by T. A. Foster
Kissing Eden
T.A. Foster
Kissing Eden
Copyright © 2014 by T.A. Foster
ISBN-13: 978-1495974243
ISBN-10: 1495974243
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Cover Design by Regina Wamba, Mae I Design and Photography, www.maeidesign.com.
Books by T.A. Foster
Time Spell
Cover Spell
London Falling
To the girls who fell for a Texas boy and still haven’t recovered
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my wonderful, amazing, and unparalleled team: the world’s most supportive publicist, Jessica, at InkSlinger PR; my detailed and analytical editor, H. Danielle Crabtree, who helps me make each book better than the last; and the talented and creative Regina Wamba at Mae I Design and Photography for such a beautiful and sexy cover.
Every book has its ups, downs, and unique challenges. When the downs start to seem insurmountable, Shane, you are the one who pushes me through to the other side. I couldn’t write without you.
Thank you to Alyssa Rose Ivy and Jennifer Snyder for welcoming me into the writing community. Your support and friendship means the world.
Jennifer and Mary-Kathryn, thank you for all your feedback, suggestions, and the hours you spend getting to know my characters. Eden needs her girlfriends, and so do I!
Thank you to my family for all that you do to keep me going. Whether it’s providing comic relief or racking up babysitting hours, I appreciate every minute of it.
Without my betas, the fantastic bloggers, and of course the readers, none of this would be possible. Thank you!
EDEN
It fell around my feet in loosely spun swirls. I kicked the blond strands to the side before gathering the thickest handful in my fist. I looked at my reflection, and ran the dulled blades between my forehead and the length of hair I was holding away from my face. The metal edges clipped across, making a squeaking noise with each cut.
There.
I ruffled my newly shorn bangs through my fingertips. It was drastic, but so was starting over.
I threw the chunk of hair in the trash before turning off the light in the bathroom.
That was it. My big rebellion. My in-your-face-I’m-over-you statement. I had seen it in a movie somewhere, or maybe it was in a song—I couldn’t remember. I only wished the girl who had cut off her hair in protest and styled new bangs told me what I was supposed to do now.
CHAPTER ONE
“Miss, you need to go ahead and turn off all of your electronic devices.” The flight attendant smiled while she shoved an overly packed bag into the compartment over my head.
I powered down my phone, and tucked it in the front pocket of my backpack before pushing it under the seat with my feet. The man next to me edged me off the armrest with his elbow. I sighed, realizing the three-hour flight to Houston from Raleigh would not be a comfortable one.
This was not how I pictured the start of my senior spring break. I blamed Brett.
I admit it was slightly reactionary to chop my hair into a shaggy shoulder-skimming do, and maybe I didn’t think through my options as carefully as I should have, but I knew Brett loved my long hair. He would tangle his fingers through it, and beg me to pull it down every time I sported a ponytail. I lashed out at him with the only silent weapon I knew he would notice. Writing take-me-back letters, stalking, crying, or begging weren’t my style.
“I think we’ve grown apart. We’re not the same people we were when we first started dating.” He said that. He actually said those words to me after dating for three semesters, one summer, and a Christmas break.
It was probably the shock of the conversation that kept me from pummeling him in my room. I thought we were going to grab some takeout and watch a movie. We had been planning a trip for spring break. I hadn’t packed a single thing, and we were supposed to leave in three days.
“I thought it was the right thing to do. You know, tell you now instead of trying to make it through a trip together. It’s time for us to end this.” He said it with a smile as if he was doing me a favor.
“Is there someone else?” It was the only question I could put together. My brain tried to wade through the muck of Brett’s words.
“Not exactly. You know, I just want to keep my options open.”
I didn’t know and I was tired of him implying that I understood what he was talking about.
He leaned over and patted me on the back as if I was one of his fraternity brothers. “You’ll get over this, Eden. You know we’ve run our course. It couldn’t last forever.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve gotta go. I’m meeting some of the guys back at the house.”
I could have tried to stop him, but rather than drag out a long breakup discussion, I let him walk out of my room. It was clear there wasn’t anything left to fight for. I walked straight to my bathroom and picked up the scissors.
“You from Texas?” the armrest hog asked.
“Uh. No. Visiting.” I shook the breakup from my mind.
“What part?” He was leaning closer, which I didn’t think was possible with the proximity of our seats.
“South Padre.” I desperately wanted to retrieve my phone and pretend I was busy.
He chuckled. “Yep, it’s that time of year. You must be a spring breaker.”
“I am. I’m meeting lots of friends there.” I paused. “And my boyfriend.” I had to force the last word from my mouth. There were no friends on the other end of this trip and certainly no boyfriend, but he didn’t need to know I was suddenly single.
He reached for the in-flight magazine and flipped through the pages. “Well, have a good time. It’s a week you’ll never forget.” He stopped on an article and his attention shifted away from me.
