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“Good morning, Jezebelle. You look lovely. I love your hair up.” Sophia’s smile mirrored her mother’s nauseating one.
They even sounded the same, complimenting her hair in the exact same tone of voice. As if they were twins.
“Always good to see you, Sophia.”
That wasn’t a lie. While Sophia could be a nag like her mother, she wasn’t as bad, especially when their mother wasn’t around.
“Please tell her she cannot continue to live above a bar while working at the law firm.”
Jezebelle wanted to smack her mother’s disgusted look right off her face. Why was the bar such a bad place? Hell, her mother planned to be a partner in said bar.
Although, knowing her mother, she had nefarious plans where that was concerned. Anything to get Brick out of her life and Bradley secure in it.
“I have no intention of moving. I don’t care what either of you say.”
Sophia only smiled behind her glass before taking a sip. A vein bulged on her mother’s neck, the only sign she wanted to explode at Jezebelle’s insolence. She’d never let loose, though.
A sharp ring tore through the silence. Her mother pulled out her phone and didn’t look up as she excused herself from the table.
“I need to take this.”
When she was far enough away, Sophia spoke. “She only wants the best for you.”
Jezebelle met Sophia’s tender gaze as if she honestly believed that. “No, she wants her way. She doesn’t care how she achieves that or how it makes me feel, as long as she gets her way. That’s not wanting the best for me.”
Sophia looked down. “I can see why you’d think that.”
“But you don’t believe it.” Sophia’s eyes shot up, but Jezebelle continued before she could interject. “I love living above the bar. It’s sweet and cozy and Brick makes it feel like a home. I love him. I intend to marry him. I don’t want to work at the law firm. I love being on stage. Mother can do and say whatever she wants. You can try and help make her point, but nothing will change my mind. I’m done playing tunes to her fiddle.”
They held each other’s gaze, silence stringing between them.
Jezebelle had no doubt Sophia knew everything from her engagement to Brick to Bradley to the law firm. She imagined her brother Stephen also knew everything. Because her mother would pull everything out of her arsenal in order to get her way. Her brother was another do-gooder in her mother’s eyes. The mayor in a charming small town in Connecticut. Beautiful wife as put together as their mother. Two kids and a dog. Hell, they even had a lovely white picket fence in the front yard. The all-American dream.
Then there was her. Disappointment galore. An Off-Broadway actress who didn’t always get the part. Nearly broke half the time, trying to make her way in a hard, cruel world. No husband—yet. No kids, although she yearned for them someday. She wasn’t much to talk about, which exasperated her mother to no end.
Sophia reached over and cupped her hand.
“I understand how you’re feeling.”
“No, you don’t.”
She felt shameful when Sophia jerked at her harsh tone.
Sophia squeezed her hand. “You might not see it, but Mother is just as hard on me as you.”
Jezebelle scoffed, not believing that for a second.
Sophia pulled her hand away and started to fiddle with the napkin.
“She wanted me to go into cardiology. I wanted pediatrics. In the end, I won because I put my foot down. I wanted what I wanted.”
Jezebelle had to admit, she never knew that. She could only imagine her mother telling Sophia what profession to specialize in. Yet, she must not have pushed too hard if Sophia got her way. In a way, they both won. Her mother had a daughter who was a doctor and said daughter was doing something she loved.
In her eyes, the situation wasn’t the same. That wasn’t a hard-fought battle.
Sophia’s eyes lifted until she met hers. The pain swimming in her depths sliced her to the core.
“She hounds me about grandkids. Constantly.” Sophia rolled her eyes. “Not much I can do when my body won’t cooperate. But I don’t like to talk about it, so I don’t mention that to her.”
