Page 10 of The Banned Books Club
“My mother has a friend who quilts with her. She stopped by your folks’ place to drop off a pumpkin pie. Said Gia was there.”
“It’s about time Gia came home,” Margot said, mostly as a deflection. “I’ve been after her for months.”
“AuntGia?” Matthew perked up, but Sheldon didn’t give her the chance to respond.
“She thinks she’s pretty cool flying that helicopter into the wilderness,” Sheldon said. “She loves her business so much I’m surprised she’d leave it.”
“Backcountry Adventures closes for four months every winter,” Margot explained.
“Not during hunting season, it doesn’t.”
“She has a partner, right? He must be covering for her until the first of November.”
“That means she might be here for a while? A couple of weeks, at least?” He didn’t sound pleased.
“I’m not sure what her plans are, exactly. You know Gia. She hasn’t spent much time in Wakefield since she left—just a few days here and there a couple times a year. But with Mom being sick...that could change things.”
“She doesn’t care about your mom or she would’ve been here a lot more over the past months,” he said matter-of-factly. “I bet she doesn’t stay a week.”
Margot hoped her sister would stay a lot longer than that. She couldn’t disappear if Gia didn’t stay, and that worried her. Gia could be so mercurial. She refused to be caged in by the expectations of others—by anything, really. Margot had always envied her that and wondered why she was built so differently. “You could be right.”
“Knowing her, she has plans to go skiing in Canada or to take pictures of the North Pole next week,” he said.
Sheldon had never liked Gia. Their first argument had taken place at the wedding, because he’d gone to the barn with his friends and gotten drunk instead of showing any interest in his bride. Gia had taken one look at Margot’s tear-streaked face and marched outside to tell Sheldon he was being an insensitive jackass, that he should come in and whisk his new wife away so they could get on with their honeymoon, and that had turned into a shouting match during which Gia had said a bit too much.
His family still blamed her for “ruining” the wedding. Even Margot had bought into that argument—to a point. She hadn’t wanted Gia to make a scene. But Gia was Gia. And it had really been Sheldon who’d ruined the wedding. Had he been treating her right, Gia wouldn’t have felt the need to get involved.
Margot carried some resentment over how unconcerned he’d been with making their wedding special. It should’ve been the one time she came before his friends. She wished she’d paid more attention to the warning that night turned out to be. She and Sheldon had muddled through their first two years, trying to figure out how to get along. He’d had a temper even then, but Margot had blamed most of their problems on the stress he was under. Since he was determined to live a very traditional life, he refused to let her go to work, which meant he had to make a living on his own. And his parents had started demanding more and more of his time as he took over the business.
Their relationship did get better while she was going through the fertility treatments that had eventually given them two children. But after Greydon was born, Sheldon grew busier and busier—and more successful at work. Soon, his parents’ opinion began to matter a lot more to him than hers, and not long after that, he seemed to quit trying to be a good husband altogether. Now when she suggested marriage counseling, he shut her down immediately. He claimed counseling was bullshit and never worked.
Margot believed he just didn’t want to hear anyone else, especially a professional, tell him he was in the wrong. He wasn’t willing to change.
Margot took a drink of her water. “We’ll have to see.”
“I hope you don’t plan on spending too much time with her,” he said. “I certainly wouldn’t want you acting the way she does.”
A shot of adrenaline brought up her heart rate. “People will think it’s weird if I’m not there for my mother. She’s dying of cancer, Sheldon. And I can’t stipulate that Gia not be around when I go over.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not saying you can’t visit your dying mother,” he said, his voice oozing irritation.
Margot reiterated the most salient part of what she’d said. “But Gia will be there.”
His chair scraped the floor as he stood up to help himself to seconds. “Like I said, probably not for long.”
Gia could be pretty protective. She was the fighter in the family. And that was exactly what Margot needed right now. Hopefully, her sister wouldn’t let her down. “I’m sure you’re right,” she mumbled, and was relieved when Sheldon got a call. Although he didn’t leave the table—he didn’t care if they had to sit and listen to his conversation—he sat with his head hanging down over his food, kneading his forehead while he talked. Then Greydon dropped his fork and scrambled off his chair to get it, so she popped Matthew’s green beans into her mouth.
“Mom!” Matt whispered, shocked by this tiny defiance.
She smiled as she pressed a finger to her lips—and he shot her a relieved smile in return.
When her parents turned in—her mother needed all the rest she could get—Gia wasn’t ready for bed. It was only nine o’clock, eight o’clock in Idaho, and she didn’t usually go to bed until eleven or twelve.
She spent some time planning out the meals she wanted to cook to give her father a break and provide her mother with a more varied menu. Then she logged on to social media because she was interested in catching up with some of the people she’d known in Wakefield. Usually, she was too busy and too far away to be concerned with what her high school friends and former classmates were doing, but now that she’d be here for a while, she wanted to let Ruth and Sammie and any other members of the Banned Books Club who were still in town know she was visiting. The next few months were going to be rough; she needed to figure out a way to give herself a break now and then and provide relief from the heartbreak that lay ahead.
She hoped to spend some time with Margot, too. Her sister had seemed different today, more open and reachable than ever before. But if being with Margot meant seeing much of Sheldon, Gia knew she wouldn’t be able to bear it.
A ding signaled that she’d received a text. Sammie had responded to her message of a few minutes earlier.
