Chapter TEN
EDEN frowned, watching him closely. ‘What’s over?’
‘Haven’t you heard a single word I’ve just said?’ His exasperation with her increased. ‘I can’t be with you, Eden. I can’t give you the happily-ever-after fairytale you’ve wanted all your life. I can’t father a child. The sterilisation is permanent.’
‘So?’
‘So! How can you just sit there and say “So”?’
‘Simple. Listen and I’ll say it again. So? ’
David was dumbfounded by her reaction. This hadn’t been what he’d expected at all. ‘Don’t you want to have children? Children of your own?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘Then you’re better off without me.’
Eden sat back in her chair for a moment, her drink, the hotel lobby, other guests—everything forgotten as she focused on the man opposite her. ‘Are you honestly sitting there and telling me that even though I don’t care that you can’t father a child we should still not be together?’
Her eyes were starting to flash the way they did when she became really mad. David swallowed. He was so attracted to the way she looked, but at the same time wary of her simmering temper. ‘Now, Eden. You have to see sense. You’re obviously in shock.’
‘Don’t tell me what I am. I know my own mind, David.’
‘Then you’ll know that while everything might be fine at the moment, and you might think you can accept this revelation of mine, say it doesn’t matter to you, at some point in the future it won’t be all right. I’ve been down this road before. I’ve heard my ex-wife cry herself to sleep because she couldn’t have a child. I’ve signed divorce papers and I’ve vowed that as far as I was concerned I would never have a family. There is no treatment for this. It’s absolute.’
He shifted in his chair, leaning forward, determined to get through to her. ‘I know how deeply you feel, Eden. I know how badly things affect you.
And even though you say now that you don’t mind not having children of your own, one day you will, and one day you will look at me with hatred in your eyes.’ And then you’ll leave me. He didn’t say the last words out loud. He couldn’t bear to.
It was better all round if they ended things here. Tonight. They’d be able to move on, to find what came next in their lives—because being together would never be an option.
‘You’re scared.’ Eden nodded, as though she’d finally hit the nail on the head. The final piece of the puzzle.
‘I’m trying to be rational here, Eden.’
‘You are so scared that if you even try something new, if you take a chance, you’ll end up being hurt again. I can understand that. Honestly I can.
I took a chance when I was seventeen and dated you. I loved being with you, spending time together. The hectic times, the fun times, the quiet times. In the beginning I was desperate for you to see me as something more than just a friend. After you’d accepted that things were great. And then…you left. But when you left, what you didn’t know was that I was in love with you. Real honest-to-goodness love.’
That stopped his thoughts in their tracks, but he quickly dismissed her words. ‘You were seventeen, Eden. Too young to know what love really is.’
‘Perhaps. But I know the pain I felt. I know it took me a very long time to get over you—long after I’d left Sydney. Helping other people, being there for others, was a way I could hide myself, could lock my heart away whilst still doing some good in the world. If I helped other people, then I didn’t have to look inwards at myself, didn’t have to face the fear that I might be all alone for the rest of my life because the only man I’d ever loved didn’t love me back. There was no way I could ever settle for second best. That’s just not me.
‘I told you that I cried myself to sleep the night I heard of your marriage. I wasn’t teasing. You were gone. You’d been taken from me—by some other older, more sophisticated woman. I’d lost you—lost what was never really mine in the first place. I’d lost you. It was then I fully realised my feelings for you were far more than that of a teenage crush or puppy love. They were serious—because to be lusting after another woman’s husband was definitely wrong. Yet I couldn’t stop myself. You were in me, a part of me, and I’d just locked it all away. If I ignored it, then the pain wasn’t as bad.
‘I wanted more than anything to get home for Sasha’s wedding, because I knew you were divorced. You were free again. I thought that perhaps now…now that I was older, you would finally see me as the woman I’d become. I hoped that you would flirt with me, that you’d take me out into the moonlight, dance with me, kiss me.’
David nodded. ‘It wasn’t to be.’
