Eden's full mouth broke out into a wide smile as her Mom pulled up to their brick ranch-style house. She quickly unbuckled her seat belt and climbed out of the car, eyeing up her beloved childhood home. It looked the same as it always did but she especially loved it in Summer. The grass was greener, the flowers dotting the outside of their front porch were bright and colorful. Shoot, even the small picket fence that lined their property looked whiter.

No one would believe her but being home in New Haven trumped any location around the world for her. Hard to believe given that she'd worked and vacationed in some stellar spots. But as the age old saying goes "there's no place like home."

"Mom, the roses are looking so good!" she complimented as she practically skipped up the path towards their front door.

"It's alright, sweetie, I got your bags." Her Mom's voice rang out sarcastically but without malice. Eden skittered to a stop before rushing back to help her Mom.

"Sorry! I got over excited," she laughed as she popped a handle up and dragged one of her bags back up the garden path.

"The door's open," her Mom called out behind her.

Eden huffed out her breath in exasperation. "Mom! I know we live in a safe town but you still gotta lock the doors," she chastised as she turned the silver knob on their blue front door. "I read last week that crime in Pensyl-"

"Surprise!"

Her voice died out and she jumped a foot in the air as she heard a bunch of voices chorus out in unison.

"Holy shit!" she yelped, her hand on her heart as she surveyed their living room. It only took her a second to get her bearings in place before she gave a scream of delight and rushed through to greet the familiar faces.

"Sof!" she cried as she gathered the smaller woman in her arms. They rocked sidewards back and forth whilst gripping each other tightly.

"Mija move!" She felt Sofia get pushed aside before she was staring down at Rosa Hernandez.

"Mama Rosa!' she grinned widely as Mrs Hernandez cupped her face with both hands.

"It's been too long, querida."

"Well you have all summer to get sick of me." she quipped as she grasped her soft forearms in her hands before pulling her close for a hug. She glanced over Rosa's shoulder and spotted Ryan. They wiggled their fingers at each other before she reached out and gripped his hand, giggling as he kissed them galavantly.

Out of all of them, Ryan was the one she had seen most recently. She had invited him to New York to hang out while she got ready for the Met Gala and she had him as her plus one to the many after parties. He was in heaven being surrounded by beautiful men and couture fashion.

Next she greeted Mike, the man her Mom had been seeing for the past two years. He was a local mechanic which was how the two had met. Her Mom had taken her car in to be serviced and had gotten serviced herself, as her Mom liked to joke much to her horror.

That wasn't a euphemism either. She had made the mistake of surprising her Mom with a visit and had walked in on them half naked on the living room couch. She never made surprise visits again.

Despite that sickening moment, she got along really well with the older man. He made her Mom happy and treated her like a queen. That's all she cared about. Even if her Mom was getting more sex than she was.

She turned to the remaining couple who were beaming at her.

"Mr and Mrs Carter," she exclaimed in happiness. She was genuinely happy to see them. Since the whole blow up with Barron she rarely got to see the two people who were like second parents to her. At first, she didn't want to associate with anything to do with Barron. But as the years drifted by, they reconnected but not as comfortably as they used to. She always felt on guard, like at any moment they were going to mention that Barron was married or had a kid. Not that she cared. She just didn't want any mention of his personal life touching her. She knew that they had felt the cooling in their relationship and realized how hard it must've been for them, too, losing someone that they considered a daughter.

When her Mom had told her the idea that Kelly Carter had of including female focused classes for her summer programs, she knew that the Kelly Carter she had grown up with would not have hesitated to call her up and enquire with her directly. That was why she had asked her Mom for Kelly's number. This was her way of breaking the ice, hopefully for good.

At the first sound of Kelly's voice, she instantly relaxed. It was just like old times except that they had so much to catch up on. Before she knew it, an hour had flown by on the phone and she hadn't even gotten to the root cause of her phone call.

"Hi, baby," Kelly said softly as Eden bent to kiss her smooth cheek and lean in for a hug. Tears sprang into her eyes as she smelled the familiar floral scent that she always wore. Kelly was still a very beautiful woman with a chin length blonde bob and the same hazel eyes as her son.

She glanced up at Gavin Carter and smiled at the handsome older man before he too enveloped her for a big bear hug. Barron got his height from his dad, for sure. The man towered over everyone he met and still had a bulky but lean build. She noticed a few dustings of silver throughout his caramel brown hair.

"Hi sweetheart," he greeted before ruffling her locks. She giggled, swatting at him playfully.

"This is such an awesome surprise," she said as her Mom came up to her side. She wrapped her arm around her Mom's shoulders and leaned her head down to rest her cheek briefly on top of her head. While her Mom was tall, Eden was taller and had inherited both her parent's height. Her dad was 6'4 and her half brothers were already catching up to her.

