Now that she was barefoot, it made walking through the yard much easier. We made our way to the first table, which had a platter of small round toasts topped with some green spread and what I assumed was chicken. Whatever it was, it tasted amazing—a thought echoed by Tiffany’s satisfied moan.
“I take it you like it?”
She smiled while covering her mouth with her whole hand, something I was pretty sure would’ve gotten her a slap on the wrist in etiquette class. “Yes, it’s delicious. What is it?”
“I have no idea. My sister owns her own catering company, and I believe she makes up most of these things. So there’s no telling what she’s named it, probably something fancy that most people couldn’t pronounce. I just call them all finger food, regardless of what they’re made of.”
“Oh my God, I do the same!” In her excitement, she slapped my bicep, except she didn’t take her hand away, just held it there as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
It seemed like the Tiffany I knew was finally starting to come back, and I didn’t want it to stop, so I tried my best to remain unfazed by her sudden burst of enthusiasm and carried on with the conversation. “How new to this scene are you? The million-dollar homes, designer-name clothes, luxury cars…that sorta thing. Did you grow up around it?”
Sadly, she let her hand slip away from my arm, but I couldn’t complain, because she took a step closer to me. “My upbringing was pretty average—middle-class working family. We didn’t have a fancy house by any stretch of the imagination, but it was nice. I’d say it was normal. What about you?”
Too bad I hadn’t thought about the return inquiry when I chose this route of questioning. “Um…I guess you could say it was complicated.”
Tiffany took off her sunglasses and met my stare. Sincerity blazed brightly in the sterling-silver irises. Gazing into her eyes like this made it impossible to wrap my head around the nastiness that was attached to her name in the tabloids.
“Isn’t everyone’s family complicated?” The soft giggles in her words set me at ease.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I had to look away before I fell into her spell and spilled all my family’s secrets, which I could never do. “We were pretty well off for quite a while. I don’t think it was always that way, but my parents started making a lot more money when I was really little, so it was all I knew growing up. Then, when I was twelve, they lost it all.”
“Stock market?”
She offered me an easy out, so I took it. “Yeah, you know what they say…don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Well, they did.” I decided to end the story there.
“Your sister seems to do well for herself,” she mentioned while peering over her shoulder at Jessa and Marcus’s large home.
“She married into it, and to be honest, she didn’t want any of this. She would’ve been perfectly happy in a two-bedroom house in the middle of nowhere, but Marcus talked her into getting this place. I think she’s fine with it now, but she’s not that type. You know? She doesn’t need any of this.”
“Is her catering service successful?”
“Oh, yeah, it is. But that isn’t what pays the bills. She actually donates every penny she makes.” I was certainly proud of my sister, but the last thing I expected to see on Tiffany’s face was utter awe, which was exactly what I found when I glanced over at her.
“Wow. That’s impressive, and extremely generous.”
“That’s my sister, though. She’s always been that way.”
“So, if she didn’t want a house this big, why get it?”
Normally, I never spoke of my sister’s personal business to anyone, yet for some reason, I felt safe opening up to Tiffany about it. “Marcus and Jessa are foster parents. They don’t have any kids staying with them right now, but they usually have at least one here. At the beginning of the year, they were given a family of four siblings. If it weren’t for them, those kids would’ve probably been split up, and Jessa refuses to separate siblings. So they took all four of them—the oldest was nine and the youngest was under a year. They were just reunited with their mother several weeks ago.”
“That has to be so hard.”
“I think it is. They normally have at least one child in the home, so when one leaves, Jessa is still occupied by another. But not this time. She’s a tough woman, Jessa is; she doesn’t let her emotions show too much, but I think this last time really got to her. She’s thrown herself into her company to occupy her time until another child comes along.”
“Can they not have their own kids?”
I thought about that for a moment. “You know…I’m not sure. If I had to guess, I’d say they probably could if they wanted to, but from what I gather, they would rather help other children.”
Tiffany seemed so warm, more so than I’d ever seen her on any other occasion. It reminded me of the scene from The Grinch when his heart grew three sizes with the overwhelming love that consumed him—that’s what Tiffany looked like in this moment.
However, that all came to a crashing halt when Dave returned.
“Having fun?” he asked while helping himself to the snacks on the table.
“Yeah, we were just getting to know one another.”
Tiffany slipped her glasses back on her face and, in a bored tone, said, “We were just killing time while you meandered around the yard.”
That caught me off guard, considering I wouldn’t at all have classified our conversation as killing time. I was so shocked, in
