5.
Jewel will start an illegal gambling ring, and once the feds get involved, she’ll be expelled from middle school.
Bird Forrester
JEWEL
“That’s it. I’m moving in,” I said, walking into the foyer of the gorgeous home Rin Tempest shared with his girlfriend, Constance. “Don’t bother trying to stop me. I’ve made up my mind.”
“As if I’d try to deter you from any of your nefarious plans,” Rin said, opening his arms for a hug. “It’s a pleasure to see you as always, Jewel.”
“You’ve gotten better at lying, Rin. Your face doesn’t even show fear anymore.”
“Maybe I’m not afraid of you like I used to be.”
“As if that fear wasn’t well deserved,” I said with a frown.
While Rin greeted Brooklyn, another woman who grew up alongside him, I looked around the house and imagined making a home here. Not here in Colorado Springs, since I’d already lived that life, but surrounded by such obvious wealth and comfort.
My home wasn’t cheap by any means, but it wasn’t nearly as large and spacious as this one.
“If you think this house is nice, wait until you see where Stan’s dad lives,” Rin said, leading Brooklyn and me across the living area toward the kitchen. “She’s upstairs ripping apart the hall closet because she can’t find one of the gifts she stashed for her cousins.”
“It’s so nice of her to offer us a seat on her plane,” Brooklyn said, sitting on the barstool Rin pulled out for her.
I sat beside her while Rin explained, “It’s not her plane. It belongs to her dad, but he sends it whenever she wants to come out. He’s invited both of you for dinner while we’re here, so you can thank him then if you don’t run into him sooner.”
“I’ll do that,” I assured him.
I tried not to think of who else I might run into on this trip, but I knew the odds weren’t in my favor if I hoped to avoid Constance’s uncle.
In the months since I left his hotel room, I’d thought about the man at least once every day, and I wasn’t willing to admit how often he crossed my mind when I was alone in bed at night.
No, those were dreams, not reality. I usually didn’t believe in star alignment or moon phases, although they had their uses, but that was the only explanation I could come up with for what happened that night with Ziggy Romano.
I had no problem expressing my likes and dislikes, both inside and outside the bedroom, but I never even had to hint at what I wanted from him.
The man was some sort of mind reader. The fact that he was built like a solid wall and made me feel delicate and feminine made the whole thing even more surreal.
Remembering what he could do with his tongue when he wasn’t spouting sarcastic venom brought goosebumps to my skin and a tingle of longing straight down my spine.
Okay, so maybe I thought of him more than once or twice a day. But since I didn’t plan on asking for a repeat performance, that was all I was willing to admit.
A commotion on the stairs drew our attention, and we looked over just in time to see Constance use the newel post to spin around and raise her hand in triumph. Rin’s smile was almost as big as hers when he asked, “Did you find it?”
“I did, along with four other things I’d forgotten about!” Constance replied, walking our way. “I need to dedicate one closet to storing things I want to take with me so I don’t have gifts stashed all over the place, only to be forgotten until they’re not useful anymore.”
“She had presents to give Lark when Ollie was born, and by the time she remembered where she put them, they were too small,” Rin explained.
Constance set her finds on the counter, hugged Brooklyn, and then threw her arms around me.
“I’m so excited that I get to take a trip with one of the elders.
” When she pulled back and found me frowning, she laughed.
“I’ve been teasing Rin that you’re going to like me better than all of them because you’ll fall in love with flying private. ”
I pretended to consider it. “That could easily be true since I don’t like any of the children other than my own.”
Constance laughed when Rin rolled his eyes. As she let me go, she said, “I’m onto you, Jewel. You’re not nearly as mean as you pretend to be.”
“Surely you realize she’s not pretending, right?” Brooklyn argued. “I’ve known her for ages, and she’s like this even when no one’s around.”
“Jewel has a problem with forgiveness and forgetting past crimes,” Rin explained. “She’s still pissed at us for some imagined slight that happened decades ago.”
I scoffed. “My motto is ‘remember and revenge.’ I am not the Lord, and I don’t have memory problems, so ‘forgive and forget’ isn’t in my vocabulary.”
Constance laughed. “We have to be related somehow, because that’s my family motto.”
“Rin, honey, what should I forget?” I asked, my voice dripping with sweet, fake sincerity.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rin said, looking around to gauge the safest escape route, just like he’d done so many times before.
Then he hammered the final nail into his own coffin.
“Maybe you’re imagining things in your old .
