Eden’s Echo
Lynn Veevers
For my husband, Andrew,
You continue to show me that true love
sees no color.
It knows no boundaries.
Chapter One
Forbidden Companion
He’d kill me if he ever found out the real reason I’d left, where I’d gone, or who I was with. The guilt welled up like it always did, and I shoved it from my mind. These things were nothing new, the inner turmoil, the lies. They’d been a part of my life for so long that I’d almost forgotten what it felt like, to tell the truth. No one likes a liar, but for me, lying was something of a necessity because telling the truth would get me a guaranteed, one-way ticket into a padded room. Lord knows it wouldn’t be the first time. I didn’t want Drew to think I was—crazy, but lying to him wasn’t an option any more than not seeing him at all. Dad would just have to kill me if he ever learned the truth of how I was spending my free time.
“What was your first memory,” Drew asked, still searching for moving objects in a star-splattered sky.
I glanced at my forbidden companion as we lay on the hood of his car. I should’ve expected a question like that. He wanted to know more about me, just as much as I needed to know more about him, but how was I supposed to explain that my first memory wasn’t mine—it was Echo’s.
He wants your first memory, Eden, not my last one, so tell him. Echo’s voice, with its all-knowing wisdom of sixteen years, bounced around in my mind, carrying notes of reassurance and encouragement. I was pleasantly surprised when answering Drew honestly wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
“Fear—the first thing I can remember is fear.” I focused on the distant memory, allowing it to pull me into its embrace as I let the statement hang in the air between us. Talking about myself made me feel vulnerable, and being vulnerable made me want to lie.
He hiked a surprised brow, probably over the vagueness of my answer, “Well, what were you scared of? Do you remember?”
I learned early on in our friendship that Drew liked to have a complete understanding of everything, which is why we were playing the game of question and answer in the first place. I saw him studying me out of the corner of my eye, felt the prickly fingers of anxiety weaseling their way in, and prayed he couldn’t see how uncomfortable I’d become. I needed to focus on something else—anything else. As I glanced at his face, our gazes locked—time seemed to slow and narrow into that moment.
The light of a half-moon reflected off his eyes. He held me in their earthy hue, luring my body into shifting closer to his. Endless depths of moss green with subtle flecks of gold kept me captive, as my heart fought to escape my chest. The heat coursing through my body threatened to burn me from the inside out, and my breath caught as he leaned closer. Goosebumps skittered across my skin, and desire bloomed at my core as his hand, warm and strong, reached for mine, wrapping it in a possessive grasp. The simple gesture triggered a full body flush that tingled through me as his free arm snaked around my waist and pulled me across the remaining expanse of the cool, metal hood. We were a few inches apart when humid, Drew scented air flitted over my face as his breath hitched, and the pulse at his throat quickened. I felt him closing the distance at a slow, steady pace. Our first kiss—my first kiss, was hanging on the edge of his lips. I wanted to let go, but fear speared up and robbed us of the moment.
A large part of me wanted to dive in feet first and let Drew claim my first kiss right there on the hood of his car. To hell with what my dad said, the consequences of being sent away be damned. Even with all those emotions and thoughts whispering temptation in my ear, I knew a kiss would just make me want Drew that much more. Like Eve’s apple in the Garden of Eden, Drew was my very own forbidden fruit. My only saving grace was the conscious I was raised with. The one that’s conservative, modest, and ever-present saying, this isn’t going to happen this soon. That same conscious ruthlessly jerked me out of the fantasy the rest of my being was trying to run with. My heart plummeted in disappointment as I abruptly turned my attention to the stars again. Despite my dad’s warning echoing in my head, my heart and soul still wanted Drew. My conscious was the only thing standing in my way.
The strong warmth of his hand gently squeezed and then reluctantly released my now sweaty palm. It was his way of acknowledging that he knew I wasn’t ready. His disappointment mirrored my own. I heard it in the resigned sigh that followed. Inwardly, I cursed myself for being so scared of something I wanted so badly and for letting the threat of my father’s wrath define what was right and wrong. I grudgingly returned to where my mind was before the pull of my heart—and hormones took over.
“If I had to guess, I’d say I wasn’t even a year old, and I was falling. You know that sensation you get when you go over a steep hill in a car too fast, and your stomach drops? It felt exactly like that. I could hear myself screaming—a baby’s scream of terror. The falling came to a sudden stop, but by then, my fear was running wild, and my eyes hurt from being squeezed shut.”
When Drew laughed, I stopped mid-story, glanced over, and wondered what he found so funny. The vibration of his chuckling rattled the hood
