The Promise

by Robyn Carr

  “No big social events?”

  “No, why?”

  “I might need a sitter. Overnight.”

  “Oh? What are you doing?”

  “I think I better take a drive north. Up to the farm.”

  “You took my advice? You actually listened to me?”

  “I didn’t look into her. I looked at her, but not into her. I’m a schmuck.”

  “That’s what I’ve been saying,” Devon said. “I’ll keep the kids. But you’re going to owe me.”

  “I know. I’ll owe you. I already owe you. But I think I’m in trouble here. And if I don’t get her back, something inside me is going to die.”

  * * *

  It was very rare that Peyton was the only one of the Lacoumette children at the table with her parents. Matt, the divorced brother who worked the farm and lived nearby, was the most frequent dinner guest. He took many meals at his mother’s table because the cost was low, and though he wouldn’t admit it, it comforted him. But Matt was not there this night, so it was just the three of them. Her father talked about potatoes and berries for a while, then he asked about that fancy doctor and his kids, so she told them everything.

  Paco snorted and filled his mouth with more food. Corinne said, “Was there no other family?”

  “Spread around. I met Ted’s sister and brother-in-law, and it was obvious none of them were close. They didn’t rely on each other for anything—why would Krissy rely on them during the scariest time of her life?”

  “A family that works together comes together in the hard times,” Paco pronounced.

  “At least Ted takes it all very seriously now. I think he’ll become a better father.”

  “Peyton, you’re so sad,” Corinne said. “Do you regret leaving Ted, after all?”

  She shook her head. “I admired him so. I still admire him—he’s the most wonderful doctor. But we haven’t loved each other in a long time. It’s just that...” She lowered her gaze to her plate and went quiet.

  “What, darling?” Corinne asked.

  She lifted her eyes. “If she was so in need of love, why couldn’t she accept mine? I tried so hard.”

  “Oh, Peyton, people have troubles. We can’t always help. Even when it’s our own child, sometimes we aren’t what they need.”

  “I don’t have children,” Peyton softly reminded her. “Maybe that’s for the best.”

  “Pah! God has not spoken yet, that’s all!”

  “Well, I hope He sends me a text pretty soon, because I’m not getting any younger.”

  “My mother had her last child at forty-six,” Paco said.

  “I know. And I’m not doing that!”

  Corinne patted her hand. “Nor should you, darling. I don’t know what that woman was thinking. So, tomorrow we’ll pull a little more out of the garden. I have some baking to do because next weekend there are a lot of family here. We’ll can— I have bushels of tomatoes and other things in the cellar staying cool and fresh. You can take vegetables home to your friends. You can rest. After a night in a good bed, you’ll be smiling again. Ted has a gift—a chance to manage his own family.” She squeezed her hand. “He may not know it yet, but he’s very lucky.”

  “He knows it, Mama. He could’ve been too late. And he was in time.”

  “I hope he thanked you for all you did.”

  “He did. Mama, did your children ever give you problems you couldn’t help with?”

  Corinne laughed. “More times than I could count. As recently as five minutes ago.”

  Peyton didn’t even realize how emotionally drained she was until she turned in at eight. She checked her phone to make sure there were no messages. She texted Scott and told him she hoped he had had a good time at the game, that she was with her parents and would be back Sunday. She then texted Ted and said she hoped he was doing all right, that she had faith in him that he could make things work out in his family.

  Of course, he could not text her back unless he borrowed a phone from one of the kids. But he could email her. She saw it as a good sign that he didn’t. Perhaps he was busy with his children. And perhaps he was letting her go.

  And then she slept the sleep of the emotionally depleted.

  In the morning she worked in the garden with her mother, helped with lunch and after that she fled to the hayloft. And there, lying on her back, one ankle propped on a raised knee, she thought. When I get home we’ll talk about things, like trust and faith and true love. I hope I can get through to him because I love him. And I’m not going to give up without a fight.

