Loving You (The Jade Series #3) (3 page)

Garret kneels down next to her, his voice softer now. “You need to let the bird rest. She’ll be okay.”

“How do you know?”

“When you’re hurt you have to rest to get better. Just like with me. I have to rest to get better, right?”

“Can we take her inside? She can rest in my room.”

“This is her home. She lives in the woods. She doesn’t want to go inside.”

“But nobody will take care of her.”

“She has a mom, just like you. Her mom will take of her.”

“But what if her mom can’t find her?”

“She’ll find her. But she shouldn’t have left home like that. Just like you shouldn’t have run off, Lilly. You can’t do that ever again, okay?”

She nods.
 

Garret takes Lilly’s tiny, mitten-covered hand and stands up, pulling her up with him. “Let’s go inside. I’m hungry from all that sledding.” His tone has lightened, making Lilly smile.

“You didn’t even go sledding, Garret.”

He smiles back. “I know. But watching you and Jade go sledding made me hungry.”

He picks up my hand with his free hand and we all walk back to the house.
 

When we get inside, Lilly takes off her coat, hat, and snow pants and hangs them neatly on the hooks by the door. Next, she takes off her boots and sets them on a rubber mat. It’s funny to watch her. I was never that orderly as a kid. I just tossed all my stuff on the floor. I still do, at least in my dorm room. Here, I follow Lilly’s lead and put everything in its place.

Once her snow gear is put away, Lilly runs into the kitchen. I start to follow her but Garret holds me back.
 

“What happened out there has to stay between you and me,” he says. “Don’t tell my dad and definitely don’t tell Katherine.”

“I won’t say anything. But won’t Lilly say something?”

“No. She knows she’d be punished for running off like that. She won’t say anything.”

“Sorry, I should’ve kept an eye on her.”
 

“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your job to keep an eye on her. It’s my job. And I fucked up. If Katherine found out, she’d never leave me alone with Lilly again. She’s finally starting to trust me and then this happens.”

“What do you mean? Why didn’t she trust you with Lilly?”

“Because before I met you I was drunk all the time. And not very responsible. But still, I would never let anything happen to Lilly.”

“You know, you were really good with her out there. You knew just what to say.”
 

He shrugs. “I tried. She seemed to believe it. And thanks for calming me down.”

“I know what it’s like to be small and have someone big yelling at you. It’s scary, even if the person doesn’t mean to be scary.” I stand up on my toes to kiss him. “And you’re so big you can be kind of scary to us small people.”

Lilly comes running out of the kitchen. “Charles made hot cocoa!” She tugs on both of us. “Come on.”

Katherine appears just as we’re about to follow Lilly to the kitchen. “Did you have fun sledding, Lilly?”
 

I’m positive Lilly is going to tell her what happened. Why wouldn’t she? Kids her age can’t keep secrets.
 

“I went down the hill with Jade and then I went all by myself,” Lilly says. “I wasn’t even afraid. And now we’re having hot cocoa.” She runs back to the kitchen.
 

Katherine turns to Garret. “Did you have any problems with her?”

“No problems,” Garret answers. “Everything was fine.”
 

I hear someone in the foyer and turn to see Mr. Kensington coming toward us in the hallway. He’s back from work with his coat still on. He walks up to Katherine. “Hello, sweetheart.” Her body stiffens as he kisses her cheek. She gives him a tight-lipped smile and says nothing.

“Hi, Dad. Jade and I are going out tonight, so we’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Garret grabs my hand and starts walking toward the stairs.

“How was the sledding?” his dad calls after us.

“It was good. Lilly liked it,” Garret yells back as he hurries me up the stairs.
 

We go in his room and he shuts the door. “Let’s get out of here. You need to change or anything?”

“I need to shower. I’m all sweaty from running up that hill a hundred times.”

“You can use mine if you want. I’ll get you a towel.” Garret disappears in the bathroom, then comes out again. “It’s all set. Go ahead.”

“What’s wrong with you? What’s the big rush?”
 

“Those two were acting really strange and after the thing with Lilly, I just need to get out of here.” He lies down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m seriously not going to survive living here until school starts again.”

“You only have to spend a week here. The rest of the time you’ll be with me in New York and then Iowa. And the week you’re here, your family will be in the Bahamas.”

He sighs. “They’re not going.”

“Why not?” I sit down next to him on the bed.

“It’s not safe to leave right now.”

“Not safe? What do you mean?”

He sits up and puts his arm around my shoulder. “Do you want to have an early dinner? Or go to a movie?”

“Garret, stop it. Don’t hide stuff from me. You know I hate it when you do that. Tell me what’s going on.”

He keeps quiet.
 

“Come on. Just tell me.”

He gets up and goes to his closet and takes out a long sleeve, button-up shirt. “There’s some fallout from what happened last week.”
 

“Fallout? You mean people wanting revenge or something?”

“Not so much revenge as punishment, although I’m sure there are people who want revenge.” He takes his t-shirt off and puts on the other shirt, buttoning it up. “That’s why I about had a heart attack when Lilly ran off.”
 

“What do you mean by punishment?”
 

“My dad broke the rules when he did what he did.” Garret still hasn’t talked about his dad shooting Sinclair. It’s like he’s wiped it from his memory. Either that or he doesn’t want to admit that his dad killed someone.

“What rules?”
 

“Just forget it.” He goes to his desk and starts swiping through his phone.

I walk over and stand in front of him. “What’s the deal with your dad? Is he involved in something illegal?”

Garret keeps his eyes on his phone. “I really don’t know what he’s involved in.”
 

