Choosing Fate: A Love in Eden Novella

by Sloane Kennedy

  Zander put his glass down and folded his hands together. "Not by chance, believe it or not."

  "You chose to come to Eden?" Eden was barely a blip on the map, and while we occasionally got tourists who’d left the interstate to explore rural Wyoming, it wasn't often that people intentionally came to our town.

  Unless they had some kind of business with the cattle ranchers.

  "Yes and no," he responded.

  I tipped my head at him because the lack of explanation just wasn't going to cut it. He smiled and said, "I'm taking some time away from work and just doing some traveling. Kind of a letting-the-road-take-me-wherever-it-leads kind of thing. But when I saw the sign for Eden on the interstate, my car just kind of steered itself here, I guess."

  "How come?"

  "I actually did some work in Wyoming about ten years ago."

  "What kind of work? Did you fix some cars?" I asked as I remembered what he’d told me about helping Pete out. He’d said he worked on custom cars.

  Zander shook his head. "No, that's more of a hobby. My background is in counseling. I work with kids who have a history of being abused. I was in Wyoming ten years ago to consult on a case. The kid was from this area."

  His admission surprised me. He looked nothing like I would've imagined a counselor to look like. I immediately felt ashamed for doing exactly the same thing the people in this very restaurant had done when they'd seen us.

  Judging Zander based on his looks.

  "Anyway, the kid had gotten into a scrape with the law and his attorney asked for me to interview him. He had all the signs of being physically and emotionally abused, but he wouldn't admit to it in open court. He ended up going to prison."

  Zander dropped his eyes and began toying with his napkin, then the silverware on the table. It was the first time I'd ever seen him show any kind of agitation. "You blame yourself," I murmured.

  He didn't respond at first. In fact, he acted like he hadn't even heard me. But then there was the briefest of nods. I found myself reaching across the table to cover his hand with mine. "I know you did everything you could, Zander. Even though we haven't known each other long, I can see that about you. The way you helped me with Ted… you did everything you could to help that boy."

  Zander shifted his hand so he could link his fingers with mine. Then he pulled my hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it. I liked that when he put my hand back down, he didn't release it. I forgot all about the other people in the restaurant as I watched the man across from me. I wondered what I'd gotten right in my life that fate would bring this man into it. But I also knew that fate was going to eventually take him away again.

  "You said it was ten years ago," I said. "I've lived in Eden my whole life. Plenty of people get into trouble around here, but there's only one person who did something ten years ago that landed him in prison."

  Zander looked up at me.

  "You're talking about Xavier Price. He attacked one of the local ranchers out here and burned down his barn."

  "Did you know him?" Zander asked.

  I shook my head. "He's younger than me, so we didn't go to school together or run in the same circles. But I heard he's back."

  That caught Zander's attention. "Back in Eden?" he asked in surprise.

  I nodded. “I guess he got paroled or something. He's got family here. We don't see much of him in town. Last I heard, he got a job and was trying to just stay out of the public eye. He was so young," I murmured.

  "Yeah," Zander said.

  "So you didn't know he was out? But you still came here."

  Zander nodded. "One of the things he did talk about was this place. And he kept mentioning this friend of his who was going to get him out, who was going to fix everything. He was so certain of it. I think that's why his case stuck with me. He was scared beyond belief, but he had no doubt that his friend would be there."

  "Did he say who his friend was?" I asked.

  Zander shook his head. "No. I attended the trial. He kept looking back over his shoulder at the doors leading into the courtroom, like he was waiting for someone. I remember his expression when he was sentenced. He just kept looking at that door and then when the guards took him out of the courtroom, he looked so broken."

  Zander shook his head again and reached for the beer the waitress had brought moments earlier. He only took a small swig of it and then set it down. "The sad thing is that his story isn't all that unique. I saw kids like him every day, year after year. I was able to help some, but the ones I couldn't…"

  "They stayed with you," I offered.

  "Yeah," he sighed. "I lost a kid a few months back. I was working in San Francisco. I promised her I'd get her out of her situation. But I was too late. The father killed her and her mother, then himself. It was just a little too close to home, you know?"

  I stilled at his words as I realized he was trying to tell me something without actually telling me. "Did something like that happen to you?" I asked. "When you were a kid?"

  He glanced around the restaurant and let out a harsh chuckle. "Great first date conversation, huh?" he joked. I knew it was his way of trying to get me to change the subject, but I needed to know. I needed to know because I needed to know him.

  "Zander…" I said softly.

  His fake smile faded away. He began toying with my fingers. It broke my heart to know what a hard topic this was for him.

  "It was my mom who killed my dad, then herself. I watched her be his punching bag my entire childhood. Tried to stop it but couldn't. Even when I was strong enough to take the blows for her, it wasn't enough. She was convinced that she could change him and that he loved her and that it was what she deserved. Didn't matter how many doctors or cops or social workers tried to tell her any different. Didn't matter how many times I begged her to leave, promised her that I’d take care of her. I knew he’d kill her one day, and he did. Just not the way any of us were expecting."

  "I'm sorry, Zander. I want to tell you that there was nothing you could have done, but I have a feeling you already know that. And that doesn't make it any easier."

