Page 48 of Finding Us

“Hmm. Then I’ll have to figure something else out.”

“What does that mean? What are you planning?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He grabs two oranges from the counter and brings them to the table. “I’ll take care of it.”

I sit next to him. “Garret, tell me what you’re planning. I don’t want us flying off to some remote island on our wedding night. Frank and Ryan will be here. And your dad and Lilly. I’m not just going to leave when they came all this way to see us.”

“Yes, we’ll stay here.” He grins. “Just maybe not in our bedroom.”

I can tell his mind is working. He’s already coming up with something. And he’ll keep it a secret because he loves to surprise me. But surprises drive me crazy. I like them, but they still drive me crazy. I’ll spend the next week trying to figure out what he’s planning and I know he won’t give me any hints.

“You’re eating two oranges?” I ask as I watch him peel them. “I guess you really do eat a lot of fruit.”

“This one’s for you.” He hands me one of the peeled oranges. “It’s dessert.” He pops an orange section in his mouth.

“An orange is not dessert.” I separate the orange sections. “But I’ll eat it since you went to all that work to peel it for me.”

“You’ll only eat oranges if I peel them for you?”

“Well, yeah. I’ll never do it myself. So if you want me to eat these, you’ll have to peel them.”

“Maybe I’ll add that to my vows.” He takes my hand, his face serious. “I promise to always peel your oranges.” He laughs. “For some reason that sounded dirty.”

I roll my eyes at him and take my hand back. “That reminds me. I need to finish my vows. I’ll clean up lunch and then you need to leave me alone so I can work on them. Maybe you could go surfing for a couple hours.”

“You trying to get rid of me?” He goes over to the sink to wash the orange residue off his hands. I do the same. That’s another reason I don’t like oranges. They’re too messy to eat.

“You’re too much of a distraction,” I say as I dry my hands. “If you stay here, we’ll just end up having sex again and I won’t get my vows done.”

He checks the clock. “It’s only 1:30. You’ve got time to do both.” He grabs my hand and starts walking toward the stairs.

“Garret, let me finish my vows first.”

“I’m helping you with them.” He picks me up and carries me upstairs to our room, setting me down by the bed.

“Oh, really? Having sex is going to help me write my vows?”

“It’ll inspire you.” He lifts my sundress up and over my head and tosses it on the floor. “After this you’ll be thinking about me the rest of the afternoon.”

“And that’s gonna help me write my vows?” I smile as I reach around my back, unhooking my bra.

“It will.” He lays me on the bed and slides my panties off. “When we’re done here, the words will just spill onto the page. You won’t even have to think about it. You should be thanking me, Jade.”

“You haven’t even done anything yet,” I say as I watch him strip his clothes off. “Maybe it won’t be that great, in which case my mind will just wander all afternoon and I’ll never write my vows.”

“You did not seriously just say that, did you?” He gets on top of me, gazing down at me and smiling. “Because you know damn well how much I love a challenge. And that definitely sounded like a challenge.”

“Show me what you got,” I say, kiddingly.

But Garret wasn’t kidding. The challenge results in a super hot round of afternoon sex. That’s right. It lasts most of the afternoon. So much for getting my vows done.

* * *

The restof the week Garret and I take some day trips to check out the area. Even though we’ve lived here for almost two months, we’ve spent most of our time hanging out on our own private beach and really haven’t explored much of the surrounding area.

On Wednesday, we do some hiking at a state park about an hour inland. Thursday we drive up the coast, stopping at each little town just to check them out. And Friday we take a walk on a public beach that’s close to where we live and then grab lunch in town.

“So the wedding’s a week from tomorrow,” Garret says as we’re eating lunch. We went to a restaurant that’s kind of fancy, but Garret loves their steak sandwich so he insisted we go here. “Are you ever going to share some details about it?”

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