River Lane

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

            Looks of astonishment crossed everyone’s faces. I wasn’t sure who was more shocked, Jared or Me. Jack just cracked up laughing, making us all think he was insane.

            “Um excuse me?” I was kind of speechless.

            “No no don’t take this wrong, I don’t actually mean we should get married right away,” Garrett said in a hurry, stumbling over his words.

            “Best hurry and say what you do mean boy before I kick your ass,” Jared said, with very little humor in his voice. Garrett stood taller and hurried on.

            “What I mean, is that maybe we should pretend to be engaged. We’ve been together long enough that people would find it believable. Maybe whoever is causing all these problems might get threatened enough that they’ll leave you alone.”

            “Or they’ll get pissed off enough to make it worse,” Jared growled.

            “But don’t you see, even if that happens, it might make them slip up and expose themselves faster. One way or another it might solve this predicament a lot quicker. We’re kind of running out of options aside from just taking her away.” He seemed to be getting more excited by the moment. I wasn’t sure if I was excited by the idea or completely freaked out.

            “I’m not going away. I fought hard enough to get here; I’m not leaving again anytime soon. Whatever is going on has to stop though.” I stopped and tapped my foot for a minute, deep in thought. “What do you think Uncle Jared?” he seemed deep in thought also. This wasn’t something to take lightly. None of it was.

            “I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of you two getting married anytime soon. But I guess it isn’t real so maybe no harm will come from it. But I’m warning you boy,” he said, poking Garrett in the chest, “If this makes things worse, I’m gonna take it out on your hide!” He looked him in the eye to make sure the message got through, before turning and walking away. Jack was still snickering to himself.

            “Well congrats kids. Make sure I get a front row seat at the wedding,” he said, giving me a wink.

            “There’s not really going to be a wedding Jack,” I replied.

            “We’ll see. You keep telling yourself that.” He laughed again and walked away. I looked toward Garrett.

            “Nothing to say?” He gave me an evil grin and swooped me up in his arms.

            “Think you can handle being married to me?”

            “I don’t know. Think you can handle being married to me?”

            “Well, you do snore—“ I slapped him in the shoulder.

            “I do not!”

            “And you always smell like horse.”

            “So do you.”

            “and I always have to take care of you when you get drunk.”

            “that’s just part of the job requirement.”

            “And you’re always getting yourself in trouble.”

            “comes with the territory.”

            “Does everything else?”

            “Everything I am.”

            “Good. I wouldn’t take anything less.” Leaning in I met him happily halfway until our lips touched. I couldn’t believe how excited I was about this. But it wasn’t real… Right?

            Walking into the house a few minutes later, we noticed Pace was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee, and pretending to ignore us. I knew he was paying attention to everything around him though as he looked at our intertwined hands and glared at the paper sitting in front of him. The kids were running around the house like maniacs. We stood there for a moment, not moving, until Claire came running into the room. Sweeping us both up into a huge bear hug, she yelled “Congratulations”! we started laughing at her exuberance. Pace’s head snapped up at us and the kids stopped running for a minute, curious looks on their faces. She pulled away from us, her hands still on our arms.

            “So when’s the big day?” she asked. all the sudden one of the kitchen chairs crashed to the floor and a pair of hands slapped down on the table.

            “You’re getting married!” Pace’s face looked about ready to explode. It was turning redder by the second and his hands were starting to shake. Taken aback from his onslaught of anger, I leaned back into Garrett’s protective arms. That seemed to be his undoing. Storming past us he threw open the screen door and slammed it behind him, nearly ripping it off the hinges. Claire looked startled for a moment before speaking again.

            “Well, maybe more than one problem will be solved by this little plan.”

            “So Jared told you the plan then?” Garrett asked. She smiled, looking like that cat that ate the canary.

            “Yes he did. But I wouldn’t be surprised, nor would I disapprove if you decided to make it real.” With that she gave us both a kiss on the cheek, and walked back out of the room. I wasn’t quite sure how to take that bit of information. Grabbing Garrett by the hand, I led him up to my bedroom. Collapsing on my bed, I wished the day was over. Too many events had happened in one day. I felt like I needed to sleep for a week to process everything.

            “Oh my gosh what a freaking day,” I said. I was face down on my pillows and I was surprised that Garrett could actually understand the muffled sounds.

            “Really? I thought it was rather dull.” I smacked him with the pillow as he laughed.

            “If you think that today was dull then god forbid I ever experience your opinion of a crazy day.” We laid in silence enjoying the calm mood that had settled over us for a minute. “Did you see the look on Pace’s face?” I was concerned about him. In the heat of the moment I had forgotten about Pace and now I felt utterly guilty over what we had just done. I was battling with myself on telling him the truth. As if reading my mind Garrett replied:

            “You can’t tell him.”

            “Why not? Did you see the look on his face? He’s so crushed and so angry.”

            “Did you plan on getting back together with him?”

            “Heaven’s no. I’ve already told him that I have no intention of ever getting back together with him. I love you. There’s no need to give him false hope.”

            “Exactly! He has to learn to get over it eventually. Maybe this will make him take you seriously that he is no longer in the picture. He can’t keep mooning over you.” Nodding my head in assent, I lay down on his chest and finally fell asleep. I could only hope that the worst of my problems were over, and things might finally start going right now. Wow was I wrong.