“Be honest now,” Eden says as she leans her head on my shoulder as our plane taxis down the runway. We’re catching the red-eye back to the East Coast. “What did you think of LA?”
Eden’s wearing a pair of faded jeans, a white T-shirt, and a navy blue blazer. We had plenty of time after the awards show to go back to her house, take a shower together, which inevitably led to some amazing fucking, and then catch a cab to the airport. While she was beyond sexy in that gray satiny gown tonight, I prefer her like this…all relaxed and casual with hardly any makeup on.
She’s not Eden Goodnight, award-winning actress, supermodel, multimillionaire, and a woman every man on the planet lusts for.
Tonight, like this as we head back to Newberry, she’s just my Eden.
Nudging me in the shoulder, she pushes. “And be super honest. No sugarcoating. You won’t hurt my feelings if you hated it.”
“I didn’t hate it,” I admit to her. “In fact, your neighborhood and that surrounding area is really nice. But fuck, Eden…the traffic to get places. It’s sucks ass. Way too many people.”
“Totally agree with you on that,” she says with a laugh.
“The people are kind of shallow, present company excluded.”
“Also agree.”
“The food’s too fancy for my tastes,” I add.
“I’m going to disagree with you on that. But then again, I love food, so I can’t be disappointed.”
I chuckle as the plane picks up speed as we barrel down the runway, the nose finally tilting up and we’re airborne. Eden snuggles in closer to me, looping an arm through mine and nuzzling her head against my shoulder. She’s exhausted, and I doubt her eyes will be open much longer.
I glance down at where our arms are intertwined. It’s a simple act. Eden and I had always been physically affectionate. We couldn’t be within a few feet of each other when we were first dating and not be touching each other somehow. It could have been holding hands as we walked, or having our legs pressed together at a football game as we sat on the bleachers, or her foot tapping against mine under a table as we studied. Of course, on those times we’d spend the night together, usually in my dorm room, we’d be wrapped around each other.
This reminds me of those times, when we were so in love we had to be touching, and yet part of this is not quite right.
Eden and I aren’t in love.
We’re not just having sex, though, either. That was stupid to think this could be something as simple as “just sex” with our history.
But we’re somewhere in between. There’s care and a deep intimacy. But I’m not sure either one of us is consumed with the other the way we were. Or at least I’m not sure I am with her.
Or maybe I am but it’s just a different type of consumption. Maybe as we’re older, things don’t have the same vibrancy as they did with youth leading the charge with our hormones.
I don’t know.
Don’t know what any of this fucking means except for one thing that has become perfectly clear.
I could never in a million years leave Newberry to live in Los Angeles. Eden’s world, her life there, is so antithetical to the type of person I am, I know I’d hate it there. And I know that despite what I’d come to feel for Eden as things progressed, it would never be strong enough to ever get me to go there with her.
This trip was nice. Eden was a superstar tonight. Her home is lovely. I met her business manager, and despite the screwup over the donation for the school fire, I like her. She cares for Eden and keeps her straight. Samuel was awesome, and that was the highlight of the trip.
But I’m glad to be leaving, and honestly, I’m completely fine with never going back there.
Chapter 21
I can’t believe she bitch slapped me…
Eden
“Coop, seriously,” I whine as he pulls me down the sidewalk. “I’m tired. I’m still on West Coast time and don’t feel like going out.”
“We’ve been back in Newberry for three days, Eden,” he tells me firmly. “You are not still on West Coast time.”
“But I’m still really tired—”
“You just spent twenty minutes riding my dick, and when I came you told me you could have gone another twenty more,” he points out to me.
It’s true. I loved getting Coop off a little bit ago, holding that power over him and I could have gone for another round. I give a frustrated huff as Coop pulls me closer to the front door of Tilley’s, making me confront my unease.
He knows my hesitation. He knows my vulnerability.
Apparently he’s going to make sure I get over it. Right here. Tonight.
“Just wait,” I say as I stop and pull my hand from his. My heart is constricting with anxiety. “I just…can we…let’s just get an out-of-the-way table for dinner.”
“Eden,” he says reassuringly as his hands come to my shoulders. “Everyone in town has received the memo about the mix-up with the fire. No one hates you. No one is going to bother you. People will probably give you some friendly waves and you may get a request for an autograph or two. But trust me, you’re a member of this community and have been for your entire life. Just accept it.”
I shake my head fervently. “It’s not just that.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s just…I don’t want people to think I’m using you,” I blurt out.
Coop’s eyebrows furrow inward, and then immediately widen with understanding. “It’s because people out in LA thought that, right? Several people mentioned it to you at the awards ceremony…that I was a good way to get over Brad.”
I nod, my eyes lowered in shame. The people in this industry can be brutal and catty.
Coop is having none of it, though. He lifts my chin with his fingers, forcing my gaze up. “This is Newberry. It’s not LA.”
His message is important. He’s saying that the people here are different and are not like the people there. Still, I have to ask. “Do you think that?”
Coop’s head actually jerks back like I hit him. Then he gives me a chastising look. “Seriously, Eden? You have to ask me that?”
“No,” I say immediately, shaking my head. “Wait, yes…I need to ask. I mean…no. I know you don’t think that of me, but maybe I just need reassurances. And we can go in. I can do this. It will be fine. Silly of me to worry, really. I’m just regular old—”
He cuts off my nervous diatribe with a hard kiss that ends sweet and soft.
I lick my lips when he pulls away and open my eyes. My hands are clutching his arms and my body is pressed into his. When did that happen?
“That was nice,” I murmur.
“That was necessary,” he tells me with a grin. “Get out of your head, babe. Let’s go have a nice dinner, okay?”
“Okay,” I say with complete capitulation. He’s right. Everything is fine between us. And the town knows the truth.
However, I’m not going to lie, my anxiety starts thrumming slightly when Coop opens the door to Tilley’s. He motions me inward and I take two steps before I’m given an absolute heart attack.
It seems like a thousand people at once yell, “Surprise!”