Page 34 of Family Bonds- Garrett & Justine

“I’m fine with it,” she said.

“And you don’t want to talk about this,” Jordan said. “But we have to at times.”

“I know,” she said. “And we are. I didn’t reply to her. There is no reason to. She will not intimidate me to give her anything.”

“She always thought she could intimidate you,” Jordan said. “Stay strong.”

“I plan on it,” she said and hung up with her sister a few minutes later.

Justine looked at the clock and saw it was almost six. She wasn’t hungry and needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

She changed into leggings and a T-shirt, then tied a sweatshirt around her waist, put her sneakers on, and grabbed her phone and key.

A walk might be the best thing to clear her mind.

She took the path to the back of the apartments that would bring her to the road. There wasn’t much traffic and she’d be fine walking there.

Five minutes into her walk, she saw a runner coming her way.

As he got closer, her jaw dropped.

Garrett crossed the road and came toward her. “Well now, look at this. We meet again.”

“We do,” she said.

Why did this keep happening to them?

She realized now this was the guy that she had seen running before. Sometimes he looked like he was on a mission to win some race.

Today it was more of a casual run.

Her eyes traveled the length of him.

Seeing him up close in his shorts, she noticed he had some mighty fine muscular legs.

“I didn’t see you today at work,” he said.

“My day off,” she said. “I didn’t see you yesterday.”

“Busy day,” he said.

She decided maybe she was going to prove her sister wrong. Garrett was jogging in place while they talked. “Did you get home and just leave to run?”

“I did,” he said. “It’s a beautiful day out and I got out on time.”

“So no dinner yet?”

“Nope,” he said, smiling. “You?”

“No,” she said. “How about a home-cooked meal? My treat since I spent Sunday with your family and had a surprisingly good time.”

He laughed. “No way I’m going to say no to that.”

“I’ll head back now if you want to come over after your run. Not sure how long you’ve been running?”

“About ten minutes,” he said. “And I’m turning around to go back now.”

She laughed. “Then I’ll do the same.”

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