Delicate Promises

by Kelly Elliott

  Kynslee laughed, then stood. “We should get back to our folks. Oh, and the rooster will live with us, and you will fall in love with him. I know you will.”

  Standing, I wrapped my arms around her waist. “It will be a cold day in hell when that happens.”

  Kynslee

  MILES AND I went back to Jen’s place where we sat our folks down and told them that yes, we were dating, but we were also taking things slow. We still had a lot to learn about each other, and I was glad Miles had finally admitted his feelings and fears. We were not engaged, although I still had the feeling Miles wanted to slip that beautiful ring on my finger. We asked for their love and support, and I even made my father promise he wouldn’t threaten Miles in any way. He was a little reluctant to agree to it, but he finally came around.

  Now it was time to share the news with Heather and Patty. I mean, they both knew we had gone on dates, but everything felt different now. It felt real. I was happy, and a part of me was still a little scared. But I promised myself that I would be open and honest with Miles, and he promised the same. That was really all we could ask of one another.

  After our sit-down meeting with our parents, I made my way back to my house. It had been hard leaving Miles. Harder than I thought it would be, to be honest. But I needed to take care of Whiskey and fill the girls in on the last twenty-four hours.

  I’d sent a text to Heather and Patty, and we met at one of our favorite wine bars in Kerrville.

  I didn’t wait long after they had showed up before I spilled the beans. Heather and Patty stared with shocked looks on their faces. I adjusted in the chair and tilted my head as I looked at them.

  “No one is going to say anything? Are you really that surprised?” I asked.

  Heather cleared her throat. “I, for one, am trying to figure out why no one believes I’m able to predict the future. I called this.”

  “Here we go again,” Patty said with a roll of her eyes. “You said you saw Kynslee standing at an altar, and she was looking at Miles. Everyone in Hunt saw that same vision at one point in time or another, Heather.”

  Heather smirked. “I disagree. Everyone thought they were just friends who hooked up now and then. After Miles left her heartbroken and pushed her into Jack’s arms, no one thought they would get together. They’d be that sad story of two high school loves who never admitted their true feelings for one another and lived to be old with regret and overwhelming sadness in their hearts.”

  My eyes grew wide as I looked at Heather. “Boy, you’ve really had a lot of time to think about that scenario, haven’t you?”

  Patty huffed. “Please, it isn’t like no one knew they would end up together. I mean, it was pretty damn clear they had a thing for each other. Well, at least it was painfully clear on Kynslee’s side.”

  I snarled. “Hey, why was it painfully clear on my side!”

  The two of them broke into laughter. I set my jaw and glared at them.

  “Okay, okay,” Patty said, holding up her hands. “Kynslee, come on and admit it. Even when you were with Jack we knew you weren’t really with Jack.” She used air quotes around the word with.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “It means you were dating him, but you never saw a future with the guy. Did you?” Patty asked.

  “Well, no, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t care about him. I wouldn’t have dated him for as long as I did if I didn’t have feelings for him.”

  “And he was a good buffer until Miles came home. But when you realized Miles wasn’t in a hurry to get home, you panicked and dumped Jack.”

  I scoffed. “I did not panic, thank you very much. I simply didn’t love Jack enough to marry him, and he was ready for that step. I cared about Jack, obviously, but not in a ‘let’s get married and have kids’ kind of way.”

  “So you waited for Miles,” Heather added.

  “I didn’t wait for him.”

  They both raised their brows.

  “I didn’t wait for him!” I insisted, knowing it was a lie. No matter how many times I tried to deny it, I had waited for Miles. I had longed for the phone calls, the brief conversations. Even if most of them were fewer than ten minutes, Miles had still taken the time to call me, and sue me if I had loved those calls. The idea that the next time he came home, it would be for good. I also grew angrier with him as the years went by, but that was in the past.

