You Will Be Mine (New Horizon Book 3)

Chapter 31: Jeannie

I meet Garrett in the garage to the packhouse as he requested, noticing that he’s already in his truck when I get there. Not knowing whether it’s the right thing to do, I make my way over to where he’s parked and open the passenger-side door, boosting myself up and into his truck before he even has much chance to protest.

“Hi,” he greets me, smiling my way. He doesn’t seem to mind my intrusion at all, so I guess that was what he wanted me to do.

“Hi,” I answer, suddenly feeling kind of shy.

I don’t know why, but this feels more intimate than it did the day before. Maybe it’s because he’s in such a warm, inviting mood, in contrast to how upset he was before. But he’s already working on pulling his truck out of the garage and getting us going, and I soon realize that it might have been being shut up in the garage with him that felt weird. After we’re outside and riding along, it doesn’t feel as awkward anymore.

“So, since I’m guessing you’re still wanting to talk, I was thinking of just hitting up a drive-through and eating in the truck so that we have privacy,” he tells me. “Is that okay?”

“I am completely fine with that. I’m really not that picky so just choose whatever you like.”

He ends up taking us into a town not that far away and choosing a place where we order hamburgers and milkshakes, plus a big cardboard container of chili-cheese fries to share. He acts like it’s nothing special, but the food is delicious. I’ve never had an experience quite like this, and I find myself grinning just from the fun of eating right in the truck out of disposable cardboard containers.

“Sometimes, it’s easy to forget and take for granted how enjoyable something as simple as fast food can be with the right attitude,” Garrett comments, smiling as he looks over at me and watches as I sip on my milkshake.

I can’t help moaning a little from how delightful I’m finding it. I love how it melts when it hits my tongue and coats my mouth with a hint of sweetness, and it’s the perfect thing to chase down a bite of burger with. And the fries are fun. They’re a mess, but there’s something about sharing them with Garrett that makes them the most appealing of all.

Every now and then, we go to reach for some at the same time and have a playful little battle, both of us laughing and giggling like children as our fingers duel each other. I didn’t expect to have this much fun today, but I’m not sorry about how it’s turned out. Mr. Bentley was right. It was Garrett I needed.

“I know we haven’t done a whole lot of talking about anything important yet, but I am really enjoying your company, Jeannie,” he tells me eventually, giving voice to my own feelings about it. “So, thank you for thinking of me today, and for reaching out. I can’t tell you how much it means.”

“It’s actually your dad you should thank for this,” I tell him, sipping from the straw of my shake. “I think when he was looking through my memories earlier, he saw what’s been going on with me and Gabe and that I’ve been struggling to figure out who to talk to about it, and he said my instinct to go to you was the right one.”

“Really? He said that?” Garrett wonders, seeming kind of flattered. “Wait, you mean Matt? He was in your head? And he saw … this?” He gestures between the two of us. “Aw man. That’s crazy.”

He seems to think on it for a moment, shaking his head in disbelief.

“He knows everything, for the record,” he goes on. “Every thought, feeling, emotion, or idea you’ve ever had about Gabe, or me, he’s seen it now. And by extension, he’s seen our thoughts and feelings now too.”

He sighs, seeming a little unsettled and maybe even upset about it, but I don’t know what to say. I didn’t tell him to go in there and look at my memories of Gabe, it just happened.

“But that’s okay though. It’s not like we really have anything to hide,” he says, turning to give me a mischievous smirk. “Although sitting in my truck munching on fast food together is pretty scandalous, you have to admit.”

“Oh I know, it’s downright sinful,” I laugh my agreement, glad that his tension from a moment ago is already disappearing. “Call the police, I’m about to take another bite.”

And I do, picking up my hamburger to take an exaggerated, sloppy bite, giggling when I realize that I’ve made a mess of my face with the ketchup.

“Here, you look like you could use some help,” he chuckles, offering me one of his paper napkins.

I grin my thanks at him, laughing when he pulls it away from my reach at the last second and then wipes at my face with it himself. Then I mumble my thanks at him through the bites of my burger that I’m still chewing on, giggling when he gives me a look like I’m grossing him out. He’s laughing too, though.

It was a fun moment, but it feels like it passes too soon when I think about what he was just saying, that we really haven’t had a chance to talk about important stuff yet. I almost don’t want to spoil the good time we’re having together, but it is the whole reason why I wanted to meet with him, and I don’t want to take up too much of his time knowing that he has to get back to work. And Gabe.

“Why can’t it be this easy with your brother?” I sigh. And now that I think of it, Gabe has only ever been this light-hearted with me when Garrett has been with us and the two of them play off each other.

Garrett’s smile disappears about as quickly as mine did as he leans his head back and returns my sigh.

“Because Gabe is trying too hard,” he tells me after a moment. “And he won’t listen to me. I keep telling him that you don’t need all that, and that all his efforts to impress you are just making it harder for you to get to know him, but he seems to have this idea in his head that he has something to prove to you. And that was before the other night when, you know. Whatever happened, happened. So now, it’s probably only going to get ten times worse. Expect some grand gestures and awkward displays of his affection, would be my guess.”

I have mixed feelings about hearing him say that. I’ve been feeling it when I’m with Gabe, and other than when Garrett is around and uses whatever trick he does to get his brother to relax and be more himself, and then that one night at the theater where I was starting to get a small glimpse of his real self, Gabe is mostly overly charming and comes on too strong. It’s borderline aversive, and it definitely doesn’t help me relax around him.

“You’re right. I don’t need all that. All I need is the truth, but he seems to struggle with that, and that’s what really bothers me,” I admit to him, remembering back to the night of our date and how defensive he got.

He gives me a sympathetic look, reaching over to pat my hand reassuringly, eventually settling on just holding onto it.

