Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,11
He drilled in the second hole. Jade would have a nice landlord. Nice people like Jade always ended up surrounded by other nice people. Matthew’s landlord wouldn’t even fix his fridge and his food was constantly close to going bad.
“Yeah, he is really nice. He just has a hard time with clutter, hence the garage.”
“I see.”
Matthew put his hands on his hips. That was the last thing he could install. Should he announce that he was done and that he needed to leave? Or did Margie know something that he didn’t?
Maybe that Jade…wanted to spend some time with him?
That would be too good to be true. He could try…asking her to dinner? He’d asked her to see that comedian a few months ago, and she’d flat out turned him down.
He’d taken that as a hint that she wasn’t interested, but it seemed like Margie was always coming up with excuses for them to be together.
That could be Margie just being Margie. But what if it was more than that?
At the exact moment when Matthew took a step forward, Jade spun around with a lemon bar in her hand. Almost in slow motion, they collided in the middle of the kitchen, the lemon bar bouncing off of Matthew’s chest and landing with a splat on the floor.
“I’m so sorry!” said Jade, her hand darting to her mouth.
Matthew dusted his shirt off. “It’s okay, I’m sorry that I slammed into you like that. Are you okay?”
They made their next move in unison as well – crouching down to grab the lemon bar.
“Oh, sorry, I can clean it,” Jade said.
They both reached forward, briefly brushing hands. It seemed like Jade lingered for a moment. Or was he imagining it?
“Ah, sorry,” Matthew said with an awkward laugh. “You can’t make such sudden movements around me, I think we’re seconds away from hitting heads and getting mutual concussions.”
“I think you’re right.”
Their eyes met, and they both laughed before looking away. Matthew rarely got to look into her beautiful eyes for long…
She looked back at him again. Something came over him – the moment was too perfect to ignore. What if he just slowly leaned forward, and their lips happened to meet and…
As soon as he was a few inches closer to her, Jade turned her head, scooped up the lemon bar, and stood up. It was over before he even knew what happened.
He stayed on the floor for a moment, feeling a shock run through his body. Not just for what he had almost done, but also because of the way she reacted.
Wow.
That was bad.
That was really really bad.
He stood up. “I’m sorry about that, I didn’t mean to – ”
“No it’s okay, I have plenty.” Jade outstretched her hand; on it was a napkin with a non-smashed lemon bar. “Would you like one?”
“Thanks, but I’m good. I have to get going actually.”
“Oh, alright. Thank you so much for your help.”
“Of course, anytime. Take care.”
“You too.”
Matthew made his way out the door and drove home, berating himself the entire way. What was he thinking? Why would he think that Jade wanted to kiss him? And why would he do it like that?
Never in his life had he tried to kiss someone out of the blue like that. Never! What possessed him to think that now was the time to start?
Yes, he’d been seeing a lot of her lately. And she was pretty and exceedingly kind and…
Ugh.
He should’ve stuck with his original plan of asking her to dinner. No, he should’ve just…left her alone. She’d never done anything to suggest that she liked him; she’d just been forced to interact with him recently because someone broke into her car and then into her home.
Then he came along and instead of trying to help her, he crossed a line.
He went home that night and tried to distract himself from his shame and embarrassment by taking Toast for a long walk. It was hard not to think about it, though. How could he have been so stupid?
His only friends on the island were all connected to Jade. If he randomly kissed her without warning and ruined their friendship, he’d lose all of those friendships. Morgan, Luke…even Margie and Chief would feel strange around him.
Matthew went to work the next morning with a plan to focus and keep his mind busy. Around noon he got a call about a suspected drunk driver who was weaving all over the road. Matthew found the car quickly, and it turned out to