Chapter Text
Eddie had just put the last plate into the dishwasher when he felt his phone vibrate in the pocket of his jogging pants. And, sure enough, after quickly wiping his hand dry on a dish towel and fishing out his phone, he saw that it was Buck who was calling.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Uh, hey, good morning. Listen,” Buck started, and for a tiny moment, Eddie felt a small sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach at the prospect of Buck canceling their plan for their morning jog. But then, Buck continued, “Traffic’s heavier than expected today, so I’m gonna be a few minutes late.”
Eddie had to let out a small, snorted chuckle. “Buck, you don’t have to call if you’re gonna be like five minutes late.”
On the other end of the line, Buck laughed softly, a little sheepishly, and Eddie felt something warm spread in the middle of his stomach at the sound. He’d noticed that much more often these days, and, unlike in the past, he did not try to shove that feeling away again every time it arose.
“Yeah. I know. But I wanted to give you a heads-up so you could take it easy in case Christopher wasn’t finished with his breakfast yet. Plus, it’s gonna be more like seven minutes.”
“Already loaded the dishwasher, so I’m ready whenever you get here.”
“Good,” Buck replied. “Banana pancakes still on for after our run?”
“Sure. Got everything here,” Eddie said, examining the four slightly over-ripe but not yet gone-bad bananas in his fruit basket.
Over the past few months, and after Eddie had demolished his treadmill, Buck and Eddie had picked up the habit of going jogging together. Eddie knew that, while Buck did enjoy their time together, it was also his way of making sure Eddie was doing okay, that he was getting out of the house, doing something for his physical and mental health, and often, it meant for Buck to go the literal extra miles and drive all the way over to Eddie’s house so they could jog in the neighborhood, staying close to the house. At eleven years, Christopher was old enough by now to stay by himself for an hour, but Eddie would not have felt comfortable driving farther away and not being around the corner in case something happened.
“I got some fresh blueberries to top them with,” Buck was saying. “They’re still super cold, so they should be good until I get there. Just need to put them in the fridge.”
“Blueberries, huh?”
“Yeah. Your favorite.”
It was moments like this when that warm, fuzzy feeling inside of Eddie got so powerful that it almost spilled over. That he almost would have let it out in the shape of words he had not yet found the courage to say to Buck. But he knew what that feeling was, knew what it meant, and sometime — maybe sooner rather than later — he’d tell Buck. For now, what he said instead, was a teasing, “Don’t make me get used to this,” and received another somewhat bashful chuckle from Buck.
“What if that’s my strategy, though? Make myself entirely indispensable?”
You already are , was what Eddie wanted to say, but his phone screen flared up with an incoming facetime call.
“Oh, Sophia is calling. They’re in Rome right now, so I’ll better pick up,” he quickly told Buck.
“Sure. I’ll be there in… eighteen minutes.”
“Okay, see you when you get here,” Eddie responded, disconnected the call and quickly took his sister’s.
When he saw her face — big, round sunglasses on that had a certain late 60s flair — it lit up with a wide, radiant smile before she stretched her arm to give him a wider view of the background.
“Tadaa! Look where I am. The Trevi Fountain.”
“Oh wow,” Eddie said with a chuckle, although the masses of tourists behind and around her were a few too many for his taste. The warm sunlight tinting the historical buildings in a golden light definitely looked impressive and beautiful, though. “Hi.”
“Hi, Eddie,” Sophia replied. “So, Rome is just fucking amazing. I can’t believe we’re actually here. Everything is so old and beautiful and— God!” She let out, grinning even wider and laughing in delight.
“Looks like it,” Eddie said. “You’re really getting around over there, huh? How long are you staying in Rome?”
“We’re flying back to Valencia tomorrow night, unfortunately. Raúl has meetings on Monday morning, but then he has one in Lisbon on Thursday, so he’s gonna work from the office there on Friday, and we’re actually gonna spend the entire weekend in the city.”
“Sounds amazing. And here I am, and the most exciting sights I’ve seen are the Hollywood Hills and the World’s Biggest Pistachio.”
Sophia let out a snort of laughter at that.
