Page 34 of No Broken Promises

“I mean I have to leave.”

My pulse races, and my breathing grows short as I try to think of how I can change her mind. “I heard that, and I told you that you don’t have to go.”

Parker leans forward and caresses my cheek with her hand.

“I don’t think you understand.” She presses a soft kiss to my lips and pulls back before it can become anything more than that. “I think it’s time that I move away from Birch Harbor. This place isn’t my home. Not anymore.”

Those simple little words should mean nothing, and yet they have the power to bring me to my knees.

14

PARKER

Rose and Emma both stare at me like I’ve grown a second head. We are sitting in the cafeteria at Birch Elementary, getting ready to watch the kindergarten students give their first winter concert, and I’ve just dropped one massive bomb.

After I’d left Remy’s house, I half expected him to tattle on me, running to his mother and Rose, demanding that they do something about me leaving. But as one day, and then two, and then even more pass, I don’t hear a single word.

I do, however, see him everywhere I go. He and Daisy patrol at Nox’s school. I see him at Lucy’s almost every day. Even the grocery store, where I stand four people behind him in line. Every single day, I see Remy somewhere, and when I do, the image of him wrapped around my body fills my head, reminding me of what I can’t have.

Now, almost a month later, he still hasn’t told a single person about my plan to leave Birch. All of which leads me to dropping that particular announcement to not only Rose and Emma, but to Vanessa Townsend, Remy’s mother, as well, in the middle of the audience at Nox’s concert.

Admittedly, I haven’t made much progress on the move whatsoever. I haven’t figured out which town I’ll move to or which school Nox will go to. I haven’t done much beyond make the admittedly rushed decision that I need to move.

“If that’s what will make you happy. I’d just hate to see you leave your home before you’re ready. Especially when you have a community here that loves you. After everything you did to make your own place here, you’ve won that. Finally. And you’ve got a family that will be lost without you and Nox. Not only that—” Rose’s cut-off statement takes me completely off guard, and I can’t ask her about it because the lights were shut off and all of the students filter into the room.

I stare, enraptured, as I wait for a glimpse of Nox. He refused to let me help him get dressed, choosing his own outfit. Then he shoved himself into his jacket before I could see what he picked to wear. Needless to say, I am sitting on the edge of my seat, hoping he didn’t show up in pajamas. Yes, I could have forced him to wear what I wanted him to, but part of raising an independent young man is allowing him the freedom to dress himself. A choice I have regretted since the moment I made it.

Still, when he marches out wearing the blue suit I’d bought him at the beginning of the school year, with a red bow tie, my eyes definitely start watering. Not only because of what he chose to wear though, but I also notice the gold and purple medal stuck to his chest. He’d pulled Danny’s Purple Heart out of the medal case and had it pinned to the left side of his heart. I’m pretty sure that in that moment, my heart breaks and heals itself almost instantaneously.

Next to me, Rose takes my hand in hers, and I hear the shocked gasp leave her chest. “He looks just like Danny.” I look over to see a slightly unfocused expression on her face and a smile I haven’t seen before.

He really does look just like his father, down to the way he holds himself. And when they all start to sing, Nox stands out more than the rest of the students in the crowd, except one. Next to him is his best friend, Everett James, who insists on being called Rett. He, too, wears a blue suit with a red bow tie, and I have the suspicion that Rett and Nox conspired to dress alike. Looking around, I see Rett’s father standing on the other side of the crowd, wearing a leather vest and silently cheering his son on.

I am so engrossed in the scene and the off-key renditions of the classic holiday songs that I don’t notice someone sitting on the other side of me until I lean back and hit an arm. Immediately, I scoot forward and smooth down the skirt of my dark-red dress.

“Oomph,” I mutter without looking. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re not. You look stunning, by the way.”

That fucking voice.

Not again. I refuse to give in.

“Go away,” I mutter. “I don’t want to see you.”

But I do want to see him. Even the sound of his voice has me biting the inside of my lip, remembering the way he filled me completely. The touch of his arm behind my back sends a shiver of excitement down my spine and into my bones, so I lean away from him. Only, as soon as I do that, he leans over and I am assaulted by the masculine scent of his cologne.

“Damn it.” The curse leaves my lips before I can clamp my lips shut, and Remy is so close there isn’t a chance of him not hearing it.

“Did you hear?” Rose asks loudly over my head, like I am not even a part of the conversation.

I shoot a glare in her direction, but there isn’t anything I can say when there is a small break in the performance while the classes move around. I feel better not paying attention, because it looks like Nox’s class is done singing for the next few minutes.

“You mean about Parker moving away from Birch Harbor?” Remy doesn’t pull any punches, and I wince at the pure disbelief in his voice. “Yeah, she told me about it after her date with Benton Mays.”

The way he says Benton’s name, like it is something dirty, chafes. I fight the urge to call him on his bullshit, because I can feel him go tense as he sits next to me. He wants the fight between us. Instead, I turn to Rose and raise an eyebrow in challenge.

“Yeah, I did. Because it’s not something that I just decided on a whim,” I lie through my teeth. “It’s time.” Crossing my arms over my chest feels like it would be a petulant thing to do, so I fold my hands primly in my lap and fiddle with the material of my skirt.

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