He laughs. “I’ll protect you. Come here.” I snuggle up next to him. A few minutes into the movie I fall asleep.
I wake up when I feel Garret move his arm off me. “Jade, I can’t sit here any longer. I need to move.”
The clock on his desk says it’s 1 a.m. “Have you been awake this whole time?”
“Yeah, the movie ended and I’ve been watching TV.”
“You should’ve woke me up.”
“Nah. I like it when you sleep on me, but my arm was starting to go numb.”
“Oh. Sorry about that.” I sit up. “I should go.”
“Do you really want to go?”
“Well, it’s kind of late to start another movie.” I yawn and rub my eyes.
He turns the TV off. “I wasn’t going to watch another movie.”
I’m sleepy and it takes a moment for me to figure out what he means. “Are you inviting me for another sleepover?”
“The night’s practically over. You might as well stay.”
“Yeah, because my room’s so far away. It’ll be morning before I make it back.”
“I’m not trying to get you to have sex with me, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just want to sleep next to you again. Sleep. That’s it. But if you don’t want to, that’s fine.”
“Okay, I’ll stay.” I’m happy he wants me there, but I’m a little concerned that he thinks I’ve totally ruled out the idea of having sex with him. I made that one comment and now he assumes I’m not at all interested.
I get up from the chair, take my jeans off, and climb into bed.
“What are you doing?” he asks, standing over me.
“Going to sleep.” I pull the covers up.
“But you’re not wearing anything.”
“I’m wearing a shirt.”
“Yeah, but nothing else. You want a pair of my shorts?”
I prop up on my elbows. “I’m wearing underwear. I’m not going to wear my jeans to bed. What’s your problem? You can’t sleep next to me like this?”
“Uh, no. Definitely not.”
I tilt my head and smile. “And why is that? We’re just sleeping, right? Nothing else? You won’t even notice what I’m wearing because you’ll be asleep.”
“Trust me. I won’t be sleeping if that’s all you’re wearing. I’ll go get you something from your room.”
“You’re being crazy. Just go to sleep.” I lie back down with my back to him and close my eyes. I hear him sigh as he changes into his pajamas.
The mattress sinks in as he gets in behind me. The bed is so small our bodies can’t help but touch and I can tell my lack of clothing is affecting him. He keeps trying to move away from my lower half, but can’t because he’ll fall off the bed. I love torturing him like this. I try not to laugh when he attempts to move again.
“What is going on back there?” I ask, feigning annoyance. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t do this. You need to put something on.” He gets up, goes to his drawer, and comes back with a pair of fleece athletic shorts.
I can’t hold in my laughter anymore. “Are you saying you can’t resist me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He throws the covers off and drags my legs to the side of the bed, pausing a moment to look. “Damn. And then you have to wear sexy underwear? Did you do this on purpose?”
“Nope. This is my normal underwear.” I pull my shirt up more to show off my silky black bikinis.
He slips my legs into the shorts. “You were not wearing underwear like that when you were running last night.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. For someone who isn’t dating me you’ve sure seen me naked a lot.”
He pulls the shorts up to the top of my legs. I stand up and yank them the rest of the way on.
“There. That’s better,” he says, looking at the oversized shorts that go past my knees.
We get back in bed, the orange lights glowing above us. He’s lying on his back and I sneak under his arm, making myself comfortable. “You know, I wouldn’t care if you tried some stuff.”
He kisses my forehead. “I know. But that will lead to other stuff. And I want us to start dating first, like a real couple.”
“Then let’s go out on this date you keep talking about.”
“Okay, next Saturday night we’ll go on real date. As in go out, not sit in my room.”
“Saturday? But that’s so far away.” I don’t mean to sound desperate but it almost comes out that way.
“Are you in a hurry or something?”
“Um, no. I guess not.” I actually am in a hurry. I’m finding him hard to resist and now he’s holding out on me. I don’t know why he’s so insistent on having this official date. It seems like we’ve been dating this whole time.
“So I think it’s time to make another tradition.”
I lift my head up to look at him. “Like what?”
“I think we should have one of these sleepovers every Saturday night.”
“Hmm.” I lower my head back down on his shoulder, hiding my smile. “But we already have a tradition for Sunday morning.”
“Yeah? So?”
“I’m just saying if we did this, we’d have two traditions in a row, really close together.”
“We could add another one during the week if you feel the need to even things out a little.”
“Yeah, I guess we could do that.” My smile keeps growing. He wants more traditions with me? So he thinks we can really be a couple? Even with his rules and his family? I’m not going to question it. At least not tonight.
“Then it’s settled. Saturday night sleepovers are our second tradition. You figure out the midweek one since I made the other two.”
The way he says it makes me laugh. “Okay. I can do that.”
I turn over on my side and he does the same, my back against his front.
“Goodnight, Jade.” He moves my hair aside and kisses the nape of my neck, sending a tingle through my body. It makes me want to flip around and have my way with him, but I don’t. I’m sure he did it to get back at me for my underwear trick.
He pulls me closer to his chest and tucks his arm around me. It makes me feel warm and safe and happy. I’ve never felt so at peace.
Being with Garret all day, I haven’t even thought about my mom’s letter or my argument with Frank. He took all of the bad stuff away, at least for a little while.
26
We wake the next morning to loud knocking on the door. “Garret. Open the door! Right now!”
“Shit!” Garret quickly gets out of bed. “It’s my dad.”
“Your dad?” I whisper. “What is he doing here? What time is it?”
He checks the clock. “It’s 8. I don’t know why he’s here. Maybe there’s some kind of family emergency.” He takes his pajama pants off and puts on a pair of jeans.
