Page 14 of Promise Me

I stare at Miles. He has his own job and his own life, yet every time I’ve wanted to do something new since I moved home, he’s been right there, ready to help.

Do they still pity me?

I shake my head and push off my legs to stand. “I don’t have a plan. I guess I should go talk to Sadie.”

“You can’t go in guns blazing,” Luca says, using his fingers as fake guns and blowing on the tips of his index fingers.

Miles laughs. “Real original.”

“For those two, it hit the nail on the coffin.”

Miles laughs harder.

“Okay, jokester, that’s enough,” I say, with a little chuckle of my own.

“What are you going to say to her?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

Do I want to be friends with Sadie? Not exactly. Do I want to be able to run into her around town or join a dinner with her family and not fight with her the entire time? Yes.

How do I get that point across and not piss her off at the same time?

I’ve never had this problem before. People have always just taken to me naturally. I’m not overly nice or a suck-up; I’m just a normal guy with basic manners—except when it comes to Sadie.

I let out an even bigger sigh.

“Maybe take her a gift?” Miles suggests.

“A gift?”

“Yeah, a peace offering.”

“Say something nice to her,” Luca adds. “Do you ever give her compliments?”

I shake my head. “She’d think I was up to something.”

“Well, go get a treat and give her one. It will seem natural.”

Miles snaps his fingers. “Oh! Do it with the lemon bars. Compliment those. That’s easy.”

My face wrinkles instantly, and I cringe.

“What? Why are you making that face?” Miles asks. “What did you do?”

“I sort of told her that her lemon bars are dry, possibly used the wordsubparsomewhere in my comment, and that I have to wash them down with a beer.”

“Hudson!”

“You are a real piece of work!”

My hands fly up.

“Words just come out when I’m around her. I have no control. She … she knows how to find this side of me that has no idea how to be civil.”

The twins look at each other, the exact same Cheshire smile slowly taking over their lips as they turn to me.

Oh, this should be good.

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