Touch Me (Promise Me Book 2)

by Viragh, Brea

  Ah, the tentacles were creeping out now, seeking information. Did I tell the truth or build up the better qualities? I had a job to do. “What makes you think I’ll spill? This may be another one of those secrets I’m not willing to give away.”

  Duncan bit the inside of his mouth, lips twisted to the side in an adorable semi-pout. “I promise to be good.”

  “August is a wonderful guy,” I began truthfully. “Caring and warm. An artist, yes, but starving, no. Not while he has friends in the county. I know a dozen people who bring him treats often when he gets too far into his musical bents to remember to eat. I’m one of them.”

  “What made you decide you wanted to take your relationship to the next level?” Duncan probed. “I have to admit, the two of you don’t look like you belong together.”

  His words should have hit me with the force of a nuke, but in some strange way, they fell between us with a decidedly airy weight. Duncan held my eyes, probing deep to determine my reaction, see what I was feeling. Poor man. My eyes never revealed anything I didn’t want them to. Especially now, today.

  I could say the same thing about you and Isabel.

  “What an observation. Seems like you want to get a little personal here.” I leaned in ever closer, wrinkling my nose in his direction. A hairsbreadth separated us. “What are you angling for?”

  He mimicked me, and I noticed a stubborn smirk on his face when he spoke. “We’re friends, Leda. Friends tell each other their personal details. Or do you not consider us friends?”

  “I do indeed.” I laced my fingers together on the tabletop. “So why don’t you tell me about your relationship?”

  “I’ll tell you about mine if you tell me about yours.”

  “Touché.”

  He gripped the glass of sweet tea, brought it to his lips, and the way his teeth captured the straw made me quiver.

  I took a deep breath and wondered how Duncan would react if I told him what was truly going on. That August and I were as close as brother and sister, and I’d agreed to help him win his lady love for the sake of his happiness, which would destroy Duncan’s engagement. No big deal.

  “I wouldn’t say we’ve decided to take things to the next level, exactly,” I said. My knee bounced once, twice, before I stifled the motion. “We’ve been close for a while, although up until now it’s been mostly talk. He did, however, let me cut his hair.”

  Duncan leaned back, rubbing a finger over his lips. “It took a haircut?”

  “Apparently so. One quick snip of those auburn locks and I was begging for more. His willingness to help a girl out in a pinch also nudged me along.” I shot him a smile, a shrug, the gesture meant to mean you’ve got your answer, now let’s drop the subject. To me it was a clear indication of culpability. I didn’t want to lie to him. “I’ve answered your question, darlin’, now you answer mine. You and Isabel.” I gestured with my hand. “Spill.”

  He’d brought the conversation up in the first place, so I didn’t expect any unwillingness on his part. However, the moment I pushed deeper into his past regarding Isabel, a shutter came down over his eyes, taking with it the light and joy. If I had to guess, I would say the hesitation came from the person involved rather than the subject. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

  “It was a birthday party for her coworker’s child. My buddy invited me because I was the one person they knew with a bouncy castle.”

  My eyes widened. This was a surprising man indeed. “Tell me more.”

  “I won it in a raffle,” he admitted. “I signed up for some stupid promotional thing at a mall because I wanted a free DVD. Somehow I ended up winning the most ridiculous prize in the history of mankind. I should have gotten a license and rented it out for profit. Instead all the children in the neighborhood benefitted when their birthdays rolled around.”

  “And Isabel bounced her way into your heart?”

  He glanced up as our appetizers arrived. There was a hesitation, and then a sharp laugh. His eyes shone with what seemed like genuine cheer. It might have been because of the food. “It wasn’t all fun and games at first. She’s a serious woman. It took me a bit to get used to her way of doing things.”

  I thought about August and knew he was the same way. They would make a formidable couple when the day came. “They say opposites attract.”

  “I’m not sure I believe it,” Duncan admitted.