“Seriously, Eddie, Europe is just absolutely amazing. Raúl’s extended business trip is really paying off. We get on a plane for an hour, or a train for a few, and we’re in a different country. And… Eddie! All the history here! All those centuries old buildings, the art, and the food. God the food! Speaking of which, Raúl’s getting us some proper Italian gelato right now. Not even the best Italian places in El Paso have ice cream that good. We’re actually thinking about doing our honeymoon over here too. Maybe Greece.”
“That sounds like a great idea. But hey, don’t fall in love with Europe too much, okay?” he said, mildly teasing.
Sophia shrugged slightly. “We’ll see about that. Things aren’t exactly great over there anymore. Mom and dad would hate to hear this, but we want to at least get out of Texas.”
Eddie nodded, swallowing as he felt a slight heaviness in his middle. He completely understood where his sister was coming from, and it wasn’t even that he and his family had had very frequent and close contact the past several years, but flying or driving between El Paso and LA was certainly easier than between the US and Valencia, or wherever the two of them might end up.
“You could always come to California,” Eddie said, “Doesn’t Raúl’s company have an office in—”
“San Francisco, yeah. So that could be an option. Anyway, still a long way to go, or, as I learned when we were in Germany two weeks ago: Until then, a lot of water is going to flow down the Rhine. Oh! Speaking of water, want me to throw a coin in the fountain for you?”
Eddie laughed softly and watched as she got closer to the fountain’s edge.
“I could throw one in, and you make a wish. How about it?”
“Yeah, why not— Oh, I don’t believe this.”
“What?” Sophia asked, just as Eddie saw the incoming call on his phone.
“Dad’s calling. What’s going on this morning? Anyway, I’ll better see what he wants. You two have a great time in Rome. Send pictures.”
“What about your wish?”
“Just make one for me,” Eddie replied and then, after a quick mutual wave goodbye, picked up his dad’s call.
“Hi dad.”
“Hello Eddie,” he heard his mom reply first, over speaker phone as it sounded. “I hope we’re not keeping you from anything?”
“No. I was just facetiming with Sophia. She and Raúl are at the Trevi Fountain. What’s up?”
“Oh that’s nice,” his mom replied, but her voice sounded rather thin and unenthused, and Eddie was starting to get worried.
“We’re worrying about your sister,” his dad was now saying, and at least that immediately appeased his fears that something might be wrong with him.
“Sophia?” Eddie asked, nevertheless confused.
“No, not Sophia. Adriana,” his mom replied.
“Why? What’s up with her?”
“Well. You see, she… she—”
“She’s pregnant, Edmundo,” his dad said when all his mom was able to bring out was a drawn out sigh.
That definitely surprised Eddie, and going by how his parents sounded, it didn’t seem like it was happy news to them or Adriana. Instantly, he felt a sense of alarm and foreboding, unable to not think about what the recent political developments in Texas, as in many states, could mean in this context. Maybe the reason they were calling him about it might be precisely for that reason.
“I… didn’t know she’d been seeing someone,” he said.
“Neither did we. And… I’m not sure she was.”
That small sense of alarm grew into a much darker one, spreading like a weight in his stomach.
“Mom, what do you mean?”
Again, he heard a deep sigh from his mother, before his dad continued to speak. “We don’t know. She told us not to worry, but she doesn’t want to tell us anything about the father or how it happened.”
“She came here the other night, sobbing,” his mom continued, clearly agitated. “She told us she was pregnant and didn’t know what to do. But… I can’t get through to her at all. She just flat-out refuses to tell us anything beyond that, and we’re at the end of our wits.”
Eddie briefly glanced at his watch; Buck would get here in about seven or eight minutes, but this matter was definitely a priority.
“Hang on,” he said, also throwing a glance in direction of Christopher’s room, hearing the faint sounds of him clicking around on his computer which he was allowed to do until Eddie and Buck would return from their jog. Eddie went over to the living room and sat down on the couch.
“You want me to talk to her?”
“That’s what we thought, but… maybe…” his mom started, and once more, his dad took over.
“I know we said planes go both ways and that we should come visit you sometime, but we thought, if it was possible for you, you could come down here.”
“There’s a flight leaving tomorrow morning. We’d pay for it, Eddie,” his mom added, and Eddie tried to breathe out the sigh that automatically left his lungs as quietly as he could.
He did not exactly like the thought of having to travel to El Paso and back, asking Bobby for time off on such a short notice. He had two regular shifts on Monday and Tuesday, which would make it a little easier to find a replacement for him, but still. He was torn between wondering whether his parents just weren’t trying hard enough — or the right way — to get through to Adriana, and wanting to be there for his sister who seemed to be in genuine distress.
