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Chapter 326 Tension

　　As Bryan walked into the living room, the doorbell rang, and he walked over to open the door. He raised a speculative brow when he saw Jade standing there, "For a moment there, I thought you decided to just get married to your precious uncle Harry and forget about our existence," Bryan said, making a face as he mimicked the tone she had used that morning when she referred to Harry as \'uncle Harry\'.

　　"If he is the reasonable one, what does that make me?" Bryan asked as he picked up her bag and shut the door at his back. 

　　"Do you really need me to spell it out?" Jade asked without sparing him a glance, "Tommy, are you in?" Jade called as she walked into the kitchen to see what it looked like. 

　　"You are lucky you are related to me by blood, else, I would have strangled you," Bryan hissed as he dumped her bag on the couch, and Jade giggled, enjoying the exchange of words. 

　　"Are you sure we are related by blood? Sometimes I have doubts..." Jade said and cackled with laughter when a crumpled paper ball hit the back of her head. God! She had really missed getting on his nerves.

　　"Is this the best you can do? I think you are a coward who is scared to strangle me because you know dad and mom will kill you," she said and shuddered with laughter as she quickly shut the kitchen door when she heard Bryan\'s quick footsteps. 

　　"Why don\'t you open the door, smart mouth, and let\'s find out who the coward is?" Bryan taunted.

　　"I have nothing to prove to you or anyone else. You bully. TOMMY! If you are in there, come out here and save your helpless baby sister from this bully," Jade cried at the top of her lungs, making Bryan double over in a fit of laughter, and Tom, who had been folding his clothes in the bedroom, came out when he heard Jade\'s cry for help.

　　"You should be ashamed of yourself, Bryan Hank," Tom chided, mimicking their mother\'s tone when he saw Bryan standing by the kitchen door with the broken walking stick of the former house owners as he waited for Jade to open the door.

　　"Oh, Tommy! My hero is here! You\'re my lifesaver," Jade said dramatically as she opened the door and quickly ran to hide behind Tom, embracing him from behind.

　　"Coward," Bryan muttered as he went to sit on the couch, and Jade took the opportunity to look around the house.

　　"This place doesn\'t look bad. Maybe I can move in here when I take Harry\'s offer," Jade said when she returned to the living room.

　　"Just some hours ago, you said you might, and now it is when. Very smooth transition," Bryan observed.

　　"Let her be, Bryan," Tom chided like the dutiful older brother he was.

　　"How did you manage to live in here, Tom? It\'s so old-school. I would have to redo the decor to suit my feminine taste," Jade said thoughtfully, completely ignoring Bryan as she went to sit beside Tom.

　　"Or you could just move into your bedroom in Tom\'s mansion. He never said he was letting you stay here," Bryan countered, thinking that it wouldn\'t be a bad idea for Jeff and Mia to share the apartment since it was a two-bedroom apartment.

　　"Yeah. Why don\'t you just braid my hair into pigtails and add shiny pink ribbons for effect?" Jade asked dryly.

　　"Not that it wouldn\'t look good on a brat like you," Bryan called back. 

　　Jade ignored him and focused on Tom, "How was work today?"

　　"Work was fine. I\'m glad that you finally decided to join the company," Tom said with a small smile to relax her. 

　　"Does that mean I can have this apartment? I don\'t suppose you are going to keep living here now that you have gotten Lucy," Jade said, and Tom shrugged.

　　"You can have this or any other apartment of your choice when you\'re ready. I\'m taking my personal stuff with me today," Tom said, and Jade beamed a smile at him as she leaned forward to press her lips to his cheek.

　　"You have always been my favorite brother, did you know that?" she said with so much fondness that Tom laughed while Bryan scowled at her.

　　"If you\'re done gold-digging, let\'s wrap dad\'s gifts. I will get them," Bryan suggested as he stood up to get the items from the dining table where he had placed the gifts.

　　"What gifts did you get him?" Tom asked, welcoming the distraction.

　　"We got him a box of expensive Cuban cigars, his..."

　　"A box of cigars? Mom is not going to like that," Tom interrupted Jade. 

　　"Chill. She allows him to smoke a single cigar per day. And this isn\'t about mom, remember? It is dad\'s birthday. The man likes to smoke, so he should be allowed to enjoy the best of cigars," Bryan said as he returned with the wristwatch and cigar and dropped them on the table. 

　　"We also got his favorite wine and an outrageously expensive wristwatch," Jade concluded as she picked up the roll of wrapping paper and scissors and started to cut it.

　　The three siblings worked together, with Jade calling out instructions to both Bryan and Tom until they successfully wrapped the two boxes, "Well done," she said with a smile of approval.

　　"By the way, I think we should still do something special. What about we sing him a song? I could dance while you both sing," Jade suggested, and once again, the brothers exchanged a look of disbelief.

　　"For Christ\'s sake, Jade! We already got him gifts. You insisted we wrap the gifts ourselves to give them a special touch, and we did. We arranged for the cake and food and will be spending the evening with him singing the traditional happy birthday song. What other song do you want to sing?" Bryan asked, and Jade raised a brow.

　　"There is no gift we can give him that will ever be good enough. What have we not gotten him already over the years? Let\'s just make it special for him by showing him how much we love and cherish him," Jade pleaded, "If you like, I can sing, and you both can dance," Jade suggested with a grin.