‘No.’ Eden sighed. ‘And then Sasha had her accident. My poor, darling Sasha, whom I love like a sister. I came home, unsure of how it would be to see you for the very first time in twelve years, and I have to say it’s been the roller-coaster I’d always imagined it would be.’ She smiled at him then, and David wasn’t sure whether he should relax or stay on alert. ‘You are the only man who can make me go weak at the knees with one simple look. You make me smoulder when you touch me. You fill me with fire when you hold me close, when you kiss me, when you look at me with love in your eyes.’
She leaned forward, placing her hands on the table in front of her. ‘Only you, David. Only you have ever affected me like this, and only you will continue to affect me like this.’ She shook her head. ‘If we can’t be together then you’re sentencing us both to a life alone, a life of living with regrets, when it doesn’t need to be that way at all. I don’t care if you can’t have children, and I don’t know how to make you believe that.’ Her words were spoken in earnest.
‘You say that now, but it won’t last, Eden. One day you will care, and if I can prevent you from experiencing that pain then I will.’
Eden snorted with derision, her eyes flashing fire. ‘Oh, how magnanimous of you. Protecting me? How sweet!’
David glanced around them, aware of other patrons. ‘You might want to lower your voice.’
‘Might I? I might want you to believe me when I say it doesn’t matter, but that isn’t going to happen either.’
‘But you want children.’ His words were ground out from between his teeth, and she realised that he too was trying to control his temper.
‘Yes. Don’t you?’
‘It doesn’t matter what I want. I can’t—’
‘Be honest, David. It’s obvious you do want a family of your own, so at least admit it. If not to me, then at least to yourself.’
He shook his head and looked away, wishing they’d risked going up to her room to have this discussion. But he’d thought himself more able to control his undeniable attraction to her in a public place. Besides, he hadn’t expected her to react in this manner at all. Then again, this was Eden, and he should have known to expect the unexpected.
‘Why do you think I became a paediatrician?’
‘Probably the same reasons I did. You love children and you want to help them, to protect them, to guide them. That said, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re too scared to take the step before you. You’re not willing to enter into a relationship with me because one day I might hurt you. You’re not willing to believe that the two of us can be happy together—the two of us, David. Let’s just focus on that for now. I love you, and I know you love me.’ Her words had become more insistent and a little louder. ‘So why can’t we move forward? Why can’t we take that to the next level?’
‘You’re starting to disturb the other guests.’
‘I’m hardly yelling, David, and besides, when you’re in love with someone it should make you feel so free, so uninhibited, that you can shout from the rooftops—not knowing who hears, not caring who knows.’
His eyes widened for a moment, and he wondered if she was about to stand up and declare to all and sundry just how she felt about him.
Eden stood, and he held his breath. She walked around to stand beside him before leaning down to kiss him. It was a kiss of desire, of hope and of promise. Then she turned, picked up her coat and bag, and walked calmly to the lifts. He watched as she disappeared from view, the lift taking her away from him.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there, ignoring the people around him as he pondered her words. Did she really not care about his secret?
Could he believe that she accepted him as he was? That she truly loved him? That she wouldn’t leave him in years to come? Could he take a chance on love? True love? Was Eden worth it?
‘Yes.’
Two days later, David walked into his sister’s hospital room and glanced around. ‘Where is she?’
Sasha put down the book she was reading. ‘Who?’
‘Eden. Who else?’
‘I haven’t seen her.’
‘Sasha,’ he warned.
‘What? She came to my physio session earlier this morning, but I haven’t seen her since. Why? Is there something wrong with a patient?’
‘You know darn well what’s going on.’
‘Ah. Personal, not business. Yes, I do. Eden is more than my best friend, David. She’s like a sister to me.’
‘Well, if you want to have any hope of making her your real sister, then you’ll tell me where she is.’ He stalked around the room, agitated and tired. ‘I’ve been trying to call her for the past two days. First of all the hotel took my messages, saying she didn’t want to be disturbed. And now I’ve just called and they’ve informed me that Dr Caplan isn’t staying there any more.’
Sasha nodded. ‘Have you tried her cell phone?’
‘It just goes through to voicemail. Where is she?’ He felt so dejected, and slumped into a chair. ‘I’ve stuffed up, Sash. She won’t talk to me.
She’s avoiding me.’
‘Haven’t you seen her on the ward? I thought she was a visiting medical officer.’
