Page 4 of Promise Me This
A startled laugh bursts free, loosening the tight knot of tension in my chest just enough for me to breathe.
Rina squeezes my arm. “I need to leave for work, but try the dress on and let me know if it fits. If you like it, you can wear it Thursday.”
“Oh, um… I was thinking about skipping dinner,” I admit. “I don’t really know anyone.”
A man’s face flashes in my head before I can stop it.
“That’s not true,” she says. “And Evelyn and Hugh are cohosting, so, at the very least, it’ll be entertaining.”
That pulls a reluctant smile from me. “Fine,” I concede. “If the dress fits, I’ll go.”
“Perfect.” With a smile, she slips from the room.
I sit on the edge of the bed with the sweater dress pooled in my lap as my phone buzzes beside me. My stomach flutters with something that isn’t quite nausea.
I tell myself it’s just dinner. A distraction. A chance to get out of my head for a couple of hours and pretend my life isn’t unraveling at the seams.
Deep down, I know that isn’t the real reason my pulse continues to skip.
Beneath the fear and exhaustion, one thought won’t stop circling like a storm cloud I can’t outrun…
Will Laiken Lennox, the man I haven’t been able to stop thinking about, be there?
2
Laiken
I swear under my breath as the alarm chirps and a cloud of gray smoke billows from the toaster.
“Daddy!” Elody yells, bouncing on the tips of her toes as she points at the counter. “The toast is on fire!”
“It’s not on fire,” I mutter, grabbing a dish towel and fanning the haze.
At least it isn’t yet.
I shove the window over the sink open before the whole building is evacuated. That won’t exactly make me popular with the board.
“I can barely breathe!” Elody complains, waving her hands.
“I know, bug. I’m working on it.”
After four years of parenting, I really should be better at this.
Shutting down a game-winning breakaway?
That’s easy.
Keeping one tiny human fed and dressed on six hours of sleep?
Not so much.
The toaster gives one last pathetic click before dying a sudden death. I unplug it and dump the charred remains into the sink. The toast looks more like coal than something edible.
Elody claps. “Yay! You did it, Daddy!”
“Yup,” I say dryly. “It’s a true victory for the team.”
When she continues to grin, I grab a banana from the bowl and hand it to her. “Let’s try this instead. Pretty sure it’s the breakfast of champions.”
