Abby's Promise

by Rebekah Dodson

  “What is this, the nineties?” Andrew groaned. “Laser tag wasn’t even cool in high school.”

  “Whatever,” Randy said. “Come on, Joey, wanna shoot things?”

  I lit up. “Always, bro!”

  “I’ll just go order some food,” Andrew told us, kissing Randy quickly, before heading back down the stairs. “And then I’ll find Pacman!”

  We let him go and checked in at the register for Laser tag.

  “I’m not sure I’m ready for this,” I said as we stepped into the vaulted room. It was dark, and we were strapped with the strangest wireless contraption I had ever seen. What happened to the little gray boxes we had to wear around our necks? Now, it was just a little sticker with a blinking red light in the center of our chests. Even the gun had changed over the years to something much lighter and realistic, the plastic form fitting as comfortably in my hand as my Glock did.

  “You better be ready,” Randy shouted, and ‘shot’ me square in the chest. The little stick on his counter rolled out a number one as he did. He ducked behind a nearby gray ‘stone’ obstacle and disappeared from sight.

  “Oh, damn it,” I growled, racing after him.

  Two older teenagers popped out in front of me, and I aimed, fired.

  “Shit, man, you’re good!” They both stepped away as I rushed past them. Two more kids, much younger, tried to get a shot off, but I rolled into it and they missed.

  An adult woman, flanked by a kid under ten years old, tried to hit me as I rounded another small obstacle, but I dodge them as well.

  Up ahead, I saw the back of Randy’s baseball cap and I charged. As he turned, surprised, I saw he’d been shot six times. He may have aim, but not dodge, like I did. Of course, Randy had never seen combat, either.

  He aimed and fired, but I sidestepped and circled around. From my hip I shot, then raised for another measured aim, hitting both times. His ‘kills’ clicked up to eight.

  He ducked away, and I chased, landing two more kills.

  After several more minutes, I had been shot once, by Randy, and he had been shot by me and everyone else over twenty times.

  We made it back to the doors, panting and pulling off our gear. “Fun times, yeah?” Randy asked me.

  “Yeah, but now I’m starving,” I said. “And I can smell the pizza from here.”

  “Let’s go find Andrew.”

  Downstairs, the place was even more crowded, and a fourth birthday party had moved in as another finished up. Three women and a man buzzed around the table nearest the stairs with several small children running around their ankles. Two of them with short curly blond hair each tugged at the man’s pant legs.

  “Just a second, Sarah, Lilly, Daddy’s coming to watch you slide,” he told her. I watched them, a little older than Zoey I realized, but they still reminded me of her all the same.

  “What time is it?” I asked Randy, too distracted to check my phone, as we sauntered past them. I ducked out of the way of a little boy who ran up to the candy machine on the left wall.

  He checked his. “Just about two.”

  I stared at him. “We were up there an hour? Seriously?”

  Randy laughed. “Time flies when you’re having fun?”

  “Jesus. I’m starving.” My stomach was rumbling, and the conflicting smells of pizza, salads, and sodas was killing me. “Where’s Andrew?”

  “Could he be up in the arcade?” Randy glanced around, trying to see through the crowd. We got to the counter, but he wasn’t there, either. “Oh, he’s at a table. With some blonde woman?”

  I followed where Randy pointed. Andrew was seated at a small table with a glass of red wine, opposite a woman who cradled a coffee cup. Her long blonde hair obscured her face from here, but I would know those curls anywhere.

  I tried to stop Randy, who obviously didn’t recognize her, as he strode over to his boyfriend. “Did you make a friend, baby?” he asked as I trailed reluctantly behind him. I looked for an escape, but the place was packed. I didn’t have a choice.

  “Randy! Did you two have fun up there?” Andrew grabbed his hand and squeezed. “You’ll never guess who this is. She’s the new prof they hired to replace the old one!”

  I had stopped listening. I didn’t need to hear her name. It had been on the tip of my tongue for three long months. The woman looked up and her blue-gray eyes under those long lashes stopped my heart like the first day she walked into my history class six months ago. She was wearing a pink blouse with ruffled arms, and it was low cut, giving me a full view of just two parts of her I had missed dearly.

