Page 81 of Family Bonds- Garrett & Justine

It was nice to hear that. Something her father said to her a lot too.

“Justine, is that you?”

She turned her head to see her boss standing there. There were so many people here and she hadn’t gone off on her own far. She stayed at the table mainly or was with Garrett as he walked her around to introduce her to some colleagues.

“Hi, Joyce. It is.” She wasn’t surprised her boss was here or found her.

“I had no idea you’d be here today and when I saw the short blonde hair I had to make my way over when someone said it looked like you.”

“This is my boss, Joyce Conroy. Joyce, Garrett Mills.”

She was going to introduce the rest of the table that was there, but Joyce interrupted. “I know who the Mills are.”

Garrett reached his hand out anyway. “Nice to meet you. I should thank you for sending Justine to the island where we got the opportunity to meet.”

“Are you two together?” Joyce asked, her eyes landing on Garrett’s hands that were resting on Justine’s shoulders.

“We are dating,” she said. “Yes.”

“Wonderful,” Joyce said. “Maybe you two might decide to stay on the island and save me trying to fill that spot. How is it going, by the way?”

There went that forced smile again.

Garrett massaged her shoulders briefly.

“It’s going well, as you can see,” she said.

“There you go,” Garrett said. “Time yet for decisions to be made on Justine’s part.”

If he hadn’t added those last few words, she might have ground her teeth, but he had.

He was making it very clear to everyone that where she ended up washerdecision.

Joyce looked around the table, then vacated quickly.

“See,” Selena said. “People leave when there is a united front of the Bond family.”

She saw the grin Selena had but noticed that Richard, Carson, and Gabriela weren’t smiling when Joyce made that comment. She suspected Garrett wasn’t either.

“I guess I’m glad to be part of it,” she said, not realizing that statement slipped until Garrett squeezed her shoulders again.

“Sorry it was such a long night,” Garrett said over an hour later while he was driving back to his condo. She didn’t think they were ever going to be able to slip out of there.

“That isn’t your fault. It was fun.”

He laughed. “It was fun when it started and we are going to end on a good note back at my place, but the few hours in between were tiring. I get it.”

“I hadn’t meant to say that about being part of your family,” she said.

She’d noticed that Gabriela and Selena had smiled over her words, but she wished she could have taken them back.

The last thing she wanted to do was put any pressure on Garrett.

“Maybe I enjoyed hearing it,” he said. “Unless you didn’t mean it.”

She weighed her words. “I meant it in that moment.”

He was silent for a minute. “I guess I’ll take it.”

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