Delicate Promises

by Kelly Elliott

  “Hey there, Kynslee, Ally, Steve.” I stuck my hand out to shake her father’s hand.

  Ally gave me a warm smile, Steve gave me a stare that said he was not thrilled with me, and Kynslee was shooting daggers. Not at me, surprisingly, but at poor Becky. I actually felt sort of guilty for using her as a pawn.

  “Good seeing you again, Miles,” Steve said. I could hear the bitterness in his voice. Rich had already filled me in that Steve thought Kynslee had turned Jack down because of me. Something I was hoping was true.

  “Y’all, too. If you’ll excuse me,” I said, giving them a smile. When Kynslee’s eyes met mine, I let my smile fade some. She drew her brows in ever so slightly.

  Once we were seated in the booth, Becky started talking about her kids. I loved kids. Loved my nieces and nephews like crazy. But hearing about Becky’s two-year-old’s diaper blow out at pre-school was not my ideal subject of conversation while eating dinner.

  I stared in disbelief as she went on about the great poo incident, which she was now calling it. Moving my gaze away from Becky, I caught Kynslee looking our way. I didn’t react and went back to focusing on Becky and her story. Well, not really, but I had to shift my attention from Kynslee back to Becky.

  Finally, I’d have enough of the poop talk.

  “Tell me what’s been going on in our little town since I left.”

  She gave me a wide grin. “Well, lots of gossip, but you were never much into that. Some of it was about you, though.”

  “Me?” I asked, raising a brow.

  Becky glanced over her shoulder at Kynslee, who was in a deep conversation with her parents and no longer sending death rays toward me or Becky.

  When she looked back at me, Becky leaned in. “Folks say Kynslee couldn’t move on with Jack because she’s been heartbroken about you leaving her. They were pretty hot and heavy for a few years, so we were all surprised when they didn’t get married.”

  I smiled, but my insides were boiling. It was going to take everything I had not to punch Jack when I finally did see him. “Is that so?” I said with a chuckle.

  Becky nodded. “Did anything ever happen between the two of you? I mean, for her to be heartbroken? We all knew y’all were friends.”

  My eyes drifted back to Kynslee, then to Becky. “Well, we took each other’s virginity at sixteen, then slept together before I left for the Marines, and oh yeah, we hooked up right before she started dating Jack.”

  Becky’s smile faded fast. Then I laughed, causing her to laugh along with me. “Oh, you’re kidding with me. That was mean.”

  I raised a brow. It was time to move on.

  “I was surprised you didn’t bring your kids,” I said.

  “My kids?”

  “Yeah, to dinner tonight. I mean, I’m sure you leave them at home when you go out on dates.”

  Now she looked confused. “Ummm, is that not what we’re on tonight, Miles?”

  “A date? Like as in a romantic date?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  Yeah, this is where I felt like a dick for using her. Time to set her straight. “No, I mean, I thought it might be nice to catch up, that’s all. I’m so sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.”

  Her eyes filled with horror, then she quickly recovered. “I’m just glad that was cleared up before I did something foolish.”

  “I’m sorry if I misled you. I was simply asking an old friend to dinner.”

  Becky forced a smile. “Then I won’t be needing my babysitter all night long.”

  Now it was my turn to look shocked. “Okay. Well, even if this had been a date, I’m not sure I would have had the same ending in mind as you did.”

  Her cheeks blushed. “I feel silly. You brought me to a nice place to eat, the nicest in town, and I am acting like a…”

  I reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. Now I really felt like a complete ass. I used Becky and made her feel like shit. Rich had been right; this was a stupid idea. I thought I could pull this off, but I’d overestimated my abilities somehow.

  “It’s my fault, Becky. Totally. I led you on, and for that I’m so sorry.”

  I felt Kynslee’s eyes on me. Looking up, I saw her staring at my hand over Becky’s. I quickly jerked it away and grabbed my drink.

  Ally and Steve stood, followed by Kynslee. I didn’t want to watch her walk out of the restaurant, but I did.

  “Miles?”