. .” He cleared his throat the second he realized he’d gone too far, scrambling to correct himself. “Mature age.”
“Whoa.” Constance grimaced. “How does that foot taste?”
“We should put that sentence on his tombstone,” Brooklyn suggested.
“Rin and some of his cousins thought it would be hilarious to mix industrial wood glue with the detoxifying mask his aunt put in our Christmas packages,” I explained.
“You didn’t!” Constance gasped.
“It wasn’t industrial-strength glue,” Rin muttered. “That was too expensive, so we went with plain wood glue.”
When Constance stared at him in shock, Brooklyn asked, “Would you like to tell the jury what happened, Rin?”
“Not really, no.”
“I’ll tell her. Have you ever used a face mask, Constance?” She nodded, her eyes still locked on Rin. “Then you know you inevitably end up getting it in your eyebrows and along your hairline.”
Constance’s mouth dropped open in horror. “Did you hold the guilty parties down and cover their bodies with their non-industrial strength glue concoction?”
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the opportunity.”
“He’s a very sound sleeper, and I’d be happy to help whenever you’re ready,” Constance offered.
It was Rin’s turn to look shocked and horrified. “You wouldn’t!”
“Did you miss the part where I said my family motto was remember and revenge?” Constance asked.
“I adore you even more now than I did before, sweet Constance. Private plane or not, you just became my favorite youngling.”
“I can’t wait for you to reconnect with my aunts, Jewel. I’m sure they’ll have plenty of input when we ask them for advice on how to pay all the younglings back for their past sins.”
“Give up now, Rin. You’re outnumbered and outgunned, and neither of us is willing to wade into this fight,” said Park, one of the men who lived in the huge home.
He walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out two bottles of water.
“Mostly because we know you deserve whatever they have planned, but there’s the added bonus of knowing we’ll get to laugh at the fallout. ”
Constance checked her watch. “We’ve got to go!”
Brooklyn and I stood at the same time, gathering the gifts Constance had brought down while she kissed Rin goodbye. After shouting out our own farewells, we followed Constance out to the car, where her guard waited not so patiently with a deep frown.
I could tell he wasn’t actually angry, just bored, mostly because I wore that exact same expression half the time. I knew I was right when he teased, “Look at that. You might actually be on time for once.”
I laughed when Constance shot back, “I know I will because you drive like you’re in city traffic, even though we’ll be hugging the side of the mountain rather than jockeying for space in the next lane with three yellow cabs and a bike messenger.”
Ciro and Constance kept bickering as we walked around the town car, but I could feel the love and respect in every word. Apparently, Brooklyn could too. She winked at me and said, “This ride is going to be fun.”
“The way they bicker reminds me of my family,” I admitted as I slid into the backseat.
As I scooted over to make room for Brooklyn and Constance, Brooklyn said, “It reminds me of mine too. If the entire week is like this, I guess neither of us will get homesick.”
“I, for one, plan on being way too busy to get homesick.”
◆◆◆
I dropped the shopping bags onto the suite’s couch and kicked off my shoes. After being on my feet all day, the last thing I wanted to do was put shoes back on, let alone heels. But that was the plan, considering Brooklyn and I had been invited to dinner downstairs.
I looked at the couch, then turned my head to stare longingly at the very inviting bed I’d fallen in love with last night, reconsidering my agreement to attend tonight’s dinner.
It had been a really long day, and a nap sounded so much better than sitting in a stuffy restaurant with people I barely knew.
As if she knew I was thinking about her, the door connecting our suites opened. Brooklyn walked in, smiling as she warned, “Don’t you dare lie down, Jewel Parker!”
“Just for a little bit?” I whined. “A tiny nap to refuel me for . . .”
“No!” Brooklyn interrupted. “You need to put your funky ass into the shower and get all dolled up for dinner.”
I held up one finger, gave my friend my haughtiest look, and said, “First of all, my ass is never funky.” I raised a second finger. “Second, I don’t have to get dolled up to impress anyone but myself.”
“Okay, Shannon,” Brooklyn teased.
She’d heard my mom’s sage advice a thousand times over the years, and I was glad she remembered it as clearly as I did. A memory surfaced, and for a moment, it felt like I was right back in Mom’s bedroom, listening to her wisdom.
“I’m not sure about this outfit.”
Mom stood in front of her dresser, choosing earrings from her jewelry box, but she stopped and turned to face me.
“What are you unsure about?”