VERSUS

by Deborah Bladon

  Chapter 8

  Eden

  “Did Eden tell you that she saw an old friend in court today?” Kurt grins from ear-to-ear. A small piece of broccoli stuck between his two front top teeth is a beacon I can’t take my eyes off of.

  If I had known that Kurt and his wife, Thelma, were coming to dinner tonight, I would have found an excuse to be out.

  Not that I have anywhere to go in Manhattan, but I feel like I’m intruding on Sufford family time. Given the gravity of the surgery that Kurt is going to endure in less than two days, I feel guilty for taking any of his attention away from his wife and daughter.

  “She didn’t,” Noelle answers with a lilt in her voice. “Who did you see, Eden?”

  “Someone from high school.” I shrug it off like it’s no big deal, even though seeing Dylan in court this morning was jarring.

  Having sex with him last night rocked me to my core, but no one sitting here has any idea that I went home with the man.

  “He’s more than someone,” Kurt mocks my voice. He tosses me a wink before he continues, “Dylan Colt is his name. He’s the second best divorce attorney in this city.”

  “Who’s the first?” I joke with a wink of my own in Kurt’s direction.

  Kurt waves a finger at me. “That’s the sassiness I expect from you in the courtroom. Going up against Dylan Colt isn’t an easy task, but I sense you have an advantage that I never had.”

  I clench my jaw to keep my mouth from falling open.

  Dylan used to boast about his conquests in high school. I pray that he’s matured since then and has stopped telling anyone who will listen to him who he took to bed.

  “What advantage does Eden have?” Noelle smirks.

  “I’ve never seen Dylan so rattled before.” Kurt cuts into a piece of the roasted chicken breast that Noelle prepared. “He looked about ready to faint when he realized that Eden went to high school with him.”

  Before Noelle can ask another question, I attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction. “I’m feeling great about the case. I had a meeting this afternoon that I think will help us.”

  “I knew it would.” Kurt shoves a forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

  “So you and Dylan were friends?” Noelle reaches for her water glass. “You never mentioned him to me.”

  During the weeks following graduation, Noelle met a handful of my friends from school. Dylan was off backpacking in Europe.

  “Let’s not talk about that right now. Tonight is about family, not work.” Thelma says, picking up her water glass and holding it in the air. “Here’s to a happy and healthy future.”

  I glance over at Kurt. He can’t take his eyes off the woman he married almost forty years ago.

  “To the future.” Noelle raises her glass too.

  Kurt and I follow in a toast to tomorrow and every day to come.

  ***

  Noelle turns the lock on the door of her apartment and spins to face me. “Tell me more about Dylan Colt.”

  I could tell that she was curious when she cornered me in the kitchen after dinner to ask about Dylan. I avoided answering by focusing all of my attention on the dishes.

  I loaded the dishwasher and scrubbed down the counters and the sink. I was just about to roll up the sleeves of my white sweater to start cleaning the oven when her parents announced that they had to take off.

  I gave them both a hug and a wave as they walked out the door to make their way back to their apartment on the Upper East Side.

  “We went to high school together back in Chicago.” I try to change the subject again. “Where did you get those jeans?”

  Noelle glances down at the faded, ripped jeans she’s wearing before she points at me. “Wherever you got your jeans. We’re wearing the same brand and style.”

  Dammit.

  I should have complimented the floral blouse she’s wearing.

  “You blushed when my dad said Dylan’s name.”

  I rest a hand on my hip. “It was my first time in a Manhattan courtroom and we had a sidebar over the fact that Dylan didn’t recognize me. I said my name. He said I wasn’t the Eden Conrad he used to know and…”

  “Oh, shit.” Noelle rushes to me. “Eden, I’m sorry.”

  I let her take me in her arms for a hug.

  She leans back and studies my face. “I think you look even more beautiful now than you did in high school.”

  I’ve lost track of how many times she’s said those words to me since I was seventeen. I reply the same way I always do, “You’re the best.”

  “I know it’s hard when you see someone from your past.” A sigh escapes her. “I’m a call away if you ever need me.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Her gaze drops to the watch on her wrist. “I have to be at work before dawn. I need some sleep.”

  I need sleep too, but it won’t find me. I can’t quiet my mind. It’s not the Alcester case that’s consuming me. It’s Dylan.

  I know he didn’t show up at my office today just to return the watch. He wants answers. I’m the only one who can give them to him since I’m the woman who crawled into his bed and his arms without telling him that I was the Eden he walked away from on the night we graduated. It was the night that changed the course of my life forever.

  Chapter 9

  Dylan

  “I’m all for helping out an old friend, but this is bullshit.” Barrett slaps my shoulder. “My flight was delayed for two hours. Do you have any idea what time it is?”

  It’s just past one in the morning.

  I’ve been pacing the floors of my apartment since he texted me from O’Hare International to tell me that he was hand delivering our senior yearbook.

  “I owe you.” I take a step back and look him over.

  I make it a point to see Barrett at least a few times a year. That typically happens when I venture back to my hometown to visit my parents and their significant others.