  His response was to once again pick up my hand and kiss my fingers. I was glad I'd somehow managed to say the right thing, but I wished there was some way I could take away his pain. I still had a million questions, but I wanted that smile back on his face. The real one that I felt like was such a gift to be the recipient of.

  "Zander, I need to tell you something about myself. Promise you won't judge me too harshly?" I asked in all seriousness.

  He sat up straighter, his attention completely on me. "Never, sweetheart. I'd never judge you."

  I leaned in and crooked my finger at him. He leaned in as well.

  "Sometimes at night when I'm in my bed and I'm feeling particularly naughty…" I began, doing my best to make my voice seductive. I figured it worked when Zander leaned in even closer and his foot began caressing my calf beneath the table. "I do this really bad thing. I try to resist, but the urge… the urge is just too much sometimes."

  I barely kept from smiling when I saw Zander shift uncomfortably. I suspected there was a good reason that he no longer seemed able to sit still.

  "Sometimes I do it in my room, sometimes the kitchen. Sometimes I even do it in the bathroom because I'm afraid the sounds I'm making will wake Cameron up." As I spoke, I took a chance and took my foot out of my shoe and then ran it up Zander's leg, not stopping until I reached his crotch.

  "Understandable," Zander growled.

  I began massaging Zander's erection with my toes. Thankfully, the table had a long tablecloth, so there was no chance of anyone seeing what I was doing. I was starting to think that even if there’d been more of a risk of being discovered, I wouldn't have cared. My intent had been to lighten the mood a bit, but now that I could feel how hard Zander was, my own body began to react.

  "I always feel guilty afterward," I continued. "And I promise myself I'll never do it again. But then the urge hits…"

  Zand
er's hand dipped beneath the table so he could grab my foot. But it wasn't to stop me from toying with him. No, it was to have me press harder against him.

  "Gotta resist those urges," he said.

  I sucked in a breath as he dragged my foot up and down his length. The reminder of his size and how good it felt when he was stretching me had me momentarily forgetting what I was talking about.

  "You folks need anything else before I bring out your entrées?" the waitress suddenly asked and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Zander was cool as a cucumber and he held on to my foot as he calmly responded to the young woman that we were fine.

  "You were saying, my sweet? Something about urges?" Zander said.

  I nodded and leaned forward. I dipped my hand into the breadbasket between us and pulled out one of the little containers of butter. I took my time pulling the top off and then I ran my tongue slowly over the top of the container. Zander's eyes were practically glued to my mouth.

  I used my fingers to pop the butter loose from the container and then sucked the whole chunk of butter into my mouth. "I'm sorry, Zander. The truth is… I'm a butter addict."

  He sat there for a moment just staring at me in confusion, then he laughed. Hard and loud, enough to have more than one set of eyes turning our way. But I didn't care.

  "I don't care if it’s Irish or whipped or salted. Frozen, melted, refrigerated… I love it all. Jackson once came home from a late night of working and found me in bed surrounded by butter wrappers."

  I drank in the sound of Zander's continued laughter, and when he was finally finished and his eyes were twinkling, a terrible suspicion washed over me as he once again reached for my hand.

  "Thank you," he whispered and then he kissed my palm.

  And that was when my suspicion turned to full-on confirmation.

  I was going to lose my heart to this man. There was no question about that. The only question was, what was I going to do about it?

  Chapter 9

  Zander

  I'd been fully prepared to admonish my woman for disappearing on me again, but the sight of her dancing in the kitchen while singing along to some country music song I didn't recognize had me leaning against the doorjamb instead.

  It'd been several weeks since that first morning when I'd woken up in bed alone and had found her weeding while the sun's rays had been breaking over the horizon. In that time, we'd seen a lot of each other, though I couldn't call it typical dating. That was mostly due to the fact that we had to sneak around, since Jolene wasn't ready to tell her son about us. I really hadn't had an issue with that because I was trying to understand why I was still in Eden. Even Pete had been surprised when I'd mentioned that if he needed help on any cars after I finished the custom jobs, I'd be happy to hang around.

  Jolene had been extremely nervous about asking me if we could hold off on telling Cameron or her ex about us. Since we hadn't even had a conversation about there being an us, I hadn't had any arguments. Not that I would have anyway, because I understood the importance of finding the right time to tell a kid about a new relationship. But admittedly, I was getting nervous that maybe it wasn't just her son that was keeping Jolene from wanting to take our relationship public.

  We still went on dates when we could, but it was always to the next town over, and if she ran into anyone she knew, she introduced me as a friend of her family’s and nothing more. When Pete had asked me about Jolene, seemingly because he'd heard it through the grapevine, I'd only told him that I'd helped her with her car, which had been true enough. But I suspected the older man knew something was going on, especially since Jolene often came to visit me at the garage and we'd end up in the bathroom or Pete's office for an extended and wholly necessary amount of time.