  “Hi, Joey,” she said. “How are you?”

  Missing holding you in my arms every damn day! My brain screamed. Instead, I clamped down on my tongue.

  “You know each other?” Andrew said, blinking at me.

  “Know each other?” Randy blurted.

  I stomped on Randy’s foot, hard. He yelped, and Andrew glared at me. Ignoring them, I turned to her. “I’m good, Abby. I’m the new RA at the dorm, have been since June. I start university classes next week in case you haven’t heard.”

  “Oh, wow, good for you,” she said, a half smile on her face. The casual way she said that to me tore my heart to shreds. She stood suddenly. “It was nice to meet you, Andrew, and enjoy your classes next term. I’ve got to get back to my daughter’s birthday party.”

  Zoey was here? Where was she? I looked back to the group setting up, but in a sea of blond heads, I couldn’t make her out. I stepped back and let Abby slip beside me.

  “Is that her?” Andrew was whispering to Randy.

  “Yup,” he said, not bothering to keep his voice down. “That’s her.”

  “Shut up, both of you,” I hissed.

  “What are you waiting for?” Andrew said urgently, dropping his voice even lower. “Go grab her and pin her against the wall and kiss the shit out of her!”

  Pin her against the wall. I winced, remembering the last time that had happened. I shook my head, trying to dismiss it. “No,” I said firmly, ripping my eyes away from Abby as she joined the circle of other parents. She beamed at them and laughed as the man said something. “I can’t.” The same man picked up a blonde girl, who I recognized as Zoey now, and Abby patted his arm.

  Fuck. She’s moved on. My breath hitched in my throat but then came out in a ragged exhale. Well, that was fast. I guess I didn’t mean as much to her as I thought.

  “Why the fuck not?” Randy insisted. “Just because she sent you away doesn’t mean you can’t rush over and sweep her off her feet.”

  He trailed off as a commotion started at Abby’s table. The doors at the back of the place opened, and a tall man in military camo strode in. He looked around the room and finally spotted the man next to Abby.

  In the screaming, yelling, running mess of children, I couldn’t hear a word he said, only saw him mouth something. Abby patted the man’s arm and pointed at the soldier. She took Zoey and smiled brightly.

  “Rowan!” the soldier shouted above all the noise, and the man ran into his arms. Soldier picked him up and swung him around and they kissed fervently. I could see the two little blonde girls, too close in age to be anything but twins I noticed now, running up and grabbing the camo-clad legs. I barely heard them cry, “Daddy!”

  Relief washed through me and I almost felt dizzy.

  The soldier sat the other man down and they embraced again, and even from here I could see the man was wiping at his eyes. “You’re early,” he nearly yelled at him. “How are you early?” He slapped at him but kissed him all the same.

  “Aww, that’s so sweet!” Andrew was standing behind me now. I heard him peck Randy on the cheek. “I just love happy endings!”

  I was frozen watching everything happen, but my legs started to work before my brain did. I marched over to Abby, ignoring the rude ‘Excuse me!’ from one of the women she was talking to. Rowan and his soldier were openly staring at us.

  “Can I talk to you.” It wasn’t a question.r />
  “Joey, not now.”

  “Daddy?” Zoey cocked her head sideways.

  “Who is this guy?” The woman sitting to my left said as she rocked a baby in a carrier at her feet.

  “It’s fine, Julie,” Abby told her. She turned back to me. “I’m at my daughter’s birthday party. We are about to light the candles on the cake.”

  “Daddy!” Zoey reached out and flung herself toward me, kicking off her mother’s stomach so hard that Abby lost her grip. I caught Zoey and hugged her tight.

  “Zoey girl,” I whispered in her hair. “I missed you, baby girl. God, I missed you.” I felt tears on my cheeks, and I didn’t even care who was watching.

  Abby tried to pry her away from me. “Joey, you can’t just waltz in here like this.”

