Page 27 of A Love So Wrong
Jade couldn't help but soften at that. Toby was so sweet it made her sad to think of the kind-faced man doing long runs all over the country by himself. Looking around the gas station, she noticed as other men and women filed in and out. They were all the same in one way or another. Jeans, work shirts, grease stains, a stiff weariness from riding in a seat for nearly twelve hours a day. These men all reminded her of her dad. Even Toby reminded her of her dad. Maybe that was why she liked him nearly on sight when he started talking to Gideon the first time they were here. Although considerably younger than her dad was, Toby had a look in his eyes that said he had been doing this job for years. She wondered if he had ever come across Henry Lattimore during his runs.
"I'm telling you, getting yourself that Instant Pot will make all the difference," she preached, reminding him of their first conversation they had when they waited nearly eight hours together for their load last time.
"Yes, well," Toby said, averting his gaze and shifting on his feet. "I much rather have someone as nice as you to cook it for me and talk to me while I drive."
Jade laughed as she bent down and scooped up her laundry. "Oh, I just bet," she teased as she started walking to the door, Toby falling in line next to her. "Gideon is really milking it too, yesterday he had me hand feeding him practically every bite of the pasta I made as he drove."
"What a lucky bastard," Toby laughed as he held the door open for her. Stopping a little way from the door, he squinted from the sun, holding up one hand over his eyes as a shield. Seeing she had every intention of making her way over to the laundromat in the next parking lot over, he rushed to speak. "So umm, hey, I have to go back and make sure about my load once more, but I may come over there and sit with you and talk to you about some podcasts I've been listening to if that's alright?"
"Sure," she agreed happily. "My birthday was on Sunday, and Gideon bought me an audio-book subscription. So, I have been listening to loads of books and podcasts ever since.”
"Ok great, I'll see you in a few," he called to her.
Going through the glass door of the laundromat, Jade scanned the large open room filled with machines and smiled. It was empty. The sharp scent of detergent hung in the warm air of the room. Rumbling whirs of a few dryers turning and a washing machine spinning and sloshing filled the space with a low soothing noise. Setting her coffee on the white paint chipped wooden table in the middle of the second aisle, Jade emptied her bag and pulled out her backpack that was squirreled away at the bottom of the clothes. Sorting out all the clothes, she started two washing machines and sat down in the metal chair. Opening her laptop, she pulled up her final assignment and stared at it. This was it, her last assignment ever for high school. Once she turned it in, it would only be a few more weeks before she was emailed her final grade, and a couple more weeks before her diploma would be emailed to her. Jade cocked her head to the side. Not how she had imagined graduating high-school but here it was. Shaking her thoughts from the mental images of Ebony and Taylor walking across the school's stage dressed in their gowns, she forced herself back to the present. Butterflies filled her stomach as she proofread the paper once more and pressed send.
Earlier that morning, when Gideon first pulled into the hour-long line of truckers waiting to enter the distribution center for their load, she had called Sandra. Gone nearly two months now, Jade tried to call her at least every other week. On speakerphone, Jade had filled Sandra in on where they had been since the last time they talked, Gideon occasionally correcting her on places before returning to his silence he maintained with Sandra. She had told Jade she was keeping a map she had marked with pins of all the places they had been thus far, another topic that didn't particularly move the needle of Gideon's interest. It was only when Jade finally started winding down the conversation, and she forced herself to ask about how everything was going with Ron did Jade feel the subtle change in Gideon. Outwardly, he made no overt motion or signal that this part of the conversation interested him more than the others. He just sat in the driver's seat and eyed the back of the truck in front of them, occasionally lifting his foot off the brake and bringing their truck forward as the line progressed. But Jade knew Gideon, and she could see the muscle in his jaw tighten as he listened for their mother's response.
"Oh, everything is fine. He's just looking for another job right now because he doesn't want to work in that smelly meatpacking plant any longer. Which I really can't blame him for," she chatted chipperly.
Gideon sat back in his seat and pressed the mute button on the phone as their mother rambled to another topic. He gave Jade a deadly serious look. "And all that means is the fucker is without a job and is living in our house scot-free while we were kicked out and forced to-"
Jade could see the fires of anger growing in his eyes with each word. Reaching across the divide of their seats, she placed a hand softly against his cheek. Gideon's anger was doused under the touch, and he gave her a momentary startled look before lowering his gaze and covering her hand with his own.
