Chapter Six
“YOU CAME HOME LATE LAST night.” Eden looked up from her laptop while working on the couch and gave me a knowing look. “Did you have fun with Brooke?” she sang.
Admittedly, I’d had a good time. “Yeah,” I responded noncommittally, knowing what my kid sister was really after and that she was going to be disappointed.
Eden set her laptop to the side and peered over the back of the couch like a puppy waiting to be petted. “Come on, Logan, give a girl a little more than that.”
I walked into the kitchen in search of a protein shake after my workout in my home gym, trying to think of how to water down my night with Brooke Crawford. While it was maybe the strangest conversation I’d ever had with a woman, it was also the best evening I’d had in a long time. Brooke was right—grieving out loud was helpful, and I appreciated that she’d given me the opportunity. But Eden didn’t need that information.
“I showed her all the constellations I knew, and she told me the stories behind songs like ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ and ‘Mr. Blue Sky.’ She’s a walking classic rock encyclopedia.”
“I listened to some of her podcast episodes and they’re good. Like, amazing. She’s talented,” Eden chirped.
“I agree.” I opened the refrigerator.
“You listened to her podcast?” Eden unfortunately caught on to that .
“Just one episode,” I mumbled. “Where’s Sophie?” I hoped to change the subject.
“Don’t think we won’t be coming back to that.”
I knew she wouldn’t let me off the hook so easily, but at least she was dropping it for now.
“Sophie’s at dance class. Uh ... did you know ...?” Eden’s voice trembled, which was so unlike her.
I stood up straight, holding my premade shake. “What’s going on?”
She waved her hand in the air. “It’s nothing. It’s just, I didn’t know that Shane Wells moved back to Aspen Lake.” Shane was Eden’s high school and college boyfriend.
“I didn’t know that either. I’ve seen his parents around town. They’ve said hi and asked how you are, but they didn’t mention Shane had moved back.”
“I ran into him today. And as luck would have it, he has a daughter that’s Sophie’s age. She’s a beautiful girl, just like her mom,” she strained to say. Shane had left Eden for the woman he eventually married, and it had crushed her. She’d sworn for years she was going to marry Shane. “They go to the same dance school.”
I leaned on the counter. “Did he say anything?”
“Only hi. Obviously, I don’t care,” she tried to brush it off. “It was just awkward after all this time. I’m sure he and Angelina are just perfect.” Her voice hitched.
“Are you okay, sis?”
“I’m fine.” She plastered on a fake smile. “It was just a reminder there’s apparently always someone better than me.”
“There’s no one better than you. You’re the best mom and person I know. You just chose two pricks.”
She rested her head on the couch and sighed. “I guess so. The good news is I like dancing by myself.” She perked back up. “But I don’t think you do, so give me more details about your date with Brooke.”
“It wasn’t a date. And I’m doing fine on my own,” I snapped.
“No, you’re not,” she said, concerned. “I’m worried about you. Mom is too. She says hi, by the way, and she and Victor are hoping to visit sometime next month.” Victor was our stepdad. Eden and I both thought he was great, and we respected him. He and Mom were always going on adventures. They were currently in Portugal.
“What are you telling Mom?” I sounded like I was ten and she’d tattled on me, which she loved to do when we were younger.
“Just the truth—that you’re not yourself. I miss my goofy big brother.”
It was hard to stay upset when she said things like that. “I miss him too,” I admitted. “But dating Brooke, or anyone for that matter, won’t bring him back. It’s going to take some time. Okay?” I said as gently as I could. I truly appreciated her love and concern.
“While I understand that,” she said carefully, “maybe, just maybe, you could entertain the thought that it was no coincidence that some ridiculously gorgeous creature moved in next door.”
She wasn’t wrong about Brooke being ridiculously gorgeous. “Or it’s just that—a coincidence. Besides, I had a candid conversation last night with Brooke, and she knows that I’m not interested in dating anyone.”
Eden wrinkled her nose. “You told her that?”
“Actually, she said it for me and then asked me to tell her about Erica. It was nice, and I appreciated her listening to me.”
Eden rolled her eyes. “Don’t take this the wrong way—you know how much I loved Erica. We all did. But when you talk about her now, you make her sound like, well ... like she could walk on water. Please tell me you didn’t do that last night.”
“What do you mean?”
“Only that I think ...” She hesitated for a moment, and her eyes cautiously stared at me as if I had a “Fragile” sticker stamped on my forehead.
“I’m not fragile.” I said the words out loud, as if I needed to remind myself of that fact. Why wasn’t it okay for a man to be brokenhearted? Sometimes, I felt like society expected me to move on quickly.
“I never said you were,” Eden said, gently. “I just think that you’ve romanticized your relationship with Erica.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Not one to back down, Eden steeled herself. “I know this is hard for you to hear, but the way you reminisce about Erica now only highlights her good attributes, which she had many of,” Eden was quick to say. “And I can even understand why you want to do that. It’s noble to want to remember only the good now that she’s gone. But I know at times she drove you crazy. She always had to have things her way. And ...” Eden swallowed hard. “It seemed to me that it was okay for her to change her mind about things, but she didn’t afford you the same luxury. She seemed to get her way most of the time.”
