Promise Me (32 page)

“Well, that sucks.”

“It’s probably why they didn’t use our school as the basis for the show, but I guess it’s still pretty fun to watch. There’s definitely a lot of town support, and people get really into the games. I’ll have to take you to one next time you come home with me.”

“Next time?”

“Yeah, next time,” he said with a coy smile. “I can already tell that Aunt Deena’s going to want you to come back. She really likes you.”

That made me feel good. I’d been worried about making the right impression with his family. “I like her too. Both her and Rob are great.”

“I told you.”

“Yeah, you did,” I said sheepishly. “So, do you want to hook up with your friends after the game for the parties? That might be fun.”

Jack shook his head. “Nah, they’re just high school parties. Been there, done that, and I always feel weird about being the college guy who comes home and hangs out with high schoolers. There’s something creepy about that.”

“I’ll agree with that. So what do you want to do instead?”

“Go swimming?” he suggested, and I looked at him like he was crazy.

“Swimming?” I questioned, looking over at the pool a few feet away from us. “It’s not exactly warm out.”

“The pool’s heated. And there’s always the hot tub. No way you’ll be cold in there.”

“I think I’ll pass,” I told him, wondering if he was drunk.

We’d been steadily drinking all night with his aunt and uncle, but he didn’t seem drunk. Although suggesting swimming when he had to know I hadn’t packed a swimsuit, considering it was late October, had me wondering.

“Fine, then we’ll just talk. Tell me something I don’t know,” he said, leaning back in his chair.

“What do you want to know?” I asked, taking a sip of my sangria.

Deena had mixed up another pitcher halfway through the night after we’d killed the first one, and she’d left half of it sitting in the middle of the table. Before she’d gone up to bed, she’d told me to finish it off. I figured she thought my tolerance was much stronger than it was. I wasn’t sure I’d have any more after I finished the glass in front of me.

“Tell me when you changed your name. When did you start going by Kate?”

I bit my lip, not sure I wanted to tell Jack that, because my decision to change my name had everything to do with him.

“Uh, I don’t know. It just sort of happened sometime in middle school.”

Jack took a drink of his beer as he eyed me skeptically. “I don’t believe that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not the type to just let something happen to you. You’re methodical in what you do, and you think things through – especially something as big as changing your name. So why the change? I mean, not that I don’t like it. You were always Kate to me, so it just makes sense that it’s the name you go by to everyone else, but for years you were Kaitlyn.”

Jack waited for me to respond, but I didn’t say anything. I was embarrassed to admit he was the reason I’d decided to go by Kate at the start of eighth grade.

“I told you why I changed my name,” he prompted. “It’s only fair that you reciprocate.

He had a point, but it didn’t mean I wanted to tell him. His hazel-eyed gaze locked on mine, and I hoped he couldn’t see it in the dim porch light that heat had flooded my cheeks. I looked away as I said, “It was, uh, because of you, actually.”

“Me?”

I nodded, still refusing to meet his gaze.

“Kate, look at me,” he said, and I shifted my eyes to find his intense stare.

“Fine,” I said around a sigh. “I missed you after you left. You know that, but I also missed how special I felt when you called me Kate. No one called me that after you were gone, and it honestly made me miss you even more. So I decided to go by Kate when eighth grade started.”

He smiled. “Cool. Now was that really so hard?”

I shook my head as a smile formed on my lips. “It was embarrassing.”

“To admit that you missed me?”

I shrugged. “I guess. Can we not talk about this?”

Jack laughed. “Why don’t you want to talk about it?”

Because I’m not sure I can do it without giving away how I feel now.

“I just don’t,” I told him, taking another sip of my drink to hide my expression.

“I missed you too, Kate,” he told me with all the confidence in the world. “I missed you a ton, and I’m not embarrassed to say it.”

“Jack, come on,” I pleaded, because when he said things like that, it did funny things to my brain. He sounded sincere, and he made it sound like who we were to each other in the past went beyond friendship.

And maybe it had. We’d yet to talk about the kiss we’d shared the night before he’d disappeared from my life. In all the time that we’d been reconnecting, neither of us had brought it up, and now I was afraid to. I knew the feelings I’d carried around for him for years, and I almost didn’t want to know if he’d felt the same way. Somehow that would just feel wrong, like I’d missed out on something that could have been great, and now I couldn’t have it. It was like a cruel twist of fate. Or maybe he hadn’t felt anything for me, and our kiss had just been a passing moment that got lost in everything else that had happened after it. A part of me didn’t want to know the truth.

“Fine, we’ll talk about something else,” Jack said, giving in. “Tell me about prom.”

“Prom?” I questioned, not sure where that had come from.

“Yeah. Who did you go with?”

It was such an odd question. “I went with Mark Butler. Do you remember him?”

I didn’t even need to ask that though, because Jack was already making a face. “Yes, I remember him. Didn’t he used to eat his boogers?”

“No! At least I don’t think he did – or if he did he wasn’t doing it by the time high school rolled around. He was actually a co-captain of the soccer team, and he was on homecoming court. I don’t think they let booger eaters into the popular crowd.”

“Ah, so you ended up being popular. That actually doesn’t surprise me.”

I couldn’t help but snort as he said that. “Yeah, not so much. Mark and I were lab partners, and he’d broken up with his girlfriend a few weeks before prom. I think I was a convenient option for him.”

“I bet you weren’t.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re crazy. He just didn’t have anyone else to go with, and I didn’t happen to have a date, so he asked me.”

