none of them know my connection to the Sinclair family.

“Grace Sinclair,” Pearce says. “She’s a friend of the family. You’ve met her. She’ll be at the wedding.”

“Yes, I know Grace. I thought you meant a different Grace. So you’re staying at her house?”

“Just for a couple days. She’s lonely now that her husband is gone so I thought it’d be good for her to have some company. She’s excited we’re coming. She’ll love having Lilly there. She’s very good with children. Anyway, we’ll drive up to your place on Tuesday. We probably won’t get there until evening so we’ll just head to the hotel. I’ll send Garret the information for where we’ll be staying. Grace is staying there, too.”

“Why is Grace coming here so early?”

“She didn’t want to drive herself so I invited her to come with us.”

“Couldn’t you just pick her up the morning of the wedding? Santa Barbara isn’t that far away.”

“Yes, but she’s going to babysit Lilly for me while I attend to some business.”

“Oh. That’s too bad you have to work while you’re here.” I laugh. “As the owner of the company you should give yourself a week off.”

He hesitates, then says, “Yes, well, there’s always work to be done.”

From his tone I get the feeling that the work he’s referring to isn’t company work. It must be something related to the organization. What are they making him do? And does he have to do it a few days before my wedding? I don’t feel good about this. In fact I’m feeling really sick right now.

“Jade, are you still there?”

“Yes. I’m here.”

“Lilly wanted to say hi quick. I’m going to give her the phone.”

“Hi, Jade!” she says in her tiny kid voice. “I miss you!”

“I miss you, too.”

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