  * * *

  Scott saw the door to the Lacoumette house standing open, and good smells were wafting outside. It was a beautiful September afternoon. Peyton’s car was parked in front, and he pulled up alongside it. He walked across the porch and stepped through the doorway. “Anyone home?” he called.

  “In the kitchen,” Corinne yelled.

  He found Corinne at the stove and Peyton’s brother George sitting at the workstation with a cup of coffee.

  “Dr. Grant,” Corinne said, wiping her hands on a towel. “We weren’t expecting you!”

  “I came on the spur of the moment. I’m sorry I didn’t call ahead.”

  “It’s all right, it’s all right! George, go get your sister out of the hayloft.”

  “The hayloft?” Scott said. “Oh, she’s working things out again? No, leave her there. But I have an idea—can you tell me where to find Paco?”

  “I’ll take you,” George said. He stood and drained his cup and put it in the sink. “He’s probably watching the harvester—the potatoes are coming in. I’m so glad I don’t have potatoes. Dirty work. Come with me.”

  As he was following George out of the back of the house, he heard Corinne say she’d set a place for him for dinner. She had not asked him what he was doing here and on the drive out to the fields, George didn’t, either. In fact, George didn’t have much to say at all. He remarked on the weather, said again he was glad his crop just had to be sheared and he didn’t have to harvest so much, especially the delicate fruits of pears and berries. He just liked to eat them.

  Paco was leaning against the front of his old pickup truck, arms crossed over his broad chest, one leg crossed in front of the other. He watched two enormous pieces of farm equipment moving slowly down the rows of potatoes, spitting them out into trucks.

  “There you go,” George said.

  When Scott got out, George sped away. Scott had expected him to get out, maybe make a little small talk with his father, give Scott some time to amp up his courage.

  “Dr. Grant,” Paco said. “You hungry again?”

  He laughed. “Yes, sir. Something pretty wonderful seems to be happening in that kitchen.”

  “Good, good. You look well enough for a man looking for his girlfriend’s father.”

  Well, he’s straight to the point. “Right now Peyton isn’t very happy with me. I’ll have some penance to pay.”

  “Don’t worry too much. She’s a forgiving girl.”

  “Your farm does very well, Mr. Lacoumette. You have a true gift.”

  “It’s a good farm most days.”

  “It’s one of the biggest farms in the state. I looked it up on the internet.”

  “Pah, that internet. It should be illegal. It knows too damn much.”

  “It would be a very helpful tool for a farmer.”

  “It is. It is. We use it. But it knows too damn much. A man has no secrets anymore. So, you planning to rob me?”

  “Yes, sir, I am. If Peyton forgives me for being a fool, I want to ask her to marry me. And that’s a lot to ask, believe me. I have children. I have a crazy life sometimes. Sometimes I have no sense.”

  “Peyton knows children and crazy. She grew up here. But I don’t know. You’re not Basque. What are you?”

  He laughed a little. “Everything,” he said.

  “At least there are no feuds,” Paco said. “Intermarry enough and the feuds all die away. So, what do you hav
e to offer her? Or did you just come to examine her dowry?”

  “She has a dowry?” Scott asked.

  Paco turned to face him. “Look at me! Do I look like a rich man?” He turned the pockets on his worn overalls inside out. “I have no money.” Then he gestured to the fields where those huge harvesters that cost about a billion each chugged along. “My wealth is in the ground! In the stock! In the orchard.” Then he paused meaningfully and said, “In my children. That’s the dowry—she is worth a king’s ransom to me.”

  “I don’t have much. A clinic that’s small and takes every cent to run. But I love her, Mr. Lacoumette.”

  “Well, let’s talk about what you have. Do you have a strong heart? Are you a man of your word? Are you faithful and willing to work for your family? Do you have a generous spirit that’s willing to help people?”

  “Yes, sir,” he said.

  “And are you willing to dance for your family?” he asked softly. “Because life is not only work, you know.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then, perhaps you’ll do. I leave that to my daughter. And I warn you, she has made a mistake or two.”