He did let out the next sigh a little more loudly. “Alright. I’ll ask Bobby if I can take the next few days off. I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you, Eddie. We’re just feeling a little helpless here, and you’ve always had a different connection to your sisters than we do.”
“And we can’t really ask Sophia,” his dad added.
“Yeah, no, that probably wouldn’t work out,” Eddie agreed. “I’ll call you back as soon as I’ve reached Bobby.”
“We really appreciate it, Edmundo. And… best don’t tell anyone about this, okay? Just in case…”
So they were all thinking in the same direction, and hearing that his sometimes slightly conservative father at least considered the option of his daughter getting an abortion if she wanted to was a relief to Eddie. “I’ll tell Bobby it’s a family emergency, but I’ll have to tell Buck. He’s probably gonna stay with Christopher while I’m gone.”
“Well, as long as you can trust him,” his dad replied, and it was easy for Eddie to say, with absolute conviction, “I do.”
He’d trust Buck with his life, and his son’s. He could definitely trust him to keep a secret.
It was a two hour flight from LA to El Paso. Eddie had just done the whole trip in the spring, but unlike then, now in late August he wasn’t exactly looking forward to the heat that was going to greet him there as soon as he’d left the terminal. Although he had lived there for most of his life, Eddie had many reasons for not feeling homesick for Texas.
The climate may be the most trivial one, and the somewhat strained relationship with his father had improved since their confrontation at his retirement party. He’d been making an honest effort to ask about Eddie’s well-being, not in the way of simply exchanging platitudes as people usually did, but with a more genuine openness that Eddie would have given anything for to experience as a kid. He really appreciated it, and he hoped that those first, more tentative steps were only the beginning in rebuilding their relationship as father and son.
Aside from that, however, Eddie could never shake all the other aspects that had made him feel uncomfortable and even burdened, living in Texas. Too many Republicans, too strict and traditionally Catholic values, and a culture that was overall much more judgemental and, frankly, backwards than what he had grown accustomed to after four years in Los Angeles. While he had escaped it, he was now worrying about what the current political and social climate — all those ‘Christian’ values — meant for his sister.
There’d been no news on her situation from his parents before he had boarded his plane, that Sunday morning, and Eddie couldn’t stop himself from pondering over and over again why Adriana refused to tell her parents more than the mere fact that she was pregnant. He had to force himself not to think of the worst possible scenario and to — indirectly, and through his parent’s recount — believe her when she said not to worry, but he couldn’t help his thoughts going there after all, every now and then.
“Maybe she’s protecting someone,” Buck had suggested that afternoon when they’d sat down and gone over the schedule for the next two to three days. He’d only gone home to get some of his things and already slept on Eddie’s couch last night so he could drive Eddie to the airport in the morning, and Eddie was so immensely grateful for him.
Buck had practically put his life on hold for Eddie so many times; he’d had his back in every way, and Eddie would feel worse about never having been able to repay any of those favors, were it not for the fact that Buck seemed to do all of this gladly, freely, no questions asked. If their roles were reversed, Eddie would feel the same way about Buck, and maybe that was proof enough that Buck also returned the feelings Eddie had taken months to finally acknowledge to himself.
Maybe, once Eddie was back from Texas, they should finally have a conversation about this, frightening as the prospect was to Eddie in many ways.
He managed to get distracted enough during his flight, watching a family with two small kids, or looking out of the window where a cloudless sky gave sight of the landscape below. And when he’d finally gotten off the plane, no checked baggage to claim, the heat he was met with as soon as he stepped out of the terminal wasn’t as bad as he could have imagined.
He spotted his father’s car approaching just a minute later. As always, he’d been waiting a little farther away and only drove all the way up to the pickup area as soon as Eddie would get there to avoid paying parking fees. At least, that was a familiarity Eddie had to chuckle about.
“Hi dad,” he said after he’d quickly shoved his cabin case into the trunk and gotten into the passenger’s seat.
“Hello son,” his dad greeted, a somewhat thin smile on his lips as he reached over to squeeze Eddie’s shoulder with one hand. “Good flight?”
“Yeah. It was fine.”