I made to disagree, but I couldn’t. There was some truth to what Eden was saying. I hadn’t been exactly honest the night before when I’d told Brooke that Erica and I had never disagreed about anything. But it wasn’t just anything we disagreed about. And it definitely wasn’t something I wanted to talk about with a stranger—or anyone, for that matter. Especially given the fight Erica and I had right before she’d left on her trip. She’d died before we resolved it.
Our last words were angry words. I shuddered, recalling the cruel barbs we’d lobbed at each other. Every day, I wished I would have told her one more time that I loved her. I had to live with that regret now.
“She just knew what she wanted and went for it,” I defended my wife.
“What about what you wanted?”
“I wanted Erica.” I downed a large gulp of the protein shake.
“What about kids?”
I set the shake on the counter, staring incredulously at Eden, wondering how she knew. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Eden and I were not only siblings but the best of friends.
“Erica wasn’t ready,” I admitted.
Unfortunately, I had been more than ready. Erica had asked me to give her five years when we got married. I’d happily agreed to, understanding her need for adventure and her desire to accomplish her career goals. But as we’d approached five years, she said she’d changed her mind about children, at least for the time being.
It was a colossal blow to me. I’d always wanted to be a dad. To me, that seemed like the ultimate adventure, and I couldn’t wait to embark on it with Erica. And it wasn’t like we were getting any younger. I feared we were missing our window .
But the real reason I was upset was because she’d told me she hadn’t exactly been honest with me about having kids when we got married. She’d hoped she would change her mind over time. The crazy thing was, she could have been honest with me from the beginning, and I still would have chosen her. I said as much. But I also said some other things. Things I had to live with.
“I’m sure that was hard for you,” Eden said emphatically. She’d wanted more children, but Luca was happy with one.
I shrugged, feeling as if anything I said would betray Erica. It wasn’t something else I wanted on my conscience.
“Well, I’m here if you want to talk,” she said sincerely before she impishly grinned. “After listening to some of Brooke’s podcast episodes, I think she’s someone you could talk to as well. There’s something healing about her.”
I shifted uncomfortably, feeling like Eden, unfortunately, wasn’t wrong. As odd as Brooke was, there was something about her. Something I wished I could shake. “Be that as it may, I think we have very little in common.”
“That’s what would make it fun.” Eden wagged her brows. “You need different.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I needed to be done with this conversation. My beautiful neighbor for the summer was going to stay just that—a neighbor who I planned to wave at and say hi to if our paths crossed.
“I need to get ready.” I headed for my room until someone knocked on the sliding glass back door. Which wasn’t unusual at the lake. Most people in the area used their back doors more than the front, given our access to the private beach and lake. But it wasn’t just anyone knocking.
“Oh, look, it’s Brooke. You should probably get that,” Eden said evilly, as if she’d known our neighbor would appear looking adorably sexy in cutoffs and an oversize T-shirt that fell off one shoulder, exposing her smooth ivory skin.
Brooke smiled brightly and waved, giving me no choice but to open the door. With trepidation, I walked toward it slowly, trying not to think about how it might feel to twirl my fingers in the silky strands of the honey hair framing her heart-shaped face while getting lost in her enigmatic eyes. Why was she so maddeningly alluring?
When I opened the door, it almost annoyed me how attracted I was to her. “Hi,” I grumbled.
Brooke didn’t even flinch at my surliness. If anything, her smile widened. “Good morning. Sorry to bother you, but you’re the only people I know here so far, and I don’t have your numbers, so I couldn’t call. But I was hoping you could tell me where I could buy a paddleboard. It’s a bucket list item. Also ...” She bit her pink pouty lip. “Do either of you know how to paddleboard or where I could take lessons?”
Eden butted right in where she didn’t belong. “Logan loves to paddleboard, and he was just saying how he needed to replace his old ones. You two should shop together for some, and then he can give you some lessons.” She jumped off the couch and threw me a don’t screw this up look.
What was there to screw up? I’d made my thoughts known where Brooke was concerned.
“I’m off to pick up Sophie. You two have fun.” Eden flitted off, knowing exactly what she was doing. There was no way I could refuse now without coming off like a major jerk. Which I thought about doing for a half second until I caught sight of Brooke beaming at me expectantly.
“Would you mind?” she asked.
Yes, I minded. This wasn’t how I’d seen my day off going. But Brooke’s infectious smile got to me, even though I thought it was odd her mother had left her a bucket list. However, I admit to being intrigued by what else her bucket list might contain. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to play a part in helping her check off another item.
“Sure,” I sighed, resigned. “I need to get ready for the day first.”
Her eyes drifted over me for half a second before she wrenched her gaze away, blushing. “Thank you. You’re the best.”
I wished that were true, but I hadn’t felt like the best at anything for a while now. “I’ll pick you up in an hour,” I mumbled.
“Okay,” she sang. “I look forward to it.”
I was afraid I did too.