I didn’t know what I expected from this trip. Solo vacationing had never been my objective and something I had never done, but I wasn’t going to let Brett and his wishy-washy, keep-his-options-open plan stop me from experiencing my senior spring break at the beach. I had let Brett take the reins for way too long.
My parents had paid for my plane ticket as a Christmas gift, and I couldn’t waste it because of him. Of course, now I wish we had planned a spring break with my other friends, but Brett’s cousins had talked him into South Padre. They said the spring breaks on the Texas island were legendary, and Brett wouldn’t pass it up. I could be in a car on my way to Myrtle Beach or Daytona with all the girls, but instead, I was on a plane to Texas, alone and squished next to a nosey, space-invading man.
I leaned back as we taxied to the end of the runway, closed my eyes, and waited for the plane to launch into the air, toward spring break.
***
Once we landed in Houston, I pulled my backpack from underneath the seat and turned my phone on. I had three missed calls from Brett. I didn’t want to talk to him. My anger toward him suffocated any creeping curiosity about why he was calling after three days of utter silence.
I still had one puddle jumper flight to Brownsville. From there, I would hop on the resort shuttle that would take me to South Padre.
“You be careful, young lady. Those Padre spring breaks can get a little out of control,” the man next to me warned. He had n
ot taken any of my subtle hints.
I smiled, scooted down the aisle, and walked off the plane.
I had enough time between my flights to call Taylor, my roommate at Carolina for the past four years. It was a gamble to go potluck for roommate matching my freshman year, but the only girl from my high school I knew who would be there was the class know-it-all, teachers’ pet, who had no social skills. With the thousands of girls attending Carolina, I was willing to try for a roommate who at least knew what Facebook was. My parents had barely had time to close their car doors behind them before Taylor and I were on our way to Franklin Street for pizza. I knew our friendship was going to last longer than our college years. She was like the sister I never had. I tapped her name on my screen and waited for her to answer.
“Eden! How is Texas? Are you there?”
“Hey. I’m in Houston, waiting for my next flight.” I observed the passengers walking past me. I had never seen so many cowboy boots worn in one place. Everyone had them on.
“We just checked into the hotel and we’re headed to happy hour. You doing ok?”
“Happy hour?” It was only two o’clock. I questioned my usually conservative roommate, who never surpassed a self-imposed two-drink limit.
“It’s spring break. I think it’s happy hour all the time this week. How are you doing? Have you heard from Brett?”
I didn’t want to talk about Brett, but Taylor was worried and I knew she would keep pestering me about him until I could satisfy her concern. If the roles were reversed, I would do exactly the same thing. “He called three times when I was in the air, but I haven’t talked to him. I don’t want to.”
“I get that but, what if you run into him in Padre? Don’t you two need to talk?” I could hear girls screaming in the background.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I know you’re being strong, but you don’t have to pretend for me. You’ve got to be worried about seeing him. Admit that at least.”
I wasn’t willing to admit anything. My emotions seesawed between numbness and anger. Taylor had tried to talk me out of the trip, but it didn’t work. I needed to focus on something to keep me from thinking about what Brett had said. Packing, boarding a flight, and making my way to my spring break destination kept me from fixating on what happened between us.
“I’m fine. Stop worrying about me. South Padre is going to be the perfect vacay to get over that asshole. I couldn’t dream up a better way to forget him.” I smiled into the phone.
“He is such an asshole. Do I need to write a list for you of all the stuff he did? It might be just what you need. I read in a Cosmo article somewhere that if you make a list of all of the bad things in your relationship it will help with closure. If you need me to start it, I’d put how he backed out as your plus one for your cousin’s wedding right at the last minute as number one. He was probably the worst boyfriend ever.”
Taylor always had my back whether or not she liked my relationship with Brett. “Thanks for the offer, but I have the memories, unfortunately.”
“I bet you could still change your flight. Why don’t you fly back and we’ll spend our senior spring break together—like we should have planned all along before Brett hijacked it. It’s just not the same without you here.”
Taylor’s words struck a guilty nerve.
“I have to go. My flight is boarding for Brownsville. I just wanted to see if you made it to Myrtle Beach. Tell the girls I said, hey.”
“Ok, but call me when you get to the resort. And good luck.” She hung up, and I stood facing the gate, realizing for the first time that the flight was full of other spring breakers.
While I was on the phone with my friend, the small waiting area had accumulated college students from all over the country, with only one thing on their minds: a weeklong party.
I found an open seat and waited for the desk attendant to call my row. I only needed to make it through this one little flight, and then I’d be on my way to the resort. I could sort things out there. The beach, sun, and a fruity drink were calling my name.
At home, it was still cold and I was tired of wearing scarves and hats. A week at the beach was the perfect escape from the dreariness of March and the memories of Brett’s breakup. Taylor was right. I could fill an entire page of all the disappointing stunts Brett had managed to accomplish while we dated.
