“That’s a good secret,” she said almost as quietly. “Thank you for sharing. I’m the same. My sister is my confidant and about the only person I fully trust in this world.”
They were both quiet for maybe half a minute, just the lapping of the water against the boat and some distant music and voices from one of the decks above. It wasn’t uncomfortable. Joshua found that he liked the quiet. He liked her. He was a mess over this woman, and that terrified him.
“Tell me about your sister,” he said.
“She’s the best. She’s an incredible artist and the sweetest person in the world. She just found the love of her life, a football player. He’s tough and treats her like gold.” She sighed wistfully. “I’m so happy for her, but I guess I’m feeling a little lonely without her.” She laughed. “Hence speaking like he’s my new best friend to the stranger, orpriest,next door.”
He laughed too but said carefully in the higher voice than normal, “You’ve got to admit it’s kind of liberating, though. Let’s make a pact to never peek around the partition. We can share what happened to us each day of the cruise, share secrets and stories if we want, and we’ll never have to be humiliated when we see each other.”
“Okay,” she agreed easily.
He wanted to cheer, but he didn’t move. He’d missed Jade, missed spending the day with her like he had the past two days. If he could at least talk to her each night, it would help. He should be more focused on ferreting out her secrets, but right now, he simply wanted to talk to her. The investigators would figure out who was embezzling soon enough. He prayed that it wasn’t her.
“So, tell me about your brother,” she said, “the one you trust. Is he your only sibling?”
“No. He’s the closest to me in age, but there are seven of us.”
“Seven? Holy crap! Was your mother a saint, or just a glutton for punishment?”
“A saint. An angel.” He loved his mom. She was also one of his closest friends, and he trusted her with some secrets. The only problem with his mom was that she loved to chat and sometimes she let good secrets slip, so he had to be careful what he shared. It wasn’t that she wanted to share his secrets; it was just that she was so proud of him. He had to clarify what she could and couldn’t share with her sisters, his dad, his siblings, or her vast network of friends.
“You’re lucky. My mom was from the other side.”
“What do you mean?”
“She chose to be Satan’s minion.”
“Oh, J—” He caught himself before he said her name, but this information didn’t sit well. Maybe a man had never broken her heart, but it sounded like her mother might have. “Just sickening,” he tried to amend. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s good. I’ve got my sis. But I keep turning this to me. Your brother. What’s his name?”
“I …” No, he couldn’t tell her his brother’s name. “Ike, but they call him Iceman.” At least that much was true. He’d have to remember the lies he told. He hated lying, but it seemed necessary at the moment. When he saw her next week as Jesse, would she forgive him for lying to her? He needed to come up with a game plan for that moment. If everything went well, he’d know by then if she was the thief or not, and hopefully he’d know her intentions with that intrusive celebrity blog.
“Iceman? Like fromTop Gun?”
“Yeah, but he’s not a jerk like Iceman. He got the name because he’s so in control. He’s Special Ops …” He hesitated. If Jade had researched his family, which he suspected she had, she’d know his brother Isaac was Special Ops for the Air Force. “For the Army,” he finished lamely.
“You sound very proud.”
“I am.”
“So, seven brothers or sisters?”
“Well, six, seven including me.”
“What was that like?”
“Insane, busy, fun, really happy.” He’d loved his childhood, loved his big family. He wished he could be with all of them more, but taking over the company for his dad had been pretty insane. At least it was only him and he could focus on work almost exclusively. Yet if he had someone like Jade next to him, he might turn even more responsibilities over to his CEOs. He hoped it wasn’t Jade embezzling from him, but he also prayed it wasn’t Curtis. Joshua would be lost without Curtis running the property management division.
“Teal made my life a lot of fun, but I can hardly imagine having a whole group of us. Did you get in trouble a lot?”
“Yeah. My mom was pretty laid back, but she had the five boys within five years.”
Jade gasped.
He chuckled. “I know. It’s not quite as insane as it sounds; there’s a set of twins.” He needed to stop spilling so much, or she probably would connect who he was and stop telling him secrets. He didn’t like that idea, and it was really freeing to talk to her like this. He also doubted that she’d even suspect Joshua Jewel would be in a one-bedroom suite instead of the two-story luxury that he was supposed to be staying in. “But the trouble we came up with … My brothers C-Carl and Sam,” he lied not so smoothly instead of saying Caleb Seth, “are pranksters and pretty good at making bombs out of whatever they could find. We blew up a lot of stuff.”
“Oh my, and you didn’t go to juvie?”