Page 61 of No Broken Promises

“Duh!” Kennedy pipes up from the floor. “Haven’t you met my brother? The man is an idiot.” She pauses. “Do you want to tell me what he said?”

“No.” Wiping my nose, I reach for the box and another letter after I carefully fold the first one and put it away. The next one is dated for the very next day. “I think he wrote to me every day he was deployed.”

“Sounds like Remy. Man’s been obsessed with keeping an eye on you since the day he got back. Makes sense that he’d be just as obsessed while he was overseas.” Her voice is filled with something more than annoyance, though, and I feel her pain radiate from the floor.

“Did Linc?”

She coughs. “Yeah, no. He did not write to me, not even once and I have no doubt that I won’t find a bunch of unsent letters hiding in a closet. He left me his dog tag, though. One of them. I wore it until the day they came home, too. Now I’ve got it sitting in my jewelry box because I’m too much of a vagina to give it back to him.”

I think about joining her on the floor, but then she sits up and grabs her pillow. “Scoot over. The couch is big enough for both of us.” Plopping down with the pillow held over her chest, she stares at me with glassy eyes. “Do not let anything in these letters change your mind about him, Parker. Promise me that no matter what, you’re still going to give him the chance that you both deserve.”

“They won’t,” I tell her with my eyebrows raised. “If Remy hadn’t taken off, I would have calmed down and read them while he sat right next to me on the couch, if he’d let me. But no, your brother had to take off and do stupid shit.” I sniffle. “That’s why I called you.”

Kennedy nods solemnly. “Good.”

We both look down, and I catch sight of her ring finger. “Where’s your ring?”

“Gone.” That’s all she says, and I know she won’t tell me anything else.

My heart lifts at the thought that she’s broken off her engagement. Kennedy, for all her bluster, loves Linc just as much as I love Remy. It is one of the things that connects us and our friendship over the past six years. Knowing that Linc hasn’t lost his chance with her makes my heart lighter. There might be hope for them yet.

Instead of saying anything about it or asking her a million of the questions swirling in my mind, I turn my attention back to the letter in my hand. Taking as much care with it as I did with the first one, I start to read.

Dear Parker,

I lied. You aren’t nothing. You’re everything.

I know you married Danny, and I know you’re pregnant with his baby. But I wish I could turn back time and make you mine.

Remy

I grab another letter, this time from the middle of the pile, and open it.

Dear Parker,

I watched you marry my friend and it broke my heart. But seeing you cry at his funeral destroyed my soul.

Remy

There will be no stopping the tears streaming down my cheeks now, as I remember the pain I’d been in. The pain I’d seen on his face at Danny’s funeral. The regret I had at ever telling him how I felt.

I reach for another, this time from the back of the stack, but not the last.

Dear Parker,

I dream about you.

Holding you in my arms, kissing you, touching you.

You’re the only thing keeping me sane here. Even if I know it’s just a dream.

Fuck… I think I love you.

Who am I kidding? I’ve always loved you.

Remy

There are so many more letters I haven’t read. Letters I have every intention of breaking into and reading in their entirety.

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