Garret

by Allie Everhart

  “No, it’s not,” I say, in a calm, even tone. “Just ignore him, Jade.”

  She glances at my dad then back at me, like she’s not sure what to do.

  “Just go,” I tell her. “I’ll be down later.”

  I need to get her out of here before my dad explodes. If I put my dad’s temper on a scale of one to 10, I’d say he’s at a two right now. Jade does not want to see him at a five and definitely not anything higher than that. When my dad gets that mad, you don’t want to be anywhere near him.

  Jade leaves and my dad slams the door shut. I’m sure he woke up the entire floor. Probably Jade’s floor as well.

  He starts yelling as his temper rises to a three on the verge of a four. “What did I tell you about that girl? From now on you’re seeing Ava and only Ava. You understand me?”

  “We can’t talk about this here. You’re waking up my entire floor and you’re embarrassing me.” I walk out the door and down the hall. He follows me and grabs my arm and yanks me the rest of the way to the staircase.

  “Let go of me,” I say through gritted teeth. I yank on my arm and he grips it even tighter.

  My dad is freaking huge; 6’5 with a broad, muscular build. I’m 6’3 and I work out all the time so I’m muscular and I could fight him, but he’d probably win. When he’s pissed, I swear he gets superhuman strength.

  We go to the parking lot and he clicks open the doors of his Mercedes and leads me to the passenger side. “Get in.”

  I finally rip my arm free and face him. “I’m not going with you. Jade and I were just going for breakfast. That’s it. So what’s your fucking problem?”

  “Get in the car. Now.”

  “Why? Where are we going?”

  “We’re going home.”

  “So you can scream at me all day? Tell me how much you hate me? How much of a disappointment I am to you? Don’t waste your time. I already know all that.”

  He shuts his eyes and inhales a deep breath. As he exhales, he looks at me again. He seems slightly calmer now and almost a little concerned. “Garret, you’re young and you’re naive. You think you know all the answers but you don’t. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I can’t explain this to you. You just need to listen to me and not ask questions.”

  Rule number one. Don’t ask questions. I fucking hate that rule. Why are there so many damn secrets within my own family? Why won’t my own father tell me what’s going on? Because I know something’s going on. I just can’t figure out what it is.

  “Is this because Jade is poor? Or is it more than that?”

  “What did I just say about asking questions?”

  “If there’s something you’re not telling me about Jade, I’m not leaving here until I get answers.”

  “Garret, you’ve been in this family long enough to know the rules. I’m not going to stand here and explain them to you.”

  “So you don’t want me seen with her because she doesn’t have money. Because her mom was a drunk. Because she doesn’t have the right last name. Well, get the hell over it because I’m done playing by those fucked-up, elitist rules. And I don’t get why you follow them either. Mom didn’t fit in your world. She wasn’t rich. She—”

  I stop when I see his face getting red. The mention of my mom raised his temper to a seven, maybe even higher. I’m not supposed to talk about my mom. He gets mad if I even say her name. After the plane crash, he wouldn’t talk about her. He even threw out all the photos of her.

  He opens the car door. “Get in the car.”

  “I’ll drive myself.” I turn away from him but he grabs my arm.

  With his other hand, he holds my car keys in the air. He must’ve taken them from my room. “You no longer have a car. Someone’s coming to pick it up later.”

  “You can’t take my car! That’s not—”

  “Get in this fucking car before I put you in there myself!”

  He scares me when he gets like this. He gets this look in his eyes like he’s going to kill someone. And since I’m almost positive he’s actually done that, it makes that look he’s giving me even scarier.

  I get in the car and he slams the door shut. He gets into the driver’s side and takes off, speeding down the road. We drive in silence for several minutes and when we approach a red light, he slams on the brakes.

  “Your grandfather is waiting for you at the house.” My dad’s calmed down a little but I still don’t want to say anything. I need him to get back to a two and he’s still at a five, maybe a six.

  The light turns green and my dad speeds down the winding road. “You’re going to Houston for the company conference. We leave tonight. Your bags are already packed.”

  Every year, Kensington Chemical hosts a conference for our clients and other people in the chemical industry. I forgot it was this week. I don’t pay attention to stuff the company does because I have no interest in it.

  “I have classes. I can’t miss—”

  “Your professors have been notified and have agreed to post your assignments online for you to access while you’re away. When we’re not entertaining clients, you will do your class work.”

  So now he’s taking over my education, too? Contacting my professors? That’s just great. Like I need him controlling even more of my life.

  I can’t talk to him when he’s like this. I’ll have to wait until we get home and he’s not so angry. And then I’ll tell him I’m not going to the conference. It’ll cause a huge fight but he can’t force me to go. I’m an adult and I’m sick of him acting like I’m not.

  I need to call Jade. She’s sitting in her room, wondering where the hell I am. She’ll probably go upstairs, if she hasn’t already, and when she sees I’m not there, she won’t understand. She saw how angry my dad was and she’ll assume this is over. She’ll think this is the end. That my dad will never let me see her again. But that’s not going to happen. I’m just starting to earn Jade’s trust and have her see me as more than a friend. And I’m not letting my dad take that away.

  When we get to the house, my grandfather is there.

  He smiles when he sees me. He never smiles. Like ever. “Garret. I’m so pleased you’ll be attending the conference this year. And I’m even more pleased that it was your idea.” He pats me on the back.

  I glare at my dad.