Her heart had beat furiously in her chest well after that phone call. Even now, as she sat in the empty laundromat, her pulse quickened at the memory of his firm jaw. There had been a whisper of stubble under her fingertips that sent little shocks through her nerves. Just when exactly did he change from her smooth-faced brother with the mischievous dimpled smile to this man with the devilish smile before her?
Checking her watch, Jade stood up from the bench and eyed the spinning clothes. She may as well wash everything she could, she thought. Looking out the windows at the front and spotting no one coming, she pulled down her pants and stripped off her sweater, leaving her in a pair of jogger shorts she wore underneath the pants and tank top. It was cold out and working its way to downright freezing. But the sun was up, and it took the edge off the wind outside. In her jacket, sneakers, shorts, and tank top Jade pulled on her backpack and stepped out of the laundromat. Walking down the street past the long line of trucks on the other side, she headed towards the Walmart they passed on the way in.
Her phone was ringing as she was making her way back to the distribution center. With her backpack full of groceries and a sack of bananas and bread, things she didn't want to get squished, in her left hand, she dug out her phone from her backpack pocket.
"And just where exactly are you?" Gideon's firm voice bit out over the phone.
Casting her eyes heavenward, Jade stepped around a crumbling hole in the sidewalk and put her finger up to her opposite ear to block out the noise from the line of waiting trucks idling to her left.
"I just came back from the laundromat," she somewhat shouted over the trucks' noise. "I had to put our clothes in the dryers, and before that, I went to get groceries. I'm just coming back to the truck to drop this stuff off—"
"Hey!"
She heard a shout as she passed through the entry gate to her right. Pulling the phone away from her ear, she stared at the man standing at the guard shack in obvious confusion. He wasn't the guard. When she had left earlier, she had made polite small talk with the guard whose name tag had read Jason, and this man was not him. Looking at him, Jade couldn’t tell how old he was. He could have been the same age as Toby or younger, but that wasn't saying much. There was a bone-weary tiredness about him that all truckers seemed to have that made pinpointing their age nearly impossible for Jade. With black hair cut close to his head and wearing a pair of uncomfortable-looking cowboy boots, jeans, and a white-t-shirt that had an army logo on it, the man stood there, giving her a stern look before stomping her way. With the phone in her hand forgotten, she stared wide-eyed at the man as he approached and stopped directly in front of her, nearly invading her personal space.
"You can’t be in here," the man announced.
Still not sure who this man was, Jade gave him a quizzical stare, looking for any sort of official identification on his person. She saw none. He looked like a regular truck driver to her, which only made her even more confused.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand," she finally answered.
"Look, lady, you can't be in here, so kindly take your business outside," he gestured to back outside the gate. "You'll just have to find your tricks at the truck stop…I'm sure it won’t be hard," he said, looking her up and down.
Feeling as if she had just been slapped, Jade took an unsteady step back, the cold wind biting around her legs. "Woah, hold on," she held up one hand towards the wannabe cowboy trucker. "Are you…you really think I'm a prostitute?!"
The man gave her a considering look letting his eyes linger on her bare legs a half a second too long for comfort. "Well, I have to admit you’re the cleanest and prettiest one I have ever seen but-"
"Don’t finish that sentence," she cut him off, her shock gone and now replaced with anger. She could not believe she was even having this absurd conversation. "I'm carrying a bag full of groceries," she held up the sack until it practically dangled in his face, "to my truck, which is parked right over there, for your information. So, I really don't think I fit the mold for a woman down on her luck, now please move!"
She made an attempt to step past him, but the man stepped in front of her and grabbed her arm. "I said, stop."
A frantic energy filled her stomach, and she was just about to scream at the man when they both heard a familiar voice shout.
"What the hell is going on?" Jogging across the open lot from the main building, Toby's face looked red, and his expression was a mixture of winded fatigue and angry confusion. Stopping next to her accuser, Toby grabbed the man's wrist and snatched his grip from Jade's arm before stepping in between her and the fake cowboy accosting her.
