Page 39 of Always Us

When we’re finished eating lunch, I put my arm around Jade and say, “You know what we should do?”

“What?”

“We should get a Christmas tree.”

“But it’s still November.”

“Yeah? So? December’s only three days away. And when my mom was alive we always put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Well, my mom did most of the work while my dad and I watched football, but I’d help her with the ornaments.” I slide Jade’s chair closer to mine and kiss her cheek. “Come on. I need this. It’ll make me feel better.”

She smiles. “Then let’s get one. We’ll go right after class. Do they sell them already?”

“They’ve had the fake ones out since before Halloween. I don’t know about the real ones. You want a real one?”

“Maybe we should get a fake one. If we get a real one it might be all dried out by Christmas.”

“We’ll get a fake one now and when it’s closer to Christmas we’ll get a real one.”

“Two trees? Really?” She gets that excited look I love so much. She’s a millionaire and yet she still gets excited over the littlest things.

I kiss her. “Yes. Two trees. Or maybe three.”

She laughs. “Two is good.”

I grab my backpack and stand up. “I need to go. Come home right after class and we’ll go shopping.”

As I leave, I look back and see a huge smile on her face. I’m going to make this the best Christmas she’s ever had. It’ll be the best one for me, too, because I no longer have to worry. There’s no deadline. Jade is safe.

CHAPTER NINE

9

JADE

Garret takes off out the door just as Sara comes over.

“What are you smiling about?” She sits down across from me. “Why do I even ask? You’re smiling because you have the hottest, sweetest husband in the world.”

I laugh. “That’s true, but that’s not why I’m smiling. Garret wants to get a Christmas tree today and I’m smiling because I’ve never had one.”

“I haven’t either. My mom had this small green metal one she put on the kitchen table but it was more like a decoration. It wasn’t an actual tree.”

“Are you getting one this year?”

“I don’t have the money for one, but Alex will have one up at his place.”

“Hey, are you on break? I need to hear about your weekend.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a few minutes. Tell me about yours first.”

“We didn’t really do much. We ate a ton of food and watched movies. Oh, and I gave that speech I told you about.”

“How’d it go?”

“Really well. One of the other speakers asked me to talk at a youth conference in March, and now Garret thinks I should give speeches for a living, but I don’t know. I need to think about it. So tell me about going to Alex’s house for Thanksgiving.”

“It was great. His parents’ house isn’t very big and there were 40 people there, so it was packed.” Sara props her elbow on the table and rests her chin on her palm, a big grin spreading across her face. “But I loved being there. It was so much fun. His sisters are awesome. They both have young kids but not babies, so when they saw Caleb, they went all baby crazy. He got so much attention. I didn’t talk to Alex’s brothers much, but I talked to their wives. They went all crazy for Caleb, too. And Alex’s parents are super nice. His mom even invited me there for Christmas. Oh, and the dinner was so good. Caleb kept trying to feed himself sweet potatoes with his hand and it got all over his face. It was really funny.”

“See? I knew you’d have a good time. You worried for nothing. How was the hotel situation?”

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