“What do you want me to do?” I hurry out of the bed.
He tosses me my jeans. “Put these on. We’ll tell him we were heading out for breakfast.”
“Garret, are you in there?” his dad yells as the knocking continues.
“Yeah. Just a minute.”
I take his shorts off and pull my jeans on, then try to brush my hair with my fingers.
Garret opens the door just a crack. “Dad, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Mr. Kensington shoves the door open and storms into the room, stopping when he sees me. “What is she doing here?” he asks Garret.
“We were going to breakfast.”
“At this hour? You seriously think I’d believe you two got up this early on a Sunday to eat breakfast?”
“It’s not that early, Dad. Now why are you here?”
Mr. Kensington comes over to me. “Jade, my son and I need to talk. You need to leave.”
I glance at Garret.
“I’ll be right down, okay?” He says it, but he doesn’t sound confident.
“Don’t wait for him, Jade,” Mr. Kensington s
ays. “He’s not going down to your room. He’s not having breakfast with you. He’s not doing anything with you anymore. This thing you have going with him is over.”
“No, it’s not.” Garret tries to keep his tone positive. “Just ignore him, Jade.”
I look at him, not sure what to do.
“Just go. I’ll be down later,” he assures me. But I don’t believe him.
I slowly walk out the door and down the hall. Garret’s door slams and I can hear Mr. Kensington yelling. “What did I tell you about that girl? From now on you’re seeing Ava and only Ava. You understand me?”
When I get back to my room, I collapse on my bed, trying to figure out what just happened. Who talked to Garret’s father? Blake? Ava? Those guys who came by Garret’s room last night? Why are all these people so obsessed with keeping Garret and me apart? Can’t they mind their own business? Why do they keep interfering?
I feel a tear run down my cheek and I quickly wipe it away. This is not worth crying over. It’s not a big deal. Garret’s dad got mad before and it didn’t stop us. This time won’t be any different. Except part of me fears that it will. This didn’t seem like just a warning. Mr. Kensington was furious. Last time he at least tried to hide his anger from me. This time he wanted me to see it.
My phone rings. I’m sure it’s Frank but I’m not in the mood to talk to him. I’m still angry at him but I’m getting over it. I don’t understand why he never told me the truth about my mom but I don’t want to fight with him about it. I just want to pretend the conversation never happened.
The phone continues to ring. I reluctantly get up and answer it.
“Hello.”
Nobody answers.
“Is that you, Frank?”
There’s silence again. I start to put the phone down, then stop when I hear a man’s voice.
“What did you do with the letter?”
I put the phone back up to my ear. “What?”
“The letter, Jade. What did you do with it?”
The voice doesn’t belong to Frank. It doesn’t belong to Ryan either. It’s a really deep voice and the man is talking slowly.
“Who is this?” I ask, trying to hide the fact that this person is scaring the crap out of me.
“Answer me. The letter from Julia. Do you still have it?”
A chill runs down my spine as I hear my mother’s name. My mother always went by the name Julie, not Julia, her real name. Frank said only her parents used to call her Julia.
“Tell me who you are or I’m hanging up.”
“If you hang up, I’ll just call back. If you don’t answer the phone, I’ll show up at your door. I won’t go away, Jade, unless you cooperate.”
My heart is banging against my chest and I’m sure all color has drained from my face. For a second, I think this is some cruel Halloween joke, but this man doesn’t seem to be joking.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to destroy the letter. I want you to burn it until it’s nothing but ashes. Do you understand?”
“Why? Why do you care about a stupid letter? I don’t even know what letter you’re talking about.” My voice is shaky. I take a deep breath hoping to steady it.
“Don’t play games with me. Do as I say and burn the letter. When you’re done, you’ll never speak of the contents of that letter again. You’ll forget that it ever existed. Now do you understand?”
“I’m not listening to some anonymous caller.” I try to sound confident even though my hands are shaking.
Silence fills the phone line for a few very long seconds. Then he speaks again. “It’s a shame about Frank’s condition. I’m sure you wouldn’t want him to take a turn for the worse. Or for Ryan to have an accident.”
My legs give out and I have to sit down. “You’re threatening me? Over a letter? Please. Just tell me what this is about.”
“I’ve told you what to do. Now be a good girl and do what you’re told. We’re watching.”
The phone drops from my hand. It hits the top of my desk, making a loud thud. I quickly pick it up again. “Hello? Are you still there?”
The man is gone. I hang up the phone and drop to the floor. I hug my knees to my chest as my whole body shakes.
I need to see Garret. I need to talk to him and have him tell me that everything will be all right. I need to be close to him so I can feel safe. But he hasn’t come downstairs and after seeing his dad’s outburst this morning, I’m sure Garret will never appear at my door again.
Now someone I don’t even know is after me. Calling me. Watching me. Threatening to hurt the people I care about. But why? Why is this happening?
Just when everything was going so well, life smacks me in the face knocking me back down. Reminding me that I can’t be happy. For some reason, I’m not allowed to be.
My past continues to haunt me.
And this time, I can’t run from it.
From the Author
The second book in The Jade Series is coming soon! The book is already written and in the final edit stage. For updates on its release, check out my Allie Everhart author page on Goodreads or follow me on Twitter (@AuthorAllie).
Thanks for reading Choosing You! If you liked it, please tell a friend or leave a review. I really appreciate it! Thanks!
-Allie
Other books from Waltham Publishing include:
The Samantha Project Trilogy, a Young Adult series that includes the following books:
The Samantha Project
The Golden Couple
A Chosen Destiny
Choosing You Page 23