That was all any of them said while his dad was driving back onto Montana Avenue, in the direction of the I-10.
“So,” Eddie started after a few minutes, “Anything new?”
His father let out a slightly strained sigh and shook his head. “Just that we shouldn’t worry and she’d figure it out.”
“And, when she says not to worry, do you think she only says that to put your mind at ease, or does she actually mean it?”
“You mean other than her being over six weeks pregnant and not knowing what to do with that?”
“Shit, it’s been over six weeks already?”
His dad nodded gravely, eyes trained on the street in front of him.
Eddie let out a thin, mirthless chuckle. “Well, she could always come visit me in LA if she decides to…not keep it. But other than that?” Eddie asked, not knowing how and not wanting to verbalize the one option he knew they both were thinking about.
As his dad switched lanes to drive onto the interstate which would take them back home, he inhaled deeply. “I’m not sure.” Then, he released a breath with noticeable frustration. “I can’t even tell if my daughter is lying to us or not. If she… doesn’t feel like she can trust us.”
Behind his thin, golden-rimmed glasses, his eyes looked at Eddie with a helplessness in them that Eddie couldn’t remember ever having seen. And, although he’d never have to face this exact situation, being the father of a son, Eddie could feel the worry, even fear, and with it the pain that his own dad must be experiencing right now. He also thought to understand the silent question in his father’s gaze.
“Dad, you… You were always much softer with her and Sophia than with me,” he said, putting his every effort into making the words sound reassuring rather than being an accusation. “You haven’t made the same mistakes with her.”
“But I’ve made mistakes. We both have,” his dad said softly.
“Which parent hasn’t?” Eddie replied. “Adriana came to you first when she had a problem. That’s saying something.”
The smile his dad gave him, though still thin, became a little more pronounced. It was kind of surreal, thinking about how strained their relationship used to be all these past years, that Eddie was sitting here, assuring his dad that he was a good father after all. It wasn’t just empty phrases either.
While there were still things Eddie hadn’t forgotten, probably never would, he’d forgiven his dad enough to see all the good aspects too. And, beyond that, Eddie had thought about his dad a lot ever since that visit in spring, even talked about him to Frank. With some distance, he was able to see many things more objectively, or through his father’s eyes, and he could understand how hard it must have been for a young immigrant from Mexico to find his footing in this society, and to provide for his family so that his children could, one day, have it better than him.
It hadn’t all been right, but it had been all Ramon Diaz had known how to do.
“She was supposed to find an apartment and a job,” his dad said after a longer pause. “Her current lease runs out next week.”
“And she didn’t want to stay with Becky and… what was her name?”
“Clara. She’s already gone back to Denmark, finished her dissertation a bit earlier than Adriana and Becky. And Becky…” The huff of breath his dad let out could only be described as derisive. “Adriana had a bit of a falling out with her.”
“Oh?”
“Something about too much partying and the types of people she invited. So when Adriana found out she was pregnant, she didn’t want to go back there.”
Eddie didn’t like the sound of those ‘types of people’, and he really had to remind himself, again, to not think of the worst case scenarios and wait to speak to his sister himself.
“Did you tell her I was coming?” Eddie asked then, suddenly realizing neither his dad nor his mom had said so before.
The shrug his dad gave him was almost apologetic. “No. She’d have called you and talked you out of it, probably.”
Eddie had to chuckle at that, although he felt little amusement. “Yeah. She would have tried to. I’m glad I came, though.”
“I’m glad you did, too, mijo.”
And that, no matter how worrisome the circumstances, was something that made Eddie feel like they could truly be a family again, more than he would have thought it possible in recent years.
Where his dad’s tension and worry had been palpable to Eddie in a yet unfamiliar way, he was more accustomed to seeing it in his mom. However, in all the years Eddie had known her, he hadn’t seen her so troubled ever since her own father had had a stroke when Eddie was just six years old. Nevertheless, she greeted him warmly, grateful for his presence, and maybe it was that parental worry, too, that made him feel more connected to her than he’d ever previously been aware of.
When his parents directed him to the backyard, Adriana was sitting in her favorite, old and tattered wicker armchair with a book on her lap, entirely unaware of her brother’s arrival. Having heard the kitchen door fall shut, however, she turned her head, an almost bewildered look of surprise on her face.
“Eddie? What are you doing here?” She asked, the brief delight fading from her features as he came closer.