  I time those visits so they don’t coincide with any major holidays or events.

  My family is manageable in small doses. I don’t need the pressure of being thrown headfirst into a reunion with cousins, aunts, and uncles I haven’t seen in more than a decade.

  Beers with Barrett make my time back in Chicago more bearable.

  “You can start paying me back by inviting me in.” His blue eyes survey the room behind me. “I see you’ve done nothing with the place since the last time I was here.”

  I step to the side to let him pass.

  He slides the handle of the duffel bag that’s slung over his shoulder down before he drops it at my feet.

  “I’m taking the bedroom without the view.” He stretches both arms. “I’m beat. If I give you the goods, can I hit the sack?”

  Judging by the way he’s dressed, he didn’t make time for a change of clothes before he went to the airport. He’s still dressed in a tailored gray suit, a button-down shirt, and a tie.

  Jeans and T-shirts are his usual attire when he shows up here for a rare weekend trip.

  I’m wearing the Yankees T-shirt and dark sweatpants I put on after my second shower. I took the first when I got home from work, but restlessness set in while I waited for him, so I went for a run.

  The evening heat bore down on me, so another shower was in order.

  “Where’s the yearbook?” I eye the bag on the floor.

  “It’s on top.” He points to the zipper. “Now is as good as time as any to explain why the fuck you wanted it, Colt.”

  My hands are on the duffel bag before the words leave his mouth. I tug the zipper open and wrench out the yearbook.

  I flip through the pages as Barrett crosses the room to my home bar.

  I took a small shot of scotch over an hour ago in an effort to calm the hell down.

  It didn’t work.

  Barrett pours himself two fingers, not bothering to ask if I want the same. He sees my empty glass. He knows I’ve had my fill.

  �
��You mentioned Eden on the phone.” He turns to look at me. “You sounded shook up. That’s why I’m here.”

  I don’t glance up at him because I’m still trying to locate the page in the yearbook that holds the answer to at least one of the questions that’s been nagging at me all fucking day.

  “She’s in New York.” Looking up, I try to keep my voice at an even tone. “I saw her yesterday and again today.”

  That brings the glass to his lips again. The scotch disappears in one gulp. “Eden Conrad is here? What the hell is she doing in New York?”

  “She’s a lawyer.”

  “A lawyer? You’re not serious, are you?”

  My gaze skims the open page in front of me. I scan the pictures of the seniors finally landing on the face of the woman I thought I’d never forget.

  I see it now.

  Christ, why didn’t I see it in the club or when I had her in my bed?

  She’s changed, but it’s her.

  I slam the yearbook shut. “Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with me?”

  I stalk to the bar and half fill the glass I used earlier. I take a mouthful of scotch and swallow.

  “Is that rhetorical or are you waiting for me to answer that?” Barrett sets his glass down. “You’re torn up from seeing her after all these years. Is that what’s happening here or is this emotional shit storm I’m witnessing something else?”

  I finish off the scotch, slam the glass down so hard it shatters, and I turn to face him. “I fucked her. I fucked Eden Conrad last night, and I didn’t have a goddamn clue it was her.”

  ***

  Barrett hands me a mug of coffee.

  I needed the coffee as much as he needed the time it took to brew it to process what I said.

  He stared at me after I confessed that I took Eden to bed without realizing who she was.

  Fuck.

  All these years. All the want and I treat her like every other woman I’ve screwed.

  Jesus, I’m an asshole. I’m nothing but a selfish asshole.

  I’ve used women for years in search of a connection I could never find until last night.

  Even if I wanted to make amends to the hundreds of women I’ve bedded in the past fifteen years, I wouldn’t know where to start. I only remember the names of a handful of them.

  “So you didn’t know she was Eden.” Barrett shrugs out of his suit jacket. “Let’s start there.”

  “No, let’s get to the part where she shows up in court to defend my client’s asshole of a husband.” I put the mug on the coffee table in front of me, so it doesn’t fall victim to the same fate as the glass tumbler.

  “Back up the bus.” He settles into a chair across from me. “Lay out what happened here, Colt, because you’re all over the place and without a roadmap, I’m lost.”

  I scrub the back of my neck with my hand. “I went to Veil East last night to blow off some steam before my court date this morning.”

  “You went to the club you always go to so you could find a woman to fuck who looks like Eden.” He cocks a brow. “Don’t deny it. Every woman you’ve been with since high school looks like her.”

  “I have a type,” I spit back.

  “You brought her home and what?”

  I raise both brows. “What the hell do you think happened?”

  “I think that she didn’t tell you that she was Eden and you’re pissed.”

  I am pissed. I’m confused. I’m fucking embarrassed that I didn’t see it her face, or hear it in her voice.

  Both have changed since high school, but the pressing need inside of me to have her was different than the other women I’ve been with.

  Kissing her was different.

  Fucking her was so different.

  I should have known.

  “I fell asleep, she left, and I saw her in court this morning. That’s when she announced to everyone there that she was Eden Conrad.” I rake both hands through my hair. “I damn near passed out.”

  Barrett lets out a deep laugh. “I would have paid money to see the look on your face.”