Jack shook his head. “No way. No seventeen year-old guy is going to go to prom with a girl just because – especially if he’s got a ton of friends. He’d go solo before doing that.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I
was
that seventeen year-old guy. I went to prom alone, because there was no one I wanted to take.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

He shrugged. “Small town. It’s not that hard if you think about it. So were you really not going to go to prom if Mark hadn’t asked you?”

“I hadn’t planned on it. I was going to work, since most everyone else was taking off for the night. I figured I could score some good tips.”

Jack shook his head. “All work and no play. We really need to loosen you up.”

“I’m loose,” I defended.

“No, you’re not. Not that you aren’t cool as hell, because you are, but you’re definitely not the type to just let go.”

“I let loose at that party we went to a few weeks ago.”

Jack laughed. “Sort of. But not really.”

“Yeah, not really,” I admitted. “I guess that’s just never been my thing. Old habits die hard.”

“I’ll agree with that, but you really have no reason not to let loose now, right?”

I screwed up my face in question. “That’s not true at all. I have school to worry about, and I have a job.”

“Yeah, and . . .?

“And nothing. I have responsibilities.”

He was smirking at me. “So do I, but I still manage to have fun.”

I wanted to tell him that things felt easier when you didn’t have the burdens of life wearing on you. I didn’t feel like I could play fast and loose with my future – or my present for that matter. No way was I going to move home to Indiana after graduation. I had too many things I wanted to do, and I’d never achieve any of them in rural Rally Falls. Jack could easily move home and pursue his dreams. I didn’t have that option.

“I have fun,” I told him, although I wasn’t sure how true that statement was. As my sister had pointed out, my life
was
sort of boring.

“We’re going to have fun this weekend,” Jack told me, and I knew it was his way of telling me that he didn’t think my version of fun counted either. “Trey’s bonfires are legendary. The beer will be flowing, and I’m giving you permission to check out of your life for the night.”

“Oh, are you?” I asked, amused that he was so keen on taking charge of my social life.

“I am, and that means I’ll be driving, so you can get as drunk as you want. You can flirt with my friends if you feel like it, although I’d steer clear of Darren, because he’s kind of a dog. You can do whatever you want as long as you don’t think about the consequences of your actions.”

“There are always consequences,” I reminded him.

He shook his head. “Not here, not tomorrow night. Tomorrow night you get a pass to do whatever you think might be fun.”

Damn, I could think of ten fun things I’d do if that really were the case – and they all involved him – but regardless of what he’d said, some things were off-limits. Jack still had a girlfriend, and the things I really wanted to do weren’t going to be allowed even if I had a pass. But I couldn’t tell him that.

“So you won’t stop me if I hook up with one of your friends?” I questioned, because he certainly seemed to have an issue with that in the past.

“I didn’t say hook up,” he corrected me. “I said flirt. Don’t hook up with any of them. You have no idea where they’ve been.”

“And you do?”

“I do, and trust me when I say you don’t want to go there.”

I rolled my eyes at his overprotectiveness, but I doubted I’d want to hook up with any of his friends anyway. When Jack was around, he was the only guy I tended to see. Good or bad, it was just the way it was.

“What if I get hurt – physically, not emotionally?”

“You won’t, but if you do the county hospital is only twenty minutes away.”

“Okay, and what if I get so drunk that I can’t remember my name?”

“Then I’ll remind you.”

“And what if I pass out in the middle of a cornfield – do you have cornfields here? How will I get home?”

Jack laughed. “No, we don’t have cornfields, but if you happen to pass out, I’ll make sure you get home safely. I’ve got you, Kate.”

What he was offering did sound sort of enticing. I really wanted to say yes. It might be good to check out of my life, even if it was just for a night.

“You promise?” I asked him.

Jack eyed me for several seconds before a soft smile spread across his face. “I’ve only ever made you one promise I couldn’t keep. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

As soon as he said that, I knew what he was talking about, and it surprised me that he was carrying around any sort of guilt from eight years earlier.

“Jack, that wasn’t your fault,” I told him quickly.

“I should have called,” he told me. “End of story. I can’t go back and do it all over again, but I know I should have called. It was a huge mistake, and it’s just something I have to live with.”

“I forgive you,” I told him. “I was never mad at you for not calling.”

“I know, but I still should have done it. We should have been friends all this time. It’s just the way it should have been.”

I couldn’t argue with that. If nothing else, I wished the same thing. I would have liked to have been his friend all along, even if it was long distance.

“Alright, fine. I’ll do it.”

“Jack looked confused. “You’ll do what?”

“I’ll throw caution to the wind, I’ll let my hair down, and I’ll have fun tomorrow night.”

God, I sounded like an eighty year-old woman, but Jack didn’t seem to mind. He just smiled.

“You will?” he asked eagerly.

I shrugged. “What the hell. I haven’t let loose in, well, ever, so why not have one crazy night.”

“Yes! That’s my girl. It’s going to be so awesome. You won’t regret it.”

“I’ll probably be vomiting all day Sunday, but whatever.”

“Exactly! Who cares as long as you have fun! Yolo! Carpediem! Viva the night – or something like that – only less cheesy,” he said, grinning at me.

“You’re such a dork.”

Jack shrugged. “It’s part of my charm. You know you love it.”

I leaned back in my chair, hoping I wasn’t going to regret what I’d just agreed to. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

Jack smirked at me. “It’s so good to have you back, Kate. Have I told you that?”

“No, I think it’s the first time,” I said sarcastically, although it was still good to hear. I was glad to have him back too.