Knowing You (The Jade Series #2) (10 page)

“Hey, I saw Garret leaving your room this morning.” She gets this excited tone to her voice. “Did something happen last night? I mean, I know you guys do that sleepover thing sometimes, but he seemed even happier than normal when I saw him in the hall.”

“He did? Well, no, we didn’t do anything. Just slept.”

She seems disappointed. “That’s so weird. I don’t get you two.”

“But we did have our first date last night.”

She rolls her eyes. “Again. Weird. You two have probably been on about 50 dates by now.”

“I know. But as of last night we’re officially dating.” Saying that out loud to someone makes me smile.

“So he’s finally your boyfriend?”

Hearing her call Garret my boyfriend makes me smile even more. “Yes.”

“Well, it’s about time. Maybe we could double date.”

“Sure. I’ll mention it to Garret.”
 

“So when are you leaving for Thanksgiving?”

Before I can even enjoy the high of telling her that Garret is my boyfriend the dreaded holiday topic comes up again. “I’m staying here. It’s too far to go back home.”

“I’m from California. That’s way farther than Iowa. And I’m going home.”

“I know. But flights are really expensive over the holiday and it’s too far to drive.”

“So you’ll be here all alone?”

“No, I have plans.” I race to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Who do you have plans with? Everyone will be gone.”

I don’t answer. I’m too tired to come up with a fake story she’ll believe.

“Are you going to the Kensington’s?” she asks cautiously.

“No. They’re going to some tropical island for Thanksgiving.”

“Then who? Or are you saying Garret is staying here? No way. His dad would never go for that, at least not if he’s like you say he is.”

She’s right. Garret is crazy to think he’ll get away with not going on his family’s trip.
 

“Harper, I just made that stuff up. I don’t have plans. I’ll be here for Thanksgiving. It’s just that I don’t like people feeling sorry for me being all alone. Because there’s no need to. I’m actually excited about getting some time to just sleep and catch up on stuff.”

She has her pity face on. She’s definitely feeling sorry for me. “Well, I’ll call you every day from California, okay?”

“Sure. Goodnight, Harper.”

As I’m unlocking the door to my room, Garret appears in the hallway. “Hey.” He kisses me. “I missed you today.”

“Garret, we’re not going to be one of those couples who can’t even go a day without seeing each other. I need my space.”

He laughs. “I can’t even say that I missed you?”

I go in my room, tossing my keys on the desk. “Not if it’s only been a few hours. It has to be at least 24 hours. No, 48 hours. Or maybe a week.”

He closes the door and backs me against the wall, his arms on both sides of me. “You can’t tell me what I can say or when I can say it. If I want to say it, I’ll say it. I might even say it again. I missed you. There. I said it twice now. Within two minutes.”

“You’re really annoying me,” I say with a smile. “Keep it up and you’re not going to be my boyfriend for much longer.”

“That’s the first time you’ve called me that. I like it.” He goes to kiss me but I turn my head at the last minute. “Hey, what’s that for? You’re playing hard to get now? Last night you got mad at me for not making a move.”

“That was last night. This is now. If you’re gonna be with me, you’ve gotta learn to keep up.” I duck under his arm and go to my drawer to get my pajamas.
 

“I was thinking I’d stay down here in case that guy calls again.”

“You don’t need to do that. I don’t think he’ll call after just calling last night. Besides we could get in trouble if you’re sleeping down here all the time.”

“I’ve known your RA for years. She doesn’t care.”

“Well, even if that guy calls again there’s nothing you can do.”

“I guess. But I don’t want you to be alone if he calls.”

“I’ll be fine. But thanks for offering.” I kiss him quick. “It makes me want to keep you as a boyfriend. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He sits down instead of leaving. “I had another reason for coming down here. Besides the missing you thing.”

His tone is making me nervous. “Okay. So what is it?”

“We can’t go to New York next weekend. I’m sorry but I totally forgot that next weekend is that political fundraiser at my house.”

“But I thought you hated those things.”

I do, but I kind of need to go to this.” Garret’s not telling me something and whatever he’s not telling me is something I don’t want to know. But I don’t like him keeping secrets. He’s kept secrets from me before and it almost destroyed our relationship.

“What is it?” I ask, keeping my eyes on him. “Just tell me. I know you’re not giving me the whole story here.”

“It’s just that I . . . I used to date the guy’s daughter.”

“What guy?”

“The politician we’re having the fundraiser for. Royce Sinclair.”

“The guy who’s trying to run for president? The guy who could actually
be
president? You dated his daughter?”

“Yes. It was last summer when I was interning in DC. She was an intern, too. But it was nothing. We just—”
 

“Okay. Hold on. I’m still trying to process the fact that you dated a girl who might live in the White House soon.”

“My dad’s been friends with her dad forever, so it’s not that big a deal.”

“Is that why you dated her? Did your dad make you?”

“No. Actually I didn’t even tell him that Sadie and I were dating until we’d broken up. Anyway, I feel like I should go to this thing since it’s for her dad. Plus, like I said, the guy’s kind of a friend of the family.”

“And will this girl you dated be there?”

“I don’t think so. She goes to college in DC. She won’t come all the way up here for a fundraiser.”

“So this means what? You have to go with Ava?”

He nods. “Yes.”
 

I say nothing. Garret hasn’t had one of these functions for over a month. And now that he and I are officially dating, I don’t want him around Ava.

“You’re mad,” he says.

“Well, yeah. I don’t want Ava hanging all over you at this thing, pretending to be your girlfriend.”

“I won’t let her hang on me.”

“I don’t even want her touching you.”

“Jade, you know I’m not at all interested in her. I don’t even like her as a friend.”

“I know. But still.” I get into bed. “If you feel you need to do this, it’s okay. We can go to New York another time. I need to get to sleep. I’ll see you later.”

He gets up to leave, but stops before he reaches the door. “What if you came with me?”

“With you where?”

“To the fundraiser. What if you were my date instead of Ava?”

10

“Are you kidding? Your dad would totally kill you.”

“Forget about him. I want to take you to the fundraiser. I don’t know why I was even considering going with Ava.”

“There’ll be cameras and press all over this event. And not just the usual photographers for those society pages. They’ll have the national news. Major newspapers. You’re supposed to be photographed with Ava. Just think how mad your stepmom would be if you were photographed with me instead of Ava.”

“Great. I’d love to piss off Katherine.”

He sits on my bed and leans down to kiss me. “Would you go with me, Jade?”

“You’re insane. Get some sleep. In the morning you’ll come to your senses and realize you have to go with Ava.”

“I’m not taking her. If she wants to go, she can find someone else.”

“But you know you have to—”

He puts his finger to my lips. “Will you go or not?”

“You’re really serious about this?”

“Yes. I want to take
you
. And nobody else.”

“I don’t know. I need to think about it.”

He smiles. “They’ll have really good food. And a band. And dancing.”

“What would I need to wear? Because I only have one dress and it’s not very nice. Well, you’ve seen it.”

“I’ll take care of the dress.”

I laugh. “You’re getting me a dress? Do you shop for dresses much?”

“No. But I know people.”

“I don’t want you buying me a dress. You’ll spend too much.”

“If I’m making you do this, the least I can do is get you a dress. And shoes. And whatever else you need.”

“I still don’t know.”

“Think about it and let me know tomorrow.” He kisses me once more before leaving.

I’m suddenly in a much better mood now that he’s made this plan to take me instead of Ava. But I’m still worried. His dad scares me. And I’m sure he hates me even more now that Garret’s blackmailing him in order to be with me.
 
If I show up at the fundraiser, who knows how he’ll react? And Katherine will be furious. That woman almost scares me as much as Garret’s dad.

The dining hall is usually quiet on Monday mornings, at least at 7, which is when I get there. I always bring a book to read or I study for whatever test I have that day. Today, I brought the biology homework that my idiot lab partner was supposed to do but didn’t.
 

“There you are.”
 

I look up and see Garret coming toward my table. He sits next to me and gives me a kiss. “I missed you,” he says, laughing.

I roll my eyes, smiling. “You’re going to say that all the time now just to annoy me, aren’t you?”

“You know you love it.” He takes a bite of my donut, which is next to my half-eaten apple pastry and untouched scrambled eggs. Despite my resolve to eat better, I still haven’t improved my diet.

“What are you doing up so early? Your first class isn’t until 10.”

“I wanted to get your answer about the fundraiser.”
 

“I don’t know, Garret. I don’t want to start some big fight with your family.”

“Stop worrying about them. They’re not your problem.”

“But what about the photographers? They’ll be taking photos of us.”

“I was thinking about that last night. This isn’t going to be like those charity events I go to. The photographers will be taking pictures of Royce Sinclair and all the other important people there. They won’t even be interested in us.”

“But what are you going to do about Ava?”

“She’ll leave us alone. She has a boyfriend.”

“That’s never stopped her before.”

He lowers his voice, even though nobody’s around. “It’s different now. Her boyfriend is the mechanic who works on her Mercedes. Blake’s seen the two of them out together. And when he saw Ava at a party last week she was drunk and admitted she was dating the guy. Her parents would kill her if they knew. Well, they’d take her designer clothes and her car away, and then they’d kill her.”

“So you’ll threaten to tell her parents if she doesn’t let us go together? That’s blackmail, Garret. Seems like you’re doing a lot of that lately.”

“Well, she asked for it.” He takes another bite of my donut. “Now can you just give me an answer about this?”

I take a sip of my soda as I think about it. “You really want me to go?”

“Seriously, Jade? Have I not made that clear by now?”
 

“Okay. I guess I could go.”

“Finally.” He gets up. “I need to go make some calls about the dress.”

“Can’t we just get something at the mall? What are you wearing to this thing?”

“The mall doesn’t have what we need. And I’m wearing a tux. It’s formal dress.”

“You’ll rent a tux but you didn’t want to wear the bowling shoes? What’s the difference?”

“I don’t rent the tux. I have my own. Several, actually.”

I feel stupid for not knowing that. Of course he would own a tux. He goes to these formal events all the time.

“I’ll see you later, Garret. I need to finish this bio homework. My lab partner bailed on me again.”

“Do you want me to kick his ass? Because I can do that now. As your boyfriend, it’s one of my jobs to kick the ass of anyone who pisses you off.”

I laugh. “No. I think we can skip the ass kicking. The semester will be over soon anyway.”

Garret and I don’t see each other much for the rest of the week. He’s either at class or in the pool. His coach has them training all the time. But he stops by my room every night offering to stay over in case the threatening phone calls start again.
 

The strange thing is that the guy hasn’t called back. And the letter still sits in my drawer. I keep taking it out, thinking I’ll read it again, but then I don’t. Garret’s right. It just brings up more questions. Questions I probably don’t want the answers to.

On Friday afternoon, Harper stops by my room after class to tell me about the date she has with Sean later.