Page 17 of No Broken Promises

“Parker?” I knock on the door before stepping inside, putting on the professional mask I’ve mastered as a police officer.

“Go away,” she moans in the dark without rolling over to see that I am there.

I thought about doing just that. After all, I’d shown up at the hospital in the middle of the night after my shift ended. With her concussion, there has to be nurses checking on her every few hours. But I’d been a dick for no reason to her earlier, and I am selfish enough to admit that I need her to know why. I don’t want Parker to hate me. I never have. I need her to know that she has a chance at a life.

But this? This isn’t the life I want for her.

I close her door after I make sure that we are alone, more to give myself a little bit of privacy while I apologize than anything else. “Parker.” Saying her name causes her to stir once more. This time she rolls over to face me with a grimace on her face and her eyes barely open.

“What?” Her voice is hoarse, cracked, and broken. Hurt, in a way that I can’t fix.

She’s yours to fix. You promised.

Danny’s face flashes into my mind, and for a brief moment, I think I see him standing there by her side.

“I’m sorry I was a dick.” The words fall from my lips as I step closer to her hospital bed in the dim lighting offered by the machines that flash in the darkness. “You didn’t deserve that after being injured.”

Silence, awkward silence, fills the air between us as she stares at me with one eye open and the other squeezed tightly shut.

“Go away, Remington Vance.” The acid in her voice would scare me if she wasn’t so pitiful-looking.

“Not even close.” I grab the ridiculously heavy chair that sits on one side of the room and push it until it sits directly next to her. Daisy curls herself up right at the foot of Parker’s bed and grunts as she starts to snore.

I have to adjust my utility belt as I sit down, but the shocked expression on Parker’s face when I finally plop down is priceless.

“You know,” I tell her when I’d make myself as comfortable as possible. “I honestly don’t think we’ve been alone together since I left… And you know my name is Jeremy Vale Townsend, Parker Jane.” Trying to tease her turns out to be the very worst thing I can do.

“You mean the night you left me in the woods with Danny and told me you never wanted me. Oh, and then you told Danny to take care of me.”

I shouldn’t have said it. I shouldn’t have brought up the only time I have ever questioned the choices I’ve made. I sure as shit shouldn’t have done it while Parker is sitting in front of me looking like I’ve driven a knife into her heart.

With my throat suddenly so dry that I could have lit a match by swallowing it, I somehow find the wherewithal to nod. “Yeah. That night.”

Parker sighs, from the very tips of her toes to the ends of her hair. It is a deep sigh that fills her body and shows the world how exhausted she truly is.

“I’m trying to rest, Remington.” The insulting nickname that I’ve asked her a hundred times as kids not to use falls so easily from her lips. “Just go away.”

I want to leave. To run away just like she told me to. But my ass is planted, my feet won’t move, and my heart will break even more if I leave her again. “Sorry.” I rub my hands together and lean back in my chair, hoping the ache in my chest will ease up just a little bit. “I can’t do that. Not until you tell me you forgive me for being a dick.”

“No.” She shakes her head stubbornly and then groans in pain when it becomes clear that the small movement aggravates her concussion.

In a flash, I am up off the chair, tucking the loose strand of dirty-blond hair that hangs in her face behind her ear before I can stop myself.

Unfortunately, that only makes things worse, because Parker pulls herself back from my touch, only to gasp from the pain.

“Nooo.” Her eyes are clenched shut, with tears starting to leak out from beneath her eyelashes.

The mistake I’ve made is painfully clear.

“I shouldn’t have come, Parker.” The admission hurts, and the idiocy of my decision to apologize after my shift hits me like a ton of bricks. Swallowing my pride, I take a step back without ever taking my eyes off her. “I… thought I needed to apologize.”

To love her.

For a long minute, Parker doesn’t say anything. I need her to say something, and that need has my heart pounding against my rib cage. Like a fucking ass, I need her not to hate me. I can’t stand it anymore. Not when she is everywhere I turn, her very existence captivating me since the moment I came home.

“Thank you for bringing Nox home.” Without a hint of sarcasm, Parker’s gratitude is enough to force me to sit back down in the chair next to her bed. “Why are you here, Remy?”

I practically swallow my tongue. “I already told you.”

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