Broken Promises (Broken Series) (2 page)

I brought the box to my bed and sat, lifting the lid. It was full to the brim with pictures, movie ticket stubs, and letters. I flipped through the photos first, ready for the rush of emotion. The first picture was one of my mother, who’d been a legacy in this town.

After getting pregnant at seventeen, she and my dad agreed to get married two weeks after I was born. But she’d left him at the alter; she’d left him and me alone for the remainder of my life. I often wondered how she could just bail on her own family. Lucky for me, Dad stepped up. He raised me. Alone. I closed my eyes, mourning the mother I’d never known.

The second photo made me laugh aloud. It was a candid shot of me on my dad’s shoulders. I was probably about seven years old. I remembered the day perfectly; he insisted we needed some photos of us together and enlisted a professional photographer to follow us around all day. I only agreed if we could take some goofy pictures, too.

The next picture made my heart clench as if a vice was secured around it. It was a group photo from my senior prom. There I was, arm-linked to Luke Bates. He’d been my boyfriend for all four years of high school. He was two years older than I was, but I’d been in love with him since the first day of freshman year. He put off college for me, claiming he wanted to wait until I graduated and then go to college with me. But when I told him I wanted to go to Boston, he refused. He proclaimed he was just a small-town guy and wasn’t cut out for the big city. After months of discussions and arguments about college, we pretended to be happy for one last night: prom. We broke up that night and haven’t spoken a word to one another since.

We were supposed to be together forever and he dumped me. Well, basically dumped me. Because he was afraid to take a chance on city life. But his rejection had only furthered my ideas to get away. I didn’t want to be reminded of him every day for the rest of my life living in Casper.

I wondered what he was doing these days.

The shower spray was too hot and it pelted my skin painfully. I didn’t mind. I needed to clear my head. I had at least another hour until I had to go back to the hospital. I raised my face into the steamy water, cleansing my body but it felt like I was cleansing my soul. There were so many reasons why staying in Casper was a bad idea, but if I was going to stay, I needed to let go of the hurt, the regret, and the pain.

I shut off the shower and heard a loud thud from somewhere in the house. I froze, unsure of what to do. In the city, I would have called 911 first and asked questions later. But this was Casper. I hadn’t been out of the small town life so long that I forgot people didn’t knock here; They came right in, uninvited and full of gossip. I figured maybe one of the neighbors had seen me pull in and decided to check up on Dad’s place.

I wrapped a towel around my body and wrung out my blonde hair, letting it fall in ringlets down my back. I opened the bathroom door and stepped into the hallway. I made it all the way to the kitchen before I heard another thud. It was the unmistakable banging of a hammer to a nail. And it was coming from the front porch. I made my way to the front door, slowly pulling it open and peeking my head outside.

I was floored.

My eyes met the hard, chiseled body of a shirtless carpenter, complete with tool belt and a hammer in hand. His muscles were well defined and his skin was bronzed from the sun. I raised my brows and pretended to cough. When he turned to me, I couldn’t hide my surprise.

I was clad in nothing more than a flimsy towel and staring into the chocolate brown eyes of none other than Lucas Bates.

I stared back at her, certain I was seeing some sort of mirage, not the girl who broke my heart three years ago. I barely managed to keep my immediate anger in check. What the hell was she doing here? Joe Wells had been dying from cancer for years, and she decided to come home when he was on his deathbed? Who the hell did she think she was?

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

She sounded stunned, but I couldn’t tell which one of us was more shocked to see the other. “I could ask you the same thing,” I muttered.

“What’s
that
supposed to mean?”

“Don’t play dumb, Mallory. Why are you here?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I
live
here.”

Was she serious? She was moving into Joe’s place? I sighed, a defeated sound. I would have to assign a new carpenter to do the repair work Joe hired me for. No way was I going to spend the summer at this house with her.

“Well then, I’m sorry to have disturbed you,” I said, looking her up and down.

