Coop

I watch Eden run out the door of Tilley’s and then whip around to Ashley. She’s practically beaming with pride, her chest all puffed out as she winks at me.

“That was not fucking cool,” I growl at her, and the smile slides off her face.

“Come on, Coop,” Ashley says in a small voice. “Don’t be that way with me. You know what she—”

“That was completely uncalled for,” I snap at her. “You need to grow the fuck up, Ash.”

“But, baby,” she whines, and it makes my skin crawl. I ignore her and turn for the door, letting my long legs eat up the distance between Eden and me.

As soon as I exit Tilley’s, I see her across the street getting into her rental car.

“Eden,” I call out to her.

Her head whips my way, and because it’s still light out, I can clearly see the tears in her eyes. It makes my chest constrict painfully, but she doesn’t even stop. She jumps into the car, turns it on, and jets out of her parking spot.

“Christ,” I mutter, and turn in the opposite direction, running for my truck, which is parked two blocks down.

I cannot believe fucking Ashley said that shit to Eden. I get she’s jealous, and I get that a lot of people in this town feel like Eden’s a rotten person, but, Jesus…let it the fuck go. I know I have, and any hard feelings I’ve got for her stem from the failure of our relationship, not from the person she’s grown into.

In fact, I feel sort of sad that she is the way she is, because while Ashley may have been rude, she was very much right about Eden. Everyone in this town has seen it firsthand, and no one can deny she’s self-centered and selfish.

Which makes me wonder why in the fuck I’m even chasing her back to Goodnight House. I could have stayed at Tilley’s, gotten drunk with Clay, and then fucked Ashley afterward. It would have been a typical Friday night for me.

The trip from town center in Newberry to Goodnight House takes less than ten minutes, and because I’m driving like a bat out of hell, I can see Eden’s brake lights come on in front of the house just as I’m turning into the driveway. By the time I pull my truck to a stop behind her car and jump out, she’s unlocking the front door.

I’m completely surprised when she spares the time to look over her shoulder at me as she’s entering the house and yells, “Just stay the hell away from me, Coop. I’m packing up and I’ll be out of here soon.”

She runs into the house.

“Goddamn it,” I curse under my breath, and run after her. The thought of her leaving is not setting well with me and I have no fucking clue why, but I go with my instincts and hunt her down.

She’s flying up the staircase as I hit the front door, and I take the stairs two at a time.

When she gets to the top and turns to the right for the master suite, she comes to a complete and sudden halt.

So sudden I can’t quite stop in time and I barrel into her. My arms go around her waist as I push her forward, keeping her from flying into the wall. Eden grunts as if I knocked the wind out of her, but then immediately shakes herself out of my hold. I let her go but she doesn’t move.

She just stares at the hall floor before finally mumbling, “What did you do? Did you throw the rest of my clothes out the window too?”

The hall floor is completely bare and cleaned up, and I could understand given our joint tantrums today why she’d think I’d throw her clothes out the window. Instead, I take her by the elbow and guide her into the master suite. I let her go when we reach the middle of the room, but continue walking to the closet. I open the door, sweep my hand to it, and watch as her gaze drifts that way.

Her eyes widen as she surveys all of her clothes hung neatly in the closet. She whirls around and sees the rose-colored comforter with cream flowers on the bed.

She whips back to face me and I almost laugh at the look of genuine confusion on her face, but sadly, this really isn’t all that funny. “I don’t understand.”

“You can have the master suite,” I tell her. “I decided to be an adult. This was your house long before it was mine.”

Eden shakes her head. “No, it’s okay. You should have stayed in here.”

Well, aren’t we playing nice together? “No, I insist.”

“I’m leaving, Coop,” she says firmly, and marches past me to the closet and pulls out her large suitcase. “This was stupid to come here.”

“Don’t,” I say as I easily pull the suitcase away from her. “You’re upset. Stay the night at least, and if you want to leave tomorrow you can.”

I can tell she’s conflicted. She doesn’t grab the suitcase, but she doesn’t accept my offer either. Her spine stays stiff and her eyes are guarded.

Eden’s voice is so very small, something I’ve never heard from her before, when she says, “I don’t get it. Why does everyone hate me? Because I left Newberry and didn’t come back?”

My body jerks a little over the naïveté of Eden’s question. Surely she can understand people’s feelings. “Eden…after what you did…people are still pissed about that. I don’t think that’s going to be easily forgiven.”

“What I did?” she cries out in pure confusion, throwing her arms wide in exasperation. “I left Newberry. I became a famous actress. Why is that a crime?”

“Eden—”

“Or is it because we broke up?” she asks in a voice so serious I know she thinks that’s really a possibility. “Is the town mad at me because our relationship failed?”

“Eden—”

“Because if so,” she says in a rush, anger tinging her voice, “that’s fucked up. You and I ended things mutually.”

“I know,” I agree. “But—”

“Then what the hell did I supposedly do?” she pleads.

And I get angry too over her refusal to accept responsibility for her selfishness.

