Page 49 of Fractured Dreams

“No issue, it’s what I should do. Except…”

“Except what?”

Noah sighed and rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Except I can’t stop thinking about what might have been. If things hadn’t played out the way they did.”

Tex cocked an eyebrow in question. Noah had never really gone into detail about what had happened between him and Summer, just that their relationship hadn’t been strong enough for her to stick around after Fractured made it big.

Didn’t seem like that was going to change anytime soon either, because Noah just shook his head. “It’s fucking pointless. I just wish I could get her face out of my head again, the sound of her voice, the way she looked at me, as if she thought I could still somehow hurt her.”

“Well, you never really talked to her back then, maybe you need to track her down and talk it out, if it’s bothering you that much. Get it out of your system. You can’t keep on acting the way you have been though, you’re not a teenager like you were back then. If it’s bothering you, man up and deal with it. Don’t drown your sorrows in alcohol.”

Noah glanced at him, then back down at the drink in front of him. “Yeah, well, I’ll take that under advisement,” he said. But he left the beer on the bar and turned back to the table. “Looks like things are wrapping up here, but I’m still too keyed up to sleep. I might hit the club at the top of the hotel. Want to join me?”

Tex turned to look back at the table too. “Nah, man. I’ve got something important I need to do.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

Tex’s gaze met Eden’s for a fleeting moment before she looked away. “Make sure I haven’t screwed up my future,” he muttered to himself.

???

Tex knocked on Eden’s door, hoping like hell she was going to let him in. He was about to thump on it with his fist, screw whoever might come to see what all the noise was about, when the latch clicked, and the door swung open.

Eden stood there, face drawn, hair damp, wrapped tightly in a hotel robe.

“Can I come in?” he asked, not completely sure she wouldn’t try to slam the door in his face. Not that he’d let her, she needed to hear what he had to say. He wasn’t losing her over a stupid misunderstanding.

She nodded and stepped back to allow him to enter.

Once he was inside, she closed the door behind him then turned and leaned back against it, arms crossed. She was completely closed off, and he didn’t like it one little bit.

“Eden, we should have had this conversation a long time ago. But it was easy to forget about when it was just you and me, with no one else to worry about.” He sighed as she eyed him warily. “Can we sit down, maybe have a drink?”

“Okay.” Her voice was quiet, subdued, and it hurt to hear it like that. But she went to the bar and poured him a whiskey, pouring herself a vodka and orange juice too.

She led him to the couch and sat down at one end, curling her legs up under her, still distant.

Tex sat down at the other end, turning to face her, fighting the urge to just drag her into his arms and show her there wasn’t any other woman for him. But this was a conversation that needed to happen. Should have happened right at the start. “Eden, first of all, I need you to trust me when I say that I had absolutely no intention of calling that woman. I took her number because until now, that’s just what I’ve done. It avoids their hurt feelings from being rejected in public, and I’ve never had a relationship where I’ve had to worry about how it looked. Not only that, but with Noah watching, he would probably have questioned why I was suddenly rejecting women’s numbers.”

“So, if we end up telling him, you don’t think he’ll question why you were still taking phone numbers?”

His jaw clenched at her use of the wordif. “I’ll tell him the same thing I’m telling you now, and I hope he’ll believe me, because he’s done exactly the same thing himself.”

“Have you ever called any of the numbers you’ve been given?”

Tex paused for a second. “I’m not gonna lie, occasionally I’ve called.”

Eden’s eyes dropped, and she raised her glass to her mouth and took a sip.

“But I’ve never had a good reason not to until now. And Eden, you’re the best possible reason I could have to never call anyone again.” Tex didn’t know if she caught the implication of his last words. She didn’t react, so she either hadn’t caught it or was too hurt to care, but if he had his way, he’d never need anyone else but her.

“But from now on, I promise I won’t take any more numbers, okay?Whenwe’ve told Noah, not only will I be able to say, no thanks, I have a girlfriend, but Noah will be watching me with the eyes of a hawk.” The corners of her mouth tipped up in the slightest of smiles and he started to hope it would all work out.

Now for the hard part. “But there’s no getting around it, Eden, many of our fans are women, and some of them can be very enthusiastic. I’m gonna need you to trust me, that just because I’m talking to them, having my photo taken with them, even putting my arm around them for photos, that it’s just part of the job. Nothing more. I can’t change who I am, or what’s involved in being a rock star.”

He studied her where she sat, eyes lowered and locked on her glass, and he itched to pull her to him, to lift her chin so he could look into her beautiful blue eyes and see for himself if the depth of what he felt for her was reflected back at him. “Can you do that, Eden? I know you’ve been hurt in the past, but I willneverdo that to you.” His heart was beating fast as he waited for her reply, knowing that her next words could make or break them. He’d never once regretted his job, or what was involved in it, in over a decade of performing, until right at that moment.

Eden ran her finger around the rim of her glass, once, twice, three times as she considered his words, and Tex thought his heart might beat through his chest as he waited for her answer.

---