Triple Diamonds (Mystic Nights #2)(7)

Maybe getting to know Miss Diamante would not be such a bad idea after all.





Chapter 3




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Jewel shut down her computer with a feeling of satisfaction. She’d just finished another online class for her degree in business management. She’d been working hard these past eighteenth months to complete the program early. She was lucky that she was able to do it with all of her other responsibilities. And the exhaustion of her pace was beginning to take its toll.

But she had one class left. Just one more.

She needed to get to work now. She hated that she didn’t have much time to spend with her brothers. But they were both seventeen now, and good kids. And they had their own interests that included sports and friends. They had matured quickly. Her parents deaths, killed in an auto accident two years earlier, had done the job of pushing them along into adulthood too soon. They had grieved, but she was glad she had made the decision to come home and be there for them.

Thankfully, her brothers were pretty responsible. Wesley and Lesley, twins, had gotten into the typical teenage troubles, but nothing too serious. Nothing she hadn’t been able to handle and get them through. At just twenty two, she had taken over their care. She had returned to Lantern Hill to do just that. She had just finished her degree in culinary arts at that time, and had only been working in Boston at her dream job a few months when tragedy had struck.

Coping with the deaths of her parents had been difficult, but leaving her new job at Wahlburger’s had been an easy decision. Her brothers needed her. Her boss, Paul Wahlberger, had been very understanding. And he had told her he would welcome her back whenever she wanted. He knew family was the most important thing despite the explosion of success which occurred when his restaurant developed into a chain practically overnight. But the Boston restaurant had been the flagship for the others, and he’d needed the help. Boston was where they developed the menu and where the creativity had happened. She’d been excited to work for him, learn from him so she could open her own restaurant someday, but family was family. And she was needed at home.

Now, two years later, with her brothers’ graduations from high school looming, they had encouraged her to apply for the job of sous chef at the hotel and casino nearby when the position had been posted. It was good timing for her because they needed the money. After her parents had died, they had to leave the reservation after the six month grieving time had been allotted. Being unmarried with no kids of her own, housing on the reservation was difficult to hang onto. The pressing need for homes for families with young children had forced them off the reserve, and then the insurance money had begun to run out.

The trailer she rented just off the reservation had tapped her out of her limited savings, too.

Luckily schooling was paid for, and she had worked feverishly to finish her degree while her brothers were in school. She wanted to finish when they did. And both boys had found part time jobs to help with the expenses over the last six months. But it was getting harder. Heating the trailer this winter had been expensive. It had been one of the coldest winters in Connecticut for as long as she could remember.

But only seeing her brothers briefly in passing in the mornings and for the few minutes she had before she left for work was taking its toll on her. Her brothers, seniors at Lantern Hill High, had gotten into a few scrapes. She knew not being around gave them too much time on their hands without adult supervision. She just hoped she could keep them on the straight and narrow for a few more months, and instill in them the importance of towing the line and being responsible. It’s what her parents had done for her.

She heard their small pick-up truck pull up as she finished dressing, donning her white coat before adding another layer. The heater in her Nova was not working, and she couldn’t afford to have it repaired right now. These boys ate. A lot! And feeding them so they could continue with their track and field activities was her priority. They both had scholarships to the University of Connecticut, but they still needed to finish the season strong.

And just exactly where her earlier thoughts had taken her, they both kissed her as she stood by the door but bypassed her quickly and then proceeded to raid the refrigerator. Standing over six feet tall, they crowded the door peering in at the slim pickings inside. Wesley grabbed the plate of cold chicken and Lesley followed him to the counter snatching a piece before they faced her.

“Please stay in tonight. You both have research papers due at the end of week,” she reminded them.

“It’s not due until Friday!” Wesley complained over a mouth full of chicken.

“Yes, but you have track practice all week, and you both have two shifts each at the gas station.”

“Yes, Jewels,” Lesley replied not even making eye contact as he passed her on the way to the sofa using his hand as a plate to carry his chicken so as not to get crumbs on the carpet.

“And if you could pass the vacuum, I’d love you forever,” she said as she picked up her purse from the small rickety table by the door. She reached inside and grabbed her keys and her employee ID badge. She quickly snapped it onto her uniform.

“You’ll love us any way,” Wesley added as he joined his brother on the sofa.

She smiled at her brothers indulgently, “And there is a lasagna in the oven for you when you get back from track. 350 degrees for forty-five minutes.”

Both brothers gave her broad smiles at this bit of news. “You’re the best Jewels.”