Page 19 of No Broken Promises

I close my eyes in a futile attempt to get away from the pain I've caused myself. Instead, the memories come back again, like they live in my soul, embedded for eternity.

“Come on.” Danny grinned like a fool the night before we graduated from boot camp. “We're all writing letters home, Remy. You can't tell me that your mom wouldn't love to hear from you. Your sisters. Casper and Cassie keep sending you shit, and you don't even send them a note to thank them. Even Parker’s sent us letters every week. You won’t even write her?”

I glared him into silence, mostly because he was right. What the fuck was I supposed to say to them, though? What was I supposed to say to Parker?

“You’re right,” I huffed. “But I'm not happy about it. I’ll write a letter once a week, if it makes you happy.”

“You're never happy about anything.” He sighed deeply as we stood together outside our bunk. “I can't believe we get to go home, Remy. Shit's crazy. I can't wait to see everyone. It’s been the longest two months ever.”

“Yeah.” I couldn't say anything else. The only person I wanted to see wouldn't even be there, and it was all my fault. I should have called her. Or written.

“I can't wait to get out of here.” He turned to face me with a shrewd expression. “How about you? Did you tell her how you feel?”

The door to our bunk opened behind me before I could answer, and our conversation was cut short by Linc's arrival.

“I fuckin' hate this place.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Can't get a decent nap, the pillows are shit, and the toilet paper feels like I'm rubbing sandpaper against my ass.”

“You're in the Marine Corps.” I leaned back and let my head rest against the wall. “What did you expect to happen?”

“I don't know. But at least tomorrow everyone will be here.”

I walked away without looking back. When I was finally alone, I pulled the single sheet of paper from the envelope it’d come in.

Dear Remy,

I was going to wait until I saw you at graduation to tell you. Then you left, and I couldn’t. I’m going to miss you. More than you know. More than I should. I know we’re only friends, that we’ve only EVER been friends, but I want more. Maybe… Maybe we could be more? Can we talk when you get home? Just let me know, and I’ll be there.

I’m yours, I think.

Parker

The memories are too much. Parker is too much. Which is why I find myself rooting in the back of my closet at two a.m. to find the shoebox that is more important than anything else in my life. My heart races as I pull out the stack of weathered envelopes. All of them open and read so many times I could recite them from memory.

All of them from Parker.

“I’m so fucked.”

8

PARKER

When I get home the next morning, Nox crawls into my bed with the remote in his hand and a smile on his face, erasing everything I went through the night before. It doesn’t matter that I am bone-tired or that I am ready to curl up and die. Nox always comes first.

“I had a sleepover with Auntie Kenny.” He snuggles up to me, and I grimace against the jarring motion, clenching my teeth so that I don’t react. “She said that I should be nice to you today.” The impish smile on his face says that he’s been thinking about jumping on my bed, but he refrains. Thankfully.

“You scared me the other night, Nox.” I wrap him in a hug. “You can’t go to the cemetery, or anywhere, like that again… Not on your own. You’re not old enough.”

Nox bristles. “I’m big enough. Besides, I had to go make sure that Boo and Daddy were okay.”

I swallow down my instant regret at saying something and straighten my spine. Nox may be stubborn, but that isn’t a trait he inherited just from Danny.

“You can’t, Nox. We’re lucky that Officer Townsend was there to help you.”

“If he’s Auntie Kenny’s brother, why can’t I just call him Uncle Remy?”

Leave it to my kid to completely change the subject in the middle of me trying to discipline him.

“Aunt Kennedy is my best friend.” I have nothing else to say to that, and my chest clenches at the simple truth that Remy had been my best friend once upon a time too. He’d also been one of Danny’s best friends.

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