Page 25 of Eddie

Eddie cleared his throat and finished his glass. “There. Happy now?”

Dennis frowned. “I’d be happier if you talked to me.” He looked around the table. “Well, to us. You know that every single one of us is here for you, right?”

Eddie looked at all of them in turn. It had been a while since they’d managed to go out together. The others were mated now, so they didn’t have a lot of time for this. Eddie wasn’t mated, or at least, he didn’t have his mate anywhere close by. But Taylor, Drake, Jacob, and Dennis did. Once the evening was over, they’d go home to their mates. They’d probably tell them about how sad Eddie was. Eddie didn’t mind. He liked their mates. They were friends, too. He wasn’t as close to them as he was to his best friends, but they still felt like family.

He sighed. “I don’t want to ruin your evening.”

“You couldn’t do that even if you tried,” Taylor assured him. “Just tell us what’s going on. We thought you’d be happier considering you’ve met your mate, but you’ve been moping around all evening.”

“It’s complicated, I guess.”

Taylor snorted. “Isn’t it always?”

Maybe it was. None of the guys watching him right now had had an easy start when it came to their mate. That was one of the things that made Eddie feel better. Yes, he wasn’t happy and didn’t know what was happening with Matthias, but it could be worse. Even though it wasn’t easy, it didn’t mean that it was bad. He had plenty of time to settle things with Matthias, and he knew from watching his friends that sometimes, being with your mate took work. Hell, he’d seen that firsthand most of the time.

He tapped his fingertips on the scarred wooden table. “It’s just that he went home to help his brother.”

“The brother who was in jail, right?” Taylor asked. Trust a sheriff’s deputy to want more details about that.

“Matthias said that Noah hadn’t actually been arrested. He got a warning because he was drunk, but he didn’t do anything that would warrant getting arrested.”

“I still don’t like it. You did say the guy was going to drive.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t.”

“Still not good.”

“It’s a good thing he’s not my mate.”

Taylor raised his hands in surrender. “You’re right. Go on.”

“Matthias said he was going to come back here as soon as possible. We’ve had dinner together, and we’ve been talking a lot on the phone, but it’s not the same. I want to see him face-to-face. I want us to discuss things while looking at each other. As it is, I don’t know where we stand. I’m his mate, sure, but what’s he planning on doing? Am I supposed to go to him? Or is he going to come here? If neither of us is willing to compromise, what’s going to happen? I know I can walk away from this fairly easily since I’m human, but he can’t, yet he doesn’t seem interested in discussing it.”

“You need to be honest,” Dennis offered. The others around the table nodded. “Have you told him what you’ve just told us?”

“No. I don’t want to bother him since he’s dealing with his family.”

“You’re his mate,” Drake pointed out. “And like you said, he’s a shifter. That means something to him, even though he might be distracted right now. I’m sure that if you told him that you had doubts and questions, he’d do everything he could to fix that. The problem is that he doesn’t know.”

Valentine had said that communication was key in relationships, even with your mate. Maybe Eddie should’ve remembered that. “You really think talking to him will be enough?”

Dennis shrugged. “Maybe not, but it’s the only thing you can do, right? Unless you want to end the relationship before it even starts.”

That wasn’t what Eddie wanted. If he had his way, he would never be apart from Matthias. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t have his way. Matthias was focused on his family right now, even though Eddie wasn’t sure what that meant. As far as he knew, Noah and Jenna were settled in their parents’ house. Why was Matthias still there? He had work, but he had days off. He could have driven to Green Hill, or hell, he could’ve asked Eddie if he wanted to drive to him. Instead, every time they were on the phone, Matthias talked about his family and what a mess they were. They did sound like a lot, so Eddie understood, but they weren’t the people he wanted to know better. No, that was Matthias, and he felt like he had no idea where to begin with his mate.

“I’ll talk to him,” he said, because Dennis was right. What other alternative did he have? He wasn’t going to give up on the relationship, and the only way to make Matthias realize that something was wrong was to tell him. Hopefully, it would be enough to make him come back and try to find a solution. Eddie didn’t know if Matthias could leave his family right now, but he’d like more information. He didn’t expect Matthias to put him at the center of his world right away, but he did expect to be considered. They weren’t strangers. They weren’t even boyfriends. They were mates, and that had to count for something.

IT WAS LATE BY THE time Matthias heard from Eddie, but he wasn’t surprised. Eddie had been planning an evening with his friends, and he’d been excited about it. Apparently, most of them were in relationships, so they didn’t have a lot of time to see each other. Matthias was curious about them, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to meet them yet. Hopefully, that would change soon.

But now, Eddie was calling. Matthias leaned back against his pillows and looked up at the ceiling as he answered. “Hey. Did you have fun tonight?”

There was a moment before Eddie answered, and when he did, he sounded slightly hesitant, which didn’t make sense.

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

“You said you missed your friends, right? How was it?”

“I did miss my friends, and finally sitting down with them was great. We talked about stuff.”