by Rina Kent
“This is the part where I fucked up by not realizing you aren’t like most people. I thought you’d tell him, or Paige, or somebody. I thought it would get back to him, so when it did, I wanted it to look like you’d lied about it.”
My lips parted and eyes softened. “That whole time… you were trying to destroy my credibility?”
He nodded and looked at the photo again. He traced his finger around the frame and didn’t say anything more. It was like he was giving it time to sink in and waiting on me to react. But it didn’t sink in. It couldn’t. None of it made sense.
“If you care so much about Hunter, why would you do that to him?”
“I don’t expect you to understand.” His voice was even, and none of his earlier defensiveness registered. He wasn’t the least bit surprised by the question. It was what he’d been waiting for.
“Can you at least try to explain it to me?”
He turned to face me, pulling his hand back from the frame and laying it on the dresser. His lips parted to say something, but he hesitated like he wasn’t sure he should. Why would he be sure? I’d told him I wasn’t interested in him. That he didn’t mean anything to me.
I’d lied. What I meant was, I didn’t want him to mean anything.
“You were right,” he said, before pressing his tongue against his bottom lip. “I hide myself from people. They see a quarterback, and I’m afraid they won’t like anything else. So I hide it.”
I nodded in understanding even though I had no idea where he was going with this. “Sherry could tell, and she just… talked to me.” That forcefield peeled over his skin and he narrowed his eyes. “Like I said, I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
He lifted his hand from the dresser and pushed off of it. He was about to step around me, but I blocked his path. I pressed my palm to his chest, and his gaze flicked from my hand to my face.
“I get it.” I took a deep breath. “She saw you for who you really are, and she didn’t hate it. She still took advantage of you—”
Camden erupted in laughter. He brushed my hand off him and shook his head. “Took advantage of me? Eden, you are adorably naive.”
“Am I? Because she’s over twice your age, and—”
His thumb pressed to my lips in what had become his signature move, and he stepped forward so that we were an inch apart. “It’s over,” he said, still not removing his thumb. “There’s no need to talk about it anymore.”
He removed his thumb when I nodded, and he cocked his head toward the door. “I’m gonna go.”
I bit my lip and nodded again. This time, I wouldn’t stop him. Not because I wanted him to leave, but because I couldn’t bring myself to shatter anymore of my pride. It had to be over. I had to—
“Do you want to go with me?”
My chin jutted as I looked up at him. “With you?”
“Yeah… You can say no.” He swallowed and lifted his hand only to lay it back at his side. “You can always say no.”
Ten minutes ago, I thought I’d won. I thought I’d wanted Camden to leave me alone, stop with the mind games. But there was a chance that they weren’t mind games, and I could see it. I wanted it. I liked it. I didn’t want to, but I did.
And there was a chance that maybe, just maybe, nobody had to lose.
“Okay,” I said, turning and looking at the door. “Let’s go.”
Cam
“Where are we going?”
The leather seat squeaked as Eden fidgeted… again. I turned my head her way for a brief moment to glimpse her expression. Nervous. It reminded me of the first time she’d been in my car, and I’d drooled over her nervousness then. Now, it was disconcerting. I was doing everything I could to get her to be comfortable around me, and still, I was failing.
“The lake. There’s a spot out there that I like to go to sometimes.” I paused and cleared my throat before forcing myself to say this next part. “I can take you back if you want? If you’ve changed your mind.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m fine.”
Oh, thank fuck.
I’d been trying to get Eden to warm up to me all week. A week to show her there was nothing to be afraid of. I could tell that’s what was holding her back, and I understood it. She had no reason to trust me, but I was trying. Hard.
She’d made it clear that it’d hurt her when I hadn’t messaged her, so I’d done that every day this week. Multiple times a day. All of them were read within a minute of me hitting send, but no little dots appeared below them, no response ever came.
Then there were the mornings. She didn’t want people taunting her, and I’d let it stop. Hunter had technically been the one to stop it, but my blessing was what had sealed the deal. He and I had a long talk Monday night, and I told him to go for it. Ask Eden out, win her over. It didn’t matter to me. It was the second hardest lie I’d ever had to tell him, but it wouldn’t go anywhere. Eden wasn’t interested in Hunter. Hell, I was having a hard enough time getting her interested in me. She’d shoot him down the second he asked, whenever that would be.
I’d advised him to give it at least a few days to reach out to her. He needed to avoid appearing desperate. Really, I just needed him to give me time to win her trust.
It still didn’t seem to be working.
One arm draped over the wheel, I lightly turned the Jeep around the last hill. The lake came into view. The sun had set, but it was nicer at night with the way the water reflected the moon.
It was a Thursday in the middle of October, so we were two of the only people out there, passing only a few campers on our way to the spot.
Eden’s shifting stopped, and I glanced over to see her staring out the window at the water. She had to be wondering what the hell I was doing, and to be honest, I was wondering it too. I shouldn’t have been bringing her out here.
Five more minutes and the back road came into view. I slowed the Jeep to a crawl as I turned, flicking my gaze to Eden once again.
“You’re not bringing me out here to murder me, are you?” she asked with a chuckle that didn’t quite convey humor.
