Page 56 of Words We Didn't Say

What was I even doing here? Eden had always been out of my league. A celebrity. She deserved the kind of man whocommanded respect—not the bumbling nerd who snuck looks at her like a love-struck teenager.

She settled.

I glanced at the escape beckoning me at the top of the stairs, but my feet refused to budge. I wasn’t leaving.

I grabbed my phone out of my jacket pocket and hit redial.

Call failed.

I sighed.

Eden had called me, so there was reception…somewhere. I took a deep breath and made my way into the bowels of hell. Silhouettes crowded the bar, the dance floor, and intimate booths of button-tufted leather lining the walls. Everywhere was a hiding place.

As I weaved through the swarm, I spotted a familiar face. Yvette was impossible to miss. Her gold dress twinkled under the chandeliers, and her head was thrown back, laughing, utterly oblivious to the meathead rugby player perving at her tits.

I stopped. That bastard.My fist clenched.

I glared a dark promise at the rugby player across the bar. Once I’d found Eden, I’d take care of him, too. He wasn’t going to disrespect Eden. It hadn’t been on my bingo card to get beaten up by a famous rugby player after failing abysmally to defend my woman’s honour, but at least Dad would be proud. I’d always feared he thought I was too soft and didn’t stick up for myself enough. He’d said so in the hospital two years ago, hadn’t he?

My lips quirked up when I rounded the corner and saw the sign slapped on the door that said‘Bonitas.’

I didn’t think twice before barging inside.

The wailing music dulled to a low thump when the door swung closed. My heart stuttered. Eden’s solitary figure hunched over a basin, her phone clutched in a death grip in one hand and a wad of paper towels stuffed in the other. The tip of her nose was red, and rivulets still streaked her cheeks.

“Denny Dee.” I was surprised I got the words out without a stutter. Seeing her cry was a punch in the chest.

She bolted upright, spinning on her black heels to face me head-on. “What are you doing here?”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t run straight here?”

Of course she would. I’d let her down a hundred times before. Slowly, tentatively, like she was a skittish kitten I didn’t want to spook, I crept forward. Eden took a step back. The paper towels fluttered from her hand as she leant her hip into the basin to steady herself, her chest heaving and her eyes never leaving mine.

I took another step.

“I thought you hung up,” she said.

I took another careful step. “Never.”

An ache gnawed in my chest, plunging me forward, begging me to get close enough to run my fingers through the little curls that had slipped loose from her bun. I wanted to touch the blotched skin on her cheek and whisper everything was going to be okay, but I forced my hand to stay by my side. Eden’s lips quivered. She wrung her hands, and her eyes darted frantically away from mine—to the door behind me, around the room, everywhere but me.

She was going to run.

“I promise I won’t hurt you,” I said.

“You already did.”

My gut clenched. I had. Too many times.

The woman standing in the bathroom with tear-stained cheeks wasn’t the brave force against nature who’d battled me at every turn. I’d always guessed Eden protected herself behind walls of sparkle, but I’d never seen it. Not like this. No bluster, no anger, only raw and real emotion.

I shouldn’t have, but I bundled her in my arms. She didn’t hug me back. Her arms stayed stiff by her side, but her noseburrowed into my chest, and her shoulders started to quake with silent sobs, a wet patch blooming around my collar.

“I want to hate you so much,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry, Eden. I’ll never forgive myself for not showing you how important you are to me.”

“You never treated me like I was important.”

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