Squinting, she studies my face. “Are you eighteen-year-old Dylan? You look just like him.”
I rub a hand over my jaw and the light five o’clock shadow that’s settled there. “You like him.”
Her grip on my face tightens. “Kiss me.”
I do it. Softly and tenderly, being mindful of the crack on her swollen lip.
Her eyes find mine. Panic washes over her expression. “Is he okay?”
From my understanding, she was alone in her car, and it was a single vehicle accident.
“Who?”
Her gaze searches my face. “There was a deer on the road. I tried so hard not to hit it. Please tell me he’s okay.”
I have no idea if the deer survived, so I offer what I can. “I’m going to get the doctor. She’ll come check on you, and I’ll check on the deer.”
She swallows again. “You’ll come right back?”
I slide the piece of sea glass from my hand into hers. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Her fingers play over the smooth surface. A tear slides down her cheek. “Do you promise?”
I chase the tear away with a brush of my thumb over her skin. “I promise.”
Chapter 48
Eden
Dylan and I haven’t been alone since last night.
After I woke up, two doctors rushed in. They ran me through a battery of tests, asking if I knew my name, and where it hurts.
It hurts everywhere.
I drifted back to sleep after that, and when I woke up this morning, Noelle was by my side.
Dylan was still in the room, standing at the foot of the hospital bed with his hands in the pockets of his pants.
The pieces of what happened are starting to fall into place.
After all the flights to New York City were canceled because of the bad weather, I decided to drive so I’d make it to court in time.
I packed a few things into my car and set off.
The next thing I remember is a deer on the road, and then waking up here.
The doctor told me that a state trooper found me and that the deer must have ran off. I have no idea how long I was unconscious.
“I’m going back to Manhattan.” Noelle moves to give me a side hug being mindful of the sling on my left arm. “It’s best if you don’t travel for a couple of days. Promise me that you’ll go back and see Dr. Yelena tomorrow.”
I nod. “I promise.”
Dylan’s been almost silent since we got to my condo. He held my hand in the Uber on the way here. He carried me up the stairs against my protests.
I didn’t have to ask him to stay in Buffalo with me.
He bought a few changes of clothes and a new charger for his phone.
“I don’t want to miss my flight.” Noelle glides a hand over my forehead. “If you need anything, you’ll call me?”
I glance over to where Dylan is standing. “I have everything I’ll ever need.”
***
I kick off my boots, sending one flying onto a leather chair in the corner.
“Your aim is remarkable.” Dylan laughs. “What can I do for you?”
I move to stand next to the window. My condo doesn’t offer a view of anything other than the parking lot.
I stare out at the blue sky beyond.
I sense Dylan behind me before his hand brushes over my bare shoulder. I’m wearing an oversized blue sweater and a pair of leggings. Noelle chose them for ease and comfort.
“Can I get you some water or maybe something to eat?” He nestles his chin against the top of my head. “A full body massage perhaps?”
I rest my back against his broad chest. “Do you know?”
I feel the nod of his head before he says anything. “I know that I can’t live without you.”
I turn to face him. It’s there in the way he’s been looking at me and in the kiss of his lips last night and this morning.
I repeat the words back because I’ve never spoken anything that feels so right. “I can’t live without you.”
His fingers rest on my chin. Tilting my head up so our eyes meet, he smiles. “I love you, Eden.”
It feels as though I’ve been waiting my entire life for those four words to leave his lips. “I love you too.”
He presses his mouth to mine.
“I need to tell you things.” I look over at two cardboard boxes near the front door. “I have a lot to tell you.”
His gaze settles on my lips. “Dr. Yelena made it clear that you need to rest. Let’s do that together. You can close your eyes for an hour, two tops. Once you’ve done that, we can talk.”
I do feel dizzy, and the doctor was adamant that I need rest.
“You’ll wake me after an hour?” I ask.
“We can negotiate that,” he says with a chuckle. “With the understanding that all agreed to terms will be set back until a date when you’re up for the action.”
“I want to make love,” I say it because I need him to know.
I’m in pain. I’m still reeling from the past twenty-four hours, but I’ve never wanted him more.
“We have all the time in the world for that.” He kisses my forehead. “Let’s get you into bed. Sleep now. Talk later.”
I don’t argue as he leads me down the hallway to my bedroom.
I’m going to fall asleep in my bed wrapped in Dylan’s arms. Another of my dreams is about to come true.
Chapter 49
Dylan
I shoot off a text to Barrett to let him know that Eden is on the mend.
He offered to make the trip here to lend a hand, but I assured him that I had everything covered.
I do.
Early this morning, while Eden was still fast asleep in her hospital bed and Noelle was by her side, I came to her condo.
I bought groceries, fresh coffee beans, and a bouquet of roses for the woman I love.
