Page 19 of Sneak Attack

No return address. Nothing. And the card? Handwritten in Eden’s scrolling writing thanking Marley for the birthday present and no mention of her life, what she was doing, where she was living, or if she was happy.

God, that’d eaten at me for days. Weeks. The internet search I’d dove into to try to find her had kept me up so late at night I’d missed morning workouts at Vanderbilt and gotten my ass reamed by my coach. In the end, all I’d found was her dad, working at a university in Pensacola. The day Eden left Marysville she became a ghost.

“Florida. Dad got a job there. I stayed with them for a while until they forced me to go to school and then I never went back.”

Theyforcedher? “What the hell does that mean?”

She stared at me, like she didn’t realize what she’d said and then when she did, she shut down. In a second. Any slightly friendly look in her eyes vanished with a blink. Doors slammed shut and Eden just…turned off.

“Thanks for the drink.”

She slipped off the boulder, set the glass on the blanket and I was jumping to my feet to stop her, but it all happened so fast. Even with my quick reflexes I was too late.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“The thing is, Cole, is that you don’t have the right to demand anything from me. Not conversation. Not details of my life. So maybe stop trying.”

Her braid flipped through the air as she spun away from me, but if Eden thought that was true, then she sure as hell had changed a lot more than I’d considered.

“What if I can’t? Or don’t want to?” Hands to my hips, I shouted it before she reached the tree line. Before she disappeared again.

“Maybe consider realizing I’m not your problem anymore so how about we just try to stay away from each other?”

And then she was gone, before I could shout the truths that were burning my tongue despite how much I tried to deny it to myself.

She wasn’t my problem. She’d always been my dream. The only one I had besides football.

* * *

My dad was on the deck pretending to keep an eye on Bongo when I showed up in the backyard.

“Got everything you needed from that?”

I’d stayed out on the rock for almost an hour, sipping my one beer until it became so warm, I dumped it in the grass.

Dad’s question didn’t help.

“Not even close.” I hustled up the steps of his deck and he clasped his hand onto my shoulder. We were silent. He didn’t need to tell me it was stupid to go after her, to wait for her, or to want to talk to her.

Out of all the people in my life, it was my dad who I’d always turned to when life got hard. Yeah, obviously he talked to Mom about it after, but not everything. Not the hardest parts.

So, it was him I’d gone to when Eden left. Him I’d been brutally honest with. Dad knew all the darkest, ugliest parts of me and the only one to truly know the real reasons why I went to Vandy instead of UT.

It was that girl.

The one whose back was always the last thing I saw of her as she walked away from me.

“You got time. Time to set it all to rights.”

Always the encourager. “Can’t set anything anywhere if I’m always chasing after her.”

“Give her a couple days. I’m sure she’s still getting settled, getting her feet under her being back. Wanna take the time to listen to some advice I’m sure you don’t want to hear?”

Well, when he put it like that…

“Not really.” My hands settled to my hips anyway, unmoving from the deck. Dad knew too much to be ignored or brushed aside.

“Saw her at the store the other day. Well, leaving it. The way she hustled and tried to be invisible and the haunted look I saw in her eye as she did told me one thing. She’s never let that night go, not like you have. Give her time. She’s currently facing nightmares and a past you’ve long since settled. She hasn’t had that—she’s been running this whole time.”

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