Page 54 of Finding Us

“Yeah. Probably late afternoon. Sean and I are going out to dinner with them Tuesday night. And Wednesday my mom and I are going shopping. You’re totally welcome to come with us if you want.”

“What’s your dad going to do while you two are shopping?”

“He has a meeting at a hotel here in town. I don’t know what it’s about, but it’s all day Wednesday. It’s probably for a commercial or something. He does some freelance commercial work sometimes. Mostly for people he knows or people he owes favors to. The entertainment business is all about who you know and who you owe.” She laughs. “My dad says that all the time. It’s funnier when he says it.”

She seems to have no clue about this secret group. If she did, I would know. Harper isn’t very good at keeping secrets. I can always tell when she’s lying.

“What did you and Garret do while we were gone?”

“Not much. We went hiking one day. Drove up the coast another day. Took a walk on the beach this morning.”

“Sounds relaxing.”

“So tell me more about San Francisco.”

Harper gives me a detailed account of the whole trip. What they saw, what they ate, where they stayed. She’s a talker. She can talk nonstop about anything. But she wraps up her stories an hour later when Sean and Garret return.

“Where do you guys want to go for dinner?” Harper asks us.

Sean motions to Garret. “He isn’t feeling so great and I’m not that hungry, so let’s just call it a night and meet up tomorrow sometime.”

“Sure,” Harper says. “Sorry you aren’t feeling well, Garret. Jade didn’t say you were sick.”

I get up from the table. “He’s probably just tired. We’ll see you guys later.”

Garret and I go back to our place and I follow him up to our bedroom. “You’re not really sick, are you?”

“No. I just needed an excuse because Sean said Harper really wanted us to go out with them tonight.”

Garret goes in the bathroom to shower while I change into my pajamas. It’s too early to go to sleep but right now I just want to hide in bed and pretend this day never happened.

He comes out a few minutes later. “Why are you in your pajamas?”

“I’m tired.”

“Don’t you want to have dinner?”

“I don’t feel like eating.” I lie on my back and stare up at the ceiling. The ocean breeze is blowing through the window. It’s warm with just a hint of coolness. It feels perfect. Just like my life felt until earlier today.

“Jade, stop worrying about this.” Garret puts his pajama pants on and lies next to me.

“They’re going to ruin it, Garret. They’re going to ruin everything. I was so happy. I’ve never been happier in my entire life. And now it’s all going to end. They’re going to take you away from me.”

He shifts on his back and puts his arm out above my head. “Come over here.” I slip under his arm and snuggle up next to him. “They can’t take me. We have a deal. And that group is all about deals. They take them very seriously. When a decision’s been made, it’s done.”

“Really? Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“Because I wasn’t sure if I believed it. But when I was out surfing I was thinking back to that meeting they had about my future. And I remember sitting in that room after everyone voted. I can’t go into details but they made it clear that this was over. That I was no longer part of the group and would receive none of its benefits from that point forward.”

“Then why were those men acting that way today? I felt like they were threatening us. Or warning us. They knew who I was, yet they pretended they didn’t. Why were they playing games with us like that?”

“I don’t know. I’ll ask my dad, but I can’t ask him over the phone. I’ll have to wait until he gets into town on Tuesday. So until then, there’s nothing we can do.”

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

I sit up.“Let’s go to Santa Barbara tomorrow. To Grace’s house.”

“Why?”

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