She looked uncomfortable for a moment and then smiled brightly. “You could never disturb me, Luke.” She turned away, letting the door slam behind her as she went back into the house.

I let out a shuttering breath. The woman was as poisonous as a snake and just as quick, ready to strike at the first movement. I couldn’t imagine why she thought Joe needed her. He’d been battling his cancer for the last three years without a single visit from her. Hell, Joe even defended her when she demanded he visit her for holidays instead of coming home herself.

She was a spoiled rotten city brat, now, though in all honestly, she was spoiled rotten before she even left Casper. She needed to go back to Boston and let her father enjoy his last few weeks on this earth. I wasn’t about to tell her that, though. I just wanted to finish my work for the day and hopefully not see her again for the rest of the summer. I turned back to the boards I was replacing and got to work. Maybe I could get finished early.

Spoiled or not, she was still hot as hell. Her blonde hair was wet and curled wildly around her face. Her skin was tanned and looked as soft as I remembered it being. Her blue eyes were fiery, her lips full and pink. She was every bit as gorgeous as I remembered. Not much about her had changed. Her good looks, her spunky temper, and her habit of jumping to conclusions were all just the same as they were three years ago.

It was forty-five minutes later when she emerged from the doorway once again. She seemed more sure of herself but still on edge. She wore a pair of jean shorts and a gray tank top, which reminded me of the summers we’d spent together while she was in high school. Her long hair was pulled back into a messy bun and several curls framed her face.

“Thank you for helping my dad with the porch,” she said with a forced smile.

I would have laughed if she showed any sign of sarcasm, but she seemed genuine. “Not a problem. Though, in his defense, he did hire me to do it,” I said.

Her whole demeanor changed drastically in that instant.

“What do you mean he hired you? You mean you aren’t doing it out of the goodness of your heart? What’s with you? Still money hungry, huh?” she said with venom.

I fought to calm my anger. Her speech was almost identical to the argument we’d had years before. She actually believed I didn’t want to go to Boston because I would have lost my job at J.P. Construction. Apparently, she still believed I was all about cash flow.

Little did she know, I took a portion of my paycheck every week and spent it on Joe, often bringing him dinner or renting a movie for him. I spent every Saturday fixing up the old barn behind the house, free of charge. I fumed at her assumptions but I wasn’t about to correct her. Her opinion of me was low and there wasn’t anything I could say to change it.

I taunted her. “That’s right, princess, not all of us get a free ride to college and a job that pays gobs of money and takes up so much of our time that we don’t have the time to pay a visit to our dying father.”

Her face fell and guilt set in. Even though she deserved it, I didn’t want to hurt her that way. I drew another steadying breath.

“Mal, I’m sorry.”

She pushed out her hip and thrust her hand on it in warning. “No apologies, Luke. Just stay out of my way while I’m here. I’m not going to have the same fights with you we had years ago. And if you think for a second that you know
anything
about me, or my life in Boston, I’d advise you to keep your opinions to yourself.”

“It’s probably a good idea for us to stay away from each other,” I muttered.

She stalked off the porch and to her sleek little car, tucking herself inside and driving away. I felt like laughing. The whole thing was almost identical to the last fight we’d had, the night of her senior prom.

I was late to pick her up. She was already standing on her front porch, anxiously awaiting my arrival. Her smile widened when she saw my truck, but it faded quickly, a more somber expression taking over. She was disappointed.

“Hey Mal, sorry I’m late,” I said, truly apologetic.

She shook her head and glared at me. “We have to be a Grady’s Wharf in twenty minutes for pictures,” she huffed.

There was no doubt she was pissed. She was like this constantly, never satisfied with anything I did. It hurt, but I didn’t tell her that. I sucked it down and decided I didn’t want to fight tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough for another discussion about her college plans.

“Of course,” I said agreeably.

I opened up the passenger door to my old Dodge and helped her up. Joe Wells stood in the doorway of his home, waving passively at us as we drove off. I wondered when Mallory would notice how sickly he was.