“He’s your dad. How could you not know?”

“I’ve seen things, but I don’t know what they mean. And in the past when I’ve asked him he wouldn’t tell me, so I stopped asking.”

“Have you seen him cover up stuff before?”

Garret looks up from his phone. “Why are you so interested in this? It doesn’t matter what he does. I’m nothing like him and I’ll never do whatever it is that he does. So you don’t need to worry about it.”

“If he’s committing crimes, then I don’t want to be around him. I don’t want to be staying at his house.”

“I never said he was doing anything illegal, Jade.”

“He shot someone and didn’t tell the police. That seems illegal to me.”

“The guy was going to kill us!” Garret raises his voice, then lowers it again. “What did you expect my dad to do?”

“Yeah, he did what he had to do, but then he covered it up. How did he do that?”

“He has friends, okay? Let’s just leave it at that.” He looks down at his phone again and swipes the screen. “There’s a movie starting in a hour. You want to go?”

“What did you mean when you said your dad will be punished?”
 

 
“I don’t know the whole story. I just overheard my dad talking in his office and it sounded like he’s in some serious shit. And then I heard him telling Katherine it was too dangerous to travel. I don’t know if that’s why she’s mad at him or what.”

“Are you and I in danger?”
 

“I don’t think so. If we were, he would tell us.” He shoves the phone in his pocket. “Let’s go. You’ve got 10 minutes to get ready.”

He knows 10 minutes isn’t long enough, but he also knows I pride myself on getting ready fast and there’s no way in hell I won’t meet that deadline. He looks down at his watch, taunting me. I sprint down the hall to my room.
 

We have dinner at an Italian restaurant in town, then see a movie. Garret seems distant the whole time. I think he’s still upset about what happened with Lilly. Not upset with her or me, but with himself for not watching her close enough.
 

There’s definitely more going on with Garret’s family that he either doesn’t know or isn’t telling me. And I’m not surprised his dad’s in trouble. You can’t just kill a possible presidential candidate and get away with it. Can you?

The next morning I call Ryan to tell him I’m coming home.

“Ryan, guess what?” I skip the hello when I hear him answer. He knows who it is.

“Is this a trick question or something? If so, I don’t know the answer.”

“I’m coming home next Saturday. For two whole weeks.”

“That’s great. How’d you manage that?”

“Garret got me a plane ticket.”

“That was nice of him, but I should really pay him back. He already paid to fly you out here once. I’ve been working overtime and have some money saved. Ask him how much I owe him and I’ll write him a check.”

“No, you need that money for school and Frank’s medical bills. I’ve already told Garret I’ll pay him back someday, so don’t worry about it. How’s Frank doing?”

“Better. Did I tell you about the new doctor who started working at the hospital last week?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“He’s from New York. He’s supposed to be really good and he knows a lot about MS. I have no idea why he decided to take a job in Des Moines, although I think he’s splitting his time between New York and here. Anyway, he’s been working with Dad. It sounds like he’s going to get him on some different medications.”

“Is Frank getting out of the hospital soon?”

“Probably on Saturday. I wish I’d known you were coming home. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get time off from work while you’re here.”

“That’s fine. Garret’s flying out a week later, so I can do stuff with him when you’re at work and Frank’s sleeping.”

“Oh. Okay.” Ryan still doesn’t fully approve of my relationship with Garret. He doesn’t like the fact that I hang out with Garret more than I hang out with Harper or other girls. “Is he staying at a hotel again?”

“I guess he will. There’s not really room at the house.”

“He could sleep on the couch if he wants.”

Garret’s so tall he’d never fit on their tiny couch, but it’s nice of Ryan to offer.

“I’ll let you know. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you I’ll be home soon. I’ll call you later this week. Tell Frank I said hi.”

“I will. See ya, Jade.”

After I hang up with Ryan, I go to Lilly’s room and play with her for a few hours. I feel bad that she doesn’t have anyone to play with. Then again, when I was her age I didn’t have anyone to play with either. But I didn’t like it. And I’m sure Lilly doesn’t like it either.
 

While Lilly and I play, Garret has physical therapy. When he was shot, the bullet went into his upper chest near his shoulder, affecting the muscles he uses for swimming. The physical therapist is showing him different exercises he can do in the pool so he can hopefully start swimming again soon. He won’t be able to compete on the swim team, but he wants to be able to go to practice.

At 7, we all sit down for dinner. Garret and I usually go out for dinner so we aren’t stuck sitting with his dad and Katherine, but tonight we decided to stay in. A winter storm came rolling in earlier today and I didn’t want to go out in the bad weather.

“Any plans for New Year’s?” Mr. Kensington asks Garret as the server plates our food.

“Jade and I are going to New York. I thought I told you that.”

Mr. Kensington nods. “Yes, you did tell me that. I just didn’t remember. So when are you leaving?”

“Tuesday and coming back Friday. And then Jade’s flying to Des Moines on Saturday. I’m meeting her there a week later, remember?”

Mr. Kensington doesn’t answer. He seems deep in thought. Finally he wakes up from wherever his mind was and looks at me.

“Jade, you must be excited about going home. By the way, how is Frank doing?”

I’m always surprised when he mentions Frank. I never talk about Frank or Ryan around Garret’s family.
 

“Frank is fine. He’s still in the hospital.”

“I hope he’s getting good care. It’s hard to find competent medical professionals these days. Does he have a good physician?”

“Actually, I talked to Ryan earlier and he said Frank is seeing a new doctor. Some guy from New York. He’s supposed to be really good.”