Page 65 of Fractured Dreams

Tex jabbed him in the chest with his finger. “One day it’ll be your turn, you fucker.” He almost missed the shuttering of Zac’s expression as he turned away, but he didn’t have time to question it right then, he just needed to get out of there. So, he merely nodded goodbye to his friend and left.

Chapter 37

Eden had made a mistake. Not with the guy she’d agreed to go on a date with, he seemed very nice, but in thinking just because she’d decided she needed to move on, it meant she had. Everything about it felt wrong, the guy—Dan—too polite and refined, his hair too short and neat, face so handsome he was almost pretty, his eyes a soft green. It was all wrong.

So as nice as Dan was, when he drove her home from dinner, she told him—before he walked her to the door—that she’d had a rough breakup, that she’d thought she was over it, but she wasn’t, and she didn’t want to lead him on. He walked her to her house anyway, giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek then returning to his car and waiting for her to go inside before driving off.

Eden stood just beside the door, expecting the tears to come, as they had so often, but they didn’t. Not then, not during her shower, and not when she crawled into her bed. Instead, she lay dry-eyed in the dark, staring up at the shadowy ceiling, wondering if that was what moving on felt like. Or whether the apathy that filled her was a protective kind of numbness. Either way, it had to be an improvement over the endless tears.

Maybe she just needed to give herself a little more time, and then she could try again. After all, heartbreak couldn’t last forever; people all over the world suffered from it and recovered. After tossing and turning for a while longer, she finally fell into a restless sleep.

Eden woke to her phone ringing on her nightstand. Rubbing her eyes, she picked it up, wondering who would call her so early on a Saturday morning.

Noah.

Eden sighed. It was about time she gave in and spoke to her brother again, since the anger she’d felt seemed to have left at the same time the tears had. Swinging her legs out of bed, she answered. “Hi Noah.”

“Hi Eden, glad to see you’re talking to me again.”

“Yeah, well, don’t push your luck,” she grumbled, shuffling her way to the kitchen to make herself a coffee. “You’re already pushing the boundaries of brother-sister relationships by waking me up this early.”

“So, you’re at home then?”

Eden’s brow furrowed. “Yeah, of course.”

“Good.”

There was a banging on her front door. Eden pulled her phone from her ear, looking from it to the door, then back at her phone again, before putting it up to her ear.

“Noah, are you at my front door?”

“Why don’t you open it and find out.”

Eden walked to the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open to see Noah’s smiling face, phone still held up to the side of his head.

Eden stared at him. Then shook her head, hung up her phone and turned back to the kitchen. She really needed coffee now.

“Why yes, I’d love to come in, thanks so much for the invitation,” Noah said as he sauntered inside.

Eden rolled her eyes. “You’re in a good mood, considering what happened last time we saw each other.” She reached up and pulled two coffee mugs out of the cupboard.

She heard the change in the tone of his voice as he answered. “I’m sorry, Eden. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m sorry. I should never have interfered with your relationship. I was completely out of line.”

Eden turned to face him, crossing her arms and leaning back against the kitchen counter. “I just don’t understand why you did it, Noah. I know you were probably hurt and angry that we didn’t tell you what was happening, but that didn’t give you the right—”

“It wasn’t that.” He cut her off, shaking his head. “I’ll admit I was angry initially, but that’s not why I did it.”

“Then why?” Eden could hear the plaintiveness in her own voice.

Noah sighed, scrubbing his hand over his face, all humor gone from his expression. “You know, I still remember when Mom and Dad gave you to me to hold for the first time after you were born. You were so tiny, the tiniest baby I’d ever seen. But still perfect and beautiful. They placed you in my arms and they said, ‘You’re a big brother now, it’s the most important job you have. You need to look after her and make sure nothing ever hurts her.’”

Eden smiled, a little misty-eyed at his words.

“It was a job I took seriously, although I admit, I may have got a little distracted as a teenager.” He rubbed the back of his neck, self-consciously. “I’ve spent so long worrying about looking after you, Eden, that I didn’t see you’d grown up and were capable of looking after yourself. And instead of preventing you from getting hurt, I’m the one who caused it.”

Eden dropped her arms from across her chest, stepped forward and hugged him. “I know you meant well Noah and I know you love me.” She stood there for a few seconds, basking in the warmth of his embrace, before stepping back. Suddenly her missing tears reappeared.

She turned her back to him so he couldn’t see and busied herself making the coffee as she spoke. “And maybe I do need someone to look after me. After all, it’s not like I’ve made the best choices.” Her eyes blurred. “I thought Tex and I had something special, but at the first hint of opposition from you, he sent me away.”

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