Page 204 of Choosing You

“I love it. It almost makes me feel better after this horrible day. And week. I guess the whole month has kind of sucked.”

Garret comes up behind me and kisses the top of my head. “It’ll get better, Jade. Now do you want to see more?”

I turn around to face him. “There’s more?”

“Every room is decorated, but most of them just have boring white lights. Let’s go upstairs.”

He takes me to the bedroom I’m staying in. It has its own tree with bright blue lights. “I called and had this done yesterday when I found out you’d be staying here. You can keep the lights on when you sleep just like at school.”

“This is so cool. I’ve never had a tree in my bedroom. Actually, I’ve never had a tree.”

“Not even at Frank’s house?”

“I was living with two guys. They didn’t care about putting up a Christmas tree.”

“I’m a guy and I’d put up a Christmas tree.”

“Yeah, well, I guess they’re not really into Christmas.”

We go to Lilly’s room next. It has a tiny white tree decorated in pink lights. It’s so Lilly. Delicate, small, and covered in pink.

“She’s not even here to enjoy it,” I say.

“It’s been up for weeks. She’s enjoyed it. Let’s go to my room.”

Garret’s bedroom has a small tree with blue lights, like the one in my room, but then he has more lights strung around the window frame. He turns them on and closes the drapes so I can see them better.

“What do you think?” I feel him behind me, his breath by my ear as he moves my hair aside. “You like the lights?”

“Garret. Stop it. Your dad’s home. And it’s the afternoon.”

“We’ve done it in the afternoon before. Right in this very room.” He leaves kisses down my neck, causing tiny bumps to rise up on my skin. “I think it was even your suggestion.”

“Yeah, but your dad wasn’t downstairs.” I feel myself sinking into him as my whole body relaxes.

“My dad doesn’t care.” He moves my shirt aside and skims his lips along my collarbone. I sink into him even more and his arm tightens around my waist.

“Okay, that’s enough. Let’s get out of here before we end up doing something.”

He laughs, knowing he’s getting to me. He turns me around, keeping me close. “I need a kiss first. I saved your life earlier and you didn’t even kiss me.”

“Garret, don’t joke about that. We could’ve died.”

“But we didn’t. And I think I deserve a kiss.”

As I replay what happened, Iamreally amazed at what he did. The way he figured out what to do with the out-of-control car was impressive. We didn’t even get hurt, not even a scratch. I guess I’ll have to add good driving skills to the growing list of compliments I’m saving up for him.

I give him a quick kiss.

“You have to do better than that,” he says. “I saved your life, remember?”

I kiss him again, parting my lips to let his tongue slip past and weakening my resolve to limit this to a simple kiss. The more I think about him saving us, the more turned on I get. Maybe that’s weird, but at this moment I’m finding it extremely sexy.

He moves us toward the bed as we kiss.

“Garret, are you in there?” His dad is knocking on the door.

We break apart and I punch Garret. “I told you it was a bad idea!” I whisper.

---