Page 146 of Always Us

“You’re such a bad boy.” She pushes off me and stands up.

“You love it.” I swat her ass. “Now get in there.”

We have sex a couple times before finally going to sleep. I didn’t know Jade would get so turned on by me yelling at Brandon. I thought she might get mad about it and we’d have to talk about it when we got home. But instead we had sex. Yeah, I love my wife.

The next morning we get up early and head to the airport for our flight to Connecticut. I almost wish we weren’t going. This is our first Christmas as a married couple and I really wanted it to be special. But instead it’s going to be tense and uncomfortable because of Katherine. I know she has to be there for Lilly’s sake, but I still don’t want her around.

We’ll also have to deal with my grandmother, who will be judging everything I do and say, and ignoring Jade. When I was there for the memorial, I thought my grandmother might be starting to change now that my grandfather is gone. She gave me a hug, a real hug, not one of her distant hugs. I took that as a sign she was changing. But then after that, she hardly talked to me. And when I left, she didn’t even call or stop by the house to say goodbye. So I don’t know what to expect at Christmas. I’m assuming she’ll be back to her old self.

Christmas is a week from today and we’re not leaving until the following Monday, which means we have eight days with my family. That’d be great if it were just Lilly and my dad, but adding Katherine to the mix will make those eight days go by excruciatingly slow.

The wheels of the plane touch down and Jade stirs a little in her seat. She’s been asleep the entire flight. She usually wakes up when the flight staff makes all those announcements about the plane preparing to land. This time she didn’t wake up, so I let her sleep until the plane comes to a stop.

Her face is against my shoulder. I kiss her forehead. “Time to get up, sleepy girl.”

“Are we almost there?” she mumbles.

“We just landed.”

She sits up. “But I just fell asleep.”

“You fell asleep hours ago.” I unfasten my seatbelt and grab our carry-on bags.

She hangs onto the back of my shirt as we exit the plane. She’s still groggy, yawning as we walk through the terminal.

“Ready for a week with my family?” I ask her.

She perks up. “Yeah, I can’t wait.”

“You do know Katherine will be there, right?”

She laughs and loops her arm in mine. “Yes, Garret. You’ve reminded me a million times and I told you, I’m not letting her ruin Christmas. I’ll just ignore her.”

“Maybe we should’ve gone to Frank’s house.”

“He wants to be with his girlfriend. He doesn’t want us hanging around.”

Frank is still dating Karen and they’re spending the holiday together. It sounds like they’re getting pretty serious. He’ll probably marry Karen before Ryan marries Chloe.

Ryan and Chloe are spending Christmas in Florida with her sister, who lives in Tampa. Her parents will be there, too. Then the day after Christmas, Ryan and Chloe are driving down to the Florida Keys for vacation. It’ll be the first time Ryan’s had a real vacation.

“We could’ve stayed home,” I say to Jade. “Had our own Christmas. Just the two of us.”

“Why are you acting like this? I thought you wanted to be here for Christmas.”

“I do. I just don’t want our Christmas ruined by Katherine.”

“We had a great Christmas last year even though she was there, so we’ll have a great one this year, too.”

I love that Jade has such a good attitude about this. My grandmother ignores her. Katherine’s mean to her. And yet Jade still wants to be here for Christmas.

We go past the security checkpoint area and I stop and give her a kiss. “I love you.”

She smiles. “I love you, too.”

“Garret! Jade!” Lilly comes running up to us, slamming into our legs. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas.” Jade hugs her.

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