Before Liam could say anything, a tipsy man stumbled up to their table, clearly cleaved away from the group he had entered with.
“Heeeey there.” Sloppy brown hair swished across his forehead as he nearly knocked over Liam’s drink. “How are you two boys doing tonight?”
Liam and Benson exchanged a look.See what I mean?That’s what Liam conveyed with his tired gaze as the stranger’s friends came to collect him, apologizing for his behavior.Men.
“I forgot that I don’t like this place,” Benson said.
“Then let’s get out of here.”
He couldn’t have asked a moment sooner.
All of the planning and discussions with Benson might not have meant anything, anyway. Not when Eden sat across from them at Benson’s dining table Sunday evening.
“Maybe we should take a break,” she said before dinner was even ordered. “This has been going so fast. I’m not even sure what I want right now.”
Liam should have seen this coming, but he barely had a moment to collect his thoughts before Benson nearly lost it.
“Take abreak?” Liam had to put a hand on his thigh to get him to even slightly calm down before he scared Eden away. “What are you talking about? We just got started.”
Eden blushed, but it wasn’t in that sweet, shy way.She’s guilty.Maybe she hadn’t done anything, but she was conflicted enough in her thoughts that she preemptively felt guilty about what she wanted. “I’m just making things more difficult,” she said, looking down at her lap and nervously pushing her hair behind her shoulders. “And, I mean, I’m not talking about this beingpermanent.Just a few weeks while I… I dunno. I just need some space, I think. I’ve got so much I’m trying to figure out. Like, what do I want to do with my life?”
“I literally asked you to move in with me a week ago,” Benson said. “Now this?”
“Ben,” Liam patiently said, “I think that’s part of the reason our girlfriend wants a break. Wearemoving a little fast.”
“You can’t possibly agree with her on this.”
Liam put both of his hands on the table. “You and I are used to fast. We’ve got experience in it. She doesn’t.”
“Thanks,” Eden said. “I didn’t know how to say this all without upsetting one or both of you. Every time I rehearsed it these past couple of days, it just came out with Ben being mad and Liam sad.”
I’m sad?Maybe, in a way. Liam certainly hadn’t wanted things to go this way, but here they were, and they had to deal with it.
“Are you going back?” Benson suddenly asked, startling Eden. “To La Mariposa.”
She was slightly taken aback. “What? I haven’t decided. Probably not.”
“Then what is this about?”
“Ben!” Liam was almost more embarrassed than Eden, whose blush was quickly transforming into the red of anger. “Come off the island, already.”
“I’m not going back to La Mariposa,” Eden finally said, her voice firm. “And this has nothing to do with that place.” She lifted her gaze, meeting Benson’s hot glare first, then Liam’s. “I’m falling in love with you. Both of you. That’s the problem.”
Benson scoffed. “How is that a problem? Isn’t it what we all ultimately want?”
“When it’s this fast, with two people, and you don’t even know what you want from yourself!” Eden’s composure cracked, her hands fisting on her lap. “I don’t know what ‘happily ever after’ looks like. I never thought I’d get one, let alone one with… this. I need to figure out if this is what I actually want, or if it’s just… all of this. The island. The escape. I’m scared I’m confusing the two.”
Before Benson could lunge at the words, Liam leaned forward. “She’s right, Ben.”
Benson’s head snapped toward him. “What?”
“She’s right,” Liam repeated, his eyes still on Eden. “I’m worried we’re rushing, too. And her happiness… that’s the only thing that matters. If this isn’t it, I’d rather know now than have her miserable later.”
He let that hang in the air. Then he continued, gently. “But does it have to be a ‘break’? A formal, cutting-things-off break? Or do we just… breathe? Take a week. No moving in talk. No big decisions. Just you, in your own space, thinking. We can still be here. Just… cool it down. For a little while.”
“You’re insane. You want to put us on probation?”
Eden, however, had a different reaction. The hard lines of her face softened. A flicker of something – relief, gratitude – lit her eyes. She looked from Liam’s calm expression to Benson’s furious one and back again.
