Touch Me (Promise Me Book 2)

by Viragh, Brea

  I jumped at Nell’s exclamation, heart thudding against my chest before settling with a thud.

  There was something wrong with me. I had a good life. I was in decent shape and wasn’t starving. I had plenty of opportunities in front of me and a circle of friends I trusted. And yet, somehow, none of it was enough. I felt like a sieve, full of holes so that everything I had and took for granted drained away and I was left with nothing.

  “I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

  She lifted her arms, frustrated, before letting them fall to her sides. “It’s no fun hanging out with you anymore. I’d rather spend time with my brother, perish the thought. And all he wants to talk about is men. Knights in shining armor, he calls them.”

  Readjusting my seat on the bed, I turned to face Nell, giving her my full attention. Wishing she would leave so I could let oblivion take me. “Why the hell would your brother want to talk about other men?”

  “Because he’s gay, you idiot. Why do you think? Get out of your head and listen to me for once. Pay attention.”

  “I’m sorry!”

  “What did I say, then?” she asked. “It might have been important.”

  I hesitated before answering. Nell raised a single eyebrow—an expression she reserved for late-night interrogations or when she felt someone was being ridiculous—and pinned me with a look.

  “No clue. And I know I’m not the best person to be around lately. I’ve been wrapped up in myself.” I wrung my hands together. “I apologize.”

  Nell shifted as well, slapping my thigh to make sure she had my attention. “Let me get some things straight for you.” She ticked items off on her fingers. “He’s smart, funny, thorough, kind, and a killer dresser.” Her palm dive-bombed down to the bed. “But none of those attributes matter because he’s getting married to someone else. You understand me?”

  “I got you, yes.”

  I wished I didn’t. It would be better to release my control and let my heart do the walking. I imagined it would walk right into Duncan’s arms and tell Isabel to hurry along in the opposite direction. And that was a nice way of putting it.

  “Isabel’s talking, okay? And the ripples from that damn stone you threw are already coming back to you. You’re being sentimental again and it’s not getting you anywhere.” Nell flopped over onto her back, her head in my lap in a clear clue for me to play with her hair. I toyed with the strands.

  The two of us had enough history to fill a tome even in our short time together. Now I felt bad about failing to remember Nell’s brother was of a certain sexual persuasion. Even worse, I’d pushed my problems off on her time and again, expecting a sympathetic audience, then begrudged her advice.

  I looped the strands in a simple braid starting from the crown of her head. “I can’t help it. I’m a sentimental type of gal.”

  “And one who is going to end up with her heart smashed into a thousand bits on the curb.” Nell mimed the sound of glass breaking, accompanied by hand gestures.

  “Your sympathy is second only to your modesty,” I remarked.

  “You love my modesty.”

  The braid completed, I gave her head a pat and urged Nell to sit up. “It’s true.”

  If nothing I said had Nell bolting in the other direction, then I knew our friendship would last. She’d seen me at my best and my worst. I liked to think I’d been there for her as well, this last month notwithstanding.

  A knock at the front door had us glancing at each other. “Don’t look at me,” she said. “I didn’t invite anyone over.”

  “I’m not expecting company either.”

  I trod down the short hallway toward the tiny foyer. Less than a foyer, it was a small walkthrough with the kitchen on the left and wall to the right. Throwing the lock aside, I peered out through a crack at the familiar auburn hair catching the afternoon light.

  August gave me a brilliant grin, a twinkle in his blue eyes. “Hello, my love!”

  I kept my hand on the door, warring with myself whether to let him in or not. In the end, I stepped aside. My sorrows were through no fault of his. “Oh, shut up and get inside.”

  “I always get such a warm welcome when I come here.” August scuffed his feet on the welcome mat to knock off any extra dirt. On an afterthought, he discarded the shoes and kicked them aside.

  “Making yourself at home?” I was in no mood to hear from him, although it wasn’t personal. Okay, maybe that wasn’t completely true.

  “I can’t stop by to see how you’re doing? I haven’t heard a peep out of you for days. Can’t a friend come to see another friend?”

  Reaching behind me to the small basket on the counter, I retrieved a pair of electric clippers. It took mere seconds to plug them in, and the room filled with angry buzzing. “I think you came for a buzz cut.”

  August leapt back when I swiped at him.

  “This beauty stays the way it is.” He gestured toward the curly mop. “It’s part of my marvelous charm.”

  I turned the machine off, replacing it in the basket. “I’m not in the mood to talk.” I glanced in the direction of the bedroom. “And I have company.”

  An evil smirk lit August’s face and he started toward the room. “You have a guest here? Are you serious?”

  I followed after him, both of us rounding the corner to see Nell spread out on the bed in a suggestive position, with a sultry expression on her face. She lay on her side with hip cocked in the air and a single eyebrow raised. “You looking for me, big boy?” She blew him a kiss, lips puckered and pouty with gloss.

  August clutched at his heart. “My princess! I’ve searched for you forever!”

  “The feeling is mutual. Come over here and give me a kiss.”

  He obeyed, crossing to her and bestowing a peck on her forehead. “Where have you been all my life?”