  On the nights that we didn't have to sneak around because her ex had Cameron, Jolene and I often hung out at her house and did wonderfully boring domestic things like making dinner together and watching TV. It'd given us the time we needed to learn about all the little quirks the other had. Jolene, for example, was a little bit of a clean freak, while I, admittedly, was an unashamed slob. The few small fights we'd had always led to amazing make-up sex sessions, not that we needed any excuse to be going at one another. But sex with Jolene was just the icing on the cake. The things I looked forward to most were talking to her at the end of each day, even if it was just by phone. I loved hearing about her customers at the diner where she waitressed and I was more than happy to talk car shop with her, though she usually had no clue what I was talking about.

  I knew I was starting to fall for her and that was definitely a scary thing for me. But every time I tried to find reasons that I couldn't be with her, they just sounded like hollow excuses I was using to mask my fear of being rejected. While I’d tried having long-term relationships with a couple of women, I'd never been in a position where I’d actually put my heart on the line, so the unknown was unnerving. But every time I thought about getting in my car and just driving out of Eden, I found myself with more reasons not to.

  I smiled as I watched Jolene's hips swaying as she bent over to check something in the oven. I move slowly into the kitchen, waiting until she closed the oven door before moving into place behind her. She shrieked when I grabbed her, but when I turned her head and covered her mouth with mine, she was moaning within seconds. Something clattered to the floor, presumably the spatula she'd been holding. I laughed against her mouth when I tasted butter on her tongue.

  “Have you been cheating on me with the Land O’Lakes lady again?” I asked.

  “That’ll teach you to sleep so long next time,” she said against my mouth. Then her arms wound around my neck and she was eagerly kissing me back. I lifted her into my arms and wasn't surprised when she wrapped her legs around my waist. I had enough sense to turn off both the burners that were going before I turned Jolene and carried her to the kitchen table.

  Jolene's confidence both in and out of the bedroom had grown considerably in the weeks that we'd been seeing each other. When it came to sex, she didn't hold back at all and never had any issue with trying something new. The fact that sex with her just got better and better was another sign of how deep in this whole thing I was. There were some days where I took her hard and fast and others where I never wanted the lovemaking to end.

  In addition to her sexual confidence, she’d started to come out of her shell when it came to things like the clothes she wore and the activities she participated in. I’d discovered over the weeks that Jolene was essentially living two lives. Outside the house, she was always careful about how she was dressed and the few times I'd seen her with others in public, I'd noticed that she never seemed to share her opinion or stand up for herself. She volunteered with multiple groups to the point that she had little extra time for herself and her son, and people often took advantage of her kindness and dumped even more tasks on her already busy shoulders.

  When it was just her and me, she was more relaxed and often laughed and joked with me. She also dressed more casually, though it had taken her a while to realize that I didn't care if she was wearing sweats or a dress when we were together. Hell, the woman could wear a snowsuit and I'd be hard enough to pound nails.

  At the moment, Jolene was wearing skimpy little shorts and a tank top. I had the feeling it was a relatively new outfit, because I hadn't seen it early on in our relationship. I was very appreciative of the fact that the clothes did little to hide her voluptuous body. She’d been extremely self-aware of her breasts when we’d started seeing each other and had always worn some kind of bra, even when we were just relaxing and hanging out. I was glad to see that she was getting the message that I loved her breasts despite her insistence that they were "too saggy."

  It took just a few steps to get Jolene to the kitchen table, which thankfully was empty. I laid her down on top of it. She kept her legs wrapped around me and returned my hungry kisses as I pinned her hands to the table by her wrists. I began pumping against her, rubbing my dick over her now
damp shorts. She began moaning into my mouth and arching her body up against mine. I transferred her wrists to one hand and used the other to probe between her legs. Instead of pulling her shorts down, I simply slid my fingers up one of the pant leg openings. I was greeted with a rush of hot liquid. I growled at knowing she was so ready for me. We’d had a discussion about condoms and birth control a week earlier and had both gotten tested. Being able to take Jolene without a condom was the best feeling in the world and made spontaneous moments like these possible.

  I ripped my mouth from Jolene's so I could suck her cream off my fingers. Her eyes went wide, but when I slammed my mouth down on hers, she eagerly licked my tongue. I dropped my hand again and began fumbling with the tie on her shorts.

  "Please, hurry! Please, Zander!" she begged as her hips flailed in an effort to help me work her shorts off.

  I’d just gotten a hold of her waistband and was preparing to yank the fabric down her legs when I heard a muffled shout and then suddenly I was being dragged backward. "Get the fuck off her!" someone screamed.

  My back hit the floor and then there was a weight on top of me. I was blindsided with a punch to the jaw, but luckily my instincts kicked in and I struck back. I could hear Jolene screaming in the background and that spurred me on.

  I managed to flip the guy who was on top of me to his back. But before I could hit him again, someone else was pulling me backward.

  Two assailants.

  The fear for Jolene was dizzying, but I managed to keep my head clear and went after the guy who’d dragged me off the first man. The second guy was bigger and knew how to throw a better punch. But I had a more powerful motivator—Jolene's safety. I was able to knock Guy Number Two on his ass, but then the first guy was back and I found myself struggling to stay on my feet. Unfortunately, the sound of a kid crying distracted me and when I turned to look, Guy Number One took advantage and hit me hard. I stumbled backward into the table, catching my temple on the edge. Then Guy Number One was on top of me.