Page 69 of The Rebel
“Uh, yeah, my teacher is Mr. Moreno so I doubt that’ll work,” I said with a laugh, “but thanks anyway.”
“Well, if you need a model...” Jade joked around, pouting with a flirty, smoldering pose.
“Oh wow, let me capture that.” I pointed my phone at him and snapped several photos. “Such a natural!”
Jade scrunched his face, eyes crinkling, his nose twitching, tongue poking out. He looked adorable and I clicked again, saying, “Aww, too cute!” But boy, I meant it.
He winked at me and his lips curled up and despite knowing that nothing was going to happen between us, I was okay.For now it was a case of wrong timing, but I figured there were more pressing concerns at stake. My brother’s tennis form and reconciling his mother and his grandparents were more important than my first kiss.
Chapter 18
JADE
Trina Wheeler was sitting in the kitchen with Mom when I arrived home. I guessed she called her for moral support. Probably if Valencia’s mother was around, she would have been here.
Mom stood up and hugged me, but we didn’t say anything. She smelled of perfume and was wearing a soft cream sweater and a tan skirt with buttons down the front, like she was dressed for work.
Her palm patted my back and I took that as a sign that she was okay, that we were okay.
I offered to be with her when Gramma and Pops arrived but Mom wanted to speak to them on her own. She thanked Trina for coming over and said they’d talk later. Valencia went off to feed Volley and work on her art.
I waited in the den, putting on my headphones and pumping the music loud. Lifting weights would keep me distracted. Though I had no idea if I’d be working out for two minutes or two hours, two sets or twenty two.
And I didn’t know if I’d leave the room to find a bigger heartbreak or a happy family reunion.
Mom’s parents had died before I was born. She’d lost her father when she was a child and her mom a month after she married Dad. Gramma and Pops had always featured in our lives. Whatever had caused the rift surely could be repaired. Words said in grief could be retracted and forgiven.
Or so I believed.
But perhaps I was naive—hoping for a fairytale ending that might never happen.
I was pounding on the treadmill, thumping heavy metal blaring in my ears when the door opened. I did a split jump off of the running deck onto the sides of the machine and pressed the stop button. I pulled off my headphones as it took a few seconds for the belt to come to a complete halt.
I feared the worse. Mom stood there on her own, her lips tightly pressed, her eyes red and puffy. She stretched out her arms and, sweaty as I was, I fell into them, my heart racing, not from the cardio but from the thought that I’d failed.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “I shouldn’t have. I only wanted to make things right.”
Mom sniffled against my t-shirt, her lungs drawing in oxygen in long, wavering breaths. I held her close, regretting the extra pain I’d put her through. Perhaps there were some things that couldn’t be fixed, some bridges that couldn’t be mended, words that could never be forgotten.
“Your Dad would be so proud of you.” Mom shuddered against my chest, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Family was everything to him.”
Only then did I understand that I hadn’t failed...Mom and Gramma and Pops had reconciled. I pulled back and asked, “It’s all good?”
Mom nodded, dabbing at her face with a tissue that was already soaked. She sat down on the weight bench and I switched off my music app on my phone, put my headphones on the shelf and sat next to her.
“Where’s Gramma and Pops?” I asked.
“They’ve gone to check in at the hotel,” she said. “They want to take us out to dinner. I’ll go and get Ollie shortly.”
“I can do that,” I offered.
Mom smiled. She picked up my hand and clasped it. “Thank you. Thank you for being my rock, for your loyalty, for seeing sense when I couldn’t.”
My throat caught, like a lump was lodged in it, hoping she would tell me everything.
She sniffed and wiped her nose. “You know, it seems so petty now,” she said with a half laugh. “Dad had everything worked out, everything planned and when Elise and Graham wanted to make changes, I got so mad at them. Alex knew what he wanted and it was up to me to grant his final wishes. But when Elise and Graham wanted to do this and do that, I shut them down. They wanted to dress Dad in a suit and the shoes they bought him, but Dad had specified his Man City jersey and jeans.”
I pondered it for a moment. “What shoes did they buy him?”