  “Don’t tell me there’s trouble in paradise.” I caught the inflection between words, noted all the things he failed to say. Perhaps August’s plan was working faster than I knew.

  “I wouldn’t say trouble. Let’s call it a complication.” Duncan lifted a mozzarella stick and bit into it, uncaring about the steam rising from the center. “Or rather a series of complications.”

  “Those tend to happen in a relationship.”

  “Perfect August must be a bed of roses. You seem like a no-nonsense woman who wouldn’t stand for any bullshit.”

  “I like to consider myself such, sure. There are always issues, but we’re human.” I shrugged. “What can you do?”

  What I wanted to do was jump up and down and tell him how attracted I felt to him. To explain how I wasn’t in a place to act on my feelings not because of any supposed feelings for August but because Duncan was with someone else. Those were good reasons to tell him the truth up front, before we went further with our friendship. It would give Duncan the opportunity to choose his own future with no hard feelings between us.

  Instead I thought of August, and kept my mouth shut.

  “Bad days come and go, but in the end, you need to find someone you can be yourself with,” I amended.

  “You’re an observant kind of gal. Don’t let anyone tell you different.”

  I had to grin. Duncan had a talent for defusing a potentially awkward situation with little effort. Selling insurance might be boring, but he had a knack for putting people at ease.

  “You’re too kind. I’d gotten used to be alone, you know.” I settled in, snagging a mozzarella stick before he demolished the plate. “I’ve known too many people to rush into things and regret it later. Better to play it safe.”

  “Until August.”

  Those two words hung in the air between us. “I suppose. You understand what I mean, don’t you? With Isabel?”

  Duncan nodded and pulled his napkin off his lap, dabbing at his mouth. “I guess I do.”

  I sympathized with the apathy eclipsing his every word. “You get to a point in your life where you get comfortable being by yourself. After a time, you don’t notice the absence of anyone else. There are too many other things to occupy the space in your mind to worry about being alone, and too many chores during the day to find time to search. I suppose for me it came down to who fit in my schedule. Who was willing to let me do what I needed to do without trying to force their attentions on me.”

  “It sounds like you’re practical,” he said. “You’re too pretty to be cynical, so it has to be the former.”

  “I will take the praise, sir. However, I am neither cynical nor practical. I’m a romantic.” The mozzarella sticks were down to the last deep-fried crumb of breading. Gone before I was barely aware of their presence. I glanced over to the cheese stains dotting Duncan’s napkin, my romantic heart thumping. What I wouldn’t give to be the napkin and feel the press of his lips against my skin...

  “Yes, now that I believe.”

  “I’m waiting for the right person before settling down. I want to find my place, start a family...” I drew designs on the tablecloth with my fingernail. “A year ago I got serious with my career goals. The rest must be waiting to fall in line. Heaven knows I have a long way to go before I have everything in order.”

  “Never let your ambition keep your affections in a holding pattern, Leda. It will drive you crazy.” Duncan’s gaze cut me to the quick, his tone changing into something concentrated. Powerful.

  My heart had a difficult time doing anything besides beat since the day I met him
. Every passing hour caused it to pulse faster, tied as close as it was to my libido. I tried to focus on the cupcakery instead of the hole in my love life. It was difficult to stay sane with Duncan in the same room. Across the table. Near enough to touch.

  “It’s simpler to focus on one thing at a time. To relax,” I murmured, my heart refusing to slow. “I can’t worry about finding a man and building a business at the same time. Some people are able to juggle, but I need my hands for other things.”

  “But you have someone now,” Duncan replied.

  Did I? “If you say so.”

  “Do you think you’re with someone you can picture a future with?”

  I forgot the plan to distract Duncan. It was too easy to drop the charade and let the walls crumble until it was just the two of us. A man and a woman connecting over appetizers. Outside of this table was the real world, but while we were here none of the other crap mattered.

  “A girl needs to look out for herself,” I commented instead of answering the question. Face sunburn-hot, belly churning, I wiped at my cheeks. “Part of being prepared means having a plan in place.”