“What did happen?” he asks me softly. “The night of your date, I mean. I got a general gist from Gabe, and he said you found out about his history with women, but I don’t know the details.”

I sigh again, even though I knew I’d probably eventually have to tell him. This is basically why I wanted to meet up with him, after all.

“I don’t know the best place to start, but I suppose it’s with the fact that all along, since the day I met him, I’ve been torn between appreciating how attentive and affectionate he is and feeling suspicious of it. He’s just so charming that it feels deliberate. He always has the right thing to say, and a lot of his looks and smiles seem forced. And then when you’re around, he’s different. More real. I like that version of him, but it’s confusing why he keeps going back and forth.”

I feel him starting to stroke my hand with his thumb, and it’s both comforting and distracting. But when I glance up at his face, he seems to just be listening intently, and waiting for me to go on.

“I also have all this stuff always running through my head from my grandparents, especially my grandpa. You have to understand that his worst fear was having some guy come along and charm my pants off, stealing me away the same as what happened to my mom. Or what supposedly happened to my mom,” I grumble the last part, almost letting myself veer off-track and be distracted by the conversations I’ve had with Stella and Mr. Bentley.

“But Gabe fits the description of the guys my grandpa always warned me about,” I go on after a breath, getting myself back on track. “He fits it so perfectly, in fact, that when we ran into a girl that I suspect had some sort of past relationship with him waiting for him by his car, my first thought was that she confirmed everything I feared about him. He likes to charm women and take advantage of them, and now he has his sights set on me.”

“Oh no,” Garrett comments softly, and I look up to see him giving me a worried look. But worried about what, I can’t be sure.

“Yeah,” I say, finding myself giving a short laugh while simultaneously fighting back tears. “So anyway, I confronted him about it, and he kind of shut down on me. He got defensive and grumbly, and complained that I’d already decided who he was and there was no point in fighting it. And then I felt bad, realizing that I did jump to a hasty conclusion that might be heavily influenced by all that stuff my grandpa put in my head. So, I tried to apologize, and he shut me down, insisting on just brushing it aside and going to the theater as planned.”

Now Garrett looks surprised, but he doesn’t say anything more, still waiting for me to finish telling him my story.

“I really enjoyed that show, and finally getting to see a glimpse of Gabe relaxing and being himself for once. It was nice, but it was tainted by my guilt. I spent that whole time worrying that I’d been so thoughtless and judgmental, and dying for a chance to apologize to him and have him actually listen. So afterward, I told him that I needed to get that off my chest, and he drove us somewhere private so that I could. So that I could apologize to him because I felt like I had wronged him terribly. And then he dropped the truth on me that I was right all along, and tried to explain himself, but not until after he’d not only lashed out at me, but also let me sit with that guilt for hours. By then, his explanations felt more like excuses.”

Garrett sighs, squeezing my hand and giving me a thoughtful look, like he’s considering saying something. But I’m not done.

“His excuse was that he was lonely and hadn’t found his mate yet, and he tried to blame it all on Simon. What really upset me is that his response to Simon being so distraught about him basically cheating on their mate that he went dormant for days was to do it again and again because he called that ‘peaceful’ – his wolf was in distress, and that’s peace to him! How much more selfish can you be?”

Garrett opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something, but I’m on a roll. All that anger from before is coming back full force, and I feel like I need to get this out or I’ll explode.

“And then, my favorite part was when I tried to call him out on it, and he shot back by telling me that it was ‘easy’ for me because I never had anyone around to misbehave with and couldn’t possibly know what it was like or how I would have reacted in his shoes.”

“He said that?” Garrett asks in disbelief.

“Mmhmm, he did,” I answer him, nodding and giving another short, sardonic laugh. “But I kind of see it like it doesn’t matter who was around. He knew he had a mate out there somewhere and that was what was eating at his wolf. But instead of apologizing to him, or to any of the women he took advantage of, he only doubled down and kept going. I know I wouldn’t have done that even if there were guys I could have messed around with because I’m not that sort of person, and it concerns me that he does seem to be that sort of person. I mean, now he’s apologetic and says he’s ashamed of himself, but I wasn’t feeling that from him. It felt more like he got caught, and that’s what he’s sorry about. He doesn’t like that I know.”

Garrett sits over there digesting everything I just told him, seeming at a loss for how exactly to respond. He’s still stroking my hand with his thumb, though at this point I don’t even know if he realizes he’s doing it.

“So, if I understand correctly, it’s not what he did that upsets you as much as why he did it, and the way he went about telling you,” he summarizes after a moment.

I consider that and decide that it’s a fairly accurate statement, nodding as I tell him, “Yeah, basically. But don’t get me wrong. It does bother me that he’s been with so many women, and so carelessly and callously at that. Having previous relationships is one thing, but just jumping around from fling to fling takes a certain kind of person, and one I’m not sure I want to get involved with. But essentially, that part seems easier to accept and put behind me than the rest. I don’t like how he tried to excuse himself, blame his wolf, and make light of the whole thing as if I should just forgive him because I’m his mate and he wants to move forward from it all now. I mean, am I wrong to be almost offended that he needed me right in front of him to finally give a crap about how I might feel about his lifestyle?”

Garrett doesn’t answer me right away, instead releasing my hand so he can work on crumpling up all his wrappers and bundling them together inside the container for the fries, and then reaching for mine to do the same. Once he’s finished, he scoots over a little bit closer to me, extending his arm to drape it over my shoulders and giving me a gentle tug to let me know that he wants me to come closer to him too.

I don’t know whether cuddling with my mate’s brother is the best thing I could be doing, so I hesitate for a moment before deciding that I don’t care. I came to him to talk and because I need comfort and reassurance, and so far, he’s the only one offering that to me. So, I slide over and lean into his embrace, and it feels good.