  “Working myself into the ground, what else?” Nell swung her legs over the side of the bed. “How have you been?”

  “Oh, you know—”

  Nell cut him off as she continued her jabs. “I heard about your little plan to ruin a marriage. Real nice.”

  “Everything happens in due time and for a good reason, you’ll see.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Leda is spilling my secrets and influencing your opinion of me.”

  “If you hurt her, I will hunt you down and make you sorry you asked for a favor,” Nell warned. “Trust me.”

  August inclined his head. “I have no doubt, beautiful Nell. Although I’m sure you already know Leda has withdrawn her help. It’s just been Isabel and me this past week. We’ve had a few nice picnics together.”

  “Great for you,” Nell fired back.

  “It’s working, don’t you get it? Isabel is about ready to admit her feelings for me. And after our little kiss in the woods...”

  “Since no one seems to be in the mood to go home, I’ll whip up some dinner,” I suggested bad-temperedly. “You can tell us about the details. How things are shaping up.” The kiss was news to me. I wondered where August had failed to mention that tidbit along the line.

  August’s stomach chose that moment to growl audibly. “I could use a bite to eat.”

  Nell never turned down a meal and agreed within seconds. The two of them got comfortable on the couch while I searched the cabinets.

  “Is everyone okay with flank steak? It’s the only thing I have defrosted.”

  Both heads bobbed. “I can help you, if you want,” Nell offered.

  “No!” August and I shouted in unison.

  I gestured for her to step away from my prep area. “Just sit back and relax.” Better for everyone involved if Nell stayed happy and comfortable away from the stove. “It seems like the three of us could use a break. Cooking will help get my mind off of Duncan.”

  August crossed his feet, propping them up on the coffee table. “I thought you said you were going to...yeah, okay, never mind. I have no right to talk.”

  I hadn’t expected a crowd tonight. The moment I stepped f
oot in the house I called Nell and told her to head over after work. My afternoon appointments were completed with as much precision as speed. I ushered the last one out the door before greeting Nell a half hour later.

  She’d arrived in her scrubs with a glum expression and, despite the mood, I was happy to welcome her. I’d needed the company, someone to pop me back into place when I felt my tethers slipping. She’d called me an idiot and I’d agreed.

  Now there were two of them, and I wished August would stay away from any mention of love. Alas, it was not to be.

  A pan went down on the stove with some olive oil and garlic. Then I sliced the steak into thin ribbons, considering what I had for sides. There were several zucchinis I needed to use, along with sweet potatoes and carrots. Add in a bit of red wine and we were good to go. As luck would have it, there were no picky eaters in this house tonight.

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” I told August. “There are other things happening in the world more interesting than my wayward heart. I’ve had enough to deal with, thank you very much.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry about the loan.”

  My head jerked up. “McKenney, don’t you get tired of keeping your ear to the ground? You must go through a ton of Q-tips trying to keep those bad boys clean. It sounds exhausting.”

  The joke had August chuckling. He was aware of his nose for gossip. “You do know the teller’s daughter teaches violin and viola, right? She recommends people to me around the clock. News tends to travel. Not to mention the small-town newsfeed plugged into every person in the county.”

  “It’s not a big secret.” The steak strips went into the hot oil, popping and sizzling. While the meant cooked, I retrieved the vegetables and began to chop. “In my quest for distraction, I tried to focus on building my cupcakery and was denied a loan. Seems Archie’s daughter-in-law works with Isabel.” I stared down my nose at August in a way designed to make him feel small. “You put two and two together.”

  The knife came down on the cutting board. Hard.

  “What the hell are you...oh.” His eyes widened until the lashes nearly merged with his hairline. “Kelly Paterson. I hadn’t thought about that.”

  “Now you see why I haven’t been returning your calls. Gossip is spreading, and apparently Duncan and I spending time together is the talk of the town.”

  “I told you this would happen!” Nell put in with a hearty dose of fury. The tips of her hair shook with her barely contained anger. “You should have listened to me. Already it’s impacting your reputation.”

  “Can it, Nell. I don’t want to hear anymore,” I countered. “So what if I was turned down for a loan?” My fists clenched around the knife handle. “Or that I’ve had twenty salon cancellations and my nest egg money is suffering because of it. It also doesn’t matter that I’ve had packages stolen from my porch when I’m not around. Like I wouldn’t notice.”

  Somewhere in the deep folds of my mind—the creases where all manner of good intentions catch and stick—I believed that whatever was happening between Duncan and me was meant to be. It had to be, because when you love someone, it creates a bond.

  Now that bond was putting my reputation and my finances at risk.

  August and Nell sat for a long moment in silence. At last August put his hands on his thighs and pushed away from the couch.

  “I’m sorry I brought you into this, Leda. I had no idea—”

  “Yeah, well, it’s happening, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.” The knife slashed through an onion and the two halves fell open. I held my head high because I had no other choice but to forge ahead.

  “Stop encouraging her,” Nell called from the sofa. “Better to run away, and fast. She had no business getting involved in the first place.”

  “Leda agreed because she’s amazing and wants to help people,” August insisted. Even as he nodded, his face molded into an expression of undeniable guilt, skepticism, and puzzlement. “She agreed because we’re in this together.”

