Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,14
in town, this is your fault.”
“My fault! You’re blaming me because I wasn’t there to stop you?”
“I wasn’t blaming you,” Chief Hank said as he slowly backed away. “But if you don’t want me doing things that you don’t want me to do, you have to supervise me a little more closely. Where were you anyways?”
“I – had to run some errands! This isn’t about me! I didn’t think you’d be out there inviting people left and right!”
There was a knock on the door and the room fell silent.
Jade had the urge to flee but stood, frozen.
After a moment, Morgan motioned to Luke. “He’s your friend! Go let him in!”
“I have no idea why I’m being yelled at for this,” he said as he walked toward the door. “This is clearly the fault of the police chief.”
Morgan shushed him and motioned for him to open the door.
He winked at her before finally doing as he was told. “Hello! Matthew, so nice to see you, and who is this lovely lady?”
“Hey Luke, this is Laura. Luke is my – ”
“Hi Luke, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Laura, Matthew’s girlfriend.”
They stepped inside and Jade forced herself to keep her facial expression neutral, even though it felt like she’d just been punched in the gut.
Laura was beautiful – she had flowing blonde hair, delicately curled and cascading down her shoulders. She took off her dark blue peacoat to reveal a fitted pink and white flowery dress. Suddenly Jade’s green top felt less like an effort to look pretty and more like sad pajamas. She crossed her arms.
Matthew went around the room and introduced Laura to everyone there.
“Oh my gosh, it is so nice to meet you all. I have to apologize, I wasn’t able to make one of my normal desserts on short notice, but I was able to throw together a little something.”
She handed a large glass container to Chief Hank. “This is some of my homemade vanilla ice cream.”
“Oh, thanks,” he replied. “I’ll put this in the freezer. Jade baked an apple pie, so that will go together nicely.”
“Oh wow, we’re really on the same wavelength!” said Laura, beaming at her.
Jade forced herself to smile. “We are!”
They took their seats at the table, Jade feeling like she was in a bit of a haze. How could she have been so silly and so far off about how Matthew felt about her? Not only did he not like her, he definitely wasn’t trying to kiss her – he had a girlfriend! How clueless could she be?
Jade had to force herself to zone back into the conversation. Apparently, Laura and Matthew dated for years before he moved to San Juan Island. And now, apparently, they were just reconnecting.
Great.
Laura wasn’t being obnoxious or anything. She was just giving their history – talking about how she moved to Anacortes and how excited she was to be living on the West Coast.
“I’ve never been out here, but I’m just so in love with it. And I’m so excited! I feel like a new person.”
“That’s nice,” said Morgan. “Speaking of new people, have I told you guys about Andrea’s new lawyer?”
Thank goodness – Morgan was always good for a change in topic. “No, what’s going on?”
Morgan cleared her throat. “Well! For those of you who don’t know, Andrea is on trial for running my mother over with her car.”
Laura gasped but Morgan didn’t allow for any questions. Jade bit her lip so she wouldn’t smile – normally she didn’t like when Morgan was rude or purposely left people out of conversations, but today it was sort of amusing.
“Her first attorney, who I’m sure cost a fortune, wasn’t performing to her expectations. So her new attorney, who I’m sure costs two fortunes, is being pretty aggressive. We’re still in the discovery stage of everything.”
“It feels like this is taking forever,” Jade commented.
“You’re telling me!” said Morgan. “It’s been months and it feels like we’re never going to get to the actual trial. But anyways, the new attorney is challenging the recording that we have of when Andrea confessed her crime to Luke.”
“Oh no!” Jade’s mom exclaimed. “Does that mean that they won’t be able to use it in the trial?”
“That’s exactly what it would mean,” Morgan said.
Matthew sighed. “We knew that was a risk when we made the recording. I think we were all just hoping that she would plead guilty.”
“No such luck,” said Morgan. “So if that gets thrown out, the only evidence that we