Page 94 of The Promise Of You

Then I process their credit card, my hip both burning and feeling cold from his sudden move away from me.

The whole time, it’s a steady trickle of people, sometimes a longer line. Toward the end of the morning, Haley and Ethan come by and order an early lunch. They both look between Justin and me with clear interest and amusement, but neither says anything. Cassandra, Kiara, and more people I know, and a lot more I don’t know, keep us busy nonstop.

We go on like that for a while, until there’s a sudden lull. “Where’s everybody?” I ask.

Justin grabs a water from the cooler. “The ox pull. That’s an all-time favorite. You should go and check it out. I’ll hold down the fort here.”

I look around. Our corner of the fair is deserted. We have time to talk some more. I take careful steps toward him, grab a water, start sitting down on the cooler.

“Chloe.”

“I’d rather stay here.”

“Cool, then I’ll go to the ox pull,” he says but doesn’t move. His gaze on me is both annoyed and defiant.

“Fine,” I huff and reluctantly walk away.

“Come back before the end of the pulling contest. We’ll have a crowd then,” he calls after me.

Okay so, he doesn’t want to talk now.

It’s fine.

I’ll get through to him.

I elbow my way to the stands and watch as two oxen, harnessed together, are pulling a contraption that has a bunch of huge rectangular stones on it. Three guys surround them, seeming to coo, or maybe yell, at them. It’s hard to tell with the crowd’s cheers and whistles, and the commentator’s voice coming out of the subpar loudspeakers. I can hardly make out what he’s saying.

What I can make out, is my mother’s voice. Straining my vision, I look around, but the only thing that catches my eye is movement in the back of Grace’s massage tent. It looks like she’s taking five, but not in a good way. Before I can worry about what’s wrong with her, my mother’s voice sounds louder.

“Why there she is!” I jump and look behind the bleachers. Mom, Aunt Dawn, and Brendan are standing there, all looking at me. Mom has one eyebrow disapprovingly twitched up. No surprise there. Aunt Dawn looks downright worried, and Brendan’s fists are shoved down his pockets.

I square my shoulders, ready for the family firing squad, and elbow my way down to them.

Aunt Dawn’s eyes are batting like mad. “I couldn’t believe it when Chef Samuel said you were here.”

I let that slide for now. “Why has no one called me?” I look for my phone in my back pocket, but I’m wearing a dress with no pockets, and it hits me that I’ve left my phone in my car. Shoot.

Mom’s lips are pinched disapprovingly. Why does my gaze even glide to her? Of course she disapproves.

“It’s good to see you!” I say and give them each a peck on the cheek, getting only a lukewarm greeting at best.

“I wanted to show the restaurant to your Mom, and Brendan needed to meet some people here, so we decided on a whim to make an outing of it… We’ll let you to it,” Aunt Dawn says, taking Mom’s arm under hers and stepping away.

“We’ll be right back!” Mom says over her shoulder. “Just want to check out this custom jeweler.”

Brendan shuffles his feet.

A little advance notice would have been nice. I’m not sure how much I believe this visit was unplanned. “The reason I’m at the fair—”

“Chloe, you don’t need to explain yourself. I trust you.”

“Really? Because,” and I try to keep my voice in control. Kind and gentle and understanding, “because it doesn’t look like it.”

“I know. Mom… Mom wanted to show her sister-in-law the place. And I guess Aunt Pamela seemed excited to see where you worked, and I wanted to come to the fair anyway to meet with some folks I don’t get to see that often, so it just happened. They tried to call you all morning to tell you we were on our way, but you weren’t picking up. And while we were here, Samuel—Chef,” he corrects himself, “kinda…”

“Yeah?”

Brendan crosses his arms. “He kinda let it slip that in his opinion the restaurant shouldn’t be represented at the fair.”

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