When we made it to the waterline, I put the car in park and turned to her, leaving the ignition on. “Sure you don’t want me to take you home?”
She swallowed and glanced around out the window.
I shut off the Jeep and tossed the keys into the center console before climbing out and walking around to Eden’s side. I opened the door and immediately noted the pepper spray gripped tightly in her hand.
It was my turn to nervously chuckle. “What are you doing?”
“Promise me this isn’t a prank,” she whispered, her voice shaky.
So much fear. It hung in her voice, danced in her eyes, but it had nothing to do with her having to brace through another ‘prank’, did it?
“Are you afraid to like me, Eden? That once you admit it, I’m going to pull the rug out from under you?”
She still held the pepper spray, but her grip relaxed. She didn’t answer the question, but that was an answer in and of itself. The answer I wanted, needed, and had been trying to get all week.
“That’s why I brought you out here.” I snaked my hand out and gripped the pepper spray, urging it from her hand before tossing it into the center console with the keys. “I’m going to give you something else. I’m going to give you my trust, so maybe it’ll help you trust me.”
I held out my hand to help her from the Jeep. She glanced out at the water. She was debating on if I was lying. She was always trying to figure out if I was lying, but she’d missed something that, to me, was so obvious. I’d never lied to her. I’d lied about her, I’d lied to everyone else, but never to her.
Her jaw flexed as she swallowed. She placed her hand in mine and allowed me to help her out. I was still holding her hand, and when I shut the Jeep door, I felt her flinch.
I trained my gaze on her face, studying the lines in her brow, the skepticism swallowing her. “You okay?”
&nb
sp; “Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked, even as her eyes darted around some more. What was she looking for? Other people? A bucket of pig’s blood hanging from one of the trees, waiting for her to walk underneath it? That would’ve been a good one.
I squeezed her hand and led the way to the water's edge. There was an old deck out there you couldn’t see until you walked up on it because the weeds had grown so tall. A thick tree branch hung over the structure and dangling from it was a makeshift swing Hunter and I had made when we were ten. We hadn’t used it in years, and it probably wouldn’t hold our weight anymore. That’d been the highlight of our summer, flinging ourselves into the water in our secret spot. The only spot we could go where no one, not our other friends, parents, or girls knew where it was.
It was ours, and I was breaking the sacred rule.
I traipsed through the weeds with Eden following behind. All around us, frogs croaked and crickets sang. The overhanging tree shadowed the deck and made it difficult to see even when my foot planted on it. I sat down on the edge, letting go of Eden’s hand, and waited for her to sit next to me. It took her a few moments, but when the deck creaked and her legs draped over the edge next to mine, I turned her way.
“So?” she said, her voice quiet.
This was such a huge deal to me, I’d forgotten I had to explain it to her. I wasn’t very good at that part.
I took a deep breath and stared out over the lake. “Hunter and I found this spot when we were kids. His parents had taken us to the lake, and we’d spent the day exploring. It’d taken hours for us to get here.”
Eden didn’t say anything, but instead waited for me to continue. My pulse had quickened and my fingers were tingling, although not from the cold.
I glanced over my shoulder at the Jeep.
This was a mistake.
“And this place is important to you?”
Eden’s soft voice brought my attention back to her. I flicked my gaze between her eyes and her lips. She hadn’t told anyone what had happened with Sherry, and to the best of my knowledge, she hadn’t told anyone about what had happened with Hunter and Jade either. No rumors were going around about either of those things, and they should’ve been. It’s what I would’ve done to retaliate. It’s what any normal person would’ve done. But not Eden.
She was different. She could keep those secrets, and she could keep this one.
I coughed to hide the ragged breath vibrating my throat and covered a hand over my mouth. “Yeah, it kind of is.”
“Okay…”
“Did you know Hunter had a rough childhood?”
I forced the question out before locking it away forever.
“What?”
I was staring out at the water, but I could hear the confusion in her voice. It was predictable with the way she saw him, saw us. We appeared to have it all… cars, money, girls, whatever. There was a party at Hunter’s house every weekend. His parents attended every game. Everyone thought Hunter to be the poster child of the spoiled rich kid. Sometimes it felt like I was the only one who could see beneath it.
“His parents fight a lot. His dad isn’t the nicest guy in the world, and Hunter… he’s had a hard time with it.”
The board creaked with Eden’s movement. “Oh… I. I don’t mean to sound unempathetic, but… what’s the significance of this spot?”
I flexed my fingers, trying to get the tingling to go away. Fuck, I sucked at this.
“That was the first day I ever saw Hunter’s dad hit his mom.”
The crickets seemed to get louder, like they were protesting me telling the secret. Especially since it wasn’t my secret to tell.
“Hunter doesn’t talk about it. He doesn’t talk about much at all, but that day, he was humiliated. He was crying, and it was the only time I’ve ever seen him cry. We ran from the campsite and didn’t say a word until we made it here. Then he told me everything.”
Wood creaking. That’s what filled the air next.
Eden’s gentle grip wound around my forearm. She wanted me to look at her, but I couldn’t.
“Why are you telling me this?” she whispered.
