Page 40 of Goode Tidings

The back door of the cabin flies open. Oliver appears. "Mom?"

Eden looks up. She calls, "What's up, bud?"

He comes closer. "I want to go to the movies tonight."

Eden's arms go rigid, and if I weren't right next to her, I wouldn't know it.

"With who?" she asks. There's a slight strain in her voice.

"Just a bunch of people from school," he says, a vein of exasperation running through his answer. Is there a law somewhere that says teenagers have to act put out by the asking of a simple question?

Eden hesitates.

"Snowflake is safe," I say under my breath so only she can hear me. "The theater is this tiny space on Main Street. I don't think it has more than two screens."

Eden looks up at me. Worry clouds her gaze. "I don't like him going places with people I don't know, and he knows that. He was so mad at me last weekend when I insisted on meeting Esme."

I'm not a parent. I don't know the considerations running through Eden's mind. But I remember what it was like to be a young boy, a fledgling teenager. How I wanted to stretch my limbs and grow. It was a difficult time for reasons that had nothing to do with a mom trying to hold on to me a little longer, the way Eden is with Oliver.

"Roosters is across the street from the theater," I tell Eden. "It's a bar with questionable food, but it gets the job done. Nobody will care if you take over a seat all evening. It's a Friday night, which means it'll be a seventies and eighties cover band playing."

Eden appears to consider this, then says, "Sure," to Oliver. He looks at her in shock, but covers it quickly in case she notices and it becomes a part of the conversation.

"Cool," he says, hustling back into the house before Eden can change her mind. Smart kid.

Eden gives me a look. "I'd say thanks, Hermie, but I'm not sure you're the hermit they all think you are."

"Because I know what's happening in town on a Friday night?"

"That, and"—she wiggles her eyebrows—"you're going to dance to a cover band with me this evening while we keep an eye on the movie theater across the street. Hermits don't do things like that."

The corners of my mouth twitch downward. "Absolutely not. Pass. No people-ing for me." There was a time when a Friday night out with a few beers and a cover band would've been a fun thing to do, but that seems like a lifetime ago. It's so much easier to stay home, to keep myself out of the fray.

Eden juts out her lower lip. "Why not?"

"Have you seen people?"

"For a man who runs a good news website, you sure are a grouch." Her head tilts. "Why live in that office when a large trash can would do just fine?"

My tongue pokes at the corner of my mouth as I work to brush away my amusement. A gorgeous, smart, and funny woman wants me to accompany her to the busiest place in this small town on a Friday night, and I'm refusing? What is wrong with me, besides the obvious?

"Fine," I grouse.

A sexy, pleased little smile turns up the corners of Eden's mouth. That damn dimple hollows.

What Eden wants, Eden gets.

CHAPTER 20

Callum

I drove us into Snowflake, while Eden and Oliver negotiated like lawyers.

Oliver thought it was silly that Eden and I were planning to stay in town while he watched a movie. Eden told him it was that, or he didn't get to go. Then Oliver wanted to be dropped off around the block from the theater. Eden offered a parting at the nearest intersection. She promised not to use any sort of nickname within earshot of his friends, and Oliver informed her that if she saw him across the street and wanted to say something, she should just text him. Eden laughed and said We'll see about that.

Thankfully it all went without a hitch, and now Oliver and his friends have disappeared inside the theater.

Roosters sits across the street, a neon sign announcing its presence. Two large rectangular windows flank the wooden door, making it a great place to hold a subtle stakeout.