  Nell shook her finger hard enough to have her breasts jiggling beneath her shirt. “You’re banking on her weakness! You know what she went through with her mom, and you used that to your advantage.”

  “Excuse me?” I slid the vegetables into the pan along with the browning steak. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Nell stood, nervous energy skittering along the lines of her body and electrifying her every move. “It means August knows how you are with family. You’ll do anything to help the people you love even if it means sinking into a pile of shit in the process. Dammit, you have to know he played you like one of his fucking fiddles. It’s infuriating watching you move with someone else holding the strings, and you’re not even aware!”

  My lips were open and I gasped for air, although nothing drew deep enough to matter. Somewhere along the line my chest locked up and refused to work. “That’s not true.” A sharp lance of pain slashed between my eyes as I mentally burned the forest of psychosis I held on to so tightly.

  “Sometimes it can’t be about simply keeping the family together. Sometimes it has to be about you,” Nell insisted. “What’s good for you.”

  “Don’t talk about Leda that way,” August snarled in response. “She’s a decent person and doesn’t need you putting ideas in her head. Look at you, you can’t even find a date who isn’t soaked in liquor before asking you out.”

  “At least I can find a date without relying on someone else. Like stealing a fish that’s already been hooked. Why don’t you go out and find a real woman instead of crying and playing the martyr?”

  I was getting worked up listening to the arguing, the back and forth about whether or not I’d been played. Was it true? Embarrassment, annoyance—the gamut of my emotions bubbled to the surface and outweighed any shred of logic I possessed. “That’s not true,” I repeated.

  Nell swirled around to face me, her eyes bright with fury. “I can’t sit back and watch you do this anymore. People are stealing your things and canceling their appointments? If you aren’t going to take care of yourself, then I will. You have to stop whatever it is you’re doing with Duncan and move on with your life before it gets worse. People will start to boycott your services. Don’t you get it?”

  August was swift to retaliate, using his head of steam to push the argument to the next level. All the while I stood there with the knife in my hand, staring down at my own vibrating fingers and wondering where the night had gone wrong. Or had it ever been right?

  The voices reached a peak and I lashed out, grabbing the nearest pot holder and lobbing it across the room. “Enough!” The exclamation was a bolt of electricity. It did the trick.

  Nell sent a glare in August’s direction before striding toward the door, snapping up her hat and purse in the process. “Look,” she said mildly, “I didn’t come here to fight. But this isn’t just about love, or August and Isabel anymore. This is about the future. Leda, are you ready to stake the viability of your dream, your bakery, on a man? A man who gave another woman a ring?” A final look flew over her shoulder while she let the words sink in. If left untended, the fire in her eyes could have sparked a blaze. “Call me when you have an answer.”

  Family sticks together.

  That’s what Papa would have said, no matter the circumstances, and the lot of them would have listened to his words and agreed. I’d thought the same most of my life.

  The door slammed shut and left us with nothing but the sounds of sizzling steak.

  Maybe I’d said it a bit too often, screamed it out in my weak moments when I felt like giving up. But now part of me wasn’t just willing to help August anymore. I turned to him, struggling against a wave of dark and unreasonable anger. For whom, I wasn’t sure.

  I was mired in almost twenty years of familial obligation, my reason for agreeing to help August win the love of his life. When things went south it was easy to hate him for it, blame him for my misfortune.

  August tipped back a bottle of
soda and brooded. I watched the last sips of dark water, amplified with high fructose corn syrup, and imagined walking over there and knocking him over the head with the empty bottle.

  “I’m not in the mood for company anymore. Get out.” I grabbed the handle to the pan and shoved the entire thing into the sink. Steam fizzled from the pieces of hot meat when they dropped onto the stainless-steel bottom. “The party’s over.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Trees whipped by in a blur, the car speeding down the freeway and my two lanes practically free of traffic. The oncoming roads were busy as ever, and I felt sorry for those travelers. I watched the gauge on the dashboard rise, informing me of the outside temperature. Past seventy degrees, past eighty, and climbing higher.

  The trip down the mountain took a mere ten minutes, but there was a fifteen degree difference before I crossed the state line. I hadn’t had the need for air conditioning before but now I pressed the button. Cool air chugged out from the vents, and ACDC told me I was on the highway to Hell.

  Didn’t I know it?

  I sang along with the radio, off-key, as the miles ticked by.

  It would be a surprise for Hudson, I thought, clicking on the blinker and taking the right exit ramp. Papa had no idea I was coming. We hadn’t seen each other for the past year, although neither one of us would admit it was our fault. I did not make the trip down but neither did he venture up.

  The more I grew into a woman, the more I began to look like one parent instead of the other. My father found he couldn’t stand the similarity and our relationship suffered for it.

  Hudson Cox continued to work on his beloved cars while I made my own place and time away from him. Did I still love my father? With all my heart. Did we get along? On our better days. I looked forward to our calls once a month and little else.

  The surprise would be complete the moment I trooped into his life again. I wondered at his reaction, knew what he would say if he found out about my feelings for Duncan. The same thing he’d said to Deborah when she left.

  What gives you the right to tear a family apart?