  My attention came back to Becky, but it was obvious she’d caught me watching Kynslee walk out of the restaurant. “Yes?”

  “I’m so sorry, but I have to get back home. My little one is running a fever, and the babysitter just sent me a text.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure. No problem at all.” I had a feeling nothing was wrong with Becky’s little one. This was her way of getting out of an uncomfortable situation, and after the way Kynslee had just stormed out, I wasn’t feeling very comfortable either.

  After paying the bill and dropping Becky at home, I made my way to Jonny G’s, the local bar in town where everyone hung out. The moment I stepped inside and saw her, I regretted the stunt I had played with Becky. Karma was a bitch and Kynslee was here to remind me of that very thing.

  Kynslee stood on the dance floor, wrapped up in some guy’s arms. I fought to keep my fists from balling.

  “Well, if it isn’t Miles Warner. You finally had the balls to show back up in town, huh?”

  I rolled my eyes at the sound of her voice. Turning, I found Heather Lancaster. One of Kynslee’s friends since elementary school. Heather was a self-proclaimed psychic. More like she was a pain in my ass and always had been. She hated that I could pull Kynslee away from her anytime I had wanted to.

  “I never understood why Kynslee likes you, Heather.”

  She snarled. “Trust me, I think the same about you. She’s been sitting around pining over you for far too long. Just when I thought she was finally going to move on, you show back up like a bad dream.”

  “I’m well known for popping up in unexpected places. Although I’m usually holding a gun and killing someone who annoys the fuck out of me, if that’s any consolation.”

  I had to give her credit, she didn’t even flinch. As a matter of fact, she laughed.

  Heather quickly looked out to the dance floor and then back to me. Her face was serious. “You know you broke her heart, don’t you? Leaving like that and rarely coming back.”

  “I broke her heart? She had a boyfriend in college. No sooner than I left for boot camp she was dating him.”

  If looks could kill I would be on the floor right now.

  “Let’s not forget about Jack,” I added.

  Heather shook her head. “You never get it, Miles. She would never have admitted it, but she loved you, and not just as a friend. When you told her at the last minute you were leaving for the Marines, she felt betrayed. Like she wasn’t good enough for you to let her in on your plans. Then she had to see you sucking face with some girl on Facebook, of course she was going to move on. Why should you get to have all the fun while she waited for the prodigal son to return?”

  “Why didn’t she tell me all of this? Why am I hearing this from you?”

  With another death stare, she said, “Why are all men so damn stupid?”

  “When you find out the answer to that question, let me know, will ya?” I replied before I headed toward the bar.

  Heather followed. “She’s over you, Miles. When she told me early about your little promise of marriage, I honestly thought she was kidding. You’re wasting your time. Whatever your reason for needing her to play your pretend bride, she won’t care. But then, it looks like you might have moved on already with Becky. Did you ask her to marry you too?”

  Stopping, I turned back to face her. “You don’t know shit, so keep your nose out of my goddamn business.”

  She squinted and leaned closer. Our eyes were locked, and I was not about to budge, then she gasped. “Oh, holy shit. You really want to marry her, don’t you? You love
her. You’ve always been in love with her.”

  My brows pulled in tight, and a strange feeling moved across my skin. Like goosebumps during a horror movie right before you know the guy is going to jump out and murder the person. “Wh-what?”

  “I see it in your eyes. I can feel it in the energy your body is letting off. You’re in love with her, Miles Warner. Why don’t you simply tell her that?”

  “What in the hell are you talking about? You look into my eyes for one minute and think you know everything?”

  She smiled, then winked.

  “Ah hell, are you still claiming to be a damn psychic?”

  Her arms folded over her chest. “You’re up to something, Warner. I intend on finding out what it is. I love Kynslee like a sister, and I will not let you hurt her again. She’s had enough heartache in her life without you adding to it.”

  I remembered the day Kynslee’s sister passed away after her yearlong battle with cancer. I held her tightly as she cried so hard I thought for sure she would make herself pass out.

  I took a step closer. “If you think for one single moment I would hurt her, then you’re no psychic, lady.”