  Patty waved her hands about in the air. “None of that matters. All that matters now is the two of you told each other how you feel, and you’re dating! How do you feel about that? I mean, I know you’ve gone out a few times, but those dates were because you demanded them, right?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t demand them.”

  They both raised their brows again.

  “Fine, I sort of demanded them.”

  They both chuckled and took a sip of their red wine.

  “Anywho, what was it like being with him again? Just as good as you remembered?” Heather asked, a dreamy look in her eyes.

  I chewed on my lip, then sighed. “It was amazing. I mean, I haven’t been with many men, but Miles has always been different. There has always been a connection between us.”

  “I’m a firm believer it’s because he was your first,” Patty said as Heather nodded in agreement.

  “Yep, I still think about my first,” Heather stated.

  “Brian Lowe?” I asked.

  She giggled. “I even looked him up on Facebook once.”

  “No!” Patty and I both said.

  “He’s married to a stunning woman and has a kid.” She shrugged. “Whatever, his loss.” We all started to laugh.

  Then I remembered what Miles had told me about Kenny.

  I took a sip of my wine and said, “What do you think about Kenny?”

  Heather’s eyes snapped up to mine. “Kenny Adams?”

  Nodding, I replied, “Yep.”

  Her eyes narrowed a bit and she pointed at me. “You left him with me the other night on purpose, didn’t you!”

  Holding up my hands, I said, “Hey, he offered to watch out for you and I had to get to Miles. He’s a cop. I figured he would be safe. Besides, he’s hot. And…he has the hots for you.”

  Patty gasped. “What?”

  I laughed. “Apparently Kenny has had a thing for our Heather here for some time.”

  Heather’s cheeks turned red, and she looked away. She tucked a piece of her brown hair behind her ear while she took another sip of her wine.

  “Holy shit. You slept with him!” I nearly shouted.

  Patty grabbed onto the table. “Hold on, this is way too much information to process. I need something harder than wine.”

  I nodded.

  Heather finished off the wine in her glass and motioned for the waitress for another.

  “You totally had sex with Kenny the hot cop,” I said.

  Heather sat up straighter, lifted her chin. “I did. I had hot, dirty sex, with him. The best sex I’ve ever had in my life, if I’m being honest.”

  Patty raised her hand to the waitress and asked, “Do you have vodka in this wine bar?”

  “Holy crap, this calls for a dinner of carbs and whiskey,” I said, standing and throwing some money on the table.

  “Y’all, we are here to talk about Miles and Kynslee,” Heather argued as she put money on the table as well.

  Patty nearly choked on her laughter. “Oh, please. They’ve had sex before. This is freaking breaking news!”

  Heather sighed as we walked out of the wine bar and made our way over to a Mexican restaurant down the street.

  The moment we walked in and sat down, Heather ordered a margarita. When it came, she lifted it up to her lips as she said, “I’m glad I’m not driving tonight.”

  We ordered drinks and our meals, giving Heather a few minutes to prepare for the onslaught of questions that were fixin’ to head her way. It was so nice to talk about someone else’s love life—or lack thereof—for once.

&nb
sp; The waitress walked away and Patty and I both said, “Spill!”

  Heather’s cheeks went bright red. She reached for her drink and took a long swig.

  “Fine. Kenny and I slept together.”

  “You already told us that. How? When? How many times?” I prompted.

  With a nonchalant shrug, Heather replied, “It was good. Really good.” Then she giggled and covered her face as she said, “Really, really good.”

  “I knew it! I always pictured him great in bed!” Patty said. I cast a quick look at her and then focused back on Heather.

  “So? What made it so good? What did he do?” I asked.

  “Did he go down and lick from the honey pot?” Patty questioned. Heather and I stared at Patty. She grinned and added, “You know, did he eat at the y?”

  I covered my mouth. “I think I just threw up a little. Seriously, you freak!”

  Patty laughed. “Fine. Did he give you oral sex?’

  “See, why couldn’t you have just said that? Like, why did you have to get all weird?” I asked.