  “Is there a chance in hell that she didn’t know who I was?” The question may sound arrogant, but I’m grasping for understanding here and I’m willing to consider every possibility.

  “Maybe you weren’t worth remembering.” He loosens his tie. “Who the hell knows why she didn’t tell you her name.”

  “Why didn’t I know it was her?” I ask the question, as much to myself as to him.

  “You’ve been looking for her in so many faces over so many years, that you lost sight of her.” He takes a sip from the coffee mug in his hand. “Besides, how the hell could you have known she was in New York? The last we heard she was in Ohio. That’s the last we heard, right?”

  He’s asking if I’ve tracked her since high school.

  I have.

  I Googled her name for years hoping to find a social media profile or a recent image, but I always came up empty.

  The last time either of us saw Eden was at the house of one of our classmates. His parents gave him the green light for a graduation celebration for the entire senior class. We left for the airport just as the party was winding down. Exploring Europe ate up the next two months of our lives before we landed back in Chicago to go our separate ways for college.

  Barrett headed west to the University of Southern California. NYU brought me east. Once I had a taste of the city, I knew it was home.

  “That’s the last we heard,” I confirm with a nod.

  “Let’s look at the bright side here, Colt. I know you’re thinking the same thing I am.”

  I study his face. “What the fuck am I thinking, Barrett?”

  “You’re thinking that Eden Conrad doesn’t blame you for what happened fifteen years ago. If she did, she sure as hell wouldn’t have come home with you.”

  I don’t know what the hell I’m thinking.

  He stands. “I’m beat. We’ll pick this up tomorrow but one last thing.”

  I follow suit and slide up to my feet. “What?”

  “Forgive yourself.” He pats the center of my chest. “She’s obviously thriving if she’s set to beat your ass in court. Let the past go. It’s time.”

  I manage a smile. “Who said she was going to beat my ass in court?”

  “You couldn’t keep it together after sleeping with her, so you’ve got no chance of coming out of this with a win for your client.”

  “I’ll win.”

  He laughs. “Eden’s still got you wrapped around her pretty little finger, maybe now she’ll finally realize it.”

  Chapter 10

  Eden

  Just three more people.

  When I got to Palla on Fifth ten minutes ago, more than a dozen people were already in line. If my calculations are correct, I should be at the counter in the next four to six minutes depending on how many coffees or teas the people in front of me order.

  Back in Buffalo, I make my coffee at my apartment, pour it into a travel mug, and walk to work every morning.

  My Manhattan routine is different since the smell of coffee makes Noelle nauseous.

  I glance down at my phone. I’m supposed to be at my office in the next twenty minutes although Kurt made it clear that I can set my own schedule as long as I get my work done. I’m only a block away so as long as no one in front of me orders a dozen coffees, I’ll make it there on time.

  The brown-haired woman in front of me glances over her shoulder and smiles. “If I had saved every dollar I spent here, I would be retired by now.”

  At home, I’m the first to engage in idle conversation with people. Two weeks ago at the grocery store a woman asked if I knew how to tell if a pineapple is ripe. Thirty minutes after she asked the question, I was helping her take her groceries to her car while she bounced her toddler on her hip. We met for lunch a few days later.

  You never know when you’re going to run into a stranger who will become a friend.

  “I take it you’ve been coming here fo
r at least a week?”

  A laugh escapes her. “I was here the day they opened, and I’ve been here almost every day since.”

  “This is my first time,” I confess as the line edges forward.

  “Prepared to become addicted.” She winks. “If you’re taking recommendations, add a blueberry scone to your order. The second you bite into it, you’ll know why I told you to get one.”

  “How can I resist?” I take another step forward as she does.

  “I’m Sadie.” She turns completely around.

  She’s wearing a light blue dress that’s tied at the waist with a white belt. A hospital badge hangs from a lanyard around her neck.

  Dr. Sadie Reynolds.

  “I’m Eden.” I point at her badge. “My friend works out of the same hospital as you.”

  Her brows pop. “What’s your friend’s name?”

  “Noelle Sufford. Dr. Noelle Sufford.”

  The prettier half of the Sufford siblings.” She glances over her shoulder toward the counter. “I know Noelle and her brother.”

  Manhattan suddenly feels a little smaller to me. I can’t help but smile.

  “You’re killing the corporate look.” She points at the white pants, white blouse, and dark blue blazer I’m wearing. “What do you do?”

  “She’s a lawyer.”

  I close my eyes briefly at the sound of that voice. That smooth, seductive voice swept over me in the club the other night. I used to think Dylan’s voice was deep in high school, but it has a rasp to it now that sends a charge through me.

  When I open my eyes, Sadie’s gaze is fixed behind me. “I take it you know him?”

  I nod. “He’s a lawyer too.”

  “Next. Who is next?” One of the baristas calls out.

  “It’s my turn.” Sadie glances back at the counter. “It was good to meet you, Eden. I’m sure I’ll see you here again.”

  I smile in response before she turns to approach the barista.

  “Turn around, Eden.”

  “I’m just here to get a coffee.”