  Before I turned, I saw Kynslee still dancing with the same guy. She was smiling up at him and had yet to see me. Instead of walking to the bar, I headed to the exit and left.

  Kynslee

  “I’M TELLING YOU, the jealousy in the man’s eyes was beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”

  I looked down at my feet as the girl at Baron’s On the Creek Spa finished painting my toes. Heather, Patty, and I had all gone on our once-a-month girls’ trip for a pedicure in Fredericksburg.

  “He had just been out to eat with Becky. I’m sure you read it wrong, Heather.”

  “First off, I don’t read anything wrong, Kynslee Maxwell. And second, Becky told Linda who told Lana who told me, that Miles informed Becky he only asked her to dinner to catch up as friends. He said it wasn’t a date and he was sorry if he had led her on.”

  That piqued my interest. “He said that to her?” I asked, trying not to sound like that made me happier than it should have.

  “Yep!” Heather said, popping the p.

  Patty nodded in agreement. “And I heard that Becky told Mary who then told Cara, who told Susan who passed it along to Karen who then told Jen who told me, that he couldn’t keep his eyes off of you the whole time.”

  Heather and I both looked at Patty as I said, “I don’t know what in the hell you just said.”

  She frowned. “What was so hard to understand?”

  “Personally, I got lost somewhere between Susan and Karen,” Heather said with a giggle.

  I nodded.

  Patty sighed. “Becky said Miles had been staring at you almost the entire time he was at dinner with her.”

  “Now why couldn’t you have just said it like that?” I asked. “Instead of going through the whole chain of gossiping bitches who have nothing better to do than talk about me! Why is my life so fun to talk about, anyway?”

  Patty went to talk, but then paused. “Wait, are you calling me a gossiping bitch?”

  “If the shoe fits, wear it like a badge of honor, babe,” Heather mumbled.

  Patty crossed her arms. “Excuse me, Heather? You were the one who was overheard in the women’s bathroom of Jonny G’s talking about how Kynslee had her heart broken by Miles when she was eighteen.”

  Heather’s eyes widened, and she reached over to smack Patty but was too slow.

  “Wait. What?” I yelled, causing everyone who was getting their nails done to look my way. Jonny G’s was the local beer joint everyone in town went to. Everyone. Even my folks were there on Tuesday nights for Polka night. I hadn’t even realized Polka dancing was still a thing until Heather, Patty, and I had accidently walked in one Tuesday night and seen it all going down.

  “You said what?” I asked in a lower voice.

  “I didn’t say it exactly like that, and Becky asked me!”

  “Becky asked you what?”

  Heather shrugged. “Nothing.”

  Patty leaned over. “She asked if you were still upset about Miles leaving you behind.”

  I let out a sigh. “Well, thank God they don’t know about me turning down his proposal. Lord knows the tales they would spin on that.”

  Neither Patty nor Heather said a word. As a matter of fact, they both suddenly seemed very interested in the painting of their toes.

  “Who did you tell?” I demanded.

  Patty spoke first. “I didn’t tell a damn soul. It was Heather!”

  Heather reached over to hit Patty and missed. Again. “You idiot! I didn’t tell anyone either. Someone overheard me talking to Miles at Jonny G’s. I might have mentioned him asking you to marry him.”

  I groaned and dropped my head back into the seat. “Who heard?”

  “Elaine Turner.”

  “Elaine? She won’t say anything to anyone,” I said in relief.

  Heather shrugged. “Maybe not, she’s not much of a gossip. Although, rumor has it she has the hots for Miles, so that’s cause for concern.”

  Patty laughed. “Who doesn’t have the hots for him?”

  “Kynslee, apparently,” Heather said with a smug grin.

  I shot her a dirty look, then followed the girl over to the table to dry my nails. When I sat down in the chair, I tried to push away all the confusing thoughts. Miles had been back for over two weeks. He had settled right back into his life on his family’s farm just like he’d never left, or at least that’s what I heard my mom saying to my dad. It felt like everywhere I turned, there he was. I couldn’t get away from him. I knew it was a small town, but it wasn’t that small.