  I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw the man, Rowan, and the soldier standing behind me.

  “Everything okay here?” he asked in a high, nervous voice.

  I turned and thrust Zoey at him. “Can you watch her for a second? Great, thanks.” Grabbing Abby’s hand, I pulled her behind me and out the back doors.

  “Joseph Harrison!” she fumed at me, her hands on her hips. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”

  “First of all, it’s a free country. I know, because I fought for it. Secondly, well, this.”

  I stepped closer and took her face in my hands and kissed her. She stepped back, her back hitting the brick wall behind her.

  I fully expected her to fight me off, pound her fists against my chest, or bring her knee up right into my balls. Even if she did all those things, I wanted that one last kiss. Even if she told me, again, she never wanted to see me, that kiss was my very. Last. Chance. To show her I meant to keep her promise, that she’d let me take care of her.

  And after this, if she still sent me away, I’d go. I’d never talk to her again. I’d watch her be happy from afar.

  “Joey,” she murmured against me. Our lips were still pressed together.

  Her hands found my waist. She pulled me in tighter, returning my kiss with more fiery passion than I started it with. Knowing full well we were standing against a building that faced a public parking lot, I let my hand fall from her face and kept them chastely at her waist. Feeling her curves and warmth under my fingertips sent a shock of electricity through me. Feeling her breasts press into my chest set my nerves on absolute fire.

  “Don’t let go,” she whispered when I had to pull away for a breath. “Joey, please. Don’t let me go. I’m miserable without you. I need you.”

  “If we weren’t standing in a parking lot, I’d…” I whispered in her ear and then I kissed it, trailing a kiss down the side of her neck. She shivered under my grasp.

  “Zoey,” she mumbled. “I have to get back.”

  I pulled away then. “Right, birthday party.” I searched her face. “Do you want me to stay?”

  She bit her lip, driving me insane. I wanted to taste her lips again and again.

  “I want you to stay forever,” she gasped.

  “I promise you, Abby, I’ll never leave you again.”

  “I promise you I’ll never let you leave. You’re stuck with me and Zoey.”

  “Except…shit!” I ran a hand over my hair. “I’m the RA, I can’t just move out. I’m committed to the term.”

  “I don’t even care.” She gripped my shirt and pulled me in again, kissing me. “As long as you’re not in my class, if you don’t even get to spend the night, I don’t even care.”

  “I love that you don’t care.” I chuckled against her. “Mark my words, though, when this term is over I’m not playing house this time. I want to make a home with you.”

  Her lip trembled, then.

  “Abby?” What had I said wrong?

  “I can’t…” she nearly choked on her words, “I can’t give you children, Joey, you know that, right? It’s just me and Zoey for the rest of our lives.” A tear rolled down her cheek.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” I said, tipping her chin up to look at me. “I’ve been around the world. There are orphans and abandoned children in war torn countries who need our love more than a baby we could make. It’ll be fine, Abby, I don’t care. I want you, and I want to help you raise Zoey. Will you let me?”

  “Yes,” she said confidently, throwing her head back. “Yes, Joey, I will.”

  “I’m not letting you go again,” I said, dropping down to one knee. “I know this is crazy, and maybe stupid, but Abigail, will you be my wife?”

  She gasped, sobbing. She couldn’t speak, so she just nodded.

  I stood, feeling a little like a fool, and pulled her toward me. “I don’t have a ring,” I murmured into her hair. “I’ll get you one.”

  “I don’t need one. I just need you.” She pulled back and grabbed my hand. “Come on, I’ve got some people you need to meet.”

  I let her drag me behind her. I’d follow her anywhere.

  Soon, she’d make the greatest promise of all, in front of our friends and family. Her other promises fell by the wayside at the thought of this one, this would be the promise where she would finally, after eight long years, be mine.

  Epilogue

  Abby Girl: I’ve failed a lot on my promises.

  Jo-Jo: how so?

  Abby Girl: I promised I’d write when you deployed, that I’d wait for you, that I’d never leave. I broke them all

  Jo-Jo: Abby girl, Abster, the only promise I care about is the one you’re about to make today.

