Page 18 of A Love So Wrong
Chapter 7
Jade was sitting at the dining table, working on her senior calculus homework when the backdoor opened. After a few moments of listening to the sound of the door closing and two audible thumps of dirty boots hitting the rubber mat by the door, she finally saw Gideon enter through the den to the living room.
Seeing the tired smile on his face and his slow movements, she quickly got up. "Sit down, and I will bring you the food," she called out before rushing to the kitchen.
Now that it was just the three of them, Gideon had taken over all of Henry's routes, including his own. Being a small independently owned trucking company, they really couldn't afford to lose the few contracts they did have. Understanding Gideon's new predicament, the university allowed him to drop out of the football program and still keep two years of school fully paid, something Jade was truly happy about. She never did like the brutal sport. Now taking additional community college classes to keep the cost low and working two full routes each day, the carefree college life Gideon experienced only months before was gone, and whatever happiness she gained knowing he was no longer putting himself in danger on the football field was eaten away by that fact.
Slipping on the oven mitts, she pulled the pan of foil-covered fried chicken from the oven along with a pot of broccoli and rice casserole. Setting them on the dinner table, she could feel Gideon's eyes on her as he leaned both palms onto the back of the empty wooden dining chair.
"My God, that smells good," he inhaled audibly as she went to grab him a glass of unsweetened tea.
Setting down the glass, she smiled as she slipped back into her chair.
Pulling out the chair next to her, he leaned over and placed a loud kiss on the side of her cheek, causing her to laugh. "You have no idea how hungry I was," he admitted as he grabbed one of the drumsticks.
Propping her elbow on the table, she looked down at her scribbled notes along the margins of the book and stared at it tiredly. The moment mom had fallen asleep, Jade had turned off the TV and connected her Bluetooth speaker to her phone's internet radio. Low, mellow notes of jazz drifted in the quiet air around them. Lately, peace like this was only something she found late at night once Gideon was back.
After inhaling two more drumsticks, a huge scooping of casserole, and a whole glass of tea, Gideon's initial starved hunger seemed to be somewhat sated. Spreading his long legs underneath the table as he sat back and relaxed in his chair, Gideon purposely barricaded one of her bare feet between his jean-clad legs forcing her to meet his gaze.
Grinning that he got her attention, Gideon cocked his head to the side in question. "So, how was she tonight?"
Relaxing in her own chair, she stacked her free leg on top of his and gave him a rueful look. "I had to give her the sleeping medication the doctor prescribed her if that is any indication."
Setting down his fork, Gideon wiped his mouth with the napkin in his mouth with a look of disgust. "Damn it."
Reaching out, she put her hand on top of his clenched fist, doing her best to head his anger off at the pass. "It's no big deal she was just sad and angry,"
"It is a big deal, Jade," he argued, his amber eyes searching her to understand. "Does she not think we aren’t sad and angry too?"
Anger glittered briefly in his eyes before he looked back down at his plate. With measured movements, he carefully refilled his plate, as if each gesture was costing his barely contained patience.
"How hard do you think it would be to convince mom to let me repaint this room just a fresh, clean white?" she suddenly asked, changing the subject.
Gideon took a rather savage bite from the drumstick in his hand as he passed a considering gaze around the dining room. After a moment, he finally replied dryly. "Only if for some reason the paint suddenly melted off the wall, and there was a simultaneous embargo on the color peach nationwide."
Jade nodded with a laugh. He was right, she thought as she stared around the cluttered dining room. From the moment they moved into the house, the dining room had always been a faded peach color. With a large brown dining table and an equally enormous matching curio cabinet filled to the brim with porcelain figurines, the overall peach and brown effect perfectly ruined the great potential for the midcentury home.
"I love this house, even with its ugly dining room and mountains of clutter here and there," she said dreamily as she looked around the room she had spent earlier that evening straightening and cleaning.
Stacking his empty plate neatly in the empty casserole pan, Gideon leaned forward and gave her an eager look.
"Let's go out and sit by the pond," he suggested. "You need it, and God almighty, I need it too."
Scrunching up her nose, she shook her head. "It's freezing out there."
Gideon gave her a deadpan stare in return. "It's forty-eight degrees," he declared dryly. "You know if we ever do have to enact Henry's plan, we will be traveling in states that can get in the negatives, right?"
Jade let out a heaving sigh at the mention of theplan. The plan this, the plan that, she swore it was all Gideon ever talked about now. She should've known it would have been only a matter of time when he sat down before bringing the darn thing back up again. This ultimate "plan B" failsafe that he and Henry devised was always referred to with such a doomsday tone. They had no idea if they would ever even need it, but she knew it was no use making that argument. Because every time she did, Gideon would just repeat to her what dad had told them about Ron and that he knew how his son operated, and he knew it would only be a matter of time before Ron showed up again.
"Yes, yes, I know," she said, throwing her hands up in defeat. "I'm just too tired to try and go out and brave that cold right now." Seeing the question in his astute gaze, she rested her chin in the palm of her hand and slumped in her seat. "After I got home from school, mom was…she was just being a nightmare. Nothing was right for her. She started in on me, saying she didn't like the way I had moved her stuff when I cleaned up yesterday."
"God forbid a little organization happens to her craft areas, which are more like giant piles of crap she never puts away." Gideon groaned, letting his head hang back. Staring at the ceiling, he closed his eyes with a sigh.
Jade couldn’t stop her gaze from focusing on the muscles in his neck or the way his Adam's apple bobbed with each movement. It seemed so strong and pronounced in this position, subconsciously she touched the same spot in her own neck.
When he lifted his head and looked back at her, she quickly dropped her hand and nodded. "Yes, well, she was mad that you weren't going to be back in time for dinner." Holding out a hand, she looked up to the ceiling as she began ticking off the various reasons for mom frustrations. "She was mad her favorite show got replaced with another, she was upset she couldn't find her favorite pair of scissors, she forgot to do laundry, and then she just started crying," Jade made a half moan half groaning noise at the memory of the disintegration.
Never in her life had she seen anyone cry like that before. Ever since Henry's death, Jade and Gideon were both at a loss on how to handle the near-constant episodes. It wasn't the normal type of crying of anyone going through grief that Jade had experienced. Everything she had read online only mentioned moments of overwhelming sadness and subsequent tears but not long, never-ending fits of wailing that reminded Jade of an infant rather than a woman in her sixties. It was so overwhelming and jarring, Jade realized it never really gave her any time to really grieve herself. By the time she was able to work her mother through one of the episodes, Jade was too exhausted to have time for her own sadness.