‘She is, but whilst she’s been in to see the patients she does it when she knows I won’t be on the ward. She knows my schedule inside out—
when I have clinic, when I have meetings—and she uses it to her advantage. This morning Dart was jumping around, all happy and cheery because Dr Eden had just done a magic trick and pulled some money from his ear. Then I go to see Chelsea and she tells me that she and Eden shared a hot chocolate this morning as they talked about Paris.’
‘Isn’t she the young girl who wasn’t eating?’
‘Yes.’ David raked a hand through his hair and stood to start pacing again. ‘Yesterday I spent a lot of time trying to track her down, narrowly missing her. “She was just here.” “Oh, David, you just missed her.” Everyone likes her. Everyone thinks the world of her—’
‘It’s you that she loves,’ Sasha pointed out.
‘She has a funny way of showing it.’
‘How do you feel about her, David? Eden’s sure you love her, but that you’re too scared to do anything about it.’
‘I am. I was.’
‘In love with her or scared?’
‘I am in love with her and I was scared.’ He’d been such a fool—a fool in love. And love could be blind, couldn’t it? He just hadn’t known what he was doing, fumbling around like a…well, like a fool.
‘So what are you going to do about it?’
‘A lot. But first I need to find her.’ He came and gently sat on the bed next to his sister. ‘Help me, Sash.’
‘I’ll call her.’ Sasha picked up the phone by her bed and dialled an outside line before entering Eden’s number. ‘Hi, there,’ she said a moment later. ‘Where are you?’ A pause. David looked hopefully at his sister. ‘Uh-huh.’ Sasha’s gaze met his. ‘Oh? Really?’Another pause. ‘Eden, I’m sorry.
No. No. I quite understand. Yes, yes, he is here with me. Do you want to—’
David eagerly held his hand out for the receiver, but Sasha didn’t relinquish it.
‘No?’ she continued. ‘All right, then. Yes. OK. Call me if you want to talk.’ Sasha hung up the phone and glared at her brother. ‘You had better fix that.’
‘What? What just happened?’
‘She doesn’t want to talk to you.’
‘What? Why not?’ Panic gripped him and he found it difficult to swallow. ‘Where is she, Sasha?’
‘I promised her I wouldn’t tell you.’
‘What? This isn’t primary school. We aren’t playing kid games. This is my life.’
‘Eden’s too.’
David began to pace around the room. What was Eden doing? Playing hard to get?
‘She just needs to sort herself out, that’s all.’
‘And what if she leaves? What if she runs away again?’
‘What if she does?’ Sasha countered. ‘What would you do, David?’
‘Go after her.’ He didn’t even need to think of his answer. He needed Eden, was desperate for Eden, and now that he’d realised that he wanted to go to her, apologise and beg her to take him back. ‘Come on, Sash. Tell me where she is. We need to talk. We need to sort this out. She doesn’t understand how much I need her in my life. I have to tell her.’
‘Well, you’re going to have to wait a few more days, at least. Unless…’ Sasha smiled widely at her brother, wanting the two people she’d loved for most of her life to get their act together.
‘Unless?’
‘Unless you’re smart and you figure out where she might have gone. Let’s see if I can’t help you narrow down the parameters. Who does Eden know in Sydney? You. Me. Well, she isn’t staying with either of us. Hmm…Who else does she know here? Who else would she go and visit with to reconcile the past?’
David hit his forehead and shook his head, before kissing his sister’s cheek.
‘You’d better tell her you love her, David,’ Sasha called as he bolted for the door.
‘I’ll shout it from the rooftops,’ he returned with a bright grin.
David knocked on his tennis partner’s front door with complete impatience. He hadn’t bothered waiting for someone to open the large front gates, instead had quickly scaled the front brick wall. Hall answered, surprised to see a dishevelled David standing there.
‘Is Eden here?’ he asked eagerly.
‘I’m sorry. You’ve just missed her. She’s gone shopping with her mother.’
He couldn’t believe he’d just missed her! Again!
‘Come in, son.’ Hall invited him, and they went into the living room. ‘You’ve obviously heard that Eden’s staying with us?’
‘I’ve not long realised that.’
