Page 77 of Beneath Your Beautiful

I opened the Jameson and thanked Garrett who informed me that Eden told him what to buy. Opened the box with a black Harley Davidson T-shirt and thanked Sawyer. “Picked it out on my own,” he claimed. Since we’d spent the entire day out, doing ‘guy stuff’ and shopping for Sawyer’s new motorcycle, I found that hard to believe. As a birthday present, he let me take his Kawasaki Ninja on a joy ride. I used to have a Ducati, one of the few things I’d ever bought myself, but I sold it after Johnny died.

“That looks a lot like the T-shirt I bought you for your birthday two years ago,” Eden said.

Sawyer snickered.

“You re-gifted something I gave you?” Eden asked.

I tossed the T-shirt to Sawyer. He caught it and tossed it back to me. “It’s a cool T-shirt,” he said, to soften the blow. “But I’ve got a million T-shirts and no time to wear them.”

“It’ll look better on Killian, anyway.” Eden crossed her arms and slumped in her seat.

The next present I opened was a stainless-steel Leatherman. “Dad, I gave you that for Christmas,” Eden said.

“I didn’t need two of them, kiddo.”

By now, the guys and I were dying laughing. Eden threw her arms up. “You guys are hopeless.”

Two unopened presents remained—a long cylinder and a small box.

“I bet she rolled up my old naked girl posters and re-gifted them,” Sawyer said as I unwrapped the cardboard cylinder.

“Like I want Killian to plaster his walls with naked girl posters,” she scoffed.

I popped open the plastic lid. I knew what was in there, and I almost didn’t want to take it out. But she gave it to me and she wanted me to have it, so I slid it out, and I unrolled it, and looked at the painting I’d seen on her easel the night she sketched my face. “You can stash it in your closet,” she said, chewing on her lower lip.

I put my arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s not going in the closet. I love it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She gave me a big happy smile. “When we get home, I can stretch it and put it on a frame. If you want.”

“You can do that?”

“Yeah. It’s easy.”

The last gift was a key chain—a silver globe. She turned it over in my palm to the smooth side, so I could read the engraving.Every new day is a world of possibility.

“I know it’s totally corny.” She shrugged. “But I went with it. They had to make the writing small to fit it all in. I always have too much to say.”

“No shit,” Sawyer said.

I had nothing to say. Not a God damn thing. The torture of an Eden Madley birthday special continued. After dinner, she carried out the cake, lit all twenty-seven candles, and sang Happy Birthday to me, insisting her dad and brothers join in.

When the song finally ended, she nudged my arm, laughing. “You look like you’re in pain.”

I rubbed my hands over my face. I was in pain. Nobody had ever done this for me before. I stared at the cake, the wax from the candles dripping into the icing, then at her face, all lit up in the glow, her green eyes shining. So fucking beautiful.

“You need to make a wish and blow out your candles, birthday boy.”

A wish. I looked at her again and made my wish. I wanted every new day to include her.Shewas a world of possibility and it was a world I wanted to live in.

The next day, before we left, Jack Madley asked if he could have a word with me. I was stupidly nervous he’d give me hell for sleeping with Eden under his roof after he’d given me instructions to sleep down the hall from her. I followed him out to the deck and waited for him to lay into me. We stood side by side, facing the woods. It was so fucking quiet here. I could hear the birds chirping from the oak tree in their backyard and the hum of a lawnmower in the distance.

Jack clapped a hand on my shoulder and I startled. He chuckled. “I didn’t peg you for the jumpy type.”

I laughed. “I’m not usually.” He dropped his arm to his side. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my arm. It was only nine in the morning, but the heat and humidity were already stifling.

“I wasn’t sold on her idea to move to Brooklyn alone.”

“I can understand that.”