I wanted her to have everything she could ever possibly need.
I needed the same for myself, so I called Tony Girano and put him to work.
He was already digging into Eden’s ex-husband’s life for me. He unearthed a treasure trove of unsealed court records.
Aron Steiner stalked Eden when she broke free of him. He was arrested for that, but his evil had no bounds.
He threatened his second wife. He terrorized her with harassing phone calls and in-person visits despite a restraining order.
Her constant refusal to engage in a discussion with him sent him over the edge.
He assaulted a colleague of his.
Eden made the trip to Buffalo to speak at his parole hearing. It’s the second time she’s done that.
I glance down at the screen of my phone when another email from Tony comes through.
I click to open the attachment.
Disbelief clouds my vision. I blink a few times to focus.
It’s a death certificate.
Clark Dodson died seven years ago in Virginia. Cardiac arrest is listed as the manner of death.
He didn’t make it out of his twenties.
“Dylan?” Eden calls from the bedroom. “Are you here?”
“I’m here,” I say, pushing to my feet from the chair I settled in near her living room window. “I’ll always be here.”
***
I clear the plates after we both finish eating our dinner.
“Those pancakes were better than the place in New York.” Eden leans back on the soft leather couch. “You’re a great cook.”
I walk back into the living room. “Anyone can make pancakes.”
I take a seat beside her again.
Confessions cleanse the soul, but they can unleash destruction.
I can move forward with this woman with my secret intact. The only other person who knows what I did on the night of our graduation is dead.
Eden would never know, but I will always know that I’ve kept something from her.
“You know I was married, don’t you?” She tugs on the shoulder of the sweater she’s weari
ng. “I want to explain that.”
She doesn’t need to.
I understand. The pull toward him must have been strong for her to take that step.
I won’t let her share her secrets until I share mine.
“You’re away from him and safe. That’s what matters.” I rest a hand on her knee. “I need to tell you something.”
“Have you been married?” Her voice cracks. “You’ve been married, haven’t you?”
I chuckle. “Fuck no.”
She lets out a breathy sigh. “Why am I so happy about that?”
I want that smile on her face to last. I want her to wake up every day for the rest of her life and look at me with that much joy.
I owe her this. I owe us this.
If we start with a clean slate, the world is no match for us.
“Something happened on graduation night.”
Her eyes skim my face. “I know. You left. I was in an accident. It’s history.”
I take a deep, steadying breath. “Something else happened.”
Anger took hold of Clark when I walked out of that bedroom and faced him. I did something that a jealous, petty eighteen-year-old kid would do when the girl he liked picked another guy to love.
I wanted him to dump her.
I needed him to send her packing so she’d give up on Ohio State and make a life in New York City without her dad watching over her.
“What else happened?”
I move to sit on the coffee table so that I can face her directly. I want her to look into my eyes when I tell her this. I need her to understand the depth of my regret.
What is it, Dylan?” Her hand reaches for mine.
I take it and squeeze it, needing the comfort only her touch can provide. “I said something to Clark before I left that party.”
Her eyes widen. “What did you say?”
Something that set him off to the point that he pushed me. I slammed him back against the wall with a veiled threat that I’d end his football career with a snap of his tattooed arm.
I was taller than him. I weighed a good twenty pounds more.
He backed down. Brushing past me he went into the bedroom I had just exited.
The same bedroom that I’d left Eden in.
I take a deep breath. “I made him believe that something had happened between us in that bedroom.”
Her gaze drops to her lap.
“You told me you were going to Ohio State. I stormed out of the room.”
“I remember,” she says quietly.
“I had a pair of panties in my pocket,” I go on, “a girl had shoved them at me when I got to the party. I tugged them out so Clark would think…”
“That we made love in that bedroom?” Her eyes meet mine.
That was my intention. I wanted him to think that I had taken what he wanted most in the world. I needed him to believe that I’d claimed her virginity.
He did believe it. He shot words at me about his property and my filthy dick being near her.
I left her in a room with his anger and then she got in a car with him.
Sorry is inadequate, so I fumble for the right words. “I was wrong. It was a stupid thing to do.”
Tears wash over her eyes.
I bring her hand to my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
“We didn’t crash because of what you said to him, Dylan.” She looks into my eyes. “You had nothing to do with what happened to us that night.”
Chapter 50
Eden
Clark Dodson was the boy I thought I would eventually love.
I think that was because my dad loved the promise that he held and I wanted to give my dad the world after everything he had done for me.
Clark had a throwing arm that brought scouts from some of the nation’s best football schools to his games.
He was edgy and good-looking.
Tattoos covered his body. His dark hair was always a spikey mess.
He smoked clove cigarettes and got good grades.
My dad told me that Clark would take ‘us’ to the NFL.
