Kiss To Forget (Blairwood University #2) - Anna B. Doe Page 0,43
my brows raised in surprise. She’s nibbling at her lip, her cheeks rosy. “You cook?”
“You don’t?” she shoots right back, her head tilted to the side in a mocking gesture.
“Ha!” Mom shakes her head. “I love to cook, but neither of my two kids seem to have gotten the gene. What they do love is to eat.”
Leaning back in my chair, I pat my stomach. “Well, I need all the energy I can get. After all, I’m a growing boy.”
Yasmin rolls her eyes, but the playfulness in them is gone when they narrow down at the naked patch of my abs that was revealed when my shirt was pulled to the side. She blinks and looks away, but I swear the rosiness in her cheeks has grown into a full-on blush.
Fuck me.
Mom swats me on the leg. “Behave, you’re not in kindergarten.”
For all her stern words there is a lightness in her I haven’t seen in so long I almost forgot about it.
“Yes, ma’am.” I sit straight. My stomach finally catches up with all the smells coming from the table, so I fill my plate to the brim. “‘O gwod,” I mutter as soon as I take the first bite of eggs. I’m not sure what she put in them, but she did something different, and it tastes amazing.
Mom gives Yasmin a look, but I’m too immersed in the food to try and decipher the meaning of it. Instead, I eat quietly, listening to the three of them talk. Both Mom and Jade grill Yasmin about college and her extracurriculars, but she takes it in stride, answering all their questions.
“What about you? Have you decided where you want to go?” Yasmin asks Jade.
I watch as the smile falls off my sister’s face. Jade opens her mouth, then closes it.
“She applied to a few schools, but she’s hoping to get into Blairwood. Jade’s amazing with the camera and wants to study photography,” Mom supplies, wiping her mouth with a napkin. She’s been nibbling at small bites, and although there is still food on her plate, she ate more than she did the last time I was home.
“Really? That’s amazing. I always admire people with the artistic eye. I have none whatsoever. I can’t even sing in the shower, that’s how bad I am.”
Yasmin’s laughter eases a bit of the tension that her question caused. Talking about college is a sore subject for Jade.
Ever since we visited Blairwood’s campus, even before I officially enrolled, it’s been the only thing she talked about. Then cancer happened, and everything changed.
Placing my fork on the plate once I’m done, I look at my family. “We should talk.”
Yasmin gets to her feet almost instantly. “I’ll go upstairs and change.”
“You don’t have to…” Mom starts to protest, but Yasmin shakes her head. “It’s fine. I have to change and make a phone call anyway.”
She offers me a small smile, but I don’t have it in me to return it. “I’ll take you back to campus in a bit.”
“No hurry. I’ll be upstairs, come and get me when you’re ready.”
We watch her leave in silence, and only when I can’t hear her footsteps any longer do I face my mother.
“Was this really necessary?” she asks, clearly unhappy with where things are going.
“We have to talk, Mom.”
Jade gets up from her seat and starts getting dirty dishes. But it’s not her I have to convince so I let her be.
“I know you’re going to hate this, but…”
“Then don’t say it.”
“You need more help. We need more help.”
“Anna is already spending most days with me.”
“Most being the key word here. You scared Jade last night, Mom. You scared me.” I put my hand over hers, feeling the frail bones under the cool skin. “When I said I’d take a year off, you asked me to go back to college. When I suggested I could commute from home, you got so pissed you almost threw me out of the house.”
Mom presses her lips in a tight line and shakes her head. Seeing her like this reminds me of the no-nonsense mom she used to be. “That’s because you need to focus on football and school.”
“The season is over.”
“And you won the national championship! Do you really think you could have done it if you didn’t give it your all? If you were struggling to juggle being home and going to college?”
I know she’s right, but her words hurt all the same. Yes, she asked me to go back to campus, but