  Heather cleared her throat. “Do any of you want to get back to Kenny and the hot sex story?”

  Patty and I both replied, “Sex!”

  Heather grinned and went on. “Yes, he gave me oral sex, and it was insanely hot. He likes to talk dirty, which I didn’t think I would be into, but it turns out it makes me very horny.”

  “God, I love a dirty talker,” Patty said.

  “Wait, were you drunk?” I asked.

  “No, it happened the next morning. I walked out of my bedroom and saw Kenny sleeping on the sofa. He was only in his boxers and nothing else. He had morning wood, and I hadn’t had sex in a very, very long time and something sort of came over me.”

  My eyes widened.

  Patty leaned in closer and whispered, “Oh, shit. This is going to be good. What did you do?”

  Heather gave us a saucy grin. “Well, for about a minute or so I thought about crawling on top of him, then I thought maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. What if he wasn’t into me?”

  “Psssh, he’s a man. Even if he’s not into you, he’d get into you!” I said.

  “Anyway, I thought about being naughty, but I changed my mind. I went a different route.”

  “Which was?” Patty demanded.

  With a half shrug, Heather went on. “I rushed back into my bedroom, used my handy dandy vajayjay wipes, and walked out into the living room…naked.”

  Gasping, Patty and I grabbed hands.

  “Son-of-a-bitch. Y’all were having dirty sex while I was expressing the anal glands of an orange and white tabby. How unfair is my life right now?”

  I tried not to laugh, but I lost the battle. My cousin was a veterinarian. She worked at her father’s vet clinic in town, and he usually made her take the Saturday morning shift. Whiskey and Rowdy were two of her favorite patients.

  “As fun as that sounds, Patty, can we get back to Heather’s story?” I asked.

  Waving her hand in the air, Patty nodded.

  “Okay, so I walked out naked and made a bit of noise in the kitchen. Leaned over a lot more than a normal human being would do to put water into the coffee maker.”

  We all laughed.

  “I heard him clear his throat, and I turned around. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. I pretended to be slightly embarrassed while he tried to explain why he was in my house.”

  “Then?” I prompted her to keep going.

  A sheepish look moved over her face. “Then, shit got real. I mean, I was standing there naked, he only had on boxers and a hard-on that was mighty impressive. I licked my lips, and I looked right into his eyes and asked, “Kenny, would you like to fuck me? I’m really turned on right now.”

  “Shut up!” Patty and I both said, falling into a fit of laughter. Heather laughed and took a drink of her margarita.

  “Dead serious. I was horny as hell and I needed a penis in a desperate way.”

  Someone next to us cleared their throat. We glanced that way to see a family sitting at the table beside us. The kids’ eyes were wide with intrigue while the parents were shooting Heather a look that should have knocked her ass to the ground.

  “Sorry, y’all,” I quickly said.

  We leaned in closer and kept our voices down as we continued to talk.

  “So, Kenny stripped. We had a quick conversation about condoms, and we opted to forgo since neither of us had any.”

  “Oh, hell no. That is not practicing safe sex, you horny toad!” Patty practically shouted.

  The family at the next table got up and the dad tossed money while attempting to label us whores with his eyes. Before they walked off, the mother reached into her water and flicked it onto Heather.

  “May the Lord forgive you…strumpet!”

  Heather jerked back. “What the hell? Did she just try to bless me with her drinking water?”

  We watched her walk out of the restaurant.

  Patty turned to Heather and busted out laughing. “She called you a strumpet!”

  The three of us fell into a fit of laughter. The kind of laughter where you have a hard time breathing—while tears fall down your face and you probably pee a little.

  “Maybe we should save this conversation for later,” I said, wiping the tears from my face.

  Patty leaned back and took in a few deep breaths as she got her laughing under control. “Oh man, that was funny as hell. She attempted to bless you with her water!”

  Heather wiped at her forehead and face. “Well, that was new. Even for me.”

