Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

EDEN

"She said what? " Jagger growled. His hand was curled into a fist so tight his knuckles were white. He looked as though he was about to put it straight through the wall. If my mother was here, he might well have punched her in the face.

I wiped my eyes again. "She said I was a whore, and a mistake. I know she was angry, but that…" I shook my head. I couldn't put into words how much it hurt. I felt as though she'd taken a knife and sliced off my skin before covering my flesh in salt. I'd never felt so raw and devastated.

"You're neither of those things." Mitch sat beside me on the couch, his brow heavily creased in an angry frown. He also looked inclined to track down my mother and tear her a new one. "You're amazing, smart and sweet."

"Exactly." Kage sat on the coffee table, in front of me, his hands resting on his thighs. His eyes were intent on me, more worried than angry. "She had no right to say those things."

"Paula is a bitch." Brock leaned against the wall, his legs crossed at his ankles. "She never could handle the fact I didn't love her enough. This isn't even about Eden. If I was head over heels for her, it would have been inadequate for Paula. She can't handle anything less than two hundred percent of the attention from anyone in the room."

Kage glanced over at him. "That was the impression I got from her. She…" He hesitated. "She asked me to meet with her after the game. When you were working. I declined, of course. Even if she wasn't married at the time, she wasn't my type." His gaze returned to me. "I prefer my women independent, not pushy as fuck."

"She sounds like a needy pain in the ass," Jagger said. He stalked from one side of the room to the other.

"She's always been…high strung," I said. "High maintenance. I guess it's not surprising my father left." I loved my mother, but after the way she spoke to me today, I felt as though she'd torn the rose coloured glasses off my face and thrown them under the first passing car. She probably felt the same way about me. After all, who would think of fucking their mother's ex?

"He should have taken you with him," Jagger said.

"No he shouldn't," Brock said. "It worked out better this way."

"For you." Jagger glared at Brock, unflinching.

Brock returns the glare. "Yes, for me. For Eden too, in the long run. Her father was as high maintenance as her mother. The difference is, she wouldn't have had someone like me in her life to make things more stable."

Jagger snorted. "Eden would have been just fine."

"Can you two stop growling at each other?" I said wearily. "It's been a long enough day without you fighting."

Both of them smirked at each other, like the other was to blame, but they fell quiet, for now.

"This will be a lot easier if we all get along," Mitch agreed. He took my hands and turned me to face him. "I'm sorry she was mean to you. You don't deserve that. I hope you won't let the things she said get to you too much. She was hurt and angry, and lashed out. I'm sure she didn't mean all of that."

"She seemed to mean it." I sniffed. "I don't think she'll ever talk to me again."

"Is that much of a loss?" Kage asked. "I know she's your mother and all, but no one should be treated that way."

"What Coach said," Mitch agreed. "We all get angry sometimes, but we don't usually say things like that. Well, I don't. Jagger does." He cast a sly glance towards the other player.

Jagger stopped pacing to flip him off. "I don't say what I don't mean. If I call you an asshole, it's because you're an asshole. But the stuff Eden's mother said is bullshit."

"Maybe it is, and maybe it's not," I said. I wiped my eyes with a fresh tissue. "Is it normal to have four men in your life that you sleep with?"

"Absolutely it is," Mitch agreed cheerfully. "I see no problem with you having four boyfriends. It's no more strange than me having a girlfriend and a boyfriend." He jerked his head towards Jagger. "Maybe two boyfriends." He glanced toward Kage. "None of that makes me a whore, but I will admit to being a slut. I'm not going to apologise because my mouth loves licking and sucking." He grinned.

His smile was adorable, and would have been contagious under other circumstances. Right now, I felt so crappy, I didn't think I could smile ever again. My heart was in pieces on the floor, indentations from my mother's heels in the exact centre.

"There's nothing wrong with being a slut," I said.

I wished I could remember Brock calling me that in my shop without thinking about what happened straight after. If he hadn't fucked me with his mouth, we might have had a better opportunity to explain things to my mother. Something gentler. Something she might have understood without anger.

Who was I kidding? She would have responded in the same way. She was furious and she'd let loose with a barrage of words and accusations. Nothing we could have done would have changed her reaction. Not unless we hadn't told her anything.

Realistically, sooner or later, she would have found out anyway. I couldn't have kept it a secret for a few years, just to spare myself from her fury. Maybe, if we waited until John was there, he could have helped calm her down. Or, maybe, he would have seen the real her and run for the hills.

