Read Online Meet Me at the Boardwalk by Erin Haft - Free Book Online Page B

peas in a pod.
    Exhibit A: In addition to showing up together, they also showed up with perfect makeup, hair parted in the middle, wearing black spaghetti-strap tops and short white skirts, and both carrying large ceramic bowls covered in Saran Wrap. With Megan’s dark hair and Lily-Ann’s flaxen waves, they looked like a photo and its negative.
    “Hey, Jade!” Lily-Ann exclaimed.
    “Hi.” I peered at their bowls. Both were filled with some sort of red punch.
    Megan gave me a kiss on the cheek. She smelled like expensive perfume.
    “You look really cute,” Lily-Ann remarked. “I love that dress.”
    I glanced down at myself. I hadn’t even remembered what I’d thrown on—only that it was an easy something-or-other to go over my bathing suit, something I could whip off in case people wanted to splash around in the ocean later. I was hoping they would. Better to keep the riffraff outside than allow them to roam our house freely…and now that I looked at it, it wasn’t cute at all. It was a horrible blue sundress with beads on the skirt that Dad had bought me for my fifteenth birthday.
    “Thanks,” I mumbled.
    “Here, let me take that,” Turquoise said, breezing past me and grabbing the bowl from Lily-Ann’s arms. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jade’s sister, Turquoise. Welcome to the Cohen household. I’d welcome you, too, Megan, but what’s the point?”
    “Um…that punch isn’t spiked with anything, is it?” I asked as they stepped into the kitchen.
    “Ha, ha, ha,” Turquoise snorted. “Lily-Ann made it. Why don’t you help out and be a host, and then you can taste for yourself.”
    At the very least, Turkey sounded like herself again. “How do you know Lily-Ann made the punch?” I asked.
    “Megan told me,” Turquoise said absently, grabbing a soup ladle from the drawer.
    “Oh,” I said.
    Megan and Lily-Ann exchanged a quick glance, the sort of glance Miles and I would exchange whenever the conversation veered dangerously close to our secret.
    Turquoise joined the glancing, too. Yes, the pact party was off to a great start.
    “Megan called to ask what she should bring, and Lily-Ann offered to make some punch,” Turkey explained. “Now will you stop standing around like a basket case and help out a little? Turning our humble little home into the Jade Cohen party house was your idea, if I’m not mistaken.”
    Touché. Turkey was definitely back. And I was strangely glad. I opened the pantry and scooped out some long rolls of plastic cups. Turkey stirred Megan’s bowl of punch. “So what’s in there, anyway?” I asked.
    “Vitamin water and vodka,” Lily-Ann responded. “Power C.”
    “Vodka?” I asked, staring at Turkey.
    Lily-Ann nodded. “Just a splash. My dad gets vodka sent specially from Iceland or something. I figured, what the hell? He didn’t seem to mind. It isn’t all that much. Less than a quarter bottle for each bowl.”
    “Great!” I beamed as broadly as I could. “Turkey? Are you okay with all of this? Serving booze to a bunch of kids?”
    “I’m not a kid,” she said casually. She kept stirring. “And since when did you become a lawyer? It’s not like I’ll get disbarred. I haven’t even taken the exam.” She raised her eyes and grinned.
    Megan and Lily-Ann giggled.
    “Oh,” I said. “Well, this is nice. It’ll mark the very first time I’ve gotten drunk in my life. I’m glad I can share it with my darling sister, my best friend…and a perfect stranger. Dad would be so proud! Should we call him and let him know?”
    Lily-Ann shook her head. “You won’t get drunk,” she said firmly. “I promise. There’s barely anything in there.”
    I rolled my eyes. “I feel so much better. You’re right. I think I’ll have a cup.”
    “Anyway, I’m not a perfect stranger. I’m your best friend’s employer .”
    I gazed down at the bowls. Megan had grabbed a wooden spoon out of the cupboard and had begun to stir her own drink. I wondered if Miles would