“Because you think he’s a monster. You think what he did to Jade was unforgivable, but what you don’t get is that he doesn’t see things the way a normal person does. He mirrors his dad without trying to. He doesn’t realize what he’s doing sometimes, but he’d never hurt her. He’d never hurt anyone.”
“Do you think that didn’t hurt her?” Anger filtered into her tone, making me wince. I wasn’t explaining it right.
“No, I don’t. And you don’t know Jade. She’s got problems too.” I shook my head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Eden scoffed, and finally, I looked her way. She was biting her lip, staring straight ahead now. “Why wouldn’t I understand?”
“Because your home life is so fucking peachy,” I said, the frustration in my voice apparent. “It’s not a bad thing, Eden. I’m not trying to insult you.”
Her head snapped my way, her eyes narrowed.
“So, what? We should just go on forgiving rapists? Is that the right thing to do?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered, shaking my head. “I just know he’s my best friend, and I don’t want you to hate him. Just like I don’t want you to hate me.”
Her face softened and the brown of her irises darkened to the color of midnight, but the moon reflected off them as well. They were beautiful. All of her was beautiful. Even the soft parts.
“I don’t hate you.”
“No?”
She shook her head and tucked baby hairs behind her ear—a nervous habit I was beginning to associate with her. “Just… please don’t be lying to me. Promise me this is real… It’s too cruel of a joke if it’s not.”
“It’s real,” I assured her, lifting my hand to brush across her cheek. I paused before it could reach her and let it fall back on the deck. I wouldn’t push her again, but fuck I wanted to.
“Promise?” Her next breath shook.
“I promise.”
Her shoulders trembled, and I fought the urge to wrap my arm around her for warmth. I hadn’t realized just how cold it was.
Her jeans grated on the wooden deck as she scooted over to me. She placed her hand on my arm and tilted her head up toward me. Her lips pursed and her eyes closed just before she kissed me.
The vanilla scent of her shampoo teased my senses as I laced my fingers through her ponytail. I tugged the band from it, letting her hair cascade over my hands to drape her still tense shoulders.
“Leave your hair down,” I whispered, breaking the kiss to scoot closer to her. I peered into her eyes to make sure no more fear was there. It wasn’t. “I like it like this.”
I cupped her face with both my hands and leaned in, tasting her on my tongue, feeling the soft flesh of her lips. My cock hardened, and I considered stopping before it went too far, but fuck that.
Eden’s tongue sought mine, and she moaned as I pushed into her harder. She bunched my shirt with her fists and pulled me closer. This was what she was like with all of her guard down. Still fierce. Still strong. Still perfect.
I should’ve done this a long time ago.
I wanted to pull her onto my lap to straddle me, feel her hips grinding on me, taste her arousal on my tongue after pulling off those virgin panties. Just a taste, then I would be satisfied.
I lowered my hands over her shoulders and down her sides before I realized what I was doing.
I broke the kiss and stilled my hands on her ribcage. Our breathing was heavy, and I returned Eden’s smile when it registered.
“It’s cold,” she said with a chuckle, glancing around. “Maybe we could sit in the Jeep and talk?”
Talk. Yeah, right.
I smiled wider and nodded. “Absolutely.”
Chapter Sixteen
Eden
Sebastian: Sorry, not feeling well. I’ll catch you next time.
I stared down at Sebastian’s message while Jordan pressed on his tiptoes to peer at the phone. “What’d he say?”
“He said he can’t make it.”
Jordan groaned before taking a step toward the door. “Can we go now?”
I continued to stare at the message as if I’d missed something. Last night when I’d gotten home, Jordan had asked if we could go to the football game tonight, and I’d stupidly said yes. I hadn’t remembered that we were supposed to go to the movies with Sebastian until school today, and I’d asked him if we could go to the football game instead. We were supposed to meet him there, and I’d only texted to ask if he was about to head that way.
“Eden, come on. We’re gonna be late.”
I sighed before tucking my phone in my purse and following Jordan out the door. He jumped with excitement the whole way, and by the time we were pulling into the stadium parking lot ten minutes later, some of that excitement had rubbed off on me as well.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter as I pulled into one of the only vacant spots. The stadium lights were on, and there was a roar coming from the stands.
“It’s starting!” Jordan hurried to unbuckle his seatbelt and swung his door open, nearly hitting the car next to us.
“Careful,” I snapped, whirling around and talking to dead air as he’d already slammed the door shut.
I inhaled a deep breath in an attempt to make the butterflies in my stomach chill out. No, not butterflies. More like bats.
A tap came on my window, startling me, and I let go of the steering wheel and pulled the keys from the ignition.
“Come on! We have to hurry,” Jordan whined, opening my door.
“Would you calm down, please?” I asked, getting out of the car and locking the door. “It’s just a football game.”
“But Camden’s playing. He’s the quarterback, Eden.”
“Yeah, I know.” I rolled my eyes and started toward the stadium with Jordan beside me. It was a low blow for Camden to tell Jordan about the game, knowing he’d be excited enough to ask me to take him. Jordan had spent one afternoon with Camden, and already, Camden was his idol. It was sweet, but also terrifying.