Clark’s prospects were good. He was offered a full ride athletic scholarship to Ohio State, but everything changed on the night we graduated.
We left the graduation party together.
Our relationship was mostly handholding and a few stolen kisses.
Clark would sometimes talk about marrying me.
For a girl who believed in romantic fairytales, it should have been exciting.
I had visions of a career on Broadway, a husband who loved me, and at least two children.
The only problem was that the face of the husband in my dreams didn’t belong to Clark. It belonged to Dylan.
“When Clark came into the bedroom, he asked me if we had kissed.”
Dylan’s expression shifts. “Kissed? He didn’t ask if we fucked?”
I shake my head. I remember everything about that night. “No. He asked if we had kissed. I laughed and told him that we talked.”
“What happened then?”
“He laughed too.” I close my eyes briefly, a rush of memories flooding me all at once. “He kissed me. He told me he was tired. I told him we could leave.”
“He trusted you,” he says quietly. “He didn’t believe me.”
He’s right. Clark trusted me just as much as I trusted him. I was holding a secret for him that he knew I’d never share.
It was sacred to him.
“We had a bond,” I explain. “He needed someone in his corner who would never betray him. That’s who I was to him.”
Dylan nods.
“I didn’t love him,” I clarify. “I don’t think he ever loved me, but I knew something about him that connected us.”
“What do you mean?” Curiosity knits Dylan’s brow.
“Clark had a secret,” I admit softly. “Only his dad and I knew.”
My relationship with Clark fell apart the night of the accident. The secret his father had tried so hard to keep buried was unearthed.
I saw him only a handful of times after the accident.
He begged for my forgiveness. I begged him to take care of himself.
He didn’t. He died a few years later without getting the surgery that may have saved his life.
I look up for forgiveness even though I know Clark would grant it unconditionally.
“What was the secret?” Dylan asks gently.
“Clark had a heart condition.” I circle my thumb over Dylan’s hand. “It was serious enough that he shouldn’t have been playing football.”
“I had no idea.”
“I promised I’d never tell anyone.” I hang my head. “He told me one night because he couldn’t keep it in. He was scared. I told him I’d always be there for him. He needed me to always be there for him.”
Dylan’s eyes search my face.
“He fainted behind the wheel the night of the accident.” I close my eyes. “I reached over to take control of the car, but it was too late.”
Taking my face in his hands, Dylan kisses my cheek. “I had no idea that’s what happened that night.”
“No one did,” I whisper. “After the accident, everyone did. It ended his football career. It ended everything.”
***
I sip water from the glass that Dylan handed me.
It pains me to know that he’s lived with guilt for so long. I had no idea that he had tried to trick Clark into believing that we had made love in a stranger’s bedroom in a house I’d never been to.
Clark would have been angry with Dylan for saying something like that about me, but he would never have believed it.
My virginity was important to me.
Clark respected that.
I did until the accident.
The pain of it and the long road to recovery changed me. I sought out short- term connections to feed a need inside of me.
One of those short-term connections was with Dr. Aron Steiner.
He was ten years old than me, ver
y successful, and handsome.
His need to control me broke us apart, but it didn’t stop his obsession.
“You and Clark were over after the accident?” Dylan asks gently. “You didn’t leave Chicago that summer?”
I shake my head. “No. I stayed there until we moved to Boston for school.”
“We?”
“My dad went with me.” I smile. “He got a job at a high school there coaching ball. He loved it.”
The corners of Dylan’s lips curve up. “Football was his life.”
It was. My dad lived and breathed the game. If he wasn’t on a field, he was watching a game on TV.
“Did he follow you to Buffalo after you passed the bar?”
I’m quiet for a second. “After I got married, my dad moved to Buffalo. Kurt used his connections to land my dad a coaching job at a high school there.”
“You and your ex settled there after you were done school?” His brows perk.
I know it can’t be easy for him to mention my ex-husband, but he’s part of my past.
I’ve tried to forget about Aron, but I can’t.
I’ll do whatever I can to keep him behind bars for as long as I can.
“I took a job in Monroe County.” I don’t bother adding that Aron opened an office there as a General Practitioner once I was settled into my job.
“What am I missing?” He narrows his eyes. “Kurt’s practice was in full swing by then. You could have handled divorces in the big city instead of in a small county, and you would have been closer to your dad. Did your ex-husband have work there?”
I swallow. “I wasn’t handling divorces. I was a prosecutor.”
Chapter 51
Eden
I glance over at the cardboard boxes next to my front door.
One has bedroom scrawled across the side. The other is labeled kitchen items. I packed them before I got in my car to drive to Manhattan.
“You were a prosecutor?” Dylan punctuates the words with an arch of his right eyebrow. “What was that like?”
Stressful. Difficult. Exhilarating. Fulfilling.
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