The Boyfriend Experience (The Boyfriend Experience 1)

As Evie started her day, she realized that there was one thing that she and Eric hadn’t settled on yet . . . what his fee would be for his time and service for four days. She knew he probably wasn’t cheap, but he was definitely worth whatever price he charged because he was that good.

CHAPTER FIVE

Just like every other Sunday at four o’clock in the afternoon, Eric parked his car in the driveway of the small three-bedroom childhood home where he’d grown up and where his mother now lived by herself as a part of the divorce settlement she’d received from Eric’s father almost ten years ago.

On the passenger seat next to him were two bags of groceries and a bouquet of flowers that he’d picked up at the market. Same routine, different weekend, not that his mother ever noticed his efforts. Or if Ginny Miller did recognize his attempts to bring some normalcy to their lives, she didn’t mention it or thank him for the meal he cooked or make him feel like he had a place in the house anymore since it was now filled with an overbearing sadness and bittersweet memories he couldn’t compete with.

At this point in his life, he’d accepted that his mother’s aloof manner would probably never change, and even knowing that painful truth, he also knew it wouldn’t stop him from visiting her. Despite the huge disconnect between them, he was still her son, she was still his mother, and he refused to cut her off emotionally the way she had him when his twin sister, Trisha, had died at the age of sixteen.

He exhaled what felt like a weary, soul-deep sigh as his gaze took in the front of the house, remembering much happier times when the Millers had been the equivalent of a picture-perfect Rockwell family. His parents hadn’t been rich, but they’d been loving and focused on making their kids’ lives their priority.

Up until he and Trisha had turned fifteen, the four of them had spent idyllic summer vacations at the beach together. Even with Trisha in soccer and Eric in football, their parents had always found a way to attend their sporting events and cheer them on. Eric had spent endless hours with his father in the garage, tinkering with car parts and learning how to rebuild an engine, while his sister and mom spent the weekends out in the backyard, tending to the roses and garden they’d nurtured together.

Despite normal squabbles with his sister heading into their teen years, as twins they’d been best friends. All his life, Trisha had been his person, his other half of that twin connection they’d shared from birth, and when she’d died as he held her hand, he knew he’d never be the same again. Sitting at her bedside, with Trisha’s thin, weary body finally succumbing to the awful leukemia that ravaged her for the past year, he’d felt his heart being ripped painfully from his chest during those last few gasps. She’d taken a huge piece of him with her when she’d drawn her last breath, leaving an eternal void he felt even now.

His heart had shattered that day, in a way he never wanted to experience ever again. With Trisha gone, he’d felt so lost and alone and empty inside, with no one to turn to for comfort because his parents had been wrapped up in their own grief and anger over the loss of their daughter, leaving Eric to blindly find his own way through the pain and sorrow eating him up inside.

A house that had once been filled with love, laughter, and happiness had been cast with a pallor of sadness and despair. Once Trisha had been buried, his parents stopped talking and touching and spent more time apart than together. His dad deliberately worked long hours, and his mother had withdrawn into a deep, dark depression where she slept for days, and when she was awake for any length of time, she operated on autopilot.

And Eric . . . well, he’d realized that he’d not only lost his best friend and twin sister, but he’d lost his entire family all in one fell swoop.

The two years following Trisha’s death had been excruciating, mentally and emotionally, and it had been a huge relief to Eric when his estranged parents finally divorced and he’d moved into a dorm at San Diego State University. Being out of the bleak and oppressive situation on a daily basis, he’d finally been able to breathe and make some kind of new normal for himself.

But there was no denying how much he missed Trisha and how badly her death had affected him and still did. Survivor’s guilt had plagued him for years, and even though a part of him had come to peace with the situation, there were still triggers that brought back the heartache and pain of losing her. The birthday they’d once shared and the date of her death were still his hardest days to get through.