Today's Promises (Promises #2)(4)

As for me… Well, I pretty much want Flynn all the time. And now is no exception.

“I have one more hour to go,” I say, brushing my lips suggestively over his.

He releases me and slips from the stool. Brow raised, he starts backing away. “Meet me up in our bed the second you’re done?”

“Yes, okay.”

“Good. Let me show you just how much I love you, Jaynie-girl.”

I let out a little groan. “Gah, Flynn. You can’t do that to me. Not now. Not when I have a whole other hour left.”

“It’ll go fast,” he says, winking as he spins around and heads for the stairs leading up to our apartment.

“It better,” I call out.

I spend the next hour counting down the minutes till four o’clock.

At 4:01 on the nose, I race up the stairs.

Five minutes later, Flynn starts to show me just how much he loves me.

And… Damn, I have no words.

He shows me again at 4:35, and then again at 5:04.

Oh, and once more at…

Oh hell, I think you get the picture.





Flynn



There are no nightmares for Jaynie—or me—on Friday night. It’s not because I found a cure or anything, although I sure as hell wish there was one and I could find it. But no such luck. The lack of bad dreams in this case is simply the result of not sleeping.

I’m awake most of the night, tossing and turning. And that, in turn, keeps Jaynie awake.

“Sorry, babe,” I mutter as I turn to her sometime after five in the morning.

She touches my cheek. “It’s fine, Flynn. But you have no reason to be nervous. You know this, right?”

“Yeah… I guess.”

Despite Jaynie’s reassuring words—and I know they’re true—I just can’t relax. I am nervous as hell because tomorrow I’ll be visiting with a little boy and a little girl who couldn’t be any more my siblings than if we shared blood. Cody and Callie are the twins who lived with Jaynie and me in our last foster home. And I’m finally going to see them again.

“Jesus, I love those kids,” I say.

“I know, Flynn.” Jaynie rubs my shoulder, trying to comfort me.

Still, I’m anxious. “I haven’t seen the twins in six months.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she insists. “They love you so much, Flynn. And love like that doesn’t fade, not even with time.”

I hope she’s right. Six months of not seeing the twins is longer than my time away from Jaynie. Allison Lowry, Mrs. Lowry’s bitch of a daughter, ripped Cody and Callie away from us when she sent them to a group home back in August. Luckily, another of our foster siblings, an awesome girl named Mandy, rescued the kids and is currently fostering them up in Morgantown.

I’ve missed the twins a lot since I last laid eyes on them, and I think of them every f*cking day. Hell, I hope they remember me when we reunite, especially Cody. He’s always reminded me of the little brother I once loved so very much.

“When will the twins be nine?” I ask Jaynie as I try to focus on something other than my little brother, Galen. “I should know that,” I add, “but I suck at birthdays and shit.”

I flip over to my back and stretch out diagonally across our bed. Jaynie sits up so I can lay my head in her lap. She starts combing her fingers through my hair. She’s still trying to help me relax, though the movement is probably soothing to her, as well.

“Their birthday’s not till April,” she replies softly.

“That’s right.” I glance up at her. “I remember now. Last year Mandy and I saved a couple of those crappy nutrition bars, the ones Mrs. Lowry used to give us for breakfast—”

“Ugh,” Jaynie interjects.

I nod, agreeing completely. “I know. Gross, right? But that was all we had. Anyway, Mandy found a pack of old birthday candles up in that old barn in the fields and we loaded up each bar with four candles apiece, making it eight in all. Then we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to the twins.”

“Aw, that’s sweet. I bet Cody and Callie loved that.”

“Yeah, I think they were happy we remembered their day. Wish we could’ve done more for them, though, you know?”

Jaynie knows I’m plagued with regrets, and her hand stills. “Hey,” she says. “You and Mandy did what you could, Flynn. You have to stop beating yourself up when it comes to things in the past. Not to mention, all is not lost. We can make their birthday special this year. Let’s drive up to Mandy’s that day, okay? We can all do something fun together. We should have a car by then.”

She pauses, letting it sink in for me that her car comment is her supporting me in going for that job in Forsaken, despite how much she despises that town.

I look up at her. “Hey, thanks, babe. For everything, I mean. I really don’t know how I made it through all those horrible months without you around, keeping me sane.”

“I was always there with you,” she whispers.

And in a way, she was.

I choke up a little at those memories of the bad days in the past. But Jaynie comforts me with words of reassurance that we’ll never again be apart.

Eventually, we maneuver till we’re lying on our sides, face-to-face. With one of her legs draped over mine, I marvel at how things have changed from when we first met.