　　"No! I\'m going to hate you for life if you make me embarrass myself in front of Andrew!" Bryan protested, and Tom chuckled. 

　　"Suck it by, Bryan," Jade said, patting his cheek.

　　"I can see why dad adores you," Tom said with a fond smile as he ruffled Jade\'s pixie hair. He wanted to have a daughter that would be this devoted to making him happy. Wasn\'t this one of the highlights of life? 

　　"Everyone adores me. Duh," Jade said with a sassy smile, and Bryan raised a brow.

　　"I definitely don\'t belong to the class of everyone who adores you."

　　"You actually top the class. That\'s the only class you have ever topped in your miserable life," Jade said, and Tom chuckled as Bryan threw what was left of the wrapping paper at her. 

　　Watching his siblings bicker reminded him once again why he wanted a family of his own. He wanted to watch his kids bicker and fight over nothing like Bryan, and Jade almost always did when they were in the same room. They acted like they couldn\'t stand each other, but he knew how much they loved themselves and enjoyed their banters. He enjoyed watching them as he knew he would enjoy watching his kids too, he thought with a deep sigh. 

　　"Are you okay, sweetie? You don\'t look fine."

　　"How can you tell?" Tom asked.

　　"Because I can read you like an open book, and you\'ve been sighing an awful lot too. Want to share the problem?" Jade asked with concern, and Bryan also looked at Tom curiously.

　　"Nah. I am not in my best mood, but it\'s nothing to worry about," Tom assured them.

　　"What is keeping Sonia and Lucy? We should start getting ready to leave. It\'s a wonder mom hasn\'t called to scold me already for failing to wish dad a happy birthday before leaving the house. Did she call either of you?" Bryan asked, looking from Tom to Jade, and they both shook their heads, equally surprised that their mother hadn\'t bothered to call either of them yet.

　　Jade sighed, "Dad probably asked her to. I\'m sure by now he thinks we forgot his birthday," Jade deduced sadly.

　　Just then, the doorbell rang, and Tom stood up, "I guess they\'re here. You can get the door while I get my stuff," Tom said as he walked into the bedroom, leaving Bryan, who went to get the door for Sonia and Lucy.

　　"I hope we didn\'t keep you guys waiting?" Sonia asked as she let Lucy go in ahead of her.

　　Bryan took Lucy\'s suitcase from her, "I was just about to send a search party," he said as he stole a kiss from Sonia before shutting the door.

　　"Hi, Jade!" Lucy greeted as her eyes unconsciously roamed the room in search of Tom.

　　"I hope you were able to do everything you needed to do?" Jade asked as she watched Lucy. Something about Lucy interested her. She felt like Lucy was a kindred spirit. Someone she understood.

　　"Yes, thanks," Lucy said, wondering if she should go into the bedroom to meet Tom or wait for him to come out.

　　"Hey, Jade! Welcome to the neighborhood of love," Sonia grinned at Jade, and she grinned back.

　　"Thanks. I think I\'m going to move in here. I guess I will be Lucy\'s neighbor," Jade announced cheerfully, making Lucy look at her curiously.

　　Before Lucy could respond to Jade\'s statement, the inner door opened, and Tom walked out with a heavy designer backpack, "I guess we are all ready to leave now," he said, and he let his gaze settle on Lucy before smiling at her. Lucy let herself smile back even though she could somehow tell from his eyes that everything wasn\'t okay.

　　Both their hearts contracted painfully as they gazed at each other. Although neither of them wanted to lose the other, none of them was willing to give up on their choices either. They both wanted each other but in different ways. They wanted different things from each other, and deep down, they both knew that this was one of those times that love wasn\'t going to be enough. They were going to need more than love to resolve this. 

　　"Yes. Let\'s go before dad disowns us all," Bryan suggested as he picked up both Lucy\'s and Jade\'s bags and headed for the door. 

　　Jade picked up her handbag and walked outside with Sonia, who was telling her how she couldn\'t wait for them to settle down so she could tell her more about her and Harry.

　　"You are giving this apartment to Jade?" Lucy asked cautiously when they were alone, and Tom shrugged.

　　"I don\'t think I need it anymore," Tom said, feeling his heart ache as he watched her fumble for something to say. This whole thing wasn\'t supposed to be a big deal. He had no idea why his heart was making such a big deal out of it.

　　Lucy nodded, "Yeah. We can either spend time at your real house or mine," Lucy said, watching him. Waiting for him to say something. Anything that would reassure her that they were really good, and she was only imagining the tension between them. 

　　"Yeah," Tom said with a nod as he held out a hand to her. 

　　"Let\'s go," he said, and she placed her hands in his, and they both walked out of the house.

　　"Are you joining us, or you\'re going with Tom and Lucy?" Bryan asked as he carefully placed Jade\'s bag and Lucy\'s suitcase in his trunk, and Tom passed him his backpack too so that all the bags would be in the one car. 

　　"I think I will go with my reasonable brother," Jade said, sticking her tongue at Bryan as she followed Tom.

　　"Brat. I hope Harry never spares you a glance," Bryan called out to Jade as she got into the other car with Tom and Lucy, causing Jade and Sonia to laugh, but neither Lucy nor Tom heard the joke. They were both lost in their thoughts.