Page 76 of Highest Bidder

I smile. “Got a minute? I want to talk to you.”

“Sure. Let’s go to my room so I can relax.”

We walk together up the stairs, and I catch sight of Daisy delivering a tray of drinks on the second floor. I shoot her a wink and she blushes in return, just before I disappear down the hallway.

As soon as we’re shut in Eden’s room, I remove my coat and walk directly to the bar, where I know she keeps her good wine, uncorking a bottle she must have already opened.

“Let me guess,” she says from behind me. “You’re curious what Daisy and I talked about yesterday.”

“That’s one thing.”

“Oh. There’s something else?”

I take a deep breath. Why am I nervous about this? Eden and I have done this dozens of times. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for us, but it feels different this time. This time it’s someone I care about—someone I love.

“I just wanted to make sure she has the right intentions.” Eden’s response is so straightforward, and nothing I didn’t expect, but it still catches me off guard as I take the seat next to her, drink in hand.

“She does,” I reply with confidence. “And you realize I’m not a child and I don’t need my mother to vet the women I date.”

Eden laughs, leaning a head on my shoulder. “But I’m a good mother. I just get a little possessive. Okay?”

“I know,” I reply, throwing an arm around her shoulder to hold her closer.

“But hey, so is she.”

I lift my head. “She was possessive?”

With a laugh, Eden grins. “Oh, she nearly bit my head off when I implied thatIcared about you more. She even said, ‘If Ronan didn’t have a dime to his name, I’d still love him,’ which is a little sappy if you ask me, but sweet.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up as my brows pinch inward. “She said that?”

Eden slaps a hand over her mouth. “Fuck. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that, was I?”

“It’s okay. I figured that’s how she felt.”

“So, what’s the problem?” she asks, reading my tense expression.

“The problem is that I’ve heard that before.”

“I know you have, and I really don’t want to see you get hurt again,” she says, touching my shoulder.

“Thank you, Mommy,” I reply with a laugh.

“If I don’t look out for you, who will?”

“I really need you to protect me from beautiful twenty-one-year-olds,” I joke.

After we laugh for a second, it grows silent, and I practically feel her concern radiating off her. “She is really young, Ronan.”

“I know,” I reply.

“Just be careful letting her become dependent. Shit never works out well when that happens.”

I force a smile as I turn toward my friend. I see the sweet woman under the tough exterior that no one else sees. As tough as she is, Eden has a soft side too, and when she does love, she does it fiercely.

I can still remember the young woman I found nearly seven years ago, battered and afraid, but not broken. And not alone. Even when she was twenty-seven, she seemed wise beyond her years. And she’s come a long way since then.

“Thanks for watching out for me,” I reply, kissing her forehead.