Page 64 of Finding Us

“We’re not. But Kelly and Ava’s mother worked together on a fundraising committee years ago.”

“That’s how we met,” Kelly says. “But we were never really friends. And truthfully, I think they only invited us to their party because of Kiefer’s connections in Hollywood. As you know Ava aspires to be an actress and her mother wanted Kiefer to connect Ava with the right people.” She checks her watch, then stands up. “Maybe I should go check on Harper. Or is Sean up there with her?”

“Yeah, they’re both getting ready,” I tell her.

“Oh. Okay.” She sits back down. “So it’s nice you’ll have some time with Lilly tomorrow. She’s such a sweet little girl. I remember when my girls were that age and—”

“Hi, Mom.” Harper comes down the stairs with Sean right behind her. “Hi, Dad. You guys are early.”

“Traffic was lighter than normal.” Kiefer stands up and gives Harper a hug.

Kelly does the same. “You look beautiful, honey. Love the dress.”

“Thanks. So Sean was thinking we could try out this new restaurant about 20 minutes from here.”

Sean smiles and extends his hand to Kiefer. “Good to see you again, Mr. Douglas.”

Kiefer just nods, quickly shaking his hand. He’s not at all friendly to Sean. I don’t understand it. Last year when I told Harper about Garret’s parents not letting me date him, she acted like that was crazy. She said only East Coast rich people do that, and that her parents didn’t care who she dated. But obviously theydocare because they don’t want her dating Sean. That’s even more clear now than it was a few weeks ago when we were at her house. Even Kelly doesn’t seem to like Sean now. She just stands there with an awkward smile, not saying anything to him.

“We should get going,” Harper says. She’s trying to act like everything’s fine, but she senses the tension in the room. We all do.

I feel really bad for Harper. I know she loves Sean, but I also know she wants her parents’ approval. And for some reason, they don’t approve of Sean.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Garretand I head back to our place as the four of them leave for dinner.

“That was weird,” I say to Garret as he rummages through the fridge to find something for dinner.

“Itwasweird, wasn’t it?” Garret takes out a box of leftover Chinese food, opens it, sniffs it, and tosses it in the trash. “I get what you mean now. Kiefer doesn’t seem to like Sean.”

“Kelly doesn’t seem to like him either. She acted like she liked him when we were at her house, but now she acts like she doesn’t.”

Garret pulls out some lunch meat and opens the package. “We need to eat this stuff before it goes bad.” He tosses it in the trash. “You want to just order a pizza?”

“Yeah, okay. So why do you think Harper’s parents are acting like that? Sean’s a super nice guy and he treats Harper well. How could they not like him?”

Garret comes around the kitchen island and puts his arms around my waist. “What did I say about this week? No worrying. No stress. You’re only allowed to be happy. That’s it.”

“I know. The Harper thing got me off track.” I loop my arms around his neck and kiss him. “I’m back to being happy. What kind of pizza do you want?”

“What do I always want?”

“Pepperoni.”

“And what do we always get?”

I laugh. “Sausage.”

“And why is that, Jade?”

“Because it’s my favorite and you love me.”

He kisses me, then lets me go. “I’ll put the order in.”

“Just get pepperoni.”

“You don’t like pepperoni.” He swipes through his phone, searching for the number.

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