The Promise (52 page)

“It doesn’t matter how I
feel or how much I love you, Drake. I can’t turn my back on her,” she says. I nod sadly and look down at my feet, taking a deep breath before I pick up my bag.

“Okay Baby,
” I say quietly clearing my throat. “If you change your mind you know where I’ll be.”

A
s I make my way out of her bedroom, I stop at her side and look down at her for what I pray isn’t the last time. I inhale her scent and study her face.

“Drake,
” her voice breaks. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“No Baby
,” I say quietly and take her cheek into my hand as I fought the prickling in the back of my eyes. I press my lips gently to her temple and meet her grey eyes with a sigh. “You just broke up with me.”  

***

Sophie

The
past week has flown by.

I decided
on the way back from taking JT back  to Rockport that I’d go back to work first thing on the Monday morning.

Although I know that Chase
wanted me to take a couple of extra days off, he understood why I’d chosen not to.

The best thing
was to get back into my usual routine and for me, working has always been a big part of that.

Leaving from Chase’s place
hasn’t been something I’d been so used to. Because he lives farther away from the café, I’ve had to get into the habit of getting up a little earlier each day.

My shifts
have been particularly early this week, so after placing a soft kiss on his forehead, I leave Chase sleeping soundly. He rolls over with a deep sigh before settling back into his sleep.

I want nothing more than to climb back into bed with him today, but it
’s already Friday, I only have one more day left of the work week before we’ll be able to spend some time together.

I’ve
only been at work for about an hour and a half and as I glance out of the window, I see his white Ford F-150 pulling into the lot before parking next to my Dodge.

I
’m unable to stop the smile from creeping across my face as I watch his large, six foot four frame stepping out of his heavy duty work truck.

Dressed in his work attire
, complete with his work boots and bounding muscles seeping out from under the confines of his white t-shirt, I chuckle when I see what he’s holding.

In one hand he has his standard cup of coffee, black with no cream or s
ugar. In the other, my masculine, scruffy faced, working man is holding my frozen coffee concoction adorned with whipped cream and chocolate syrup drizzles.

He
’s looking proud of himself as walks inside, before he hands it over to me with a smile. Returning his smile, I thank him for the surprise and find myself to still be chuckling to myself because of the odd looks he received on his way in.

“You’d think I was wearing a bra
or something by the looks I got on the way in here with this thing,” he laughs, throwing me a wink,

“Thanks
, Baby,” I laugh with him before placing his order in with the kitchen.

I run orders out to a couple of other customers and once I’m caught up, I gather his plates and
take them over to him. I talk to him while he eats his breakfast and when he’s done, I ask the new girl, Heather, to keep an eye on my station so I can walk him outside. “Since I came in early today, I should be done here by around eleven o’clock.”

“Okay
, Sweetheart. I’ll call you during my lunch break,” he says while leaning down to kiss me. Sitting his cup down in the holder over in the center console, the handwriting on the side catches my eye. I don’t think much of it at first but when I glance back at it, I see the note.

“What’s that?” I ask
, leaning closer so I can get a better look at it. Chase throws me a look of confusion before slowly following my gaze, lifting the cup back up from its holder. I can see from the look on his face that he hadn’t noticed it before now. Still, as I read the text on the side of the cup, this fact does little to curb my anger.

My offer still stands, call me xxoo <3 Lauren  

“What the …?” Chase’s voice trails as he lifts his head and notices my infuriated eyes glaring right at him. “Baby, I had no idea that she …”

“What
does it mean? What offer, Chase?” I ask him, watching as he appears to be struggling for a moment before I press the issue further. “Just tell me. What offer?”

“It
really doesn’t matter, Baby,” he says as I raise my eyebrows up high. “I love you and that’s all that matters.”

“
And I love you too, you know I do, but I’d really like to know what she said to you,” I tell him firmly.

“Nothing happened, Baby
, I swear,” he insists, gazing directly into my eyes.

“I believe you,” I
answer him. He kisses my forehead while letting out what I can only assume to be a small breath of relief. “I still want to know what she said to you, though.” Chase searches my eyes for a moment, stroking the side of my angry face tenderly with his thumb.

“Why does it matter
, Baby?”

W
hatever it was, it must have been pretty bad.

“If it doesn’t matter then why won’t you tell me what she said
to you?” I ask, hearing as he lets out another breath, a much deeper one this time. “Just tell me, please?” He rests his hands on my shoulders before answering me.

“She said
that if things didn’t work out between you and me then I should give her a call,” he answers me, his voice a little quieter than before.

I
can instantly tell that he’s cleaning that statement up for my benefit. There’s more to it and he knows that I know there is. I give him a look that tells him to continue. He closes his eyes before meeting with mine again. “She told me that if I needed anything in the meantime, then I should let her know.”

“What?” I yell out and he grips my
shoulders tighter.

I can’t believe this woman! Who the hell does she think she is?

I’m already pulling away from him and heading over to my truck when I hear Chase beginning to speak again.

“Baby, where are you going?” he asks
as he grabs a hold of my elbow.

“I’m going to
beat her fucking ass!” I yell again. He pulls me back to him, so I’m against his chest and wraps his arms around me. It’s nice, but I’m still seething.