"Can we eat now?" Ryan quipped before they all laughed and made their way further into the living room.

The dining room table was loaded with food and she eagerly abandoned the group to swipe up a few chips. While she ate healthy the majority of the time, if she wasn't preparing for a show she usually ate whatever she wanted within reason. She still regularly worked out to keep not only her body fit but her mind as well. After Barron, she had spiraled big time into a world of sex and booze. She had wanted to erase the image of Barron and Lissa from her head, to prove to herself that she was over him. The world of modeling gave her easy access to decadence and over indulgence of vices that were detrimental to her. She had discovered fame and fortune quite young and had no qualms in taking advantage of all the trappings it had to offer.

She overserved herself with alcohol and regularly partook in risky sex. It wasn't until Sofia had witnessed her about to go home with a man she barely knew that she had intervened and asked her whether she was happy. She had realized that she was suffering from depression, an emotion she had neglected to address after her break up with Barron. She had lost someone that she had loved dearly both as a friend and lover. With that, she also lost two people that were parental figures to her and had tried to mask that hurt by looking for acceptance and love in the wrong places and with the wrong people. After that wake up call she sought counseling and became teetotal for a long time. She had also become celibate, breaking the seal when she started dating Joshua a few years ago. She started working out to keep her mind focused and clean and had also started journaling, using her diaries to expel any emotions that become too heavy for her - whether positive or negative.

Ryan bumped her shoulder as he reached down to swipe a celery stick through some hummus. "How you feeling, hon?"

"Tired but good." She grabbed a couple of pita chips and turned to survey the group of people scattered around the room. "Nice to be back for summer. Kinda feel relaxed for the first time in a long time."

"Yeah, Ibiza is so stressful." he joked.

She giggled as she grabbed a pink frosted cupcake and gave it a tentative lick. "You know what I mean. I feel like I don't have to be "on" so to speak. My other friends are great but the days are filled by talking about work, and partying on some rich guy's yacht while updating our Insta pages."

"What a snooze fest." Ryan rolled his eyes.

"C'mon, you've met my friends. They're sweet but the friendships can be superficial. There's nothing like coming home and vegging out on caramel flavored popcorn with my two besties and watching Real Housewives."

"Amen, sister." she grinned and high fived him.

"So tell me about this new dude you're dating. Kicked Bobby to the curb already?"

"First of all, dating is a strong word." Ryan told her before launching into his latest dating escapades. Sofia joined them and before long she had eaten two cup cakes, a handful of pita chips and half a bowl of grapes.

She moved away from the table to avoid further temptation and sat down for a chat with her Mom and Mike. She knew from late night conversations with her Mother that she was considering asking Mike to move in with her. Why they haven't already she didn't know. They practically spent every night together so it seemed like the next logical step. As much as she loved her Dad, she knew that he wasn't the best partner to her Mom. He tried his best but they were young parents, having Eden straight out of highschool. While her Mom grew up fast, her Dad always felt like he had missed out on his young party days so most nights he was out drinking with his friends rather than deal with a nagging girlfriend and needy toddler. He hightailed it out when she was five and had stayed out of her life for a number of years. It wasn't until he met her stepmother, Beverly, and settled down to marriage and kids that he had apprehensively entered her life at twelve with an apology and a shit ton of presents.

Her Mom, as hurt as she was by what her father had put her through, put her pained feelings aside and gently encouraged her young daughter to be receptive to her dad's reparations. Her dad now lived in Pasadena with Beverly and her three half siblings whom she adored.

She felt someone sit down beside her and gently touch her knee. Kelly smiled at her as Eden reached down to clasp her hand in hers.

"Thank you so much for agreeing to do this, Eden. You've always been so lovely."

"Of course." she squeezed Kelly's hand before releasing it. "I'm honestly happy to do it. I've always enjoyed your summer classes. Your tennis lessons were my fav. Still can't serve for shit but it was fun banging those balls at Barron's head."

The light in Kelly's eyes dimmed a little. It was like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room at the mention of his name. She cursed herself for her slip of the tongue. She had been so careful to not mention his name again so she was a little rattled that the fond memory and his name had come so seamlessly out of her mouth.

She cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject. "So, um, I wanted to discuss with you the classes that I'm going to do. It's three, right?"

Kelly jumped at the opportunity to move on. "Yes, oh my goodness, Eden, as soon as I posted that you were a guest host I got almost four hundred comments. I had to create a waitlist but we haven't had any pull outs. Might have a few last minute cancellations but the classes are completely sold out."

"How many in each class?" she asked. She was used to being in the limelight but her cheeks still tinged pink at the thought of so many of her townsfolk wanting to hear her speak. She was a little overwhelmed, to be honest. She was still an introvert at heart who detested public speaking. Which was funny considering that she strutted down the catwalk half naked without a second thought.