“Passengers waiting to board flight two-two-eight-one with nonstop service to Brownsville, we apologize for the inconvenience, but the flight has been overbooked.” The murmurs around me were almost loud enough to drown out the rest of the announcement.
“If we call your name, please step up to the podium and we’ll help you make arrangements to reach your final destination.”
I reached for my ticket and clutched it in anticipation for the list of bumped passengers.
“Alice Monroe, Eric Franks, Jennifer Gonzalez, and Mark Humphries, please approach the ticket desk.”
Relieved, I tucked my ticket back into my bag.
“And passenger Eden Brady. We need you to check in as well.”
Shit. I had been sorted onto the short list of bumped passengers. I gathered my carry on and approached the desk.
“Hi. I’m Eden Brady. You called my name.”
“Yes. You’ve been reassigned to another flight to Brownsville,” the woman at the counter reported.
“Ok. When does that flight leave?”
She typed furiously on the keyboard. “You’re in luck. Since it’s spring break, it’s basically like a shuttle service to Brownsville. There is another flight in ninety minutes.”
That didn’t seem too bad. “All right.” I didn’t have much choice.
“And we have a food voucher for you.” She beamed at me. “It’s five dollars and you can use it anywhere in the airport.”
That wouldn’t even cover the cost of a muffin at the food court. I took my newly processed boarding pass and the not-so-generous voucher, and returned to the empty chair. Along with the airline ticket, my parents had given me an E-reader for Christmas. I had ninety minutes to kill and I had just downloaded Hazards of a One Night Stand. It was begging to be read.
As I slid the pages across my screen, the entire boarding area emptied and refilled with more students. I was definitely the only spring breaker traveling alone. Everyone else was paired off or in a pack of traveling companions.
I had to remind myself that even if Brett hadn’t dumped me, I would still be traveling to South Padre by myself. He had bought his airline ticket a month before I did. Maybe I should have realized then that he didn’t care whether I was on this trip. He always liked his independence. If we had a date, he’d ask me to meet him there. He was the kind of guy who would rather go to a movie without me, than wait two hours for me to get out of class.
“Attention passengers traveling to Brownsville. We will begin boarding in twenty minutes. Please have your boarding passes ready.” The loud speaker crackled overhead.
Finally. I fished for my pass in the front pocket of my backpack and waited for my row to be called. My legs were stiff from sitting for so long. I stretched one and then the other before standing.
I eyed the bright tropical colors lined up in front of me. The group of girls had on flip-flops and tank tops. They looked like they were ready to hit a party as soon as we landed.
Eventually, the line moved, my ticket was scanned, and I was buckled in my seat. I looked out of the window onto the tarmac of Houston International Airport. This was my first trip to Texas, and other than the sea of boots in the airport terminal, it didn’t look like anything other than a massive concrete field. I could be at any airport in the country.
We pushed back from the gate and the plane erupted in whistles and cheers. Before we even made it to the runway, the pilot’s deep voice echoed over the speakers. “Folks, it looks like we have an issue with one of the wing indicator lights.” The cheers turned to low boos. “There’s a maintenance team en route, and we’ll ha
ve you on your way in just a few minutes.” I felt the jerky motion of the plane as he maneuvered us back to the gate.
“Fill ‘er up.” The guys in the row in front of me were swapping a silver flask between them. Each held a cola bottle while the other poured generous amounts of a clear liquid from the flask. “We could be sitting here awhile. Might as well party.”
Warm beaches. Sun in my face. Salt breeze in my hair. I repeated the mantra. Warm beaches. Sun in my face. Salt breeze in my hair. This was the last hurdle I had to jump before landing in my beachy breakup getaway, and with each passing second, it was getting harder to handle.
If Brett were here, he would be one of those flask-carrying guys. That was the motivation for spring break in South Padre—he wanted to party. He never actually asked me where I wanted to go. Once he decided his destination, we both assumed I would go along with it, and I did. All of that suddenly felt annoying and distant.
“Folks, it’s your captain again. Looks like we have the green light from maintenance.” He chuckled at his pun. “Let’s get you all started on your vacation.”
This time, I plugged my ears before the cheering began.
***
When the plane came to a complete stop, I wasn’t expecting to disembark down a flight of stairs and onto the concourse. The Brownsville airport was small—extremely small. I slung my backpack on my left shoulder and descended the stairs. I inhaled the warm Texas air. Ok, maybe salt breezes weren’t that far away.
The flip-flop girls giggled as we crossed the tarmac. I thought I overheard them discussing cocktails and something about body shots.
“Ladies, wait up!” The flask guys pushed past me, sending one of the cola bottles in the air.
“Hey!” I yelled as the lid slipped off and the pungent concoction washed down the front of my jeans.