“No, you aren’t, Sophie,” he s
ays, but I’m livid and don’t feel in any way ready to calm down just yet.

“Oh, yes I am! I’m going to choke her to death with her own apron, Chase!” I
tell him, still fighting against his grip.

“She’s not worth it, Baby,” he
tries to reason with me.

“What did you say to her when she said that
to you?” I whip my head up at him, still fuming into his chest.

“What?”
he asks. He’s looking down at me as though I’m nuts. Maybe I am. “I told her no, Baby. What do you think I told her?”

“That’s it?” I
ask incredulously. “She said all that to you and your entire reply was the word ‘
no’
?”

“Well, not exactly
, but that was pretty much the gist of it, Baby,” he answers, a little too hesitantly for my liking though.

As
his eyes meet mine again, he knows that this won’t be enough to keep me from driving over there once he leaves. I hear him taking another deep breath.

“I told her
that she must be bat shit crazy if she thought I’d ever want anything else to do with her. I told her that I’m in love with you and that she needs to back the hell off,” I let out a breath as he leans his forehead against mine. “I promise that I won’t go looking for her, but if I see her again, I’ll tell her to lay off before my insane but sexy as hell girlfriend beats her ass and chokes her to death with her own apron, okay?” he asks with a grin before kissing me on the tip of my nose. “You’re so hot when you get all crazy possessive,” he whispers, kissing me deeply on the mouth and sweeping his tongue in to caress mine.

His hands are resting on my waist
before I feel him moving one upwards, to cup the side of my face, wrapping his large hand easily around the side of my neck.

He pulls me into
him against the side of his truck and deepens the kiss for a moment, before slowing biting my lip and sucking it into his mouth. After letting out a small groan, he pulls away from me, leaving me breathless, “You have nothing to worry about, Baby. I don’t want anyone but you, okay?”

I
nod at him slightly as he gives me another quick kiss on the lips, before promising again that he’ll call me during his lunch.

***

Once I finish my shift, I head back to Chase’s house and wait for his call before deciding to take a nap.

The early shifts this week have really
begun to take their toll on me and I’m really looking forward to getting back onto my regular shifts again soon.

I call Ana to check
in on her. I know that she must be having a rough week considering she and Drake haven’t seen each other since their falling out.

I still can’t believe they’ve broken up. They seemed really happy together and I honestly can’t see a reason
why things would end between them. When I asked Ana what went wrong, she gave me only a vague answer, basically saying that they wanted different things.

I can tell
that she isn’t being completely honest with me about their separation. I’ve always been able to figure out when she’s being untruthful with me by the way her eyes dart away from my questioning. The main telltale sign is when she can no longer look me in the eyes.

F
iguring that it isn’t really any of my business, I decide not to press the issue any further, at least, not until she’s ready to open up to me about it. I just hope that they can work at things and figure it all out.

T
hey’re great together and Ana was the happiest I’ve seen her in a long time while they were together. She’s obviously very much still in love with him and from the way Drake looked when I last saw him, he doesn’t seem to be doing any better either.

Talking
to her for a few minutes, it becomes obvious that she doesn’t want to talk about anything else and so I fill her in on what I’ve been up to, which isn’t all that much. She seems to cheer up a little once I tell her about some of the funny things that happened at work.

“You haven’t really been home much this week
. How are things going with you and Chase?” she asks me, genuinely sounding interested.

“I know, I’m sorry
. I’ve just been so busy with work and you seemed as though you wanted to have some alone time. Things are good though. Chase asked me to move in with him.” I admit, my voice becoming a little quieter as I speak the last part.

“Chase wants you to move in with him?”
she asks, her voice suddenly filling with what sounds like surprise. “Wow! Do you think you’ll say yes?”

“I don’t know,” I
answer her honestly. “I’d like to, but I think it might be a little too soon and I don’t want to leave you hanging with rent and everything, you know?” Ana mutters something unintelligible over the line before abruptly telling me that she needs to go. I notice that her voice cracks a little when she says this. I ask her to call me if she needs me, but then I realize that the line is already dead.

Five minutes
after ending my chat with Ana, my cell phone erupts in my hand, filling the space with what has become my favorite ringtone, ‘Brass Monkey’.

“Hi
, Love Bug,” I say into the phone with a smile, hearing him chuckling at my greeting.

“Hey
, Baby. How was work?” he asks.

“Good,
although I’m glad that I’m off for the next two days. How’s your day going?”

“Fine
, but I’m just ready to be home with you,” he answers me. I love how forthcoming Chase is with his feelings for me.

“Me too
, Baby,” I tell him.

“Well, we might get our wish
soon because it looks as though it’s about to pour out here, if that’s the case, we’ll be forced to pack up for the day.”

Just as th
ose very words leave his mouth, I hear a crack of thunder through the receiver, making me jump. Almost immediately after that, I hear a noise sounding out from his radio. “Hang on, Sweetheart,” he says, before I hear him speaking with someone in the background. A couple of moments pass by before I hear him returning his attention back to me. “Hey Baby, sorry about that. Are you still there?”

“Of course
I’m here,” I laugh. “I’m not going anywhere, silly.”

“Good
,” I can hear the smile in his voice as he says this. “That was Drake. We’re closing up shop for the day so I’ll be home early, probably in around an hour and a half or so.”