When We Go Back Again (Mason Brothers Book #1)

Chapter 8

FLETCHER

Feeling Eden’s hand in mine brought back some feelings that I’m not too sure I can explain. It reminds me so much of our time spent years ago, but it doesn’t make me feel the same way that it did when we were fifteen and sixteen. These are adult feelings and strong ones at that. I’m terrified at what this means, could I have such strong feelings for a person who has been out of my life for so long?

This situation isn’t one that I can relate to and I have no idea where to go from here. I’ve dated here and there, but they were all women that I didn’t know before. Somehow a complete stranger seemed easier to date than a woman that I knew and that occupied my head for so many nights. I don’t want to start over because we have a history that can’t be forgotten or ignored. At the same time, we’re two different people now.

I asked her where we go from here, but she’s just sitting next to me in silence and I don’t really know what to do. Maybe she doesn’t know either. I guess that is understandable, but my heart is racing and my stomach feels like it is in my throat.

“What are you thinking about?” I finally ask her.

“I’m just trying to figure out where to start,” she says in a soft voice, so unlike her.

“I have so many questions that I’ve never gotten answers to. Where did you go? Why did you have to leave the way you did? Why didn’t you at least tell me you were leaving? Did you even think of me once you left? You were there and then you weren’t and you didn’t even tell me your new address or where you were going.”

“Everything happened so quickly, Fletcher. I had no idea what was going on. You can’t even begin to understand what it was like being pulled away from my mom and told that I needed to just forget the life I knew.”

“You couldn’t even call? Write a letter? Damn it, Eden, if I just had a small bit of closure I think things would feel so different now.”

“Did you have my phone number memorized?” She spits out with a bit of anger. “Because I sure didn’t have yours. Once my dad took my phone I lost the only lifeline I had to Glenwood Springs and you. I was sad and angry and missed you so much, but you’re not the only person who lost somebody that day. What was I supposed to do to make things easier on you?” The abrasiveness in her voice is something I deserve. 

My words towards Eden are unfair. Rationally, I know this, but right now I feel like I’m that sixteen-year-old boy again that just wanted answers. I told Eden I loved her and less than three weeks later she was gone. It wasn’t fair.

“Fletcher, look at me.” I turn my body slightly to angle towards her more. She puts her hand on my forearm and lets out a small sigh. “My dad was an asshole. I didn’t realize it at first, I didn’t realize it until he died a few months ago. He purposely did everything he could to shut me out of Glenwood Springs. I didn’t have a phone, I wrote so many letters to my mom, and guess what?”

“What?”

“He intercepted them somehow. She never got them. He did the same with her. When he died and I was going through his desk I found dozens of letters and cards from my mom. Birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s, just because, all sitting in a filing cabinet. Every letter I sent her was there as well, never even getting postmarked.” 

“Why would he do that?”

He was all about power and control. The only thing that makes sense is once he realized he probably wasn’t going to be having any more children, he needed me to be his little protege so I could be there to take over his legacy. He made sure I went to the best private high school. I had tutors that would show up at the drop of a hat if I needed help with anything. Pretty sure the only reason I got into the program at USC was because of his name and his donations to the school. He wanted me to be a version of him and to do that he had to pull me away from my family and friends.