  He keeps his eyes on me as he says, “Katherine told your grandfather how you’ve been talking about the conference, wishing you could go but concerned that if you did, you’d get behind in your classes.”

  Katherine? Why the hell would she get involved in this? Does she know about Jade, too? She must. Katherine is obsessed with image and the last thing she’d ever want is for me to be seen with someone like Jade. If Katherine’s rich friends found out, it might harm her standing in certain social circles. And that’s all she cares about. She’s never cared about me. She doesn’t care about my dad. She doesn’t even care about Lilly. She only cares about herself and how she looks and how people see her.

  “I don’t remember talking to Katherine about the conference,” I say, still glaring at my dad.

  “Of course you do, Garret.” I feel Katherine’s skinny fingers on my shoulder. “You mentioned it just the other day.”

  It’s amazing how easy the lies just roll off her tongue like that. She sounds very convincing. Then again, all she does is lie so I guess if you do it all the time you get good at it.

  My grandfather smiles at Katherine, then looks back at me. “Katherine was kind enough to contact your professors and arrange for them to give you access to your assignments while you’re gone.”

  “It was no trouble at all,” she says. “I’m taking Lilly shopping so I’ll see you all later.” She walks away, turning back to give me her smug smile.

  “Garret, let’s get to work.” My grandfather puts his arm around me, which he never does. The only physical contact we’ve ever had is a handshake.
That pat on the back he gave me when I got here was also a first.

  “What are we working on?” I ask him.

  My dad’s just standing there watching the scene, letting my grandfather take over.

  “We’re going to review the schedule for the conference,” my grandfather says. “And then I’ll show you photos of the people you need to meet. You need to know their names and their importance to us before we get there so you can properly interact with them.”

  Their importance to us. My grandfather doesn’t see people as people. He sees them as assets or liabilities. That’s it. Before today, I thought I was a liability to him. He’s ashamed of me for going to Moorhurst and he didn’t approve of me all through high school. He was always yelling at my dad, telling him to control my drinking and partying.

  But now my grandfather’s treating me like an asset. And I have to admit, I like that he’s acting this way. Acting like he actually accepts me for once.

  “I can’t tell you how happy this makes me, Garret.” My grandfather is smiling again and the fact that he said he’s happy just now has me wondering if he’s lost his mind. The man is never happy. And if he was, he’d never admit to it.

  Now I feel like I should just go to the conference. It’s only a few days and I really would like to get on my grandfather’s good side again. And if this makes him happy, then I guess I just need to suck it up and go.

  “Let’s go in the study and get started.” My grandfather pats me on the back again.

  “I need to speak with him first,” my dad says.

  My grandfather goes in the study and my dad takes me into his office and shuts the door.

  “Thank you for being an adult about this, Garret. As you can see, your grandfather is very excited you’ll be joining us.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s the only reason I’m agreeing to go.”

  My dad holds out his hand. “Give me your phone.”

  “What? No! I’m not giving you my phone.”

  “You are NOT calling her, Garret.”

  “I’ll call whoever the hell I want to call.”

  He’s still holding his hand out. “Give me the phone. This isn’t a choice.” When I don’t, he gets in my face. “The phone, Garret. Now!”

  His temper just shot up to a nine, maybe a 10. My heart’s thumping hard. I hate that he gets to me this way. I reach in my pocket and hand him the phone.

  “Now go in the study and meet with your grandfather.”

  He waits for me to leave, then closes the door to his office.

  Whatever. He can take my phone. I’ll get one of those prepaid phones at a gas station. Or I’ll get a calling card. I’ll find a way to contact Jade. But I can’t do it right now. Not with my dad and my grandfather watching my every move.

  The rest of the day I spend sitting at a table in the study, listening to my grandfather tell me about people I don’t give a shit about it. The only person I care about is back at Moorhurst.

  I can’t stop thinking about her. I just saw her this morning but I already miss her. Her smile. Her laugh. The feel of her in my arms.

  I’ve fallen in love with that girl. And I almost lost her because of my family and their rules. But this is it. After this trip, I’m done listening to them. I’m done with their rules.

  I love Jade. And I’ll do everything possible not to lose her again.

  From the Author

  This book started out as some bonus scenes I wrote and posted on my blog. Readers liked hearing Garret’s side of things so I kept writing and ended up with the book you just read. I don’t have any plans to write Knowing You or any of the other Jade books in Garret’s point of view unless enough readers were interested in that. But I might write some bonus scenes from those books.

  So if you want to hear more from Garret, tell me what you’re most interested in. Would you want another book from him? If so, which book would you want from his point of view (Knowing You, Loving You, Promising You, or Forever You)? Or, would you prefer just a few bonus scenes? If so, which scenes from books 2-5 would you want to read from Garret’s point of view?

  Let me know either on Facebook, Twitter, or in your review!

  Allie

  Author Allie Everhart Facebook page

  http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAllieEverhart

  Goodreads author page

  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7244325.Allie_Everhart

  Twitter: @AuthorAllie

  Books in THE JADE SERIES

  Choosing You (Jade #1)

  Knowing You (Jade #2)

  Loving You (Jade #3)

  Promising You (Jade #4)

  Note: Promising You was originally planned as the end of the series so you could choose to finish the series with this book.

  Forever You (Jade #5)

  For Jade Series fans who want more Jade and Garret, this book kicks off a new twist to the storyline that will continue in forthcoming books.

  Finding Us (Jade #6)