Knowing You (The Jade Series #2) (12 page)

“I’m just kidding. But I
would
like to keep you by my side all night. I can’t get enough of you, Jade.”

I feel the same way about him. We need to get out of here before I rip his tux off. He grabs our coats as I take his hand and drag him out of my room.
 

On the drive to his house, he gives me a recap of what these things are typically like. Since this a political fundraiser, it’s a different crowd than the usual social events he attends. He says that he probably won’t know half of the people there and that it will likely be an older crowd.

We arrive at his parents’ palatial estate at 7. The long driveway is lined with cars. Garret drives right up to the front of the house. He gets out and opens my door. An older man in a suit comes up to us.
 

“Hi, Paul. How’s it going?” Garret tosses him the car keys.
 

“Nice to see you again, Garret,” the man says. “You don’t come around much anymore.” He gives him a look like he understands why.
 

“Paul, this is Jade. Jade, this is Paul.”

We shake hands. The man smiles at Garret. “She’s a beautiful girl.” He gives him another look, as if he knows I’m not one of the prepicked fake girlfriends Garret’s had in the past.

“Yes, she is.” Garret kisses my cheek. “Let’s go inside, Jade.”

The house is packed with people as well as hired help. Garret is right. With this many people, I doubt anyone will be paying attention to us, other than his dad and stepmom who I’m hoping to avoid as along as possible.
 

A woman comes up and starts taking my coat off. Actually, it’s Harper’s coat. I didn’t have a nice coat to wear with the dress so she lent me hers.
 

“Thanks,” I say as the woman disappears with the coat. I hope she doesn’t lose it or give it to someone else at the end of the night.
 

Garret places his hand on my back and leads me through the room. I still can’t believe how big his house is. I haven’t even begun to see it all. The last and only other time I was here I saw the sunroom and the dining room. But off the foyer there are several hallways that lead to other parts of the mansion. There’s also an entire upper level. Who needs that much space?

A little girl in a white frilly dress comes running up to Garret and hugs him. It looks funny because she’s so small and he’s so big.
 

“Hey, Lilly. I want you to meet someone. This is Jade. Jade, this is my sister, Lilly.”

She smiles. She’s super cute, with long blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a dimple in each cheek. “Hi. Are you his girlfriend?”

Garret laughs as he looks at me to answer.
 

“Yes, I am,” I tell her.

She reaches up and puts her tiny hand around mine. “You’re prettier than his other girlfriends.”

“Lilly!” Garret leans down like he’s telling her a secret. “You’re not supposed to talk about my old girlfriends.”

She ignores him and focuses all her attention on me. “Do you want to see my room?”

“Oh, um, I don’t know.” I look at Garret.

“Maybe later, Lilly. We just got here.”

“Okay.” She looks disappointed, but then perks up again. “Do you want some punch? It’s pink!”

“Sure,” I say, not wanting to disappoint her again. I haven’t been around kids much and generally don’t like them, but so far Lilly is winning me over. She keeps a tight hold on my hand and pulls on me to follow her. I glance back at Garret, who’s smiling watching the scene.
 

She takes me to a long table filled with assorted desserts. A crystal punch bowl sits at the end. “Two glasses, please,” she says politely to the server. She motions me to bend down so she can whisper. “The other one’s for my brother. I already had one. I’m not supposed to have any more. It’s too much sugar.”

I whisper back. “You can take a sip of mine. I won’t tell.”
 

The server hands me a glass and I offer it to Lilly. She takes a sip, then gives it back to me. “I have to go to bed at 8, so if you want to see my room, come find me and I’ll show you. Bye.” She gives me a quick hug, then gives one to Garret, and races off into the crowd.

“How old is she?” I ask Garret.

“Six. But if you ask her, she’ll say six and two months. She always includes the months.”

“She’s so cute.”

“Yeah, she is. Thanks for being nice to her. My
fake
girlfriends just ignore her or tell her to go away.”
 

“How could they ignore her? She’s so sweet. And very polite.”

He kisses my cheek. “You’re kind of sweet yourself, even though you try to hide it.”
 

“I am NOT sweet. You take that back!”
 

“You’re totally sweet. But I won’t tell anyone.” He sets his punch down. “I don’t really like punch, but Lilly always gives me a glass of it at these things.”

I try the punch. “It’s good. Very fruity.”

“It’s meant for the kids although I don’t see many kids here.” We look around at the room. It’s full of gray-haired old men and women.
 

“Do you know these people?”

“A few. But not many.”

“Where are all the photographers?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they’re showing up later. I guess we should go find my dad and get this over with. Or maybe I should wait until he’s had a few drinks.”

“See? I knew I shouldn’t have come. Now you’re all nervous. And so am I.”

“It’s fine, Jade. He has to get used to us dating.”

A server walks by with a tray of appetizers; bacon wrapped around a chunk of chicken. It doesn’t seem upscale enough for this crowd, not that I have a clue what these people eat. But it looks good so I take one while Garret scans the room.

“My dad’s over there by Mr. Sinclair. Let’s go. You can meet him. Plus, my dad won’t yell at me with him standing there.”

“You want me to meet the guy who might be president? I don’t know, Garret. Why don’t we wait until they’re done talking?” I quickly finish my appetizer and hand my plate to one of the servers.

“Come on.” Before I can talk him out of it, he takes my hand and we meander through the crowd across the room.
 

Garret’s dad is too busy talking to notice us at first. But Mr. Sinclair, the could-be-president, does.
 

“Hello, Garret,” he says. “Good to see you again.” Mr. Sinclair already looks like a president with his dark, stiffly-styled hair and fake politician smile. He seems very confident in himself, almost arrogant, which I guess you’d need to be if you’re running for president.
 

