Page 1 of Fractured Dreams

Chapter 1

“Men are bastards,” Tabby said, her words beginning to slur.

“Yep.” Eden rested her chin in one hand and stirred her cocktail dejectedly with her straw.

“I can’t believe Mason ended up being such an asshole. He seemed so romantic at the start, always serenading you, calling you his muse.” Tabby’s attempt at a scowl came across as more of a drunken leer in the dim light of the bar.

“Well, turns out I wasn’t the only muse he was serenading.” Foregoing the straw, Eden took a big gulp of her drink, then wrinkled her nose as she eyed the now almost empty glass. “WhatIcan’t understand is how I fell for his lines. You’d think I’d know better having a rock star for a brother; musicians just can’t keep it in their pants.” She stopped herself. “Not that Noah would ever cheat on anyone. He—”

“Excuse me, ladies.” The deep voice came from over Eden’s shoulder, and she twisted around on her stool to see a good-looking, dark-haired man standing next to her, a charmingly roguish smile aimed in her direction. “I was wondering if—”

“She’s not interested,” Tabby said abruptly, holding her hand up in front of the man’s face and stopping him in his tracks.

Startled, he glanced from Tabby to Eden, then back to Tabby before attempting to reply. “I just wanted to—”

“Sorry, tonight’s not really a good night tomake friends.” Tabby made air quotes with her fingers in case he didn’t get it. “We’re dealing with the fallout of a nasty breakup here, and as cute as you may be, your timing is way off.” Eden’s friend was nothing if not blunt.

The man looked at Eden again, and she gave him a shrug and an apologetic smile. She was slightly surprised to have attracted any male attention at all, considering how little effort she’d put into getting ready. She hadn’t even bothered to do anything with her long blonde hair, or put on any makeup except for a touch of mascara on her lashes in the hope of diverting attention from the hint of red around her normally clear blue eyes. The guywascute, but she was in no emotional state for flirting—even if it was innocent fun; even if part of her wanted to, just so she could feel better about herself after what Mason had done.

“Right, well, I’ll leave you two alone then,” he said, backing away with both hands raised.

Eden looked at Tabby, catching the ghost of a smile on her friend’s face, an answering one curving her own lips. “Why did you think it was a good idea to come out to a bar again?” she asked.

Tabby tossed her glossy, mahogany hair over her shoulder, espresso-dark eyes sparkling as she held up her nearly empty cocktail glass and waved it in the air. “Alcohol.”

“Ah yes, that was it,” Eden replied, dryly.

The bar where they’d spent the evening camped out was a popular college hangout. It was currently filled with students from the nearby University of Ohio, where she and Tabby had spent the last four years studying. They’d both recently graduated—Tabby with a major in Music and Eden in Music Therapy, although unlike Tabby, Eden still had a six-month internship to complete before she could become a certified music therapist. Unfortunately, instead of being at the bar celebrating the end of her studies like everyone else, Eden was trying hard to distract herself from the end of her year-long relationship.

Tabby’s smile disappeared, and her expression was sober as she reached over and squeezed Eden’s hand. “I really am sorry about Mason.”

Eden shrugged and tried for a flippant remark, but her lips trembled, and no sound came out. She hadn’t exactly been head over heels in love with Mason, even after being with him for a year, but she’d cared for him deeply, and she’d thought he’d cared for her too.

Turned out she’d been wrong.

In hindsight, she really only had herself to blame; she should have known better than to date a musician. After all, she knew from hearing about what Noah and the rest of Fractured got up to, just how easy it was for band members to indulge in the willing women that followed them around hoping to score a hook up.

Mason might only be a small-time rock star compared to her brother and his friends—his band had just started getting traction on the indie music scene—but apparently that hadn’t stopped him. She’d still been in for a rude and incredibly painful awakening when she’d turned up at his apartment a week ago to find him ‘entertaining’ a fan. And by that she meant naked and buried to the hilt in another woman.

Mason’s bug-eyed expression of panic when Eden had opened the door on them might have even been funny, if she hadn’t been struggling to not throw up at the sight of her boyfriend sweating and grunting as he plowed into someone that wasn’t her.

Pain and betrayal had scorched through her, hot tears overflowing from her eyes and burning paths down her cheeks. Unwilling to spend one more second in the cheating bastard’s presence, Eden had spun on her heel to leave, only for him to chase after her, hopping on one leg as he tried to pull on his jeans. His frantic excuse of needing to do it to work off the adrenaline from his performance that night—followed by him insisting it didn’t mean anything, and he’d only done it because Eden hadn’t been around to help him out—had done nothing but make her want to hurl something at his head.

When he’d begged her to give him a second chance—even as the woman he’d been screwing was still in his bed—she’d just laughed bitterly, told him to drop dead, and walked out. She wasn’t going to let him make a fool of her twice.

Eden’s throat cinched tight at the painful memory, and she blinked rapidly. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Maybe I just have bad taste in men.”

Tabby shook her head vehemently. “You’ve only had two relationships, so that’s hardly a large enough sample size to come to that conclusion. And your first one barely even counted as a relationship. Tanner was a player, and if you’d had more experience with guys, you’d have seen him coming a mile away.”

Eden grimaced at the reminder of the fling she’d had with the popular football player not long after starting college. Although, if she’d actually known it was just going to be a fling, maybe she wouldn’t have been so hurt and disappointed when he dumped her for another gullible freshman after only a few weeks. She exhaled heavily. “You’re right, I should have. I was so excited about being away from home and finally being able to do whatever I liked, I only saw what I wanted to see—that a hot guy was interested in me and I could finally do something about it.”

Tabby screwed her face up in sympathy. “I still can’t believe your parents didn’t let you date at all in high school.”

Eden took a sip of her drink before answering. “There was a lot they didn’t let me do.”

“It doesn’t seem fair they were so over-the-top protective of you, particularly since you said they pretty much let your brother do whatever he wanted.”

Eden let out a short, humorless laugh. “Yeah, it was frustrating.”

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