“Hi Drina.”
She huffed out a chuckle, shaking her head. “I can’t believe mom and dad made you come down here. And didn’t even tell me about it! Jesus Christ.”
Eddie decided to try and keep it light, shrugging vaguely as he stood in front of her. There was no other chair, only a small wooden crate repurposed as a side table, and he was not going to risk sitting on it. Although crushing it and landing on the ground could have been amusing enough to break the ice a little.
“Are you really surprised?” He asked and saw his sister shake her head as she let out a huffed sigh.
“Yeah. No.”
Eddie nodded and let out a soft chuckle. “You could hug me hello, at least.”
Adriana deflated a little and returned the chuckle, putting her book down on the surface of the seat as she got up and finally wrapped her arms around her brother’s shoulders. “Sorry. It’s just… been a lot.”
Eddie held her a little tighter than he usually would have for a simple greeting, feeling a heaviness in his stomach at her words but at the same time wanting to pour his support and affection into the hug. Rubbing her upper back briefly, he brushed a kiss to her cheek and then looked around towards the trees and bushes framing the property.
“Come on, let’s go for a walk and catch up.”
“Yeah, alright,” she replied and followed him as he started towards the little path that led from their backyard into the hills. They’d often played there as kids, catching bugs or picking flowers to bring home to their mom, although Eddie had already been a teenager when his youngest sister was old enough to run around the area. He’d often watched her, though, made sure that she was safe, and he felt reminded of that time now more than ever.
“How much did they tell you?” Adriana asked once they were out of the line of sight from the house.
“Just that you are pregnant, that it’s over six weeks already, and that you don’t want to tell them anything else.”
She let out another soft huff, then took a deep breath and nodded as she kicked a pebble with the tip of her thin canvas sneakers.
“The whole six weeks thing is such bullshit. Whoever came up with the idea to count from the first day of your last period? That’s two whole weeks before you even can get pregnant. Technically, I’m not even five weeks pregnant.”
“Yeah, it makes no sense.”
“Right? And then I have to feel like some kind of spy or criminal when I even want to research all of this. I had to use a VPN and a different browser, and I’m still paranoid the government is somehow gonna find out and arrest me for planning the murder of an unborn child.”
Eddie took a slow, deep breath, trying not to get carried away with anger at the injustice of it all. “So… that’s what you want to do then? Get an abortion?”
Adriana shrugged as they strode on, and it took quite a while for her to reply. “I don’t even know. I mean… God, I don’t even have enough time to make up my mind about this. It’s all so stupid. And I’m so stupid for not realizing sooner that my period was late. But I was so stressed with my dissertation and all that I somehow forgot, and—”
“Hey, don’t do this to yourself,” he interrupted her, closing the distance between them to lay an arm around her shoulder and squeezing her to his side briefly. “These things happen. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Missed many periods then, have you?” she asked, teasingly, and Eddie was grateful for that hint of hilarity she was able to express despite the heavier topic.
He let out a little snort of a laugh. “I bet if I was a woman, I would’ve. You know I can barely count to twenty.”
That elicited a slightly lighter, clearer laugh from her, and she briefly nudged him in the side before they both continued walking.
“I got rid of my app the moment Roe v. Wade was overturned. And you know my generation. Useless without technology.”
“Hey, we’re only eight years apart.”
“You keep a handwritten phone book, Eddie. I bet you still know how to read a paper road map.”
Eddie shrugged, though he had to admit his sister had a point. “I do use GPS, just so you know.”
“So does dad.”
“I went viral on twitter in the spring.”
“Okay, sure grandpa. Let’s get you to bed.”
His brow automatically furrowed, Eddie looked at his sister’s grinning face in confusion.
“The meme?” she prompted.
“Don’t think I’ve seen it.”
“Yeah. Point and case,” Adriana replied with a mock-exasperated sigh. “I’m shooting myself in the foot here, though. If I was more like you and had kept a handwritten calendar or journal, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Maybe,” Eddie conceded, “but that still doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Or that the situation is fair. Or that there aren’t any solutions. If you decide to have an abortion, all you need to do is visit me in LA. You could stay with me and Christopher for a few days. I’d even let you sleep in my bedroom, and I’d stay on the couch. So don’t worry, okay? We’ll figure this out, and nobody needs to know about it. Mom and dad said you haven’t told anyone else?”