‘She came round late last night and asked if she could come home.’ Hall shook his head, tears welling in his eyes. ‘It’s as though everything really is in the past—that it has all been forgiven and forgotten. I feel as though I have my family back.’ He clapped David on the back. ‘And we owe it all to you.’
‘To me?’
‘Yes. You brought her over, got her to talk to us.’
‘I didn’t do anything, Hal. It was all Eden. I merely provided moral support.’
Hall nudged him and winked. ‘Looked like more than moral support to me. So, what’s the deal? You in love with my Eden?’
‘As a matter of fact, yes.’ David’s answer momentarily stunned Hal.
‘Really? I was only trying to tease you.’ Hall gulped and quickly processed the information. ‘Well, that’s beaut, then.’ He offered his hand to David and pumped it proudly. ‘If you can tame my daughter, get her to settle down, we’d be forever grateful.’
David’s smile was one of slight relief. He’d found out where Eden was staying. She was all right. She hadn’t left town. She hadn’t given up on him. ‘I doubt anyone can tame Eden. Besides, I think she’s perfect just the way she is.’
Hall beamed. ‘Welcome to the family, son.’
David needed to prove to Eden that he was worth taking a risk with. Sasha wanted them to be together, and so did Hal, but it was Eden who mattered and David had to keep reminding himself that he hadn’t won her over…yet. He needed to convince her that he was serious, that he believed in her, believed in them, and that despite what the future might hold he wanted it to be the two of them together—for ever.
But how? How could he? After a moment David stood. ‘Listen, Hal, do you have a ladder I could borrow?’
‘I’m so glad the hospital let you come,’ Eden said to Sasha as she gathered the dinner plates.
‘You and me both. Sister thought as I’d managed to survive the other night at a restaurant, I could manage a sedate family dinner.’
‘It’s like old times,’ Gretchen said, helping her daughter. ‘Only David’s missing. Where did David say he was tonight, Hal?’
Hall thought for a moment, then shrugged. ‘He said he had some business to take care of.’
‘It was a wonderful meal, Mrs Caplan,’ Sasha commented, wanting to change the subject. Her brother had called her to let her know what he had planned, which was why Sasha had insisted on wangling an invitation to dinner. She wasn’t going to miss this moment for anything.
‘Thank you, dear. Todd, take those plates from Eden—you too, Hal. The two of you can be on dish duty tonight.’
‘Well, if it’s the men’s turn,’ Robert said, ‘I’d better help, too.’
‘They only have to stack the dishwasher,’ Eden said. ‘How hard is that?’
‘For your father and brother?’ Gretchen said. ‘It could take quite a while. They both have their own system, and they argue over which one is the most effective. Now, why don’t you get the things you bought today, Eden, while I wheel Sasha into the living room? Then we can have a bit of a girly time looking at clothes and shoes.’
‘Mum bought me way too much. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it all.’ Eden started towards the stairs, but stopped when she heard a strange noise. ‘What on earth is that?’ she asked, heading over to the window. Gretchen followed, and both of them peered out.
Dogs up and down the street were beginning to bark, but the noise continued and it sounded very close. Eden went to the front door and walked outside, down the steps onto the grass, searching for the sound. She turned and glanced up at the roof, her heart catching in her throat.
‘David! What are you doing up there?’
‘Serenading you,’ he called back, and began to sing once more. He was standing on the roof of her father’s house, balancing very carefully. He was wearing a tuxedo and held one single long stemmed rose in his hands.
The rest of her family came out, with Todd and Robert carrying Sasha’s wheelchair down the steps.
‘You’re supposed to be on the ground and I’m supposed to be up high if you’re going to serenade correctly,’ she called, but he continued to sing. Badly.
It was awful, and he was fumbling a lot of the words, which only made him sound worse, but she loved every wrong note he sang. Eden laughed at the total ridiculousness of the man, clapping her hands in delight, unable to believe he was doing what he was doing. When David broke out of his shell he broke out!
‘At least we have a doctor around if he falls,’ Hall commented.
‘Come down!’ she called, but he continued singing—if you could call it that. ‘You’re scaring the animals in the neighbourhood,’ she tried, and finally he finished.
Then he looked down at her and smiled.
‘I love you, Eden,’ he said, and then lifted his head and yelled to the entire neighbourhood, ‘I love Eden Caplan.’
