Chapter 7 #2
“I do know, Foster. I know because if she were the love of your life, she would still be a part of your life.”
“It’s not that simple,” I tell him.
“Nothing is simple about love.” Knox laughs, telling me he knows how not simple it all is.
“I fell in love with one of my best friend’s little sister.
I snuck around behind his back, risking that friendship, our friendship, the dynamics of our team on the field, and my wife’s relationship with her brother.
We risked it all because we couldn’t stay away from one another.
I would have given it all up for her,” Knox admits quietly.
“I married my fake girlfriend,” Landry says. “Rowan wasn’t mine, but I fought like hell to keep her. I was supposed to be helping her ex leave her alone, and instead, she snuck in and stole my heart. There is nothing that I wouldn’t have done to drop the fake and make her mine.”
“My wife was a one-night stand that turned my world upside down,” Reid speaks up.
“I knew in my gut, and in my heart, she was my dream girl, and I never gave up on her. Not once. We made our baby girl that night.” He smiles, no doubt thinking about his wife and daughter.
“It was fast, but I knew. There was this connection between us, both physical and emotional, and I knew that if I didn’t fight for her, I’d always regret it. ”
“Sloane was my friend. Our friend,” Baker says, waving his hand around at all of us.
“She offered to help me out in a jam and be a nanny for my son. It was a mutually beneficial agreement that turned into so much more. She was there when I needed her, quietly, respectfully. Cam and I didn’t have a chance of not falling in love with her.
There were so many facets of our relationship.
She’s Corie’s best friend, and close with the other ladies, and she was my nanny, but I knew”—he taps his hand on his chest over his heart—“right here that she was our person. My son loves her as much as I do, and Sloane loves Camden like he’s hers.
She is the only mother he will ever remember, and once I realized what she meant to both of us, there wasn’t anything I wasn’t willing to do to make her ours forever. ”
“I know your stories,” I grit out.
“Yeah,” Knox agrees. “But we don’t know yours. As I said, we know you, Foster Vaughn, and if this girl, whatever her name was, was the one you were going to spend forever with, you would have. You would have fought tooth and nail for that love.”
“Well, I fucked up,” I seethe. “I didn’t fight for her, for us, and now she’s moved on.
Too much time has passed, and those regrets you all said you would have, I’ve lived with them for years.
Right. Fucking. Here.” I slam my fist over my heart.
“So don’t tell me she wasn’t the love of my life.
I fucking feel that ache every damn day.
” The room is quiet, and I’m breathing heavily, trying to tamp down my anger and push away the pain that’s there, reminding me of what I left behind, forcing those memories to slide back into the recesses of my mind.
“One day, you’ll see,” Landry says. His tone is quiet and serious, which is not something we often see from him. “You’ll see that she wasn’t it.”
“It changes you,” Baker adds. “Finding that kind of love, it alters your world, and everything you used to think is important, no longer is.”
“You loved her,” Reid says. “We’re not debating that, Foster. But there are many types of love. I think that one day, hopefully soon”—he smiles—“you’ll get to experience the difference.”
“You’re wrong.”
Knox shrugs. “Maybe, but then you can say, I told you so.”
“I might have agreed with you a few weeks ago,” Reid adds.
“I might have said that whoever she was, she broke a piece of you that you’ll never get back.
But…” he says, drawing out the word, “something or someone has you smiling more. Your shoulders are more relaxed, and the permanent scowl has softened. I don’t know what caused the change, but brother, you seem happier. ”
“He’s right,” Baker agrees. “Whatever it is, whoever she is, or he,” he says, holding his hands up in the air, “embrace it.”
Eden.
Just thinking her name does something to me.
Spending time with her, letting someone see every cracked and unfinished part of my past without flinching—it lights me up from the inside out.
It’s strange how something so simple can feel so powerful.
Conversations that stretch longer than planned, silences that don’t need filling, laughter that comes easy.
Someone who can relate to my childhood. Someone to share a meal with without expectations…
. I didn’t realize how much I missed that until it was back in my life.
My friends are wrong about Violet, about what they think my love for her was. That chapter of my life is complicated, and it always will be. But they’re right about something else. Something new. Someone new.
Eden isn’t here to replace anything. She’s not a rewrite—she’s a reminder.
My new friend is helping me piece myself back together in ways I didn’t know I needed.
She’s giving me back something I thought I’d lost for good.
The dreamer. The guy who used to smile without forcing it.
The version of me who believed the future could actually be exciting instead of heavy.
For the first time in a long while, I feel aligned with the path I’m on. Not because everything is perfect, but because it finally feels real. And that feeling—that quiet thrill of becoming myself again—is something worth embracing.
One day soon, I need to come clean to my friends about my past. Maybe then they’ll truly understand. I let the rejection fester, and instead of fighting like I wanted to, like I knew I should, I let her walk away.
I’ll tell them soon. Just not today.
“So, Saturday,” Knox says, clearing his throat. “One o’clock. I’ll order in food, so you only need to bring yourselves. Everything else will be taken care of.”
“Order extra,” Reid tells him. “That way, you and Corie can eat it for a few days and not have to cook.”
Knox points at him. “Good plan.” Everyone chuckles, even me, and some of the tension fades away.