Page 66 of Fractured Dreams

“Eden, look at me.” Blinking away her tears, Eden turned to face him. Noah’s expression was serious. “Tex has his own demons, and nothing about this has been easy for him. I said some things he took to heart. In my defense, I was in a bad headspace.” He paused, and Eden saw real pain flash in his eyes. “I saw Summer. While we were on tour.”

Eden’s eyes widened. “Summer? Oh my God, Noah. What happened? What did you do?”

“I spoke to her and it confused the hell out of me. I never told you what happened between us, and it’s probably time I did. It might help explain why I ended up doing what I did.”

Eden nodded. “Just let me finish making the coffee and you can tell me.”

She quickly finished pouring out the drinks, then placed the mugs on coasters on her small kitchen table.

Noah took a sip from his, then placed it back down, hesitating for a long second before starting to talk. “You probably remember Summer as a bit of a free spirit, and in most ways, she was, but she was also very insecure. Her parents split because of her dad’s infidelity, and she lost a lot of trust in relationships because of that. It didn’t matter so much when I was seeing her every day, but when we went on tour that first time, she really struggled with the anxiety. And I was young and stupid.”

Seeing the expression on Eden’s face, he hastened to reassure her. “I never cheated on her, I never would have—I loved that girl—but I did let the excitement and attention go to my head. I was so sure she’d always be there for me, I forgot to be there for her while she was trying to deal with her worst fears. I didn’t call as regularly as I should have, didn’t show her every day that I was thinking of her.” He stopped, his jaw flexing, fingers tightening around his coffee mug “She saw something on social media which looked bad, made her think I was screwing around on her.”

He sighed. “She tried calling me, but I was in the middle of something that seemed important at the time, so I just sent her call to voice mail. I guess that was probably the final straw, and she broke up with me on the message. But stupidly, I forgot all about listening to it until the next day. When I finally heard it, heard her crying on the phone, telling me she couldn’t do it, that it was too hard, that she was done, I tried calling her back straight away, but she wouldn’t answer. As soon as I got a break in the tour a couple of weeks later, I flew home to talk to her.” He paused again, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep breath. “And I saw her and my friend, Deacon, kissing.”

Eden gasped. “Oh Noah.”

He shrugged, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table. “Yeah, she’d obviously moved on with someone safer.”

“What did she say when you spoke to her?”

“I didn’t, just turned straight back around and headed out. It wasn’t too long afterward I found out that she and Deacon were engaged. That’s why I ended up staying in LA at the end of the tour instead of going back home. The last I heard about them was that they ended up moving away before the wedding.”

“I’m so sorry, Noah.” Eden reached over and grabbed his hand. She’d only been young at the time, but she remembered being confused about why Noah’s high school sweetheart, who’d been such a constant presence in their house, had gotten engaged so quickly after she and Noah broke up.

“Yeah, it was a rough time for me. And I guess it made me believe that being with someone you love when you live the kind of life Tex and I do can be hard. Too hard a lot of the time. People get hurt if they’re not prepared for the reality of it. I didn’t want that for you Eden, the uncertainty, the worry, the hurt. Especially after what Mason did.”

“Noah, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry that you got hurt; that Summer got hurt. Neither of you deserved that.”

Pain blazed in his blue eyes then was gone as he pushed his hand through his hair before leaning back in his chair with a nonchalant expression. “Thanks, but it was a long time ago, we were both just kids. I shouldn’t have let what happened cloud my judgment when it came to you and Tex.”

“So how come you saw her on tour? Did she come to see you? Did you talk to her this time?”

A muscle flexed in Noah’s jaw, and he took another sip of his coffee before answering. “She didn’t come to see me. Well, she came to see the band, but she didn’t know I was in it. Seems like her friend was dragging her out for a girl’s night because… apparently Summer is recently divorced.”

“She told you that?”

He laughed, humorlessly. “No, she barely looked at me the whole time. It was her friend that seemed overly excited to give me that little nugget of information once she realized we knew each other.”

“So how did you leave it?”

Noah shrugged again, looking a little too unconcerned to Eden. “Just said an awkward goodbye, and that was it. It was just a crazy coincidence. I doubt we’ll ever see each other again.”

“Do you want to see her again?”

Noah’s fingers continued drumming restlessly on the table. “Why would I want to? We were together a long time ago, and she made a choice back then about what she wanted. Or what she didn’t want, anyway.”

“If you’re so unaffected, then why were you in such a bad mood after you saw her?”

“It just brought up a lot of painful memories, that’s all. But I don’t want to talk about Summer anymore. I actually came here to ask you something.”

“As well as beg my forgiveness?” She cocked a brow at him.

Noah grinned at her; all pensiveness gone. “Yes, but you’ve already granted me that, right?”

“Forgiven, not forgotten. If you ever do anything like that again, Noah, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

He nodded, looking suitably somber.

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