Page 66 of A Love So Wrong
Chapter 18
Taking turns driving, they made it back to Stardust Cove in record time. Pulling down the familiar gravel path, Gideon slowed down the truck at the sight of eight other cars lining the long drive. Before he could even turn off the engine, Jade had hopped out first and was making her way around the front of the truck.
Standing with his arms folded talking to a guy Gideon recognized as one of Stardust's local contractors, Gavin Rosebank stood in the middle of the yard. Turning at Jade's approach, Gavin's hard expression softened, and he opened his arms to envelop her in a hug. Gideon couldn't stop staring past them. Numerous people he recognized from all over town were dotted here and there across the yard carrying out busted window frames and carrying in shiny new ones. Scanning his gaze across the wide gaping holes where windows once lined the outside of his house, Gideon realized with a fresh surge of anger that the piece of shit must have broken nearly every window in the house.
As if sensing his anger, Gavin looked up over Jade's head, who he slowly released, to meet Gideon’s gaze and gave him a tired smirk. Approaching his friend, Gideon watched Jade run up to Ebony, who appeared at the front door holding a rolling paintbrush.
"It's pretty bad," Gavin warned him, no doubt seeing the murderous rage in his eyes as he peered through one of the open window holes to see piles of trashed things. "But it's just stuff, and Tony told me the house itself is fine, except for a few places where Ron knocked a few holes in the wall."
"I'm going to knock a few holes into him," Gideon seethed, watching as another man carried out a broken door.
Gavin nodded and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Or you can let Grayson handle it and worry about getting this place finally fixed up the way you want it and starting your lives again."
Looking back at him, Gideon gave his friend a considering look. There was something different about the guy, a calm, resolute surety that had not been there before he left. Nodding in agreement, Gideon told himself he would find that out later and began discussing the long list of repairs the house needed. With the arrival of a few more cars filled with friends, they were able to get the worst of the damages fixed. A few toilets that had been purposely clogged with trash were replaced, all new windows, a few new doors, new locks, patched holes, and new flooring and fresh coats of paint. By the end, everyone gave a tired cheer as they finished the last of the repairs late that night.
Walking through the empty house, Gideon admired the clean white walls of the dining room and living area. It was late, nearly three in the morning now, the house felt somehow old and new at the same time and wholly different. Moved into a corner of the room, the few pieces of furniture that went untouched during Ron's rampage were huddled together under heavy painter's cloths.
"I swear it feels like a brand-new house," Jade's voice echoed off the empty walls as she came from the hallway from her old bedroom. Showered and dressed in her nightclothes, she looked soft and sleepy, which was understandable since, for the last forty-eight hours, they had been hauling ass across the country only to come back and have to rebuild their house.
Gideon let out a yawn and nodded. Thankfully, Ron hadn't touched her room, he thought. Her windows and things were just like they were when they left. The same, however, could not be said about Gideon's room. By the time they arrived, Ebony had already picked through and salvaged anything she could find and had Gideon's busted bed and the rest of the mangled debris hauled out and trashed. From the mess, it was evident Ron had taken a sick sort of pleasure from desecrating his adopted brother's room. It didn’t matter though, Gideon thought with a surprising amount of levity, all that mattered was standing right here in front of him. Opening his arms, he watched as Jade smiled tiredly up at him before sinking into his hold.
"The nurse at rest home says momma is still sleeping, but she will most likely be up early tomorrow," Jade explained. "She said she has been asking constantly about us and has been wanting her phone."
Turning her around, Gideon walked with her towards the empty den that connected into his room. On their honeymoon, they had talked about making this section of the house their private master suite, giving them not only the privacy and space they would need but also giving mom an extra room she could fill to her desire with craft supplies.
Shutting the door to his bedroom, they both looked at the blow-up mattress sitting on the empty floor.
"After we get momma back and settled, first thing's first, we go to the furniture store," she announced.
Gideon laughed. "I can agree to that."
For a moment, he stood there on the opposite side of the blow-up mattress and stared at her expectantly until her questioning eyes met his. With a raise of an eyebrow, he silently signaled his request.
Understanding dawned over Jade's face before she rolled her eyes. "First of all, I'm dead tired, and so are you. Secondly, do you think it’s wise to get fully undressed? You know, with Ron still out there?" she waved towards the bare window.
It felt odd not having curtains. The new windows were like giant black gaping holes looking out into the night, it felt as if they were just standing outside in the open instead of in their room.
Nodding at her valid concern, Gideon bent down and grabbed the big, black pump shotgun from under the airy mattress. While everyone was moving in and out of the house earlier that evening, he had unloaded it from the truck and put it in here. Seeing her eyes widen, he smiled reassuringly at her. "Don't worry. I highly doubt Ron would set foot back here, or he wouldn't have trashed the place and ran so goddamn fast. The last thing that little meth-weasel wants is a confrontation with me, which is crazy because that's all I want."
"Well, that's not what I want at all," she informed him.
"I know, and that's why I'm not out there helping Grayson track his little ass down. See?" he said, gesturing to himself with a smirk. “Look how far I've come, sweetheart. Now go ahead and take off those clothes and let me—"
"But the windows," she squeaked, pointing to the large window behind her, but Gideon could see the twinkle of amusement in her eyes and the hardening of the nipples underneath her nightshirt.
Putting the shotgun back down, he gave her a coaxing smile.
"No one is around, and you know that we live out in the sticks," he knelt onto the mattress, looking up at her. "And besides, I have got all the motion lights on in the yard, if anything bigger than a dog walks within a certain radius, the floodlights will come on, and the alarm we never used is turned on and active now. So, as I was saying…" he let his words hang meaningfully in the air.
With a narrowed gaze and a mean little smile, Jade reached for the light pull on the overhead fan-light and clicked it off, draping them in cool darkness. Sinking down onto the mattress, Gideon folded one arm behind his back and watched her undress. This was all he used to dream about, right here in this room, and now here he was. Through a series of insane turns and some dumb decisions on his part, he was somehow staring up at the one person who made life worth living as she stared back at him with equal hunger and love. Everything was going to work out, he knew that deep in his heart. Momma would be shocked, but he knew the woman well enough to know she would be elated. Their futures were like twin silver streams twinkling together in unison converging as one. They would finish college, they would start their business, and in a few years, he would lay in this spot—not on a blow-up mattress— and watch his pregnant wife tease him as she undressed and come to bed with her round swollen tummy filled with a new sparkling life.
Goddamn, his life was good, he thought with a sudden wolfish grin. A love like this was so good it had to be wrong, and he loved every minute of it.
Fin