“Because of what you did after the fire,” I snap at her.

Eden jerks backward and she blinks at me slowly. Her head tilts slightly and her tone is cautious. “The fire that killed your dad?”

I roll my eyes. “That’s the one.”

“But I didn’t even know,” she says quietly, her brows furrowed deep. “Not until Missy told me this afternoon.”

“Now that’s not true, Eden,” I admonish her, but not too harshly. There’s something about her complete confusion that’s throwing me off a little. She either clearly has forgotten what happened, she didn’t know, which seems impossible to me, or she’s just that damn good of an actress.

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, Coop.” She lifts her chin and stares me down. “I didn’t know your dad died in a fire until today.”

“Eden,” I say softly. “The town council, which I sit on, wrote to you after. We requested money to help rebuild the part of the school that was destroyed and erect a memorial for my dad. It wasn’t my idea, but I went along with it. I mean…we figured you were rich beyond measure and it would be a nice charitable donation you’d want to make, given you went to that school and knew my dad.”

Eden started shaking her head in denial at about the time I said we requested money from her. “I didn’t get any request from the town council here.”

And fuck if she doesn’t sound completely adamant.

“But you sent money,” I point out. “Five hundred dollars to be exact.”

Eden gasps and looks completely offended. “If I knew you needed to rebuild the school and put up a memorial to your dad—a man who I greatly admired and cared for—you can bet I would have sent a fuck of a lot more money than five hundred dollars.”

And it hits me all at once. She’s telling the honest-to-God’s truth. That look on her face, her vehemence and offense over this. She has no clue what I’m talking about.

“Then who sent the money?” I ask in bewilderment.

Eden turns away from me, wrapping one arm around her stomach and bringing her opposite hand to her mouth to nibble on her fingernail. She always did that when she was thinking. She takes a few paces away from me, pauses, and then turns back staring hard at the floor.

Finally, her gaze comes up and her eyes are filled with misery. “I’m going to have to ask my business manager, Colleen. She manages the staff that screens my mail.”

I don’t even know what to say. There’s been a lot of hard feelings for Eden floating around this town. When word got out that she donated only five hundred dollars, it swept through the town like wildfire and she became a pariah. I had a hard time reconciling the sweet, caring Eden I’d known with the Eden that I believed basically thumbed her nose at our town’s pain.

And yeah, it was little more personal to me, since it was my dad who died.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her bluntly as I step forward and take her by the shoulders. “I hate that people thought something about you that wasn’t true.”

“You thought it too,” she says bitterly, turning her face away from me.

I take her chin and turn it back so she meets my eyes. “Yeah…I did. And I’m sorry for that as well. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt, but honestly, Eden…you were a stranger to me by then.”

She nods in understanding and swallows hard. Pulling away from me, she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear before folding her arms protectively over her stomach. “I get it. I’d think the same thing too about me if only five hundred dollars showed up after something so horrible. But, um…you know…I could donate money now. Maybe I could build a new school or something.”

I shake my head. “Eden…it’s fine. I’ll set the record straight and you don’t have to do anything else.”

A halfhearted smile graces her beautiful face but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She nods and drops her eyes again. “Listen…I’m beat and I think I’m going to go to bed now. In the morning—”

“Come on,” I interrupt her. “Let’s go make some pancakes.”

“Excuse me?” she says as she blinks at me in surprise.

“Pancakes. I make a mean one. And I’m starved. You totally ruined my dinner at Tilley’s tonight.”

I’m rewarded with the barest of smiles. That bolsters me, and I reach out to grab her hand so I can pull her toward the door. She resists slightly, but I’m determined. I tug on her harder and she finally follows me.

“You know how to make pancakes?” she asks timidly as we walk down the stairs. I don’t let her hand go.

“Well, I’ve been single a long damn time since we broke up,” I tell her. I wonder what the expression is on her face with that admission, but she’s slightly behind me as we walk down and I don’t look back at her. “I had to learn to cook or I would starve.”

I almost stumble and miss the last step when she says, “But Ashley…she called you baby at Tilley’s. You reached out for me, and she told you not to, and you stopped. You’re in a relationship with her.”

As soon as Eden’s feet hit the foyer floor behind me, I spin on her and give her hand a squeeze. “No…I’m not in a relationship with her.”

“But she called you—”

“I’m sleeping with her, but there’s no relationship,” I clarify. “She has never stayed the night in my bed.”

Eden actually grimaces and tries to pull her hand out of mine. I hold tighter, squeeze again to keep her attention. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t ever have sex again, did you Eden? Fourteen years is a long time to go without.”

“No, I’m not thinking that at all. It’s just…Ashley? Really? She was so shallow in high school.”

I chuckle and toss back at her. “Brad Wright? Really? He’s a total douche.”

She actually laughs, and the light hits her eyes. “He is an absolute douche. We sure know how to pick ’em.”

“That we do,” I agree, then turn toward the kitchen, pulling her behind me. “Let’s eat pancakes and commiserate.”