  I’d run into Jen, Miles’ momma, a couple of times. She had been over-the-moon happy because Miles was home. I did wonder if Miles has told her he asked to cash in on that stupid promise and she realized she’d raised a jackass of a son. If she did, she never said a word during our conversations.

  I sighed and glanced out the window to the creek behind the spa. Each time I conveniently ran into Miles, my body reacted. He affected me in some way every time, but then again, he always had.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  The man was driving me insane.

  I closed my eyes to keep the tears back. If he truly wanted to marry me, why now? Why wait and try to make me agree to a stupid promise we made so many years ago? Why not come back, ask me on a date, and do it the normal way? The whole thing seemed off. Yes, we made each other a promise all those years ago. Yes, I knew deep in my heart I couldn’t marry Jack because I had given my heart to Miles, and yes, I was falling back in love with the jackass each time I saw him.

  But why not come back to town and simply ask me out? Or hell, even ask me to dinner as a friend, like he’d done with Becky?

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Heather said, sitting next to me.

  Focusing on her, I asked in a low voice so Patty couldn’t hear us, “Why do you think Miles asked me to marry him? It can’t simply be because we made a promise twelve years ago.”

  She dug her teeth into her lip and took in a slow, deep breath before letting it out.

  “Why not?”

  I stared at her. “Why not admit to me how he truly feels? Why come back and do it this way, try and force my hand? If he simply asked me out on a date, I’d go. He must have truly lost his marbles on those missions.”

  She nodded. “Okay, I’ll admit that is the part that is throwing me. He loves you, Kynslee, but I’ll be honest with you, I think there is a reason behind his approach. It might not be as sinister as you suspect. Maybe he simply doesn’t know how to ask you out. I mean, if you think about your relationship, y’all were more like fuck buddies and less like boyfriend-girlfriend material.”

  “We’ve had sex three times, Heather. Classifying us as fuck buddies requires that we be on the same continent…hell, in the same zip code for more than twenty-four hours every couple of years.”

  “Think about it.
Each of those times were profound. You lost your virginity. You slept together before he went into the Marines, then he came home on leave, admitted a possible future, and woke up the next morning and decided to be a douche. There had to be a reason for his doing that.”

  “I think so, too. There has to be something else.”

  She nodded. “You haven’t seen him in so long, and I don’t doubt he loves you. You’re the only other person he has kept in touch with besides his family. To me, that screams the guy cares about you.”

  “Yeah,” I whispered as I looked back out over the creek.

  “May I ask you something, Kyns?”

  “Of course,” I stated with a forced smile.

  “Do you love him? And by love him, I mean, have you waited all this time for him? Is Miles the reason you told Jack no?”

  My lips pressed into a tight line, and I tried to keep my chin from trembling. I couldn’t look her in the eyes because she’d see the truth in my very soul. I had tried so hard to not think about my reasons for telling Jack no. We had fun together. The sex was good, not anything like when I was with Miles, but it was good. I cared about him, probably loved him enough to marry him. But when reality hit, I couldn’t make myself say yes.

  Heather took my hand and gave it a slight squeeze. “I thought so. I think it’s time you paid a visit to Miles. Y’all need a come-to-Jesus moment, sweetie.”

  I nodded. “I think you’re right. I’m still so mad at him, but I need to know why he’s insisting we follow through on this promise.”

  “And you should be mad at him, but I really think y’all are overdue for a good heart-to-heart. You’ve both pushed your true feelings aside for so long. You’ve buried it all so deep it’s beginning to drown you. You have to get it out.”

  Patty walked up and sat down, interrupting our little meeting. “I’m starving. Where are we going for lunch?”

  I cleared my throat and said, “Italian. I’m for sure in the mood for a heavy overdose of carbs.”

  Both Patty and Heather smiled.

  “Italian it is!” Patty said, clueless to the conversation I’d just had with Heather. Patty might have been my cousin and one of my best friends, but Heather was my soul sister. I trusted her with my life and my truths.