Eden by Jamie McGuire Page A

a
statement than a question.
    “ My adrenaline was about
to shoot through my eyes! I thought your senses were
heightened?”
    Jared eyes bounced around the cab of
the Escalade as his mind tried to work out the details of this new
development. He was clearly not taking it well. He faced forward,
and shoved the gear in drive.
    “ Jared,” I said, my voice
low and soothing. It didn’t work.
    He slammed the gear back into park,
and his hand flew to his head. He hit the steering wheel. “Just
when I think I’m ahead … something else gets thrown at
me!”
    “ Honey, we’ll figure it
out.” I reached to touch his arm.
    He gripped the steering wheel. “How
can I keep you safe from Hell without being your shadow if I can’t
trust my senses? If I don’t have any to trust?” His eyes were
desperate.
    “ So be my
shadow.”
    Jared laughed once, and then shook his
head. “I can’t go to class with you. I can’t follow you around
Titan, Nina.”
    “ You can be within
earshot. You said it yourself. You can hear me through the crowd at
the Superbowl.”
    Jared nodded, putting the gear into
drive once more, but he was beyond listening to reason. He
negotiated the one-way streets of downtown Providence without
effort, and then pulled next to the curb behind Andrews Hall. He
opened my door, and gestured for me to cross the street.
    “ What are we
doing?”
    “ I’m walking you to class.
You’ve only got a few weeks left. I’ll wait for you in the
hallway.”
    “ Do you really think
that’s necessary?”
    “ I’m fast, but so are
they. They are capable of a lot of damage in the few seconds it
would take me to get to you from here. Without being able to sense
when something’s wrong, I would feel better being closer than
not.”
    I thought a moment, and then nodded.
Anything that was safer for Bean had to be the right
answer.
     
     
    The last few weeks of school came and
went without incident. Jared stood in the hallway during my
classes, and joined me, Beth and Chad for lunch. Without Ryan
around, Josh found another table, and Kim was too angry with Jared
to tolerate him.
    The crisp air was just a memory by the
time my junior year at Brown ended. The Main Green bustled with
students who made their way to the Van Winkle Gates to see the
graduating class make their last march through.
    Before the last stragglers made their
way through the gate, Beth, Chad, Jared and I walked to College
Hill to beat the rush. Beth prattled on about her family begging
her and Chad to visit over the summer. She barely noticed the
congested traffic. She had become a true East Coast woman. Even her
accent had diminished. She sounded more like Ryan than her
family.
    “ So what’s for lunch?” I
asked, tapping Beth’s arm.
    Jared squeezed my hand. “I thought we
would revisit the place of our first date.”
    Beth slipped me a box, a
bit larger than her hand, and without warning, I tossed it to
Jared. I loved throwing things at him, because he always caught them. It
had become our little inside joke.
    “ What’s this?”
    “ Your birthday
present.”
    “ It’s my
birthday?”
    “ It’s the ninth, isn’t
it?” I said with a mischievous grin. “I wanted to surprise
you.”
    “ Then I guess it is,” he
said. He kissed my cheek, and then pulled on the ribbon. “A book?”
He thumbed through the pages. “A blank book?”
    “ A journal. You were down
to the pages of yours, and I thought it would be a good time to
start a new one.”
    Jared’s eyes turned soft, and he took
me into his arms. “It is the perfect time.”
    Chad rolled his eyes, and Beth sighed.
“I remember that,” she said, her thoughts lost in the sweet,
mysterious first days of my relationship with Jared.
    “ Come on, Ryel. You’re
making me look bad.”
    We walked across campus, taking in the
atmosphere. Electricity seemed to be in the air, along with the
smells of summer. The chatter was louder than was normal; the young
faces of students more animated.