Was that the real Mum though? There was a difference between being highly strung and being nasty. Right? Had she thought those things about me all this time and just hadn't said them?

No, I didn't want to believe that. When she calmed down, I'd try to talk to her again. We might be able to reach some sort of understanding.

"Nothing at all," Kage agreed. "I suspect we all fit into that category. Maybe we need a support group. Sluts Anonymous."

"I think we already are a support group," Mitch said. "But I don't need help to recover from my sluttiness. I prefer to embrace it."

"Me too," Kage agreed after a moment. “You're right, we are a support group. Right now, we're all here to support Eden."

"I appreciate you," I said.

I glanced around at them all, one by one. "How did you know to come here?" Brock and I had returned home and I'd sat down on the couch to cry. The next thing I knew, the guys turned up. Kage even brought bags of food, which was sitting uneaten on the kitchen island.

"We have a group chat," Mitch said. "It was my idea. Brock messaged the chat and told us what Paula said. We didn't need to be told to come. We wouldn't have been anywhere else."

I glanced over to Brock. "You told them what happened?" I was surprised he'd done that. He must have sent the messages off quickly before following me home in his car.

"You want to be with all of us," Brock said simply. "That includes them being here when you need them." There was something more in his expression.

"It was a test," I guessed. "You wanted to see what they'd do."

He nodded unapologetically. "If they didn't want to be here, I would have deleted them from the group chat." That had a clear double meaning. If they hadn't come to be with me, he would have forced me to end my relationship with them.

"There was no way any of us would have failed that test," Jagger said darkly.

"Be sure you don't in the future," Brock replied. "Eden's happiness is important to me. Anyone who fucks with that, fucks with me."

"Her happiness is important to us too," Kage assured all of us in general. "Whenever she needs us, we'll be there for her. One way or another."

"All the more reason to buy a bigger house where we can all live," Mitch said.

"I don't think we've established that we won't kill each other." Jagger's gaze was intense on Brock.

"I won't kill you if you don't be a dickhead," Brock said. "Eden wants you. For that reason alone, we will get along." He wasn't allowing any room for argument.

"I won't be a dickhead if you don't expect me to do what you tell me," Jagger said. "I don't obey anyone but myself."

Kage arched an eyebrow at him.

"Unless it's related to hockey," Jagger added reluctantly. "Then I listen to my coach. On the ice and off, but not at home."

"I can agree to that," Kage said. "As long as you're prepared to avoid doing anything that would put a strain on our professional relationship. If the team starts to suffer, then we'll have a problem."

"We won't have a problem," Mitch assured him. He gave Jagger a meaningful look. "Right, Jag?"

Jagger grunted. "I won't if you don't."

Mitch grinned. "See, piece of cake. We're going to get along like a house on fire. Not literally. Houses on fire aren't a good thing."

"They really aren't," I agreed. I already felt as though my mother set mine alight.

"You're an idiot," Jagger said to Mitch.

Mitch turned his grin on him. "That's why you love me. Because I'm so fucking adorable. And I put out."

"Yeah, that's why." Jagger rolled his eyes, but he almost smiled back at his boyfriend.

I shook my head at them. If we all moved in together, it would be an interesting challenge. We'd have to have a house big enough for all of us to have our own space to retreat to when the others got to be too much. Jagger might need a room on the opposite side of the house from Brock. At least until they managed to find some common ground. They must have something they both liked, apart from me. One way or another, I'd figure out what it was and make sure they both knew.

"Do you want to talk to your mother again?" Kage asked gently.

I drew in a long, slow breath, then let it out through pursed lips. "Yes, but not for a few days. We both need time to calm down and clear our heads. Otherwise, we're just going to end up yelling at each other, and hurting each other again."

"You're not seeing her tomorrow," Brock said firmly. "I have plans for you."

Jagger turned a narrowed eyed gaze in his direction. "Are you giving Eden a choice to do whatever you think she should do?" He looked as though he was ready to stand between Brock and me, to stop the older man from dragging me away to fuck knows where to do fuck knows what.

I appreciated his concern and had to admit his possessiveness was hot, but Brock wouldn't make me do something I hated. He knew me well enough to have a reasonably good idea of my likes and dislikes. Probably better than I did right now, with my mind in turmoil.

"No," Brock replied, his expression and tone even. "I know what she needs. This will go a long way to making her feel better about her mother being a bitch."

Jagger glanced at me, but I shrugged.

"I'm down for anything that might make me feel better."

How bad could it be after all?