"Eden still wants a career, perhaps in the corporate world again. She can't have that here."
"Well then I guess Eden isn't the only one who has to make some hard choices."
You can say that again.
If Rudy decided to abandon his life plan, like he'd been considering, he'd also need to truly forgive himself for Parkers' death and start living for himself.
He wasn’t sure he knew how to do that.
CHAPTER22
Rudy was surprised to see Eden loading a suitcase into the back of her BMW when he came home from work on Monday.
He knew from the cold shoulder she gave him yesterday that she was upset about something, but he wasn't sure what, and he didn’t know how to fix it. He'd hoped to convince her to go for a walk with him tonight so they could talk. But now his stomach sank. And when he took in her red-rimmed eyes, his chest tightened.
"Where are you going?" He stepped up to her car as she closed the trunk.
"My dad's in the hospital." Tears filled her eyes again.
He pulled her into his arms. "Is he okay?"
"I don't know. Helen called a little while ago and said my Dad didn't want her to tell me, but she felt I should know that he's going into surgery to have an aneurysm repaired." She pulled away from him. "I need to go see him."
"Eden, wait. You shouldn't drive when you're so upset. Let me drive you."
"No!" She held up her hand. "I need to go alone."
"But..." Rudy wanted to argue that as her boyfriend he should go with her, but a hard glint filled her eyes, and the words stuck in his throat.
She opened the car door and slid into the driver's seat, but he grabbed it before she could close it. "When are you coming back?"
"I don't know. I need to make sure my dad's going to be okay. And I might need to help out at DuPont Analytics for a while."
If she went back to work for her dad, would she ever leave again?
"But...you're coming back...aren't you?"
She lowered her gaze and pressed a fingernail into the stitching on the steering wheel. "I don't know."
Rudy fell back a step as the air seized in his chest, and she used the opportunity to close the door. Before he could even swallow away the boulder-sized lump that blocked his throat, she started the car and backed out of the driveway.
"Eden, wait!"
But it was too late. She was gone.
Feeling like his boots were encased in concrete, he trudged into the house. Not even the familiar sight of his mom at the kitchen counter chopping vegetables was enough to calm the turmoil raging inside him.
"You just missed Eden. She's headed to Spokane. Her dad's having surgery today."
"I know. I saw her."
"I wouldn't worry too much. At least they caught the aneurysm before it ruptured."
Rudy stared at the knife that cut so effortlessly through the vegetables, feeling like his heart had just been chopped into tiny pieces.
"Is she...? Did she say when she was coming back?"
Or evenifshe plans to come back?
