Page 177 of Choosing You

He picks her up. “What are you doing to my girlfriend?”

“Fixing her hair for your date tonight.”

“We have a date tonight?” he asks her.

She shrugs. “I gave her my panda because she’s sad.”

“That was very nice of you.” He puts her down. “Can you let Jade and me talk for a minute?”

She nods and runs off.

Garret gives me a kiss, then sits on the floor next to the tiny table. “How was the tea?”

“She came in my room and invited me in here. What was I going to say?”

“She really likes you. She asks about you constantly. And now that you played with her she’ll like you even more.”

“So what’s going on with Blake? Is anything happening today? Or do I have to wait until Monday to talk to the lawyers?”

“Well, you may not have to say anything. I just talked to my dad. Blake is home recovering from his nose surgery and he’s sticking with his story about you two being a couple. Now he’s saying you’re calling it an attempted rape just to get money from his family.”

“Are you serious? So now what?”

“We’re going for a deal. My lawyers are discussing it with them now.”

“By deal you mean blackmail? But Garret, you said that was a last resort.”

“Yeah, well, Blake pushed it too far. He keeps making up lies about you. Lies that could affect your future. I’m not going to let him do that.”

“And your dad went along with this?”

“It was his idea. This deal helps us both. I don’t have time to waste in some courtroom or a room full of lawyers trying to defend myself against something I had every right to do. My dad just wants this taken care of.”

Lilly reappears, running over to Garret. “Dad wants to talk to you.”

“Okay.” He gets up off the floor. “Lilly, why don’t you go have breakfast with Jade?”

She takes my hand. “Don’t forget your bear.”

Garret smiles as I grab the panda and stand up from the tiny chair, my hair still only half-braided. We all go downstairs together. Garret goes into his dad’s office and Lilly and I go to the dining room.

When I finish breakfast, the door to Mr. Kensington’s office is still closed. I can’t find Garret anywhere so I assume he’s in there. I go upstairs to shower and dress, then watch TV in my room and wait.

Around noon, Garret comes in and sits next to me on the bed. “It’s done. He dropped the charges.”

CHAPTERFORTY-SEVEN

I let outa huge sigh of relief. “Are you sure it’s over?”

“It’s over. They just need to fill out some paperwork to make it official. Blake will probably be kicked out of Moorhurst. Right now, he’s not allowed on campus, so he’ll be finishing the semester at home, doing homework and tests online.”

“Seriously? What the hell did you have on him? Can you tell me now?”

“If I do, you can’t say anything. To anyone. Not even Frank or Ryan. Or Harper.”

“Yeah. I won’t.”

“Blake has a . . . side job, I guess you’d call it. He sells drugs. Cocaine mostly. He sells it to people at our school and some other colleges in the area. He also has some high profile buyers.”

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