  Abby Girl: the honor to love and cherish bullshit?

  Jo-Jo: yeah, that one.

  Abby Girl: this is one promise I can keep.

  Jo-Jo: I’m counting on it. You’re the love of my life.

  Abby Girl: so are you. I’m so glad you came back to me, Joey Harrison.

  I smiled thinking about her text from this morning. She wouldn’t wear white. She’d worn white to her courthouse wedding, she’d told me, and she felt it didn’t fit her anymore. Instead, she wore purple. A beautiful dress that she filled out even better than the one she wore to prom. Neither of us believed in luck, as we had created our own destiny, so the minute I saw her try it on at the bridal shop, I knew it was the one.

  Today, the day of days, Zoey tottered up the two stairs toward the podium of my parents’ church, throwing her white basket of purple petals aside, when Julie, one of Abby’s three bridesmaids, scooped up the little one and held her on her hip. I slightly envied Abby for all her friends—Rowan, her ‘man of honor’, and then Lauren, Julie, and Tania, her new friends, whom I also enjoyed spending time with as much as Abby did. Even Lettie and Juney stood on her side. Randy, my best man, and Sam, my first friend in college, stood next to me as the organ pumped the announcement for the bride. In the front row, Andrew sat next to my mother, sobbing loudly into a handkerchief, and next to him, Rowan’s husband, Tech Sargent Josiah Matthews, stoically brushing away his liquid sentiment.

  My father had neglected to attend, but Abby’s mother, on the other side of the pews, sat teary-eyed and smiling. I wasn’t sure I could ever repair the damage between my father and us, but that was another thought for another day. Randy and I both had some work in front of us.

  Abby had entered the auditorium on her father’s arm. Even though I knew he didn’t like me, he had at least accepted our union, mostly for Zoey’s sake. An old-fashioned, firm believer every child should have a father, he’d obliged to picking up our modest bill and even purchasing a Christmas-themed cruise for our honeymoon. After the term was over, of course.

  Abby was a breath of beauty. Her tight dress accentuated everything perfectly, as my heart thudded in my chest to see her slowly approach. Good God, she was more beautiful in that moment than I had ever seen her. Her hair was pulled back behind a lavender veil, but a few stubborn curls framed her face. I wanted to kiss her cheeks and skip to the part of the ceremony where I was encouraged to make our love public.

  But first, all the formality.

  Abby took my hands i
n hers and stared at me, her lips trembling, her voice nervous as she pledged her love and life to me.

  “Do you, Abigail Years, promise to take Joseph Harrison as your loving husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, as long as you both shall live?”

  She searched my face, but only for a second. “I do,” she breathed, and slipped the simple gold band onto my finger.

  I echoed her a few seconds later, sealing it with the ring, and finally…the kiss.

  “No church tongue,” she’d told me during rehearsal. “My mother will be watching.”

  “I don’t give a damn.” H er glare told me I’d better not.

  To hell with formality.

  I dipped her and pressed my lips to hers, much to the whoops and cheers of our small crowd. Even Sam clapped and shouted, “Go for it!” behind me.

  When I stood her back up, her face was flushed red and she tried to glare at me but gave up. I hooked my arm around her waist as we turned to our audience, a gathering of only twenty or thirty of my parents’ and her parents’ friends, mostly. I kept my promise after all, and never let her go. Of course, I could say the same about her.

  “May I now present to you, Mr. And Mrs. Joseph Harrison.”

  The End

  About the Author

  Rebekah Dodson is a prolific word weaver of women’s fiction, fantasy, and science fiction novels. Her works include the series Postcards from Paris, The Curse of Lanval series, plus several standalone novels. She has been writing her whole life, with her first published work of historical fiction with 4H Clubs of America at the age of 12, and poetry at the age of 16 with the National Poetry Society. With an extensive academic background including education, history, psychology and English, she currently works as a college professor by day and a writer by night. She resides in the Pacific Northwest of the United States with her husband, two teenagers, and three dogs.