Chapter Twenty-Nine
Milo
Forthenextfewweeks, life was blissfully beautiful. Eden caught a cancellation with one of the therapists Libby had recommended and seemed to be finally working through some of the baggage her parents had saddled her with.
She’d also been spending practically every night at my house and had agreed to move in for good once her lease was up in March.
It was the first time I’d been in a relationship as Valentine’s Day rolled around since high school, when Amy McIntire and I dated for exactly four days. I learned when she dumped me on February sixteenth that she just wanted to see what it was like to have a boyfriend for the big day.
Apparently the experience was disappointing, but I was only fifteen and a much bigger idiot than I was now.
While Eden was working expanded hours leading up to the holiday to take advantage of Valentine’s shoppers—she’d been teasing me with a variety of sexy as fuck lingerie for weeks now—I tried to plan something that wouldn’t make her uncomfortable butwouldshow her just how much I appreciated having her in my life. We’d taken both cars to work, so I had two hours to get everything ready before she got home.
But shit, I was trapped between feeling like it was too much and not enough.
Jiji watched, blatantly critical, from the back of the couch while I baked cookies and turned on the lo-fi music Eden loved to relax to.
The delivery from Thai Me Down showed up about two minutes before she walked in the door to find me serving up her favorites at the candlelit kitchen table.
“Milo,” she breathed. “What is all this?”
“I know we said no gifts, but you deserve a break after how hard you’ve been working recently. I’ve got dinner, dessert, and some bath stuff I bought from Mark’s shop so you can soak after we eat.”
She bit her lip and the flickering light of the candle danced in the tears filling her beautiful eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Come here,” I said, but I was already moving toward her, tucking her against my chest when a hiccuping laugh escaped her lips.
“Thank you. This is…perfect.”
Her fingers twisted in the sides of my shirt as she fought back those tears, so I didn’t take my arms from around her until she let go. Then she lifted up on her toes and kissed me, the sweetness of it voicing everything she'd told me she had difficulty speaking aloud.
And when she insisted I join her in the tub, which was definitely not built for two, I couldn’t refuse. We soaked, we laughed, we cuddled—not a barrier in sight between her heart and mine. That closeness lasted even when we went to bed, tangled together under the covers.
In the middle of the night, my phone rang.
Eden groaned as I shifted her off my chest to grab it from the nightstand, then the source of the ringing registered and she shot upright beside me. The number on the screen was local but unfamiliar—not a family emergency, thank fuck.
“Hello?”
“You’re next.” The voice sounded computerized, like one of those robotic voice-changers Carter got for Christmas a few years ago.
The call disconnected and I stared down at my phone in confusion. Eden frowned, leaning over to look at the screen.
“Who was it?” she asked.
“I have no idea. They just said I was next. I don’t even know what that means.”
The phone rang again, startling us both half to death. I fumbled it so badly, I was afraid I’d miss the call completelybefore I managed to pick up, but this time the caller was already in my contacts.
Detective Rose Hanson.
“Hello?”
“Milo, Rose here. Sorry to wake you.”
“You didn’t, actually. Someone called just a minute before you, told me I was next, whatever that meant, and hung up.”
Rose went silent for a beat. “Right. We have a situation on the street outside the stores. This might be presumptuous, but is Eden with you?”