"Thirty. We thought about having the same people and have you chat about different subjects in each class but -"

"No, I like having thirty new kids each time. That way more people get a chance to join the class."

Kelly nodded. "Absolutely. Plus, you don't have to come up with different subjects for each class. It's going to be an hour and a half, is that okay?"

"We can make it an even two if you like? That way we can leave time for questions before or after."

"Oh, yes, that's perfect. But only if you're sure?"

"Let me show you what I want to chat about. I know you've given me free range but I still wanted to run some things by you."

She jumped up and grabbed her handbag, pulling out her notebook before taking a seat back down beside Kelly. She balanced the book on her knee and flipped through the pages until she came across what she needed.

"Okay," she moved the book closer to Kelly, "So I thought I would start by introducing myself a bit and doing an icebreaker of sorts so everyone gets to know each other a bit better and I can gauge what their interests are. I know the girls think they know me based on what they see on social media but I thought I would delve a bit deeper and chat about my school life, what I was like et cetera.

Then I could move towards my career, how I got started and what it's like in the industry. From there I thought I could talk about the pitfalls of the industry, chat a bit about my depression," she ignored the other woman when her head jerked up at her confession. "Self esteem issues we as girls and young women face. I'll kind of play that by ear, because I'm planning on making that part interactive with some back and forth with the girls. I know I have to leave time for a Q and A. Oh!" she slapped the page as she remembered, "I also have gift bags for the girls. Perks of being friends with stylists and repping brands. Once I reached out to friends in the industry they were more than happy to donate their products."

She took a breath and waited for Kelly's response. She thought her workshop was pretty good and hoped she felt the same.

"Eden," Kelly breathed. She glanced up and gave her a watery smile. "I'm sorry, this is a lot more than I expected. I mean, I know you're going to give a good talk but the amount of detail and thought you have put into this," she shook her head in disbelief, "I can't thank you enough."

Eden closed her journal and gave a pleased smile, her body filling with warmth at the praise from a woman she so admired. "It's honestly my pleasure." she truthfully told her.

Kelly took a breath, apprehension filling her features. Eden tensed, sensing something major was coming by her body language. "I'm having a barbeque tomorrow evening. Everyone's invited." she waved a hand around the room to indicate that everyone in her home was coming. "I would love it if you could come. There's going to be a lot of people there." She took a deep breath but Eden could already see where this was going.

"Including Barron," Eden finished.

The room suddenly became a bit quieter as the small group picked up on the strained conversation.

"We would love for you to come, hon," Gavin chimed in. "But only if you feel comfortable being around our doofus son."

"Gav!" Kelly snapped at her husband. Gavin just shrugged, muttering something about losing the best thing in his life before taking a huge bite of his sandwich.

"So, everyone's going?" she asked slowly. She remembered that the Carters liked to do a BBQ at the beginning of Summer. She had many fond memories of lounging in the pool with Barron and sneaking up to his room for some hot and heavy make out sessions when the adults were nice and tipsy.

"Yes, I would love for you to join us, Eden. Barron will be there, yes, and I've let him know that you could possibly be there."

Eden nodded, taking in the information while picking at a loose string on her notebook. She expected this. She knew that it would be impossible to avoid Barron whilst home this time. It was easy when she was only in town for Christmas and Thanksgiving and random important events throughout the years but she was spending the whole summer break in New Haven. She knew that he owned a pretty popular establishment and she was curious to check it out as it had gotten rave reviews from her peers and tourists.

What happened between them, although heartbreaking and soul crushing, was probably the best thing that had happened to her - career wise. It was also over six years ago now that this occurred and while she had no intention of rekindling any sort of relationship with him, she could at least be cordial for everyone's sake. After all, once this summer was over she would be back in the fast paced world of New York; back to rarely seeing him again.

"Yeah, you know what? It would be nice to catch up with everyone. I would love to come, guys, thank you." she smiled, hoping it didn't look as forced as it felt.

Kelly blew out a breath and gave Eden a relieved smile. "I'm glad, sweetie.' She patted her hand before rising. "Well, we better get out of your hair. I know you probably want to get settled in and I still have a ton of prep to do for the BBQ tomorrow."

As the rest of the guests murmured that they would leave, too, she smiled as Sofia slumped further into the armchair and picked up their remote, turning up the volume. Slumber party tonight, it seemed. She knew that Sofia wanted to unpack the last conversation with Kelly.

"Let me walk you out," she told the couple as she followed them to the front door. As they turned to say goodbye to her she placed her hand on Kelly's arm, stopping the other woman mid word.

There was one thing she had to do before she showed up tomorrow and she finally had the courage to do it.