“Mr. Richmond, is it? After consulting with my attorney, even though you are a larger radio station within Nashville, you still don’t hold any legal rights over Eden. She didn’t quit to go to another rival station within the city, she quit to move entirely out of state. Now I apologize for this all happening quite abruptly, as that part is my fault, but should you choose to take this matter to court I think it’ll just be a waste of all of our time. Now if you have nothing further, we will go clean out Eden’s desk and be out of your hair in the matter of minutes.”

Not only was my mouth hanging agape, so was Mr. Richmond’s. During my entire time working there, I had never seen someone actually go up against the ape and the fact that it was my Baylor made him even sexier in my eyes. I quickly closed my mouth and looked up to Mr. Richmond to see him lower his hands down to his side and nod in my direction, “Eden, it’s been a pleasure to have you working with us here at 98.9 but as of now, you’ve fulfilled your duties here. Please empty out your desk and proceed with leaving the building in a timely fashion so I don’t have to call Security on you for loitering.” He tried to come across as macho, like normal, but for some reason unbeknownst to me he seemed to be lacking some of his luster.

Chapter 17

Baylor

I placed my hand on the small of Eden’s back as we sidestepped past Mr. All Talk. He didn’t seem too big and bad once I put him in his place. Eden looked up towards me and a bright smile lit up her face. “What?” I asked, knowing exactly what she was going to say.

“I thought Dean made it perfectly clear that he was strictly a Divorce Lawyer, so how did he find out about contractual agreements in the workplace?” Her eyes twinkled up at me, reassuring me that what I had done was more than all right with her.

Shrugging my shoulders, closing the door behind us and shoving my hands into my pockets after we entered Eden’s small, dimly-lit office, I replied, “He is, but he’s Dean, nothing that a little coercion can’t fix. He knows people and I just sort of took advantage of that.” She was facing away from me, shuffling some papers on her desk and then throwing them in the trash. I took the opportunity to walk up behind her until I was flush with her backside. She was wearing her hair up in a ponytail, so I just moved it off to the side to let it flow across her shoulder and placed a single open-mouthed kiss in the middle of her slender neck. I continued on by trailing my nose up the length of her neck until I reached just below her ear where I placed another brief, feather-light kiss. “God, I’ve missed you, baby. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of you and have been spoiled by your touch, I don’t want to ever go without it again.” Dragging my fingertips ever so lightly down the exposed flesh of her arm, I felt her skin stiffen and goose bumps break out on the places my touch just encountered.

It didn’t matter that we were in her office, at a job where she was no longer employed; I wasn’t shying away from what we both wanted and craved at that very moment. I took her by her shoulders and spun her around to face me, her eyes were slightly parted and desire was shining back at me. I moved my hands to cup her face, but we were interrupted by the phone on her desk ringing with an incoming call.

Eden blindly reached behind her and began fumbling with a few of the buttons in what I thought was an attempt to shut it off, but instead she pressed the speaker button.

“You bitch!” A squeaky voice roared on the other end of the line, causing Eden’s entire stance to freeze and turn rigid. “I just heard the entire show and your breakup with Nashville.” Without even taking a breath, the enraged female voice continued, “You couldn’t think of a reason to stay? Well, I can think of two words right off of the top of my head and they are the most important: Julia Caldwell.”

“Oh shit!” Eden gasped, bringing both of her hands to cover her mouth for a brief second before she haphazardly attempted to reach for her chair and finally sat down, scooting closer towards the phone. “Jules, you know I didn’t mean it that way. I was completely in the moment; I mean tell me you wouldn’t be?” Eden’s backpedaling stung a bit but I knew that she was just trying to calm her friend off of the ledge of her tirade.

“Oh, I know, but you know that one of my favorite pastimes involves holding grudges. And well, so is Mrs. Schaefer’s.” Her voice lost its candor, resulting in a bit of trepidation.

“Who the hell is Mrs. Schaefer?” Eden demanded. I was certainly glad that I wasn’t the only one lost by the turning of the conversation.

“Well, you see she was the client in my chair at the time of your little broadcast. She wanted a seven a.m. appointment to get a quick cut before work and got a little more of a snip than what she bargained for. While she loves her now-shortened layers, it wasn’t initially the vision she saw in her head.”

“Oh I see, and your little mishap with your scissors is naturally all my fault.” I could tell that the two of them together would result in an absolute riot, with Eden being the more mellow and down-to-earth woman while Julia was the high-strung and high-maintenance diva.

“Naturally. I’m glad you see it my way,” Julia said, causing Eden to huff and throw her hands in the air. “Listen, I just wanted to give you a bit of shit before I actually congratulated you on your happy ever after. They don’t come along too often in a lifetime, believe me I would know. You better call and fill me in on all the juicy details.” Her voice became small and had an air of sadness about it, “And you know, don’t leave town without coming to say goodbye to me and all.”

“Jules…” Eden conceded.

“Bye, babe.”

Eden slowly pressed the speaker button on the phone and left her head hanging low; I knew she was feeling a mixture of a lot of different emotions, from happiness and pure elation, to having your friend guilt you into wanting to stay. I moved closer to her slouched form and just placed my palm in the middle of her back, “Edie, I understand if this is moving a bit too fast, but I missed out on fifteen years with you and I really didn’t want to waste another minute.”

She raised her head and swiveled her chair to face me before yanking me down to my knees so I was eye level with her. “Baylor, don’t mistake my sadness towards my friend for being regret at what is happening here.” She looked down at her hands in her lap as they fiddled with the bracelet that I had given her just a few weeks prior then returned her gaze to mine. “I love you, Baylor Jenkins, I always have. You were my first and only true love and I wouldn’t want any of this to take place any differently than it is now. If you hadn’t come to get me, I was going to end up coming to my senses and going after you myself. We were meant to be, I can’t fathom to think otherwise.”

I continued to toy with the small square box within my pocket and even with my heart racing with nerves and my palms breaking out in a sweat, I knew that if I didn’t go for it I would regret the missed chance. I cleared my throat, wishing I had a bottle of water to furiously gulp down before proceeding, “I wanted to give you something that made everything a bit more permanent. I consulted with the only other woman I trust besides you and my mother. Norah agreed that it was a good idea. But if you want to wait a bit, I completely understand.”

I knew I wasn’t making a lick of sense, but true to Eden and her sweet, caring self she placed a hand on my forearm which immediately made all of my nerves dissipate. “Baylor, you’ll never know what I think unless you let me know what it is.” The side of her mouth raised in a small smile right before she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth. I was suddenly certain that I was doing the right thing.