Page 76 of There's No Us Without You
Well, this is . . . unexpected.
And where the fuck is Will?
I clear my throat to get Eden’s attention.
Eyes wide, she squeals and runs full speed towards me. When our bodies collide, she wraps her arms around my waist and squeezes.
“You’re home,” she says, her cheek pressed against my chest. “I missed you.”
I could fucking cry after the weekend I’ve had. I’ve never been so glad to be home.
“Hey Pop-Tart.” I squeeze her soft, warm body and breathe her in as I press my cheek to the top of her head.
Goddamn, I’ve missed her too.
Tyler waves at me, a huge grin plastered on that face of his. “Hey, bro,” he says, wiping flour from his left cheek with the back of his hand.
Christ, he looks like his brother, only he doesn’t make my stomach constrict... or my dick hard.
“What the fuck are you doing here? And why are you in my kitchen?” I say, grinning while Eden is still wrapped around me like a koala.
“Nice to see you too, arsehole. Great win, by the way.”
“You watched?”
Tyler’s grin fades, and he shrugs. “I watch all your games.” Glancing away, he sniffs and continues to knead what looks like pizza dough.
Eden sighs and pulls away from me, leaving her hands on either side of my waist. “We’re making pizza.”
“I can see that. Does Will know about this?”
“Yes,” Eden says, frowning. “Why?”
I clear my throat and shake my head. “No reason.” I’m so confused right now, but I’ll focus on anything else instead of my injury. Lifting my overnight bag in my hand, I nod to the staircase. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Eden smiles and goes back to helping Tyler knead out the dough for the pizza bases. She’s still explaining the fine art to him as I climb the stairs.
I take a little longer than usual because of my knee, but I make it up without too much difficulty. When I reach my room, I slide inside and shut the door behind me before dropping my bag onto the floor and scrubbing my hands over my face.
I’ve been home for two minutes and all I want to do is crawl into bed and forget how much I almost fucked up this week.
If Tyler wasn’t here, and Eden wasn’t so excited to see me, I’d stay in here all night. Then I’d have to deal with Will barging through my door and demanding to know why I’m holed up in my room.
Instead, I’ll do what I’ve gotten great at the last couple of weeks and pretend like everything is fine. But to do that, I need more painkillers, so I grab the packet from my bag and down another four red capsules. At the moment, I’m taking more than the prescribed dosage. What am I supposed to do when they aren’t working, though?
Fighting through the pain isn’t an option.
A knock on the door has me shoving the packet back into my bag. “What?”
“It’s just me,” Eden says from behind the closed door, her voice unsure.
Shit. Now I feel like an arsehole.
I push myself from my bed and limp over to the door, swinging it open to find Eden standing in the hallway chewing on her bottom lip, a plastic container in her hands.
“Hey, Em. I made—are you okay?” She frowns and places the back of a hand to my forehead like my mum used to when I was sick.
“I’m fine,” I say. “I’ll be down in a minute.” With a small smile, I take a step backwards, but my knee gives out a little and I wince at the pain.
