Page 5 of Promising You
“Hasn’t Lilly ever gone sledding?”
He thinks for a moment. “I guess she hasn’t. We didn’t own a sled before you came along.”
“Thank God I did. I need to loosen you people up. You need some fun around here.” I reach for the juice carafe but Garret gets to it first and pours me some.
“So when do you think you want to go to Des Moines? I should probably get the plane ticket today.”
“Ticket? Just singular? You aren’t coming with me?”
He shrugs. “I didn’t think I should. I mean, I totally will if you want me to, but I thought you might want some time alone with Frank and Ryan, without me hanging around.”
“Yeah, okay. I guess that would be good. Maybe I’ll go next Saturday after we get back from New York.”
“How long do you want to stay? For the rest of break?”
“That’s two weeks. That’s kind of a long time.”
“I thought that’s what you wanted. You said you had all these plans to do stuff with Ryan.”
“Yeah. You’re right. Two weeks is good. It just sucks that I won’t see you for that long.” I stare down at my plate, moving my eggs around with my fork.
Garret takes the fork from me and sets it on the table. “Are you saying you’ll miss me? Because if so, I need to mentally record this moment. It may never happen again.”
I smile as I roll my eyes. “Yes. I guess that’s what I’m saying. You put some kind of spell on me and now I miss you when you’re not around.”
“I didn’t do anything,” he says.
I punch his arm. “Yeah you did, and it pisses me off.”
He kisses my cheek. “Well, you’ve done the same thing to me. I’m gonna really miss you, but I know you want to go home.”
“Why don’t you come to Des Moines for a week? That way I’ll have a week alone with Frank and Ryan and a week with you. I don’t need to spend every minute with the two of them. And besides, Frank has to stay home and rest. He’ll probably sleep most of the time. And Ryan will be at work or out with Chloe.”
Garret pushes his chair back and gets up. “Finally. I was waiting for you to invite me. It took you long enough.”
“You’re the one who told me to go by myself!”
“I was being polite, Jade. And then you were supposed to be polite back and invite me to go with you.” He stands behind me and drops a kiss on the top of my head. “I’ll go book the flights.”
“Not first class. It’s too expensive,” I say as he walks out. I’m sure he won’t listen.
* * *
After lunchwe take Lilly outside behind the house. The Kensington property includes several acres of land, mostly woods. We walk through the trees until we find a clearing at the top of a small hill. It’s not nearly as big as the hill at Bryant Park but it’s good enough for Lilly. The hill at the park would’ve been too scary for her since she’s never been sledding.
Lilly’s bundled up head to toe in pink snow pants, a pink jacket, and a pink hat. I can’t stand the color pink, but it’s cute on her with her rosy cheeks and blond hair.
I get on the sled with her and we slide slowly down the tiny hill.
“Can we do it again?” Lilly’s jumping up and down like this is the greatest thing she’s ever done.
I spend the next half hour going down the hill with her. Garret can’t sled because his chest is still healing from the bullet wound caused by the incident in the study that we’re pretending never happened.
“Can I go by myself now?” she asks Garret.
“You’re not afraid?”
She shakes her head no, then positions herself on the sled. He gives her a push down the hill. It takes her forever to pull the sled back up to the top, but when she finally reaches it, she’s ready to go again.
