Page 220 of Promising You
“Harper gave me a bunch of new ones from her sister along with a few more bikinis. You’ll get to see them in California this summer.”
He’s quiet as he rubs his hand up and down my arm.
“You’re not going, are you?”
“Probably not. This is going slower than we thought it would. My dad was sure they would’ve given up on me by now and picked someone else. But they haven’t, so we need to keep this thing going.”
“I’ve been reading the comments online about you and they’re pretty bad.”
“That’s the thing. A lot of people either don’t like me anymore or have lost interest, so I don’t know why the organization isn’t giving up on me. Hardly anyone would vote for me now or in twenty years. People think I’m a drug addict. Even if fake Garret went to rehab, nobody wants a former drug addict for a president.”
“If you can’t go to California I don’t think I should go either.”
“We’ve already discussed this. You’re going. A driver will take your car out there. You can just fly out and take a cab from the airport. Did you want to stop in Des Moines on the way out there and see Frank and Ryan?”
“Yeah, but I don’t have money for all those plane tickets. And you can’t buy them for me. If someone found out, it would look suspicious.”
“You should have Arlin pay for it.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t want him and Grace thinking I’m only being nice to them for their money.”
“Well, I might’ve mentioned to him that you need some plane tickets. And he might’ve already offered to get them for you.”
I sit up. “Garret, why did you do that?”
“He called and asked me if you needed anything because he said he knows you’ll never ask. So I just said you might need a plane ticket to Des Moines and another one for California. He really wants to do this for you, Jade.”
“Yeah, because he thinks buying me stuff will make up for what his son did.”
“That’s not what he’s doing. And he’s afraid to offer to pay for anything because he knows you’ll assume that’s why he’s doing it. But it’s not true, Jade. I told you before. He loves doing stuff for his grandkids and now he’s got you. A whole new kid to spoil. So don’t read so much into it. Just let him be a grandfather.” Garret gets up and gathers our clothes from the ground. “I almost forgot the picnic part of this secret meeting. But we should probably put something on first.”
After we’re dressed, he opens the picnic basket and pulls out a bottle.
“Sparkling water. I was in a hurry and it’s all we had. But it’s cherry flavored.” He takes out two champagne flutes and hands them to me.
“Are these crystal glasses?” I ask, noticing how heavy they are.
“Yeah. I just grabbed some from the cabinet at home.” He fills our glasses, then holds his up for a toast. “To people continuing to hate me so this will end and we won’t have to have our dates in the woods.” We clink glasses.
He reaches in the basket again. “And here are the Belgian chocolates I was supposed to give you after spring break.”
I take a chocolate and pop it in my mouth. “This is definitely the best chocolate ever.”
“You can take the rest of them back to your room.” He sets his glass down. “So what are you doing for Easter? Do you have a place to go on Sunday?”
“Sean is making brunch, so I’m going over there with Harper. He’s having a whole bunch of people over.”
“Before you go over there, I need you to go on the trail.”
“You want me to go running on Easter?”
“No. Just show up on the trail around 9. I’ll have a surprise waiting for you.”
“What kind of surprise would you have on the trail?”
“Just go there and find out. I promised you I’d make each holiday special with all the traditions you didn’t get growing up. I’m guessing you didn’t celebrate Easter either?”
“No.” I take another chocolate. “But you don’t need to keep doing this holiday thing.”
