Begin Again novel Chapter 207

"Good, you're still wearing the hat," Liam tapped the brim lightly before handing Brenda the plastic bag with their refreshments.

"I don't want water. I want a cape," Eden turned up her nose at the bottle of sparkling water he'd opened for her.

But no matter how long she stood there, with her arms crossed, refusing to budge until he got her a cape, Liam wouldn't. Instead, he made her take photos of him and Aiden, and a few included Brenda and his security team.

Feeling left out, Eden asked at last, "What about one with me?"

"Don't worry; we'll photoshop you in," Liam smirked.

But James was happy to do the honours. He took tons of photos of the three of them. Most were fun and silly, but there were a few serious ones worthy of family portraits that Eden wanted to print and frame.

"Where's our first stop?" Brenda asked as she took Aiden and placed him in the stroller.

Liam checked the time and confirmed the dolphin show was about to start. He gathered them all up, and they rushed to the sanctuary, and for fifteen minutes, Aiden was thoroughly captivated by Flipper, the dolphin, and his handler.

They moved on to the aquarium next, where they spent the bulk of their outing.

"Mom," Aiden was in his element. He pointed at the shoal of bright fish in the tank. "Nemo!"

"Yeah, baby, that's a clownfish," Eden kissed his cheek. "Good job, Aid!"

"Who's Nemo?" Liam asked as he snatched her water bottle and took a long gulp.

"Are you serious?" She gawked at him, thinking he's messing with her. But he looked as blank as a clean sheet of paper. "You don't know Nemo?"

"No," Liam shook his head, and she spent five minutes giving him a detailed summary of the movie.

"Why would you let Kool-Aid watch something so sad?"

"Liam," Eden clapped her hands in front of him. "That's all you took from this?"

"What else am I supposed to take from it? A baby fish got separated from his parents—"

"Ugh!" She hit her forehead with her palm. "What about the beautiful friendships Nemo and his father build along the way as they try to make their way back to each other? What about their journey to self-discovery? What about all the life lessons—"

"He's a baby fish. He had no business running around and getting lost!"

"I give up," she shook her head and walked on, unable to believe she'd just spent five minutes discussing a movie about clownfish. She needed better hobbies. "You need to watch the movie. It's one of Aiden's favourites."

Liam's phone rang, and he waved it at her to show her the caller ID, his irritation crystal clear as he picked up the call. And for almost a minute, Eden listened to his side of the conversation as he directed his cousin to their spot inside the aquarium.

"We're here!" Julian screeched from around the corner before Liam had even hung up. Seconds later, Sienna and Lydia trailed behind him arm in arm, followed by Cassandra and Matthew. They all hugged each other while the brothers gave Aiden their undivided attention.

"What's with the hat?" Lydia asked.

"It's her punishment," Liam replied before she could. "She wasn't supposed to tell you we're here, and since she caved, she has to wear the hat of shame the whole day."

Her friends burst into peals of laughter while his cousins looked crushed.

"You didn't want us to come?" Julian sounded very sad. "But it's the weekend. We always hang out on weekends."

"I see you at the office all the time," Liam groaned and walked on, the brothers following behind him.

"So did we gatecrash your date or what?" Sienna asked, looking just as crushed as Julian. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I tried to. But apparently, whatever you had to tell me was too damn important to wait," Eden reminded them. Turning to Cassandra, she continued. "Before you fill me in, though, what's up with you and Matthew?"

Cassandra suddenly looked very uncomfortable, and for some reason, Brenda struggling with the back wheels on the stroller seemed way more intriguing than their conversation. She crouched down to help the nanny.

"There you go, Brenda, all good," she smiled and wiped her hands on the front of her jeans before turning to Eden again. "He's my student."

"What student?" She asked, watching Brenda and Aiden pause in front of Snorkeler's Lagoon, where a group of kids under the tutelage of a snorkelling instructor seemed to be having the time of their lives.

"Have you forgotten I run a cooking studio?"

"Give me some room, people!" She screamed at everyone to get out of the way as she knelt on the ground and reached for her son, now wheezing and gasping, an ugly rash already creeping up all over his body.

"EpiPen!" She cried and held out her hand to Brenda.

They'd practised this scenario too many times in the past three months, and Brenda should have been prepared. But rooted in place by her terror, she couldn't seem to compute her instructions. Somehow though, Eden had to snap her out of her daze and get her to react as a matter of urgency because every second counted.

"Give me the fucking EpiPen, Brenda!" She shrieked, oblivious to everyone around her. Her only priority was her son and getting him to breathe again.

Her harsh tone seemed to do the trick. Brenda sparked out of her terror long enough to dig through the diaper bag, her fingers coming back with the only thing standing between life and death.

Eden snatched it from her, popped it out of its tube and leaned over Aiden.

"Breathe, baby. Breathe. Come on, Aid, come on, baby, do it for mom, okay?" Eden said over and over as she held him in place, pressed the pen to the fleshy part of his leg, and held it for ten seconds.

Within moments Aiden was screaming his head off as a collective sigh of relief swept through the crowd.

"I'm so sorry, I looked away for a second, and I don't know where he got the piece of chocolate from—" Brenda tried to say, but Eden didn't have time for her explanations. Her only concern was to get Aiden to the emergency room.

She gathered him up in her arms, her eyes clashing with a terrified Liam's as she stood up from the floor.

"Get James to bring the car in." She instructed him.

But for some reason, he, too, couldn't seem to understand a word she said. Like Brenda, he was frozen in place.

"Liam!" She yelled at him. "We need to take Aiden to the ER right now!"

This time her words got through to him. He jerked to life and pulled out his phone to fire instructions at his driver.

"He'll be here soon," he said as he hung up. "He's at the north entrance."

"We can't wait that long," Eden said. "You know we can't wait that long."

But Cassandra jumped in to save the same day. "Edie, come with me. My car's close by."

Eden followed her out of the aquarium to the Jeep parked a little ways from the entrance.