There was something slightly darker that briefly flickered over her face, but it was gone in an instant before Eddie could try to figure out what it meant. Adriana shook her head. “No. Nobody but them, and now you.”
“Buck knows,” Eddie decided to tell her for full disclosure. “But he definitely won’t tell anyone. Bobby knows it’s a family emergency, and Christopher… As much as I hate lying to him, I told him I’m going to help you figure out your living situation and move out of your apartment.”
“I mean, it’s not a complete lie,” she said. “I also need to go back there and pack my shit the next few days. How long are you staying?”
“The idea was to fly back on Tuesday evening. I have Wednesday off, but a twenty-four-hour shift on Thursday. If you need me here longer, I can ask Bobby for another day off, though.”
Adriana instantly shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I don’t want to keep you and cause you any trouble.”
“Hey, Drina, you’re my sister. It’s no trouble.”
To Eddie’s surprise, Adriana quite suddenly let out a sob before her eyes had even filled with tears, and just a brief moment later, she flung her arms around his back and let him hug her tight.
“Oh, hey, no, it’s okay,” he said softly, relieved to hear a small laugh coming from her despite her crying.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones already,” she sniffed, but still kept her face buried against his shoulder.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re gonna be okay. We’ll figure everything out, alright?”
She nodded softly, still holding on to him for a moment before she slowly let go, rubbing over her eyes with the back of her hand before she fished out a tissue from the pocket of her jeans.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she sniffed after blowing her nose, and Eddie instinctively reached out to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly.
“I’m glad I’m here, too.”
He regarded her for a moment as they once more continued their trail. Offering support was the main objective here, but Eddie also knew that the circumstances of her pregnancy possibly played an important role in her decision-making. And he wasn’t entirely selfless about it either, because there was still that deep, dark worry in him.
“So, do you want to tell me how this all happened?” he tried carefully, and Adriana let out another huffed sigh.
“Not really.”
“Okay,” he replied, unsatisfied and uncertain if or how to press on. “It’s your decision, of course. But…you know you can tell us, or me, anything, right? It’s just that mom and dad are really worried, and… so am I.”
“Yeah, I know, I know,” she said with another sigh. “But I told them not to. It wasn’t anything… I wasn’t raped or anything like that.”
Having tried to keep the mood between them as light as possible, Eddie only noticed then how heavy the weight of fear for precisely that had been in him when it fell from him with her assurance. Eddie couldn’t contain the deep sigh of relief that left his lungs.
But Adriana let out a low groan and rolled her eyes. “Jesus. I told them. I said not to worry. That it hadn’t been anything bad.”
“But you didn’t explicitly say that you weren’t… that it wasn’t that?”
“No,” she shot back, her brow furrowed with annoyance. “I didn’t want to use that word in front of them. And I guess for the same reason you’re not even using it in front of me. I didn’t even want to bring that up, because thank Christ that’s not something that happened to me. But I said ‘Mom, dad, don’t worry. It’s complicated, but nothing bad happened.’ Jesus, why couldn’t they just believe me?”
For a split-second, Eddie almost wanted to say that she’d likely understand it once she had children of her own. Because, as much as Eddie wanted to believe that Christopher would always tell him the truth, if the circumstances were strange and worrisome enough, he couldn’t say with solid conviction that he’d always be so sure of that. After all, Christopher also hadn’t wanted to tell him that his nightmares after the tsunami had been about Shannon.
“They keep worrying if they don’t know all the facts. I guess that’s just what parents do,” he said instead. “You don’t want to assume the worst, but you can’t fully keep your mind from going there.”
Adriana looked down at her feet in contemplation. Then, at last, she nodded softly.
“I’ll tell you. Not right now, but… later. Just—” She breathed out another huff and then looked at Eddie pleadingly. “Give me a moment okay? I’ll tell you before you need to leave, and I’ll tell mom and dad too. It’s just… I still need a minute for it all to sink in.”
Eddie still had no idea what those rather mysterious sounding circumstances could be, or why it seemed so difficult for her to tell her family about them, but all he could do right now was respect what she asked for and allow her to do this on her own terms.
“Okay. Whenever you’re ready,” he said, and felt her arm slung around his waist a second later, her head briefly sinking down to his shoulder as they slowly walked on.