We got to Grady’s in record time and Mallory jumped out of the truck to socialize with her girlfriends, which left me with the task of trying to fit in with a bunch of high school kids. It was more than awkward, especially since most of the guys just wanted me to buy them beer. No matter how many times I told them I wasn’t twenty-one yet, they continued to ask. I was beyond frustrated by the time a few of the moms got us all lined up for a photo session. All the guys were against the railing with the ocean as a backdrop for the pictures.

“I can’t believe you almost made us late, Luke,” Mallory said, stepping in front of me.

She wasn’t quiet about her disappointment, either, which left me to deal with the glares from the teenage girls and the sympathetic nods from the young guys. I was pissed. How dare she treat me that way in front of all her friends?

“Smile, kids,” one of the mothers called out to us.

I put my arms around Mallory’s waist and gave my brightest smile. It was surprisingly genuine. Even with all the issues we had, I loved her. Nothing would change that.

I closed my eyes to ward off the memory. I didn’t want to think about the way we used to be or the close friendship we’d had during our four-year relationship. She’d been the love of my life and I would have done anything for her. If only she hadn’t pushed me away. That night was probably the worst of my life, bar none. I didn’t want to remember the break up.

I glanced at my watch and realized I was going to be late. I pulled off my tool belt and walked around the house to where I’d parked my truck by the barn. I tossed the belt into the toolbox in the bed of the truck and grabbed a clean shirt from the cab. At least, I assumed it was clean. I took a whiff and it didn’t smell foul, so I was safe. I climbed in my truck and drove to Penny’s.

Penny’s was the local seafood take out place. They boasted the largest lobster roll in the state, and anyone who could finish the whole thing in one sitting got it for free. I’d only ever seen one person ever eat the damn thing, and that had been my best friend Chris Baker, who everyone just called Baker.

Baker had worked at Penny’s when we were kids, so he’d worked himself up to eating the whole lobster roll. I told him it was cheating. I wondered what he would think about Mallory Wells waltzing back into town. I would have to call him later and find out.

Penny herself was at the counter when I walked in.

“The usual, Luke?” She smiled.

She was in her forties, but she always managed to look fantastic, even working at a fish fry joint.

“Yeah, but I need an extra serving of shrimp,” I said.

“Oh, got a date?”

“Not exactly. Mallory Wells is back in town,” I explained.

Her sharp intake of breath didn’t surprise me.

“
Mallory Wells
! It’s about time she came home to take care of that father of hers,” she said.

“She’s only here because he’s on the last leg of the cancer,” I replied.

I didn’t trust Mallory, probably because of our history, but she hadn’t exactly proven me wrong over the last few years.  

“I’m sure she just wants the best for her dad.”

Penny was more optimistic than I was. I made a noncommittal noise and she seemed to accept it. She wrote down my order and went to give it to the cooks. There was a line behind me, so I made my way to one of the chairs set aside for takeout and had a seat.

Several minutes later, I was on my way to the hospital with a piping hot meal to share with Joe Wells and his daughter. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.

The hospital was in the center of town. No one came or went without someone noticing and reporting it to someone else, who told all their friends, and so on. I knew, before I even stepped onto the pavement of the parking lot, that there would be rumors about my visit to Joe while his daughter was home. People would talk. It was the way life worked in a small town. Although I wasn’t excited about it, I’d learned a long time ago to just deal with it. Fighting the gossips only seemed to egg them on.

I carried the box that held our dinners into the hospital and up to the second floor. Before I got to Joe’s room, I stopped off at the nurse’s station. Carrie, a nurse who I’d been dating for a month, waited for me.

“Hey handsome,” Carrie said, leaning over the tall counter to give me a kiss.

It was chaste and void of almost all emotion. On my end, at least. She was nice enough, but I didn’t feel the sexual attraction to her I’d felt with other women. Other women namely being Mallory Wells. Now that Mallory was back in town, I felt even more dissatisfied by my relationship with Carrie.

“I brought you dinner,” I said, pulling the bag marked with her name out of the box.