Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,5
to force her to sit out in the car by herself. “Okay, then great. You can meet my new dog.”
Jade’s face lit up. “You got a dog?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s a long story; we took him out of a bad situation. He was neglected, maybe a bit abused.”
“Aw, poor thing. And then you decided to keep him?”
Matthew got out of the car and Jade followed. “Yeah. I took him home that first night because animal control was closed. And after that…I couldn’t stand to drop him off. He’s had it bad enough and just needs a bit of a hand, you know?”
“I can’t wait to meet him!” she said as they approached the front door.
Matthew pulled out his keys. “Uh, actually, I don’t get a lot of visitors. So don’t be afraid if he barks at you at first; usually he’ll bark before he runs away and hides.”
“That’s alright, I don’t mind.”
Almost as if on cue, furious barking started as soon as he pushed the door open. Matthew flicked on a light.
“It’s okay buddy, calm down.”
Jade slowly followed behind. “Oh my gosh, he’s beautiful!” She lowered her voice. “What’s his name?”
“I call him Toast.”
Toast was now retreating into the living room, still barking but not quite as much.
“Did you come up with that yourself?”
Matthew knelt, hoping that Toast would come over and calm down. “I did. The first night when I brought him home, I left him in the living room while I went to change out of my uniform. When I came back, I found him in the kitchen licking the toaster. He’d got his paws onto the counter, pulled the plug out of the wall, and had it turned upside down on the floor. He was trying to eat the crumbs that fell out.”
Jade laughed. “Sounds like a perfect name, actually.”
Matthew smiled to himself. He did sort of look like a “Toast.” He had golden fur, except for some black at his mouth and around his eyes – it almost looked like he was wearing eye liner. Matthew thought he was gorgeous, but usually people were afraid of his deep and relentless barking.
Not Jade. Toast stopped barking and instead cautiously inched closer to her. Without looking at him, she lowered the back of her hand to his nose level.
He let out a low grumble at first, but then leaned forward to get a sniff.
“Wow – I’ve had him for a few weeks and so far, no one could get near him except for me.”
Jade’s face lit up again. “Really? Do you think he likes me?”
Toast finished sniffing her hand and his entire posture changed. He dropped his ears, wagged his tail and greeted Matthew normally – by jumping up and trying to lick him.
“Toast – no jumping. Down! Down!”
He relented and sat obediently, his tail wagging and causing his whole body to wiggle.
Matthew bent down to pet him, “And yeah! He really does seem to like you. Normally he won’t let anyone get into the house without barking at their every move.”
“That’s good, because I like him too.” Jade lowered herself to the ground and Toast immediately went to her, licking her hands and sniffing around her ears and neck. She burst into laughter, which only encouraged him.
Huh. That was a first. Now truthfully, Matthew didn’t have a ton of people over. He was still spending more time working than socializing. But maybe everyone else he’d invited over was a jerk. Or maybe Toast just knew when he met someone worth knowing.
“Okay, let me grab my vacuum. Do you want anything to eat or drink?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m okay. But thank you.”
“Alright, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Matthew went into the basement, his head still spinning from Toast’s complete acceptance of Jade. What was it about her? Maybe it was that she let Toast come to her – that seemed to work well. And maybe he could tell that Jade wouldn’t hurt him – or anyone, for that matter.
But it did seem like someone might be trying to hurt her. It could’ve been a random break-in, sure. But the parks weren’t busy at this time of year, and who was hanging around Lime Kiln at night just hoping that there might be a few stray hikers?
Brandon could definitely be involved. Or Andrea. Or anyone, really, who didn’t like Jade getting in the way of their business dealings.
Whoever it was, Matthew was going to figure it out and make sure that nothing like that happened to Jade