Page 76 of Riding High

ChapterSixteen

Eden slipped out of the B&B as the first streaks of dawn lit the sky, last night’s tears still burning her eyes.Fresh air, some exercise.She’d feel better after both.She hoped.

But what she needed was to wake up in Jed’s arms and to realise last night had been nothing more than a vicious dream.But nightmares required sleep, and she’d stared at the ceiling all night.

Yanking her cap down low over unbrushed hair, Eden jammed her hands into her sweatshirt pockets and walked toward the village.She’d pick up a coffee from Cody at his shop, if she could stop crying long enough to order it.

She sniffed, wiped her face, swallowed the sob clawing its way up her throat.Enough, dammit.

‘Eden.’

Her stomach lurched.She couldn’t deal with him now.Not while she was barely holding herself together.Jed stood in front of her, his face painted with pain.His hair was damp, his t-shirt sweat-stained, his jeans dirt-streaked, his low-heeled riding boots caked with mud.

‘Don’t come closer, I’ve been riding and at the stables,’ he said.Did he think she was going to fling herself into his arms?That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.His hands curled into fists in the front pockets of his jeans, his broad shoulders halfway to his ears.‘Did you sleep?’

Sleep?When every emotional scar she possessed had been ripped open?She should’ve been used to it by now.Her mum had chosen faith over family, and the Bancrofts, people she’d trusted and loved, half-friends, half-family, had plummeted off the pedestal she’d put them on, after she’d discovered their crimes.Although she’d always expected them to pass the buck, to try to pin their embezzlement on her, Tara’s accusation had hit harder than she’d expected, another mortal blow that buckled her knees.She’d been close to them, more of a daughter or a younger sister than an employee, and they’d filled the gap left by her mum when she’d joined the Church.While she had them in her life, she hadn’t felt the need to connect with Troyden.She had what passed for family, by choice and not blood, and had been content.Happy.

Not for a minute had she imagined they could be capable of embezzlement.Or that they’d try to frame her for their crimes.She’d trusted them, and it was a bone-deep ache, betrayal wrapped in barbed wire.

And Jed?Well, he hadn’t hesitated, automatically believing them over her.

‘No.’She scuffed the toe of her trainer over a tuft of grass.‘Why are you here, Jed?’

He exhaled, rubbing a hand over his face.‘I came to tell you that I’m going to see the Bancrofts.I need to talk to them.’

She barked out a hollow laugh.‘Because you can’t just trust me.’

His jaw tightened.‘That’s not fair, Eden.’

Fair?Fair would’ve been him choosing her.Fair would’ve been him proving her wrong, that maybe– just maybe– he was different.Showing her that somebody could put her first.

He raked his fingers through his hair, frustration in every tense line of his body.‘I’ve known them forever.I need to understand?—’

Her heart cracked wide open, but she forced herself to meet his gaze.‘Do whatever you want, Jed.We were just having fun, right?It was never going to last.’She shrugged, feigning indifference, going in for the kill.‘And let’s not forget, your first instinct has always been to think the worst of me.’

He flinched at the reminder of him thinking she was a gold-digger.It was a hit.A solid one, an emotional punch to the throat.

‘I just need time to process this,’ he said, his voice rough.‘Can’t you give me that?’

‘You can’t give me what I need so…’ She was being childish and petty.She knew she sounded churlish and resentful, but she couldn’t help it.She was bleeding here.Dragging her hands over her face, she sighed.‘I don’t need this, Jed.’

And because she was drowning in pain, because she wanted him to hurt like she did, she went for the knockout punch.Said the one thing she knew would make him back off, too.

‘I don’t needyou.’

Her lie was a throat punch, and she saw the blow land when shock flared in his eyes.His eyes darkened, his breath caught, and his sun-kissed skin paled.She’d gone too far, she knew it, but she couldn’t take back the words burning through his soul.

He nodded, once.It was a full stop at the end of the sentence that was their relationship.

Without saying anything, he turned and walked away.

Eden watched him go, the ache in her chest threatening to rip her apart.

‘Why couldn’t you believe me?’she whispered, her words wrenched from the deepest part of her.‘Why couldn’t you put me first?’He didn’t look back, and Eden watched him until he disappeared from view, tears streaming down her face, dripping off her jaw and chin.She wasn’t a crier.But Jed, damn him, had made her one.Not even her mother had pulled this amount of emotion to the surface.Oh, God, what was it about this man that could dismantle her with so little effort?

She needed to run, to disappear from Elmsleigh House and leave the Castle clan behind.Individually and collectively, they could eviscerate her.She needed to start somewhere new, to fade into a different background, to make herself small again, to survive.

To protect herself.Because, as she kept being reminded, no one else ever would.