Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,8
made, but she didn’t know how well she was succeeding.
“Hey, it’s a party in the driveway!” Morgan yelled.
“Should I put on some music?” asked Luke.
Jade forced herself to smile. “Hey guys. How was your shopping trip?”
“It was fine. What’s up Matthew? Did Jade’s car get broken into again?”
Matthew’s eyes darted between Morgan and Jade before he responded. “Well no – not exactly. But I think that someone may have gotten into the house just now.”
Morgan gasped. “Are you serious! Are you joking with me right now?”
Jade shook her head. “I’m afraid not. My head’s spinning.”
“Why don’t we discuss this inside,” suggested Luke. “I believe I was promised a cheesecake and I don’t see it out here.”
Morgan shot him an annoyed look but agreed. “Yeah, it’s kinda cold. Let’s go inside. If it’s even safe in there!”
Matthew laughed. “I think it’s okay.”
“Well, Matthew does have a gun,” said Luke as he walked towards the door. “And he agreed to allow me to use it. You know, if something happens to him. I can protect us.”
“Right,” Morgan said flatly.
They went inside and Jade caught them up on the events of the evening as she pulled the cookies out of the oven. She was worried that they might have been a bit overbaked in all the excitement, but she removed them from the baking sheet and they seemed to retain their chewy quality.
For about an hour, they went back and forth about the burglary and checked every room in the house. Nothing seemed to be missing. Matthew said that the person probably didn’t expect Jade to be home.
“How’d they know where I lived, though?”
Morgan crossed her arms. “Don’t you have your insurance and registration in the glove box?”
Jade frowned. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“I guess.” Morgan said. “So this guy kind of got in the house, and then ran away without stealing anything? I, for one, think this criminal is as dumb as a bag of rocks, and I’m sick of talking about him. I’m here for a committee meeting about Colby Farm.”
Jade smiled but said nothing. Morgan was probably right. She was silly to feel so unnerved by it all; nothing actually bad happened.
“And I’m here for a cheesecake,” added Luke. “Matthew, are you just going to stay here and enjoy Jade’s baking without contributing?”
Matthew shook his head. “I’m happy to contribute. I’m off the clock.”
“Excellent!” said Morgan. “Then you can help us.”
Jade shot her a look. “I’m sure that he doesn’t want to be involved in our committee.”
“Is it the cheesecake and cookie committee?” asked Matthew.
“It isn’t,” said Luke, “but if I’m honest, that’s probably going to be a huge factor for my participation.”
“I’d be delighted to be part of the committee with or without cake,” said Matthew.
“Great!” Morgan replied. “Because we have a lot of ideas and we need a lot of help.”
“Do we?” said Jade, eyeing her.
“Yes! Hold on a second.” Morgan walked out of the room and returned with a large poster board. “I put this together last night.”
“Wow, that looks really nice.” Jade stood up to get a better look – there were several categories and it was even color coded.
“Surprisingly pretty, I know,” commented Luke. “I’ll have to take credit for the scheme here, we – ”
“Quiet you.” Morgan set the poster board in his hands and motioned for him to stand up. “Okay, so here I have our main goals. We have two months to come up with ideas for the property, raise awareness about the vote, and also raise some funds to show that we’d be able to develop the land into something if we had the chance.”
“Right,” Jade said slowly. “So, basically, we just have to do everything.”
Morgan nodded “Right! And don’t worry, little by little, we can get everything done. I have a friend who I told about this and she volunteered to make some digital mockups on the land.”
Jade frowned. “That’s really nice of her, but how are we going to pay her? I wouldn’t want her to do it for free.”
“Believe me,” Morgan waved a hand, “I offered to pay her and she wouldn’t accept it. She’s a real sucker. Kinda like you.”
Jade narrowed her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Morgan flashed a smile and continued. “She said that she already has a bunch of stuff built so it’s really easy for her to just throw it into a new landscape and make it look realistic. Don’t worry, it’ll be really good, and she does the renderings digitally so Luke can use part