She laughed, unable to believe he was actually shouting from the rooftops that he loved her.
‘Why is he up there?’ Gretchen asked. ‘What’s wrong with the ground?’
‘It’s romantic.’ Sasha sighed, and clasped her hands to her chest.
‘Oh,’ was all Gretchen said.
Eden saw the ladder, and knew if he wasn’t going to come down then she was going to go up—and that was exactly what she did, climbing carefully onto the roof. She stood and headed over to him, watching where she was putting her feet.
‘Be careful,’ he said when he spotted her, and reached out a hand, grasping hers and steadying her when she missed her step. When they were next to each other, he looked down into her eyes. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he whispered.
‘I’ve missed you, too,’ she said. ‘It’s just like you to be so literal.’
‘Hey, you wanted me to shout it from the rooftops and I have. The serenading was something I came up with all by myself.’ The smile on his face began to fade. ‘You’ve said a few times that Sasha is the only person who’s ever really cared about you, and I want you to know that’s not entirely true. She’s not the only person, Eden. I’ve cared about you for far longer than I’ve been willing to admit to myself. I’m sorry, Eden. Sorry for hurting you, for rejecting you, for not listening to you. Can you please forgive me?’
‘Why?’
‘Because I love you. I love her! ’ he shouted again, and she laughed.
‘You’re crazy.’
‘You’ve taught me everything I know in that department.’ He waited a beat, then said seriously, ‘I’m sorry about the other day. I was just so overwhelmed that you weren’t put off by my revelation that I didn’t want to believe what I was hearing.’
‘I love you, David. You. If we can’t have our own children, that’s fine.’ She shrugged one elegant shoulder. ‘We’ll adopt.’
He widened his eyes. ‘Just like that? Adopt?’
Eden’s smile continued to grow as she pushed her fingers lovingly through his hair. ‘Have you forgotten where I’ve been working? Many of my assignments have been at orphanages. There are so many children out there with no one to love them. You and I both know that love is what matters, not bloodlines.’
He nodded. ‘Every child needs love.’
‘And we’ll give it. Look at your friends Chloe and Michael. They’ve adopted a little Tarparniian boy, and he probably won’t be their last.’ She laced her hands behind his head. ‘We can do this, David. We really can. I believe it with all my heart. We can be parents—parents who will shower their children with love.’
David couldn’t believe how incredible this woman was. She gave and she gave and she just kept on giving. He vowed right then and there to always give back to her. He would support her, help her to remain strong and support the gift she had. Together they could do so much, share so much of themselves, so much of their love.
‘Eden, I need you in my life. I’ve loved you for so long, but I was just too preoccupied with my own sadness to notice. I let it eat away at my life, and because of that I almost missed my chance at true happiness.’
She smiled at him. ‘You didn’t miss it, sexy boy. I’m still here.’
‘Marry me? Be my wild-child wife?’
‘Wife, eh?’
‘I want you to marry me. No.’ He stopped, and her heart caught in her throat. ‘I need you to be my wife.’
She looked into his eyes, seeing the commitment, and the love, as well as the passion and the desire. ‘Really?’ she whispered.
‘Yes.’ He laughed. ‘ Please, yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you’re the other half of me,’ he replied. ‘Where we live, how many children we adopt, where we work—that’s all semantics. I realise that now. I need to know you’ll be with me, Eden. Side by side. Together. For ever.’
‘I love you,’ she said. ‘So very, very much, David.’
‘Is that a yes?’
‘You bet it is. Besides, after your public display of affection, how could I refuse?’
At that, his mouth met hers.
This was the very beginning of their life as Mr and Mrs Perfectly Happy—which was what Eden had been striving for her whole life.
‘Are you two ever coming down?’ Sasha called with excited impatience, making Eden laugh.
Eden didn’t rush to end the kiss, but when he lifted his mouth from hers she allowed David to help her towards the ladder. He kissed her lips once more.
‘After you, my wild-child.’
‘Thank you, my tone-deaf serenader.’
When they were on the ground, and after they’d been congratulated and hugged by their family, David took her in his arms once more.
‘We are so perfect for each other.’
‘Mmm,’ Eden said, pressing her mouth to his. ‘Told you so.’