EDEN
“Did you want anything to drink?” I ask Fletcher as we walk into the living room.
“No, I’m fine. Thanks though.”
I curl up on the couch with my blanket wrapped tight around me like a mini shield. Fletcher sits on the same couch as me, but towards the other end, leaving plenty of space between the two of us. It is quite the representation of how things currently are between us.
“So, what do you want to talk about?” I finally break the awkward tension.
“Us. Obviously.”
“Is there still an us?” I scoff. “I mean, it’s been a week.”
He runs his hands through his hair, “I know. It was really shitty of me. I’m sorry. I know I keep saying sorry, but I don’t know what else to say. I really am. I know I fucked up.”
“Can I ask you something, Fletcher?”
“Of course, anything.”
“What would you have done differently if you were in my shoes?”
“I didn’t think he had any rights to see Joseph,” he begins. “Like that’s what is so confusing to me, couldn’t you just tell him to go away?”
“In theory, yes I could, but Caleb is a master manipulator. You saw that first hand. If Joey wasn’t right there I would have told him to leave, but I couldn’t look him in the eye and tell him he couldn’t see his dad on Christmas.”
There is a pause before Fletcher finally responds. “You were right when you said I was jealous. I didn’t want to admit it, but the way Joey was acting with Caleb, I was fucking jealous Eden because that’s not just my girlfriend’s son, that’s my boy, do you understand?”
“I do, I know how you feel. I was in a completely impossible situation and I didn’t know what to do. I made a choice because I thought that you could see my rationale. You could understand the reasons why I picked the choices I did. I couldn’t ask Joseph to have that grown-up understanding.”
“It felt like you picked Caleb over me,” he admits.
“I wasn’t doing that,” I shake my head. “I was picking Joseph over all of us. I will always put Joseph first. That’s the exact reason why I told Caleb the other day that he could go shove it.”
“Wait, what?”
“A couple of days ago he wanted Joseph to come ice skating with him and while Joseph was playing we were talking and he was trying to tell me how much he had changed, but the more he told me he changed, the more I realized he’s never going to change.”
“What did he say?”
He just tried to convince me that Joseph was going to want to live with him when he was older and that he could give us a better life than we had here. Basically, the same shit that he’s always done. Making himself sound like the only route to happiness.”
Fletcher moves to the center of the couch and places his hand on my leg, “You know what isn’t true though, right? I can, no, I WILL make you and Joey happy.”
“I’m old enough now that I realize he’s never going to actually make me happy. And I realized that he was going to do exactly what he’s always done. He would string Joseph along for who knows how long and then disappear again. I mean, he gave him a year pass to the San Diego Zoo for crying out loud.”
“What? Why would he do that?”
“So Joseph would ask to go visit him. But I’m not dumb. We’d go out there and the first day he’d spend a thousand bucks on him and drown him in money and then the next day a work emergency would come up and he’d be gone.”
“Leaving you to pick up the pieces.”
I nod. “Exactly. Joseph needs consistency. He needs a family that isn’t going anywhere. He is mad at me now, but I know that he’ll understand. When he’s older he’ll understand better, that man, he’s no good. He did it to me and I couldn’t see him do it to Joseph anymore.”
“So Caleb’s gone?” I don’t miss the smile on his face when he asks.
I shrug, “Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t bothered to contact him and I’m not going out to the resort if I don’t have to.”
“But Joey’s mad at you?”
“He is,” I sigh. “I mean, today was better, but I made him leave and I wouldn’t let him say goodbye because I just knew he’d undermine me in some way or another. It’s hard, Fletcher. Being a parent is hard.”
“I know,” he gently squeezes my leg.
“And sometimes we have to make split decisions and sometimes we make the wrong choices and we hurt people that we don’t intend to hurt.”
He smirks, “And sometimes you have to deal with childish assholes?”
“I mean, I wasn’t going to say that, but…”
“I love you, Eden. So fucking much. And not just you. I love Joey and I should have known that you were going to put him first because you’re a great mom.”
“I love you too, Fletcher. If I’m being totally honest though, you really hurt me. “
“I know I did.”
“And I know you’re sorry, but I can’t just caulk it up to a bad day and move on. I spent too many years in a marriage where I forgave everything, I’m not doing that anymore.”
“Then tell me what I need to do because this,” He points between the two of us, “Is a good thing. We’re good together. I am not going to run away or give up.”
“I need to trust that the next time something happens you aren’t going to go MIA on me. Remember what I said about Joseph needing something consistent? That goes for us too, Fletcher. I missed you this last week, but I know I”m not the only one.”
“You know, this relationship is kind of new to me and I’m hoping you’ll give me a bit of slack for acting like such an idiot. I’m not going anywhere. If I have to earn your trust back, I’ll do it.”
He leans over and kisses my forehead. I take his hand in mine and squeeze, “Guess what?”
“What?”
“We’ve got fifteen minutes until midnight.”
His smile grows bigger, “You wanna hang out and be my midnight kiss?”
“Are you okay with that?”
“Well,” I look around, “my options are pretty limited here.”
He laughs while he wraps his arms around me, forcing me to sit upon his lap, “I love you, Eden. I seriously don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I don’t know what I’d do with you either, so let’s not go there.”
“I’ll make that deal.”
We open Fletcher’s phone and stream the countdown happening in Denver. Sure enough at the stroke of midnight, he tilts my head back and kisses my lips. It wasn’t a long drawn-out kiss or a make-out kiss, it was a promise kiss. A promise not to let this happen again. A promise to earn back my trust. A promise to believe in me. A promise for a future.
YOU ARE READING
When We Go Back Again (Mason Brothers Book #1)
RomanceEden Carter moved out of Glenwood Springs when she was just a teenager as the result of a nasty divorce and custody hearing between her parents. She thought Colorado was behind her, growing up, going off the college, and getting married. It wasn't u...