  “She won’t make a mistake with me, sir.”

  “She’s stubborn—it’s terrible at times. She’s also very softhearted. I see her with the children and with the animals, and she has trouble being firm with them. She has a difficult nature when she wants to be right, but I admit she gets that from her mother. But she’s not delicate, that’s an advantage. You might have trying days with her, son. She will not be easy to tame.”

  “I have no desire to tame her, sir. I admire her.”

  “Just as well, because you wouldn’t likely win that one.”

  “How did you meet your wife, sir?” Scott asked.

  “Ah, her father forced her on me. I wanted to send to the old country for a woman—I wanted a good Basque wife! Not that skinny thing.”

  “But Mrs. Lacoumette is Basque,” Scott said.

  “I said good Basque! That skinny American thing wasn’t what I had in mind at all.” Then he grinned and said, “But she’s one helluva woman, eh?”

  “Yes,” Scott said, laughing. “You don’t say those things to her, do you?”

  “What? I’m poor! I’m not stupid!”

  “Thank you, sir,” he said, shaking his hand. “I’m going to go find Peyton.”

  “I’ll drive you. I want to get you there before you lose your nerve. Get in.”

  Scott got in the passenger side, and Paco tore out of the field and down a dirt road that cut across a meadow, went through the orchard and bounced along beside a corral. There were no seat belts. Scott hung on for dear life. “I know you’re poor as a church mouse, but did you ever think about a new truck?”

  “Why? This one runs fine!”

  “How’s your spine holding up?”

  “Strong as an ox!” Paco pulled up to the house. “Go find her. If she says yes, we’ll open a bottle of sack!”

  * * *

  Scott took a deep breath before climbing up the ladder that led to the loft. When he was all the way to the top, he saw her. She was lying on a hay bale, one leg dangling off and the other bent at the knee and propped up. She was twirling a piece of hay in one hand, looking at it distractedly.

  “Peyton.”

  She jumped at the sound of her name and fell off the bale, rolled over and sat up, hair and straw in her face. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to talk to you. To apologize. I made some very dumb assumptions about you that weren’t just all wrong, they were offensive. Can you forgive me?” He climbed up into the loft and took a step closer.

  “This is a sacred place, Dr. Grant. Any lies you tell will send you straight to hell.”

  “I’m not going to lie. I’m really sorry. And embarrassed. I don’t know why I acted like I did. I’m not that guy, I’m really not. I don’t give a shit what Ted drives, and I know you aren’t the kind of girl who’s fooled by that stuff. I think I was afraid Ted would find a way to get you back.”

  She considered him for a moment. “If you’d been honest with me, we could’ve talked about it.”

  “I know that now. I won’t make that mistake again. But, Peyton, you’re different on the outside than you are on the inside.”

  “Is that so?” she asked indignantly.

  “It is so. You like nice things, and you look so...so sophisticated. Even in jeans,” he said, his eyes running over her. “Especially in jeans.”

  “Excuse me, but how is that misleading?”

  “Well, it shouldn’t be,” Scott said. “But I was afraid you were attracted to Ted’s money.”

  “I don’t think Ted actually has money,” she said. “I think he has things—and they cost a lot. In fact, it costs Ted a lot to live.”

  “Then there was your car....”

  “Pah,” she said, sounding so much like her father. “It’s a car, Scott! And I’m not all that happy with it, anyway!”

  “You’re not?”

  “Buyer’s remorse,” she said with a shrug. “I missed the money the second I let it go. Now I’m going to be driving it till I’m ninety, so I’m going to have to make peace with it.”

  “All that, and then you answered his call for help,” Scott said. He sat down on the floor, circling his knees with his arms. “I was intimidated by everything—the car, the ex-boyfriend, the job offer in Seattle. I didn’t think any woman in her right mind would choose me over all that.”

  “Well...I haven’t. Yet. And I didn’t answer Ted’s call for help, I answered his daughter’s. I told you that. I thought she was suicidal.”

