Collide (The Barker Triplets 2)

Dinner? Easter? He didn’t give a flying fuck about any of that shit when there were ‘things’ to talk about. What things? What the hell had her so sad that she cried when he was inside her? What the fuck was going on?

Shane cleared his throat and opened his mouth but the door to his shop flew open and his sister Eden strolled in as if she had every right to. She doffed her purple and black toque, flicked her long hair behind her shoulder as she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the two of them. “Am I interrupting?”

“Damn, right,” Shane said loudly.

“No, I was just leaving,” Bobbi replied at the same time. She touched her lips to his, a soft caress that made him ache, and whispered. “I love you. Remember that.”

Then she pulled away, waved to Eden, and disappeared out the door before he had a chance to stop her.

“Wow, that was weird.” Eden shoved her hands into her jacket pocket and bit her lip. “Is it okay that I’m here?”

When he didn’t answer—how could he answer his mind was still on Bobbi—she hunched forward. “Okay, I’ll just leave. This was a stupid idea anyway.”

Shane’s head shot up. “What? No. It’s fine. Is everything alright?” He hadn’t seen Eden since dinner at his father’s a few weeks back. He’d stopped in once at his father’s request, but she had been at the library.

Eden shrugged and glanced away. “Mom had to go for chemo, so Dad took her. They’ll be at the clinic most of the day.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It sucks,” she answered. “I didn’t want to stay home by myself and I didn’t want to go to the clinic. I went the last time and it freaked me out.” She paused. “Did you…”

“Did I go with my Mother?”

She nodded, though her eyes were averted.

“No.”

As soon as he spoke she turned her head and the relief in her eyes nearly broke his heart.

“I felt bad not going.” She twisted a piece of hair in between her fingers. “I mean, I want to be there for Mom, but that place…” she shuddered. “Those people are all just waiting to die and I can’t look at any of them.” She glanced up then, her eyes tortured. “I can’t look at Mom in there because in there, in that place where she needs to be, all I see is death, you know?” Eden shook her head vehemently. “And she’s not going to die.”

“No,” Shane said softly. “She’s not.”

It was as if Eden needed to hear those words. As soon as he said them, her shoulders relaxed. She exhaled and unzipped her jacket. “Do you have a soda?”

“It’s ten in the morning, Eden.”

She shrugged. “I know, but do you?”

“Sure,” Shane answered, heading to the small bar fridge he kept in the back.

“Do you think you could show me some of your paintings?”

Shane returned with a soda and handed it to his sister, nodding toward the far end of the room where his easel was set up and a bunch of canvases lay against the wall.

“Sure.”

“Cool,” Eden said taking a sip, her eyebrow arched quizzically. “Um, also do you know a boy named Brian Danvers? I think he said his brother plays on your hockey team? The one with your girlfriend’s sister?”

Shane stopped cold, his expression darkening. Shit. His sister was interested in one of the Danvers? Christ, that was all he needed.

“I know his brother, Jason.”

We won’t talk about the other one.

He led the way over to his easel and judging by the quick, cursory glance Eden gave to his paintings he knew this visit wasn’t about his talent with a brush. It was about her mother and her pain and fear in dealing with the unknown.

It was about her interest in some boy who he knew was no good for her.