  “Didn’t see that one coming, huh?” I asked, a giggle slipping free.

  Heather smirked and shot me the finger.

  “So y’all had unprotected sex?” Patty stated, her arms crossed over her chest.

  With a heavy sigh, Heather nodded. “Not the best decision of my life, but my libido was in control and my God, the man has a dick that should be on display. I’m not kidding. It was beautiful. Thick, long, silky smooth.”

  Heather closed her eyes and slowly shook her head. “Oh my God, I am a strumpet!”

  “You’re on the pill, right?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Yeah, but it was still stupid. To be honest, I don’t regret it for a minute. That was the best sex of my life and Kenny is, well, he’s such a great guy. And the way he treated me during and after…”

  Patty and I leaned in closer again.

  I slowly shook my head. “Don’t stop now because I swear to God I see something in your eyes that says you want more of Kenny, and I’m not talking about his pretty dick!”

  “Beautiful dick. I said he had a beautiful dick.”

  I waved her words off.

  Heather gave a slight smile. “I really like him, y’all. I mean, I can’t stop thinking about him. I have this weird feeling in my chest every time he texts or calls.”

  Patty and I exchanged looks and then focused back on Heather.

  “Heather, you’ve been bitten by the bug! The love bug!” Patty said.

  With a flush on her cheeks, she replied, “I have been bitten bad!”

  “Two down, one to go!” I said, pointing to Patty who smiled and lifted her glass to us.

  “I’ll drink to that!”

  Miles

  KYNSLEE LEANED AGAINST the door while I cleaned out Rosemary’s stall.

  “How was your girls’ night?” I asked as I looked back at her. She smiled. The kind of smile that said she knew something and wanted desperately to tell me about it. It brought back memories of high school when Kynslee sat in the barn while I did chores and filled me in on all the gossip.

  “It was…interesting.”

  “How so?”

  “For starters, Kenny and Heather had sex.”

  I kept shoveling out the stall.

  “Did you hear what I said, Miles?”

  One quick look back at her, and I nodded. “You said Kenny and Heather had sex. I’m assuming it was a couple nights ago.”

  “
Yesterday morning! Are you not surprised?”

  I laughed. “No. I already told you, he likes her. A lot.”

  “Yes, but just because he likes her doesn’t mean Heather likes him.”

  This time I stopped to wipe the sweat from my brow. Mid-October in Texas could still be hot as hell, and today was for sure toasty.

  “Does she?” I asked.

  “Does she what?”

  “Does Heather like Kenny?”

  A wide smile broke over her face. “Yes!”

  I couldn’t help it, I smiled in return. I could hear the excitement in her voice for her friend, and I wondered if they had talked about me and Kynslee last night, as well. Were her friends just as excited for Kynslee as she was for Heather right now?”

  “Miles, this is huge. You have to promise not to say anything to Kenny because I wouldn’t want to scare him away or anything, but Heather does like him a lot.”

  “That’s good to know because I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.”

  She tilted her head. “Did you already know they slept together?”

  I shrugged. “Kenny mentioned something about it.”

  Kynslee pushed off the wall and walked over to me. “What do you mean he mentioned something about it?”

  “He mentioned it this morning when he called me.”

  “What did he say?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why do you want to know?”

  Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God! He said the sex was bad, didn’t he? I always thought Heather wasn’t as experienced as she said she was.”

  I laughed. “No, he said he had an amazing time with her. He didn’t go into the sex part. He was asking me how soon he should wait to call and ask her out. I informed him I was the last person to ask about that sort of shit.”

  Kynslee’s smile grew. “That is true. You are the last person.”

  Rolling my eyes, I went back to work. “I did, however, tell him that if it were me, I’d call her today. Maybe see if she wanted to hang out or go to dinner.”

  “That was good advice, Miles. I’m still upset that Heather had unprotected sex with him, though.”

  That caught my attention, and I stopped again. “What?”

  She nodded. “Yep.”