Page 48 of Sneak Attack

“I didn’t stalk you.”

I arched a brow as she glanced at me. Not at all the point and she knew it, but avoidance was apparently her new favorite character trait.

She shrugged as I stayed silent. She wasn’t getting out of this, not after everything I’d told her. If she needed time, she could ask for it. Of course, I’d give that to her, but allowing Eden to keep running and hiding wouldn’t happen.

“I said earlier that I was so upset, I couldn’t get out of bed.”

“You did.”

“Well, it went on for months. I’d pulled my acceptance to Tennessee the day we left town. We were in Florida. My dad was getting ready to start his new job. And I just…couldn’t move. I refused to enroll anywhere, not even community college. And then one day my parents said I had to dosomething.So my mom made me shower, and we got in the car and drove. She drove past the community college, past restaurants where I could work. She’d scoped out the entire city and just drove past places and told me she’d stop when I told her to.

“There was a sign for an animal shelter, and I thought of all the lost animals, abandoned, depressed. And I don’t know…” She shrugged, stared into her cold coffee like she was debating taking another drink just to avoid this conversation and then peered out into the trees. “I felt their pain, I guess.”

“So you went in?”

“That first day I was pretty sure my mom thought I wanted to adopt something, and I’m pretty sure she would have gone along with anything that brought a smile to my face, so we filled out forms, and we got to go to the back to look at the animals. And there was one dog, laying against the metal cage, his whole body pressed to it. I just went and sat by him outside. My mom had gone back out front when I didn’t move from my spot and two hours later, that dog and I were just sitting there. Both of us alone, but it broke my heart to leave him. So, I went back, and kept going back and after a couple weeks, they asked if I just wanted to start volunteering.”

“Did you adopt the dog?”

“No.” She shook her head, and a blank expression slipped over her. “I didn’t want to risk loving anyone and losing them, so I never adopted any.”

But she’d loved them and lost them all the same. She couldn’t fool me even with her stoicism. Eden had always loved deeply. She’d done it with Hilary, and her loyalty to her, me in the quiet ways she was allowed.

She stretched her legs out and rocked in her chair. “Eventually I’d been there long enough, I realized the only time I feltokaywas when I was with animals. And there were so many who needed help. I couldn’t adopt them, couldn’t take them into my home, but I could help in other ways.”

“So you became a vet tech.”

“It was the quickest program I could find that I could finish.”

“And your parents? Why don’t you talk to them anymore?”

A muscle jumped in her jaw. “I talk to them.”

Maybe. But she knew what I meant. They’d beenclose. She adored them. Hell, Angie driving around the city waiting for Eden to make a choice spoke of the love she had for her daughter.

I amended my question. “Why aren’t you close with them?”

She shrugged and picked at the hem of her T-shirt. “Don’t know why, really. They call all the time, but it hurts to talk to them, and it hurts when I don’t, so I just…don’t.”

“Why?”

“They keep expecting more than I have to give, I guess.”

Like what? Their daughter to behappy? It burned on my tongue to ask. To push and prod for more, but her skin was paling with every question I lobbied in her direction and soon she’d shut down. Run.

I’d let it go, for now.

Her chair creaked as she rocked. I was finally starting to relax, to settle into her presence without the need to rehash everything when she spoke again.

“You’re wrong, you know.”

“Very rarely, actually.”

She huffed. From the corner of my eye, her lips curled up into the mere hint of a smile. I’d take it.

“That night. It wasn’t you.”

“Eden—”

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