Page 24 of Finding Us
“Were you thinking what I was thinking?”
“About what a great time we had there? Yeah. That’s exactly what I was thinking. The movie nights. Chasing you around the track. Kissing you for the first time. Endless amounts of sex in my room. I can’t believe we used to have sex on a twin bed. I can’t imagine doing that now.”
He’s completely avoiding our goodbye in the woods, acting like it never happened. And maybe I should, too. It’s over and I don’t need to relive it. I need to forget it and focus on where we ended up. Together. Engaged. Soon to be married.
I feel my shoulders relax and my foot stops tapping. My heartbeat is slowly returning to normal. I’m always amazed at the way Garret can calm me down. He always seems to know what to do or say to make me feel better.
We drive into the small town that’s a few miles from campus and pass the coffee shop that Harper always went to. Next to it is the Thai place where Garret and I used to get takeout all the time. And across from that is the place where we used to go for pizza.
Garret points to the bright red train car sitting off to the right. “You want to go to the diner this weekend? Get a Boxcar Sundae?”
“Yeah, that would be fun. And maybe we could go to that Mexican place by your house. I want to see if that horrible mariachi singer is still there.”
“You still want him to sing at our wedding? We could fly him out there for it. We’ll fly out the whole band.”
I laugh just thinking about that guy singing. “No, that’s okay.”
“You sure? I still have the business card he gave me.”
“You do? Why did you keep it?”
“I thought you might want it someday. That was our first official date. I kept our bowling scoresheet, too, even though I’d rather not look at it again, given how bad you beat my ass.”
“I totally beat your ass.” I smile. “I can’t believe you kept that stuff. Did you keep other stuff from our dates?”
“Yeah, I got a whole box of stuff. Movie ticket stubs, pens from the hotels we stayed at, takeout menus from our favorite places. I can’t remember everything that’s in there.”
“Seriously? Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“I was waiting until it would mean something to you. Last fall you would’ve said it was just junk, but I knew after I softened you up you’d want it.” His cocky grin appears.
“You didn’t soften me up.”
“Oh, really? Then I guess when we get home, I’ll just toss all that shit in the trash.”
“No!” I almost yell it, then feel my cheeks heat up. “I mean, you might as well keep it now that you went to all that work to save it.”
He shrugs. “It wasn’t work. I just tossed it in a box. But you’re right. We don’t need to keep it.”
“Okay, you’ve proved your point. You’ve softened me up. Are you happy now? I want everything in your stupid box.”
He laughs and so do I.
“Maybe I’ll make one of my famous scrapbooks. I’ll take a class this time so it doesn’t look like a five-year-old made it.”
“There’s the park where we ate lunch your first day here.” He motions to the sign. “You acted like I was some serial killer. I’d never had a girl be that scared to have lunch with me.”
“I wasn’t scared. I was being careful. A lot of people get killed at parks.”
“Did I ever give you any indication that I was dangerous?”
“No, but killers don’t come out and tell you that. Some look perfectly normal and then when you least expect it they kill you and leave your body in the woods.”
He glances over at me. “Well, I wasn’t trying to scare you. I just wanted to eat lunch outside.”
“It was a good idea. I liked the lunch. And the park. And you. I liked you most of all.”
He squeezes my hand. “See? We have all kinds of good memories here.”
