Page 3 of A Love So Wrong
Helping clear off the table, Gideon stopped trying to catch Jade's eye as they moved back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen with empty plates and serving dishes. He could feel that the reserved emotional wall she put up was built to perfection. Her face looked calm and serene as she pushed some of her honey-brown hair from her face and hoisted up the heavy pot roast pan into the sink, but he knew inside she was seething at him.
The sound of the TV from the large living area next to the dining room filled the space, and Gideon looked past Henry, who was coughing and lounging in his old battered reclining chair, to see Sandra sitting next to him on the far end of the couch near her huge bag of yarn.
Sighing, Gideon walked over to the couch and leaned over, and placed a kiss on Sandra's cheek. "I'm sorry, momma," he said loud enough for her and Henry to hear. "You know I want you to be happy, but you know I also really want Jade to get that scholarship money."
Turning her head to look at him, she gave him a tiny sniffle and nod before smiling and reaching up to hug his head close to hers. "I know. You are such a good brother, my sweet Gideon," she chuckled as she ruffled his wavy hair. "All you have to do is give me that handsome smile of yours, and you know I will forgive you of anything, sweet boy."
Standing upright again, he let her pat his hand once more in doting affection before he walked back into the kitchen to put out the last fire.
With the only entrance to the kitchen being on one end that cut through to the laundry room and the dining room, it left the narrow kitchen closed off to the living room, giving them privacy. As soon as he rounded the corner, Jade turned from the sink and let the cool mask she had worn fall until her hazel eyes glittered with anger. Normally, any look resembling consternation looked out of place if not a bit comical on her face. With full, high cheeks, Jade's cherub-like round face and perfectly pouty full lips usually did not aid her in portraying anger. Tonight, however, it did.
"Why did you do that?!" she demanded, her eyes crackling with frustration. "Why did you have to say anything? I could've reminded her gently, later, and just asked."
Crossing his arms over his chest, Gideon leaned onto the counter next to him. "Yeah, and we both know how that would have went down. She would have cried and begged, and you would've caved like you always do with her."
There was once a time where he, too, would have consoled their mother and backed off from a confrontation. A time where he would have tried to make her see reason in a series of small gradual steps. But Gideon was tired. He wasn't like Henry, who spent his entire life babying his wife, working hard grueling days all across the country cooped up in a big-rig for days just to come home to Sandra throwing a tantrum about something or another. No, Gideon had thrown off that yoke years ago, resigning himself to just watch in mounting frustration as Jade burdened herself with Sandra's quixotic emotions and did everything in her power to please the childish woman. He loved Sandra, he truly did. She was the only true mother he had ever known, but that did not make him blind to her faults.
"No, that's not what would have happened. You were just purposely trying to antagonize her," Jade hissed as she looked past him worriedly towards the kitchen entrance at the far-off sound of Henry coughing.
Pushing away from the counter, Gideon stepped forward, his own anger rising to meet hers. Why couldn't she understand? "I don't give a damn about antagonizing her. Stop trying to paint me as the villain when all I was trying to do was look after you—all I have ever done, by the way!"
Pulling back as if slapped, hurt streaked through her eyes for the barest of second before Jade shook her head and stepped back. Gideon watched with pained resignation as she rebuilt her walls, retreating behind them, showing no emotion as she gave him a blank expression. "That's…that's not what I need from you," she whispered.
