Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,68
she could get.
Tiffany accepted it and dabbed at her eyes. Within a moment, she regained her composure. Jade had never known her sister to be much of a crier, so this was a shock.
“Here I go,” Tiffany said with a laugh. “I was afraid that if I talked about it in front of everyone that I would start crying. I guess I was right.”
“It’s okay to cry, you know.”
Tiffany smiled. “Maybe. Anyways – after that, I just couldn’t keep working there. I don’t even know how I ended up where I was. All I had time for in my life was work. And poor Malcolm…I mean, none of it mattered. None of it.”
“So it sounds like,” Jade said slowly, “you’re rethinking some things?”
“Yeah.” Tiffany straightened herself up. “I feel like I got on the wrong path somehow. And I don’t know where to go from here, but…I’d like to at least try to find a different way.”
Jade couldn’t hold herself back anymore – she wrapped her arms around Tiffany and squeezed her tightly. “You can stay with me forever for all I care.”
Tiffany laughed. “That’s really sweet Jade. But I won’t stay forever – just, you know, until I figure some things out. I really love being able to spend time with you all. Do you think Morgan will mind?”
Jade shrugged. “Probably not, but we can ask her.”
“I really like her. She’s kind of crazy, but she’s fun.”
“Yeah, she’s a good one. And we’ll have a blast living together!”
“That would be nice.” Tiffany rubbed her forehead. “And I have to find a way to tell Mom, too. Life really is just so short. We don’t have the luxury of time.”
Jade nodded. “Yeah…”
Tiffany studied her for a moment. “It seems like you’ve been doing pretty well though – starting over?”
“It doesn’t always feel that way, but it’s getting a bit better.”
Tiffany nodded. “Well, I’m glad. You seem a lot happier. And I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks Tiffany,” Jade said. This certainly explained the change that she’d seen in her sister – though it wasn’t something that she’d expected.
Jade packed away the last of the food and turned back to Tiffany. “Actually, on that note, there’s something that I have to do.”
Tiffany cocked her head to the side. “Oh?”
“Would you be able to distract everyone so I can have a minute alone with Matthew?”
A wide smile spread across Tiffany’s face. “You sly dog! Of course, I’m sure I can figure something out.”
“Thanks sis!”
Jade slipped outside and walked towards the crowd standing around the fire pit, flames happily crackling along the logs.
“Oh no Jade,” Morgan said when she saw her. “Is this traumatic for you? I’m so sorry, we can put it out!”
Jade shook her head. “No, not at all. It looks nice.”
“Okay good, because it took us forever to get it going.” Morgan’s phone went off and she pulled it out of her pocket. She looked at Jade and smiled before speaking again. “Alright Chief? Margie? And Luke? I need all of you to all come inside for part two of operation s’mores.”
“I can lend a hand,” said Matthew.
Morgan shook her head. “No, you’re the fire engineer. I need you to stay here.”
He laughed. “Alright boss, whatever you say.”
They all left and Jade was momentarily dumbfounded. It was far easier to get everyone to leave than she expected. Well – with Tiffany and Morgan’s help, at least.
She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the fire. “It looks nice – you guys did a great job.”
“Thanks,” Matthew said, stooping down to add another log. “Luke was starting to get impatient – he wanted to dump lighter fluid on everything and we had to spend half the time explaining why that was a bad idea.”
“Sounds like he went to the same camping school as Eddie.”
Matthew laughed. “I think you’re right.”
“There’s something – ”
Jade was cut off when Matthew started talking at the same time. “I wanted to – oh, I’m sorry, you go ahead.”
Jade shook her head. “No – you first.”
He smiled. “Okay, if you insist. Earlier I wanted to tell you the truth about me and Laura. It’s a long story, and I don’t want to bore you to death, so I’ll try to keep it short.”
“You could never bore me,” Jade said.
He smiled. “Laura and I dated for years. After college, we both got jobs at the same engineering firm. She had this vision of how she wanted her life to be – everything was picked out, even the neighborhood where