At parties, he was the center of attention, though I started to believe he hated it more than he would’ve liked to admit. But nonetheless, he was always very enthusiastic about life and people in general.
However, tonight, seeing him with his family, he was somehow a completely different person while still being the exact same. He smiled even more than usual, laughed so much, and jumped at every opportunity to help someone with literally anything.
He barely stopped talking, and I already thought he was talking a lot before this evening.
Eden was a family guy through and through, and somehow, that just made him a little more adorable.
I didn’t come from a very loving family, so perhaps that was why I liked that about him a bit too much.
“Mom?” Eden spoke, and while his mother turned around in surprise and I tried to move off him, he simply pushed my hips closer to his body to keep me in place. “What’s wrong?”
She smiled or tried to anyway. “It’s nothing, honey.”
“You’re crying, so that’s not nothing.”
His mother chuckled slightly, shaking her head at Eden. “It’s really nothing. I’m just hiding from your dad.”
“Hiding from him… to cry?”
Emory shook her head once more. “Your dad wants to add new items to Rêverie’s menu, so he’s making me try and rateeverything. He actually wanted to keep Nova and Elliot up to have more opinions. He even said you two should be there, too, but I told him to leave you out of it. Anyway, we were just laughing a lot, and, well, you know your father.”
“He can’t handle tears, even of joy,” Eden added, sounding a lot less concerned this time.
Honestly, it was kind of adorable how concerned he got, though I suppose that was a normal reaction to seeing one’s mother cry. I wouldn’t really know.
“Wait,” Eden said, holding up a hand. “He’s trying new thingswithoutme? Such a traitor.”
“Yeah.”
He turned his head to look at me, then rolled his eyes. “Can you believe this? My very own father cooking without me?”
I chuckled, shrugging softly. “Well, I don’t know, Eden, but I think your dad also cooked without you before you were born. You’ll survive.”
Eden gasped loudly, holding a hand over his heart. “You’re supposed to say ‘Oh, no, baby. Maybe you should run inside andsteal your dad’s pan to teach him a lesson.’ And then I would’ve said ‘Yeah, you’re right. Let’s do that.’”
There it was again: baby.
My heart fluttered in my chest as I searched for a single sign in his eyes that he could’ve potentially meant it. Of course I was aware he’d called himself that, but somehow, my brain thought he was suggesting I’d do it eventually. And if I’d do it, surely he’d call me the same again sometime soonish.
That would’ve been ridiculous, though, right?
33
EDEN
“You’re really close to your parents, aren’t you?” Alana asked as we finally made it to the stairs to head into my bedroom.
I held her hand tightly in mine, never wanting to let go. I knew I had to eventually, of course, but not now. It was almost as if my entire body was protesting to let go, declining each of my tries. I was physically incapable of not touching her.
“Yeah,” I replied, smiling at her. Honestly, I thought that was pretty obvious.
Suddenly, it hit me that I didn’t really knowanythingabout Alana and her family. I mean, I knewsomethings, just not a lot.
I was easily distracted by talking about my family when someone asked me, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in getting to know Alana and hers. Sure, the thought of possibly meeting her parents terrified me, and maybe she wasn’t technically supposed to introduce me to them either, yet I still wanted to meet them if she gave me the chance to.
Someone had to thank them for bringing the most wonderful and loveliest person into this world.
Alana wouldn’t believe me if I told her she was all that, not yet anyway.