Page 201 of Choosing You

“Katherine ruined the family name, Jade. We need a new Mrs. Kensington. And you’re it.”

I jab his side. “Okay, you’re done now.”

He goes back to reading his sports section. I squeeze his hand as we take off, then rest my head on his shoulder and fall asleep.

We get into Hartford just before noon. It’s dark and gloomy. It almost looks like it could snow.

I get in the car and call Ryan quick to let him know we made it while Garret puts the luggage in the trunk. I hang up with Ryan just as Garret gets in the car.

“Do you want to eat somewhere?” he asks as we’re leaving the airport. “It’s more than an hour drive to my house.”

“No, I’m not hungry.”

Garret gets on the interstate. As he speeds up, I notice him glancing down at his feet.”

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“I was just checking something.”

His eyes move from the road to the dashboard and back again, repeatedly. A car pulls into our lane. We come up close to its bumper but Garret doesn’t even slow down. He just darts into the other lane.

“Garret, you almost hit that car. Why didn’t you slow down?”

He checks the dashboard again. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“I can’t slow down.” He sounds panicked. “I keep pressing on the brakes and nothing happens. Watch.” He hits the brakes and the speed doesn’t change. “The fucking brakes are out!”

NowI’mpanicking. “This car is only a few months old. How could the brakes not work?”

“We have to get off the interstate. I’m gonna take one of these exits.”

“And do what?”

“I don’t know yet. The next town is really small. I’m hoping we’ll have the road to ourselves. Then I’ll figure something out.”

He signals and moves to the far right lane, then gets off at the next exit going 75 miles per hour. Luckily there aren’t any other cars on the offramp or the stoplight at the end of it. We plow right through the red light and down a two-lane road.

I’m convinced this is the end of both of our lives. We came back here to be safe and now we’re going to die.

Garret’s being very calm about this, probably for my sake. I keep quiet so he can concentrate.

“Jade, hold on to something. This is going to be a rough stop.”

Before I can ask what he’s doing, he puts the car in neutral, veers off the road, and steers up a large snowy hill. The car slows down, unable to make the hill, the tires struggling in the snow. It rolls back and finally stops. Garret turns the car off, then reaches over and unfastens my seat belt.

“Get out of the car! Now!” He yells it at me as he gets out of the driver’s side.

He comes around and grabs my hand, then starts running away from the car.

“What’s going on?”

“Someone fucked with my brakes. And if they did that, they might have done something else to the car. Set something to go off. I don’t know. We just need to get away.”

We stop when we reach the ditch by the road. “Jade, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No. I’m fine. Just freaked out. And cold.”

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