  “Holy Jesus,” he said.

  “She’s getting help now. If you hadn’t been a complete ass, I would have explained all that. It wasn’t hard for me to ignore Ted’s pleas for help, but I couldn’t walk away from a young girl in trouble.”

  “I’m sorry. I have no excuse. But there’s been research out of Stanford that being in love actually causes brain damage.”

  “Does that mean recovery requires you stop being in love?”

  “The opposite,” he said. “It requires you make a promise. A bond. I love you, Peyton. I don’t want to live without you. I don’t think Jenny and Will want to live without you, either. I want you to marry me. No matter what you say, I think I’m going to love you forever.”

  “Well,” she said, considering. “There are terms.”

  “Name ’em.”

  “Well, for starters, you’re going to have to learn to communicate. If you’d asked questions or opened a dialogue, you might not have to do so much apologizing.”

  “I agree to that. Absolutely.”

  “Next, after we’re married, I want to be an associate in the clinic. We can make it strong if we’re partners. As long as we have enough, the income doesn’t matter as much as the work we can do.”

  “I want that, too. And I agree.”

  “And I want another child.”

  His mouth fell open.

  She put a hand up. “I know you might be scared, given what happened to Serena. But that won’t happen to me. And I think when people love each other and make a bond, it’s good for them to make a child if they can. That might be very old-world thinking, but I promise not to surprise you with eight of them. I just... I really want to feel our baby move inside me. I want to watch it grow.”

  He crawled over to her and pulled her into his arms. “I’m not afraid. I’d like that.”

  “And finally, you have to promise to be fearless with me, with everything that concerns me. You have to suck it up and stare our problems in the eye. There will be problems. I’ll usually be right, of course....”

  He grinned. “Your father mentioned that might be the case.”

  “He did? That old bull—he’s the one who has to always be right!”

  “Really? He said if I took you off his hands, we’d open a bottle of sack to celebrate.”

  “That’s his special stock, sent to him ye
ars ago by a relative in the Balearic Islands in Spain. He must be rooting for you.”

  “He offered me a dowry. Of course, it was only you, but—”

  She slugged him. “Only me?”

  “God, you hit hard! I was about to say, but you’re all I want.”

  “Better.”

  “I thought you were a poor farm kid.”

  “So did I,” she said with a laugh. “Farmers are very careful—one bad year can be a disaster, two bad years can be the end. They’re superstitious—they don’t brag about their success. You know what Papa said when he saw my fancy car? He said, can you live in it? Will it make baby cars? Is there a point to it?”

  “Your father is wise. And he’s been very successful.”

  “Don’t tell him that. ‘Do I look rich? My wealth is in the ground, hanging from the trees,’” she mimicked. “Poor Mouth Paco—he could buy and sell Ted five times over.”

  Scott ran a finger along her jaw. “His wealth is in his family. And my wealth will be in my wife and children. Marry me, Peyton. Belong to me. I’m not worth a damn without you.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE CHANCE by Robyn Carr.

  Share the joys, heartbreaks, challenges and triumphs of the people who inhabit the small Oregon town of Thunder Point with #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr.

  If you loved The Promise, be sure to check out these other great titles in this charming and unforgettable Thunder Point series by Robyn Carr: The Wanderer, The Newcomer, The Hero, The Chance and The Homecoming (September 2014) available in ebook format!

  Order your copies HERE or at www.amazon.com/RobynCarr!

  Be sure to also catch the Virgin River series—available now!

  Virgin River

  Shelter Mountain

  Whispering Rock

  A Virgin River Christmas

  Second Chance Pass

  Temptation Ridge

  Paradise Valley

  Under the Christmas Tree (novella)

  Forbidden Falls

  Angel’s Peak

  Moonlight Road

  Midnight Confessions (novella)

  Promise Canyon

  Wild Man Creek

  Harvest Moon

  Bring Me Home for Christmas