Page 66 of My Promise To Keep

While I love that admission, it’s not enough.

‘And now you’re here, with me, you don’t have to miss me anymore. So what is this?’

‘I don’t know.’ She swallows and takes a sip of her drink. ‘I just know that this is where I want to be.’ I nod. She’s not going anywhere, and we have time to figure this out. ‘You’re bigger,’ she says as I take a swig of my beer, and it almost comes back out of my nose.

‘What?’ I cough as she laughs.

‘Oh my god.’ She hands me a napkin, still giggling. ‘I wasn’t talking about your manhood.’ Fuck, she’s cute. ‘I don’t think that could get any bigger and still be considered normal.’ I cough again as she takes a breath and seems to shiver.Christ. ‘I meant your physique. Your arms, your chest, and, man oh man, your thighs.’

She eats me up with her eyes and fuck, if it doesn’t make me feel good.

‘I have been working out a lot, found myself with a lot of extra energy recently, and I needed to burn it off, so taking it to the gym seemed like a good plan.’

‘I never imagined you hitting the gym on the regular.’

‘Well,’ I might as well put it all out there now, ‘I stopped doing the thing I used to do to blow off steam,’ I watch her and wait for the penny to drop, and her eyes widen as I smirk. Sex. I stopped having sex. ‘So, I needed another outlet.’

‘Why?’ The question pops out of her as though she didn’t mean to ask and I know this is the moment. The last time she was here with me, when she walked out of my life, and I didn’t know if she’d ever walk back in. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she left me a changed man.

‘I wanted you more than I wanted to hook up.’

‘So what now?’

I stand and reach for her hand. ‘Come with me.’

I More Than Liked You, Munch

Zoe

I take his handand let him lead me to the bedroom.

‘I need to show you something.’ He turns me around and taps my behind. ‘Sit down, Zo.’

I sit on the bed, fighting my smile at how good it feels to be here with him as he goes to his closet and starts digging around in the back. Pulling out an old sneaker box, he joins me on the bed, opening it and handing me an old notebook.

‘What is this?’

‘Open it.’

I open the book and read the inscription on the first page.Leo’s Book, KEEP OUT.

I laugh. ‘Ooh, I bet that had snoopers quaking in their boots.’

He shoves my shoulder. ‘I was ten, fuck you.’

Smiling, I turn the page. The first page is a beautiful sketch of my old dog, Bentley, and tears spring to my eyes. I turn the page and see a bunch of different sketches of Bentley’s paws. Clearly, he was trying to get them right.

‘