  I needed to stop thinking about Duncan as a potential suitor and remember the diamond on his fiancée’s finger. He was entitled to build his future with the woman of his choice. I’d have to remind myself of that when he walked down the aisle with someone else and left me alone, my heart torn from my chest but tucked at his side.

  “Everyone needs to look out for themselves from time to time...” Duncan trailed off and chuckled. The last shreds of darkness fled his face and he was once again the lighthearted man of my dreams. “You still didn’t answer the question.”

  I hid my reaction by taking a drink. Lukewarm water slid down my throat and settled. Not helping in the least. “I don’t have an answer for you.”

  “We’re getting a little deep for midafternoon.”

  “How about we stop focusing on relationships?” I enjoyed his easy rhythm and speech more than I could say. The sound echoed in my head at night instead of visions of sugarplums. Settling back in my chair, aware I’d been doing all the talking, I shifted the topic to another. “Tell me about growing up in Alabama.”

  He looked at me in silence for what seemed to take a full minute. Then his shoulders dropped. “There isn’t much to tell. I’m afraid it would bore you.”

  “Nothing about you is boring.”

  I glanced up when the lunch plates arrived with little fanfare. I cut into my burger, appetite returning. The giant chunk of beef and bread, with onions and mushrooms dripping from the sides, took up half the plate. Gooey cheese completed the presentation, along with a heaping portion of hand-cut french fries.

  “This looks good enough to eat.” Duncan took the burger in both hands and at once the meal appeared smaller.

  “You better believe it. Dig in!”

  I turned my focus to the burger, each bite bursting with flavor. Yes, this was much better than another boring sandwich at home. Who can argue with good food and good company?

  “I had a decent childhood. Lots of playing outside. Splattering through the mud. Boy stuff. My grandmother was famous for her gator wrangling,” Duncan said after taking a bite and swallowing. “The moment she got too old for that, the gators went to a sanctuary, which left a lot of time for other hobbies. She and my grandfather retired to the bayou, where he takes the boat out to fish and she plans on writing a book about her youthful adventures. My parents still work in retail, I’m afraid. Like I said. Boring.”

  “How colorful!” I thought about his childhood. In my head, I visualized a tiny Duncan running around with bare feet and cutoff shorts, swinging from trees dripping with Spanish moss and generally wreaking havoc. Perhaps he’d wrestled an alligator or two in his time. “None of it sounds boring to me. I came from a typical household where the most exciting outing was going to the grocery store on Saturdays.”

  “I didn’t see how unusual my childhood was until I went away to the University of Alabama and saw how most people lived. The city was a different animal from what I was used to, and I have to say, those finer trappings of civilization had an effect on me.” A smear of mustard trailed down his chin.

  I used my own napkin to wipe it away. “They do carry a certain lure. I can understand.”

  His smile conveyed his appreciation for the comment. “Now I’m not sure I can stay away from the designer suits.”

  “I thought those looked nicer than retail.”

  “It’s a luxury, I know.”

  “Despite your rather unusual childhood, it seems like your parents raised a sensible man.”

  “I never realized how much I missed those times,” he replied, shifting slightly. “It took me years of running away from my past and fighting off the influences of my family until I discovered...I did miss it. I missed them. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t have moved home instead of here. If just for a few months, to see everyone.”

  I glanced down at my plate and sliced off another bite, the portion too large to fit in my mouth without causing a scene. Scrumptious as the sandwich may be, I didn’t want to have burger juice running down my chin. “You said your grandparents are retired, but what about your mom and dad?”

  Duncan swallowed. “They’re busy running a local K-mart together and traveling to flea markets on the weekends.”

  “Aha!” I snapped my fingers. “Now I know why I was drawn to bring up the town flea market. I had an inkling but wasn’t aware.”

  “It’s sacred territory to some of my people.” Duncan raised a hand to his chest. “Yours too, I would imagine, from your comments the other day.”

