Page 87 of Finding Us

“Save it for later.” He smiles. “We’ve got all night.”

“I smell chocolate,” I say, inhaling the scent of it.

“You want some? I got the Belgian chocolates you like. Or do you want something to drink? There’s a cooler over there with some soda.”

“It’s our wedding night. Let’s have the champagne.” I sit up, wrapping one of the blankets around me. “We’ll save the chocolate for later.”

Garret gets up and takes a white beach towel and wraps it around his waist. I notice it says ‘groom’ in gold swirling letters.

“Did you buy that?” I ask, laughing at the towel.

“It’s a gift from Harper. Yours is right behind you.”

I glance back and see it sitting there, folded so the gold ‘bride’ lettering shows.

Garret takes the champagne from the ice and pops the cork. He pours it in the glasses and hands me one, sitting across from me.

“To us.” He clinks my glass and we sip the champagne.

“Garret, do you think if I’d used better garbage bags we wouldn’t be here tonight?”

“What?” He laughs. “What are you talking about?”

“When we first met, you only stopped by Ryan’s car that night because my garbage bag broke and my clothes spilled all over the ground.”

“That’s not the only reason I stopped.” He sets his champagne down and runs his hand over my leg. “I saw your hot ass and these legs as you were reaching into the trunk. I had to stop and check out who they belonged to.”

“And here I thought you were just being nice.”

“Iwasbeing nice. But I was also checking you out. And once you finally let me take that bag from you and I got to see your beautiful face and those gorgeous green eyes, that was it. I couldn’t stay away from you.”

“But if you hadn’t been walking by at that very moment, we wouldn’t have met.”

“We would’ve met at my house. My dad always has the scholarship winner over for dinner. But I wouldn’t have waited that long. If I hadn’t met you at the car that night, I would’ve seen you around and once I did, I would’ve gone up and introduced myself.”

“And I would’ve insulted you and you would’ve walked off and never came back.”

“Obviously that’s not true because I put up with your insults for months.”

“Sorry about that. I hope you know that insulting you was actually my way of flirting with you.”

“Yeah, I know. The insults didn’t bother me. If anything they just made me try harder.”

I take another sip of champagne and notice Garret watching me.

“What are you thinking?”

He slips his hand around mine. “I’m thinking that I don’t know how I got so lucky. You’re everything I ever wanted and somehow I got you to marry me.”

“You were very persistent.”

He laughs. “I was, wasn’t I? I do have a tendency to go after what I want. And I usually don’t stop until I get it.”

“Thanks for doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Going after me. Not giving up on me. Sticking around after I pushed you away. And being there for me when I needed you even when I told you I didn’t.”

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