Page 3 of Finding Us
“Thank you,” he says, walking back to the kitchen.
“You two shouldn’t be conspiring against me like this. It’smywedding. I should be able to wear what I want.”
“We’ll let you wear flip flops under your dress,” Harper says. “So getting back to your vows, I think you should write your own. That way you can say whatever you want.”
“That sounds like a lot of work. We’ll just rework the traditional ones.”
“I’ll write my own,” Garret says.
“What?” I jump up from the couch and meet him in the kitchen. “You can’t do that. Ifyoudo, thenI’llhave to write some, and I don’t know how to write vows.”
He sets a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and sliced strawberries on the kitchen table, then steers me over there to sit down. “You can do it. But you better get started now. You’ve only got a few weeks left.”
“Are you serious? Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
He shrugs and sits down with his own plate of food. “I just decided it.”
“And you think you can just come up with something with only a few weeks left?”
“I could probably get it done today.” He smiles, then takes a bite of his toast.
Harper gets up from the couch. “I’ll let you guys eat. Jade, call me when you’re done meeting with that guy.”
“Okay, bye.”
She leaves and I stare back at Garret. “Were you kidding just now?”
“Nope.” He gets up and grabs the two glasses of orange juice he left on the counter and brings them back to the table, setting one in front of me. Garret insists I drink orange juice at breakfast now instead of my usual orange soda.
“You really want us to write our own vows?”
“Yeah. It’s more personal. I don’t want to just repeat the same old vows that everyone else says.”
“Nobody will even be listening. They won’t even hear us with the sound of the waves behind us. Let’s just use the traditional vows.”
“I’llbe listening. I don’t care if anyone else does. This wedding is for you and me. And I want it to be special. Something we’ll always remember. And I’m not going to remember my vows if they’re just the same old generic vows that everyone else says.”
I sigh. “All right. But I have no idea how to do this. I’ve never been very good at writing.”
He leans over and kisses me. “Just write from the heart, Jade. Write what you feel. It’ll be easier that way.”
We finish eating and I take my plate over to the sink. When Garret cooks, I clean up. And when I cook, he cleans up. But I rarely cook so I usually get clean-up duty. “I can’t believe we’ll be married in a month.”
“Thirty-two days to be exact.”
“You’re counting the days now?” I ask as I put the orange juice in the fridge.
“I’ve been counting the days since you said yes to my proposal.”
I go over and kiss his cheek. “You’re very romantic. You know that?”
“Not really. I just love you and I want you to be my wife.” He scoots his chair back and sits me on his lap.
“I’m kind of worried about that. I don’t know how to be a wife.”
“I don’t know how to be a husband, but I’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah, but at least you grew up around married people. You saw how it worked.”