  “You remember?” Dismissive, I grinned to throw him off the scent. If there was one thing I didn’t feel like discussing it was—

  “Tell me about your family,” he said. “We’ve discussed politics, religion, our hopes for the future, and my past. We’re still doing the give and take thing, right?”

  “What if I don’t want to share?” I drew on the coquette beneath the surface and prayed it helped. “I want to be mysterious.”

  Duncan reached a hand across the table and covered mine. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I want us to be open with each other, but maybe you aren’t there yet?”

  Was I there? Yes. Did it mean I wanted to air my dirty laundry in the middle of a busy restaurant? Nope. Still, there were enough secrets between us to make me less likely to keep another.

  “Mama left when I was eleven, like I told you before.” I gave him a steady look and willed my hand to stop trembling beneath his. Would it be wrong to pull away now? “She got in the car and didn’t look back, leaving me and Papa alone. It was hard, and something it took me years to get over. My past in a nutshell.”

  “Was it another man? You never said.”

  There was no judgment in his statement. Part of me relaxed and I nodded my head before continuing. “Yes. She wouldn’t have left without someone to fall back on. She taught me to cut hair and I continued after she left. From my father, the mechanic, I learned to fix a flat tire, jumpstart a dead battery, and replace a worn-out spark plug.”

  “You were an unusual child too,” Duncan commented.

  I took in the surroundings instead of looking at him. There was a group of college students taking up several tables by the front window, and a couple seated at the bar with their heads close together, a woman with her skirt hiked too high on her thighs.

  She reminded me of Deborah.

  “I wasn’t made to be one of those girls who sat around and waited for a husband, although I often thought about Prince Charming riding up on his white steed. I used to sit with all of my thrift store romance novels, reading them from cover to cover and considering my life. Those things don’t happen in reality, though.” I took a sip of water. “Instead of needing rescue, I saved my money and got out.”

  “It was her loss, you know.” Duncan looked at me sideways. His gaze was soft and his hand warm.

&nbs
p; I glanced up, surprised by his offhand remark. “You mean Deborah? My mother?”

  “Yes.”

  “Her leaving had nothing to do with me and I’ve moved past it. There are some aspects of my history I don’t care to rehash.”

  “I’m sure your father is thrilled you found your place here.” Duncan polished off the last of his food. Ketchup dripped down his chin and caught in the slight film of stubble there. “You came up here on a hope and a prayer and look at you now. I bet he would be even happier to realize what a strong, independent woman he raised. Able to make peace with the past without letting it taint her.”

  I thought about his words for a moment. How easy it was to forget myself, and everything I’d carved out of nothing. Any mention of Mama and I lost sight of the important things.

  “Duncan, has anyone ever told you...you’re the kindest man alive?”

  “I can stand to hear it a few more times.” The perfect punctuation, Duncan reached across the table to place his palm over mine. “Never be ashamed who you are.”

  I looked down at our combined hands on the table, a tingle shooting up from the contact. He smiled and I lost all capacity for thought. I felt the ripple expanding out from a center point, commanding enough to still my fingers, to wipe my memory clean. My groggy brain struggled to keep up when all I wanted to do was touch him until the world ended.

  Uh oh.

  Instead of letting go, Duncan kept hold of my hand and reached for his pocket.

  “Wha...what are you doing?” It was all I could do to form complete sentences.

  “Hush. You’ll see.” He drew out a pen, clicking the point to life. His touch was light when he touched it to my skin. Before I knew what to say, a happy face appeared on my hand, with hearts for eyes. “There,” Duncan finished. “So you remember to be joyful.”

  When he moved back, my face echoed the drawing on my hand. “How could I forget?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Later in the evening, when empty refrigerator shelves greeted me and I didn’t have the requisite five sticks of butter on hand, I ran to the store. I wheeled the cart along the aisles from front entrance to rear corners, with my stomach doing the shopping and my brain taking a backseat. Humming along with a song only I could hear, I smiled at the various people I met along the way.