“Good to see you, too,” Garret says.
 

Mr. Kensington’s jaw drops when he sees us there together. He quickly tries to compose himself. “Garret, I didn’t see you arrive. Did you just get here?”

“We haven’t been here long.” Garret puts his arm around me. He’s playing it cool, but I can almost feel his heart beating through his hand as it rests on the side of my waist.

 
I notice Mr. Sinclair staring at me and I glance away.

 
“And who is this young lady?” he asks Garret.

“This is Jade. My girlfriend.” Garret glares at his dad as he says “girlfriend.”

Mr. Sinclair doesn’t notice. “Jade. That’s a lovely name. Do you go to Moorhurst?”

I freeze for a second. I didn’t think the guy would even notice me and now he’s asking me questions? “Yes. I’m a freshman.”

“Are you from Connecticut?”

“No. I’m from Des Moines, Iowa.” I don’t elaborate. I just want this guy to stop asking me questions and go back to talking to Mr. Kensington, who is now giving the death stare to Garret.

“I was in Des Moines just last week. I practically live there now with the caucus coming up. It’s a nice town. Low crime rate. Good schools.”

“Well, I’m sure these two need to move along,” Mr. Kensington says with a fake smile. He seems very anxious. Beads of sweat have formed on his forehead. He’s obviously furious that I’m here and embarrassed that his son introduced someone like me to the could-be president.

Mr. Sinclair ignores Garret’s dad. “How long have you two been dating?”
 

I glance at Garret to answer. “Not long. But we’ve been friends since Jade arrived on campus. I showed her around when she first got here.”

“How do you like it here, Jade? Are you enjoying Moorhurst?” The guy continues to stare at me and it makes me wonder if part of that appetizer I ate is stuck in my teeth.
 

“It’s great. I like the school a lot.” I half smile, making sure not to show my teeth.
 

“Royce, I see the Donovans over there.” Mr. Kensington points to the side of the room. “We should go say hello. They’re big donors.” He looks back at us. “Jade. Garret. Enjoy your evening.”

 
“It was a pleasure meeting you.” Sinclair reaches out and shakes my hand. Then he shakes hands with Garret.

“Good luck with the campaign,” Garret says.

We make our way back through the crowd to the other side of the room.

“That was strange,” I say, taking a glass of sparkling water from the beverage table.
 

Garret takes a glass, too. “I thought it went okay. My dad didn’t even take me off to the side to yell at me.”

“Why was that guy staring at me like that?” I ask, checking my dress to see if I might have spilled something on it.
 

“Because you’re hot.” Garret leans down and kisses me. “Even the old guys can’t take their eyes off you. Should we go find some food?”
 

I look around at the tables of food around us. “The food is right here.”

“Those are the hors d’oeurvres. The dinner is in another room.”

He takes me to a huge room at the back of the house where people are sitting and eating at white linen covered tables.
 

“Guess it’s just a casual buffet tonight,” Garret says. “Usually it’s a formal sit down dinner. This is way better. We won’t have to wait to eat.”

The buffet has all types of foods I don’t eat; crab legs, lobster, shrimp, mussels.
 

“I’m not really hungry, Garret. You go ahead.”

He laughs. “Not a fan of seafood?”
 

“I didn’t eat much fish or seafood growing up in Iowa.”

“There’s a salad line over there.”
 

I give him a strange look. “When have you ever seen me eat a salad?”

“Okay, well, I’m not really in the mood for seafood tonight. Should we stick to appetizers?”

“That sounds good. Sorry. I usually don’t turn down food, but I just can’t do the seafood thing.”

“It’s no problem. Come on.” He takes me over to another buffet station that has even more appetizers than the servers were handing out. We load up our plates and sit down at a table.

“Garret.” A girl with long dark hair and overly white teeth comes over to us. She takes a seat next to Garret, getting a little too close.

“Sadie, I didn’t think you’d be here.” Garret sets his fork down as she gives him a hug.
 

So that’s who she is. The ex-girlfriend. And not a fake one either. Someone Garret actually picked. I put my fork down, too, no longer hungry.
 

12

A twinge of jealousy courses through me as I check out Sadie. She’s about my size, wearing a long but tight red dress with a plunging neckline that shows off some cleavage. My mind immediately thinks of her and Garret together.

“This is my girlfriend, Jade.” Garret puts his arm around me and my jealousy quickly fades.

“Hi, Jade. I’m Sadie. Garret and I interned together last summer down in DC.” She motions to a guy standing behind her. He’s tall with really short, dark hair. “This is my boyfriend, Evan.” She looks back at him. “Evan, come sit down.”
 

He smiles briefly as he sits down, seeming completely disinterested in meeting us. Garret and I both say hello anyway.

“Evan goes to Yale. I’m up visiting him for the weekend.”

“How’s school going?” Garret asks her.

“Good. Although they’re really piling on the work right now. I can barely keep up. I can’t wait for winter break. We’re going to Fiji this year. Well, Dad’s not. He has to stay behind and work on the campaign. He’ll be stuck in Iowa the whole time.”

“Um, Sadie, Jade is from Iowa.”
 

She reaches across Garret and puts her hand on my arm. “Jade, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that. Really. I’ve never been there, but I’m sure it’s a nice state.”

She seems sincere. Although her comment was clearly putting down Iowa, it’s not like she was trying to be mean to me personally.
 

She sits back in her chair. “I feel like an idiot now.”

I smile at her. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

Garret squeezes my shoulder and kisses my cheek. He must’ve liked my response. Great, now I’ve just proved his comment about me being sweet.