Today's Promises (Promises #2)(5)

“Hard to believe there was once a time I couldn’t touch you,” I say.

My hand is on her hip and I squeeze lightly.

“I know,” she replies, a little breathless. “But I sure do love how you touch me now.”

Jaynie pushes her body against mine suggestively, and, chuckling, I nod down to our pressed-together selves. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”

“We have,” she agrees, smiling. And then, in a contemplative tone, and with her body going lax, she says, “There is one thing, though… Something I think about a lot.”

“What is it?” I ask.

“I don’t think I could ever be this way with anyone but you, Flynn. Really, I don’t.”

My male-possessiveness side rejoices, but then my heart twists when she lets out a sob and adds, “That’s one reason why you can never leave me again, okay?”

When Jaynie cries harder, I pull her close to me. “Hey, hey, it’s all right. I told you before that I’m not going anywhere. Not now, or ever. In fact, now that I’m here, you’re never going to get rid of me.”

“Good,” she chokes out against my shoulder.

God, I don’t think my reassuring will ever be enough. It takes a lot of words to lessen the pain caused from one’s actions.

Caressing Jaynie’s back through the thin tank top she’s wearing, I try to lighten the dismal pallor that’s fallen over us like a dark veil.

“Oh, you say that you want me around now,” I begin. “But I bet you a million dollars there’ll come a day when you’re so sick of me that you’ll be asking me to go find myself a man-cave, or some other place you can send me to when I’m getting on your last nerve.”

“Never, never, never,” she insists.

Jaynie proceeds to grasp and hold on to the back of my tee like I’m her life raft. And I guess, in a way, I am.

“That will never happen,” she hisses adamantly.

“Aw, Jaynie, I was just kidding around,” I assure her.

“I know, Flynn. But I swear to you I will never get sick of having you around. I exist for you.”

“And I for you,” I reply as I bury my nose in her auburn hair and breathe in this girl that I love.

I may be her life raft, but she sure is mine as well.





Jaynie



Flynn can’t keep his hands still on the steering wheel. Tapping along to the low music playing in the background, flexing his fingers, stretching out his hands—I swear it’s something every few minutes.

And we still have half an hour to go till we reach our destination.

“Hmm, someone sure is getting in their hand exercises today,” I tease.

I’m trying to add some levity to ease Flynn’s anxiety, but my attempt at humor goes over like a lead balloon.

“Okay,” I murmur.

Flynn chews at his lip, then glances over at me. “I’m good,” he says, with false bravado. “I feel totally confident about this visit with the twins.”

“Sure, Flynn,” I reply.

His gaze remains fixed my way, and I have to point to a stretch of windy interstate up ahead and remind him he’s driving.

“Uh, eyes on the road, mister. Bill was nice enough to loan us his car for the day. We should probably try to return it to him in one piece.”

“Ha-ha, Jaynie,” Flynn remarks. But he does re-focus to the road, even if it is with more finger-tapping on the wheel.

Placing my hand on his leg, the denim of his jeans worn to a buttery smoothness that’s comforting in its own way, I say softly, “Hey, quit worrying so much. Remember what I told you last night. The twins are going to be thrilled to see you.”

Sighing, he replies, “I just hope you’re right. It’s been so long. And you know how kids forget things.”

“Not these kids, Flynn,” I murmur.

When he lets out a ragged sigh, I squeeze his leg. Hopefully I’m reassuring him that things are going to be just fine.

Flynn can’t see what I see. He’s blinded by too much guilt—unnecessarily so, of course—for not being able to see the twins for so long.

It doesn’t matter.

I know for a fact the twins can’t wait to see Flynn, especially Cody. When I was up in Morgantown recently, visiting with them and Mandy, not only did both kids remember Flynn—which, really, how could they ever forget him?—but Cody actually thought he might be with me that day.

When he realized I’d come alone, he was so disappointed.

It broke my heart.

When I think on it more intently, that entire day was bittersweet. Back then I didn’t know if any of us would ever again see Flynn. All I knew at that time was that he was making a conscious decision to stay away. It was only after he and I reunited that I found out the truth—that the evil Mrs. Lowry was keeping Flynn from all of us.

I should’ve known that was the case. I bear my own guilt for trusting him so little. Fucking bitch Mrs. Lowry and her machinations.

“I’m so glad she’s in prison,” I spit out, my venom fueled by the memory of my days away from Flynn and time that can never be recaptured.

We don’t speak much of the horrors we suffered at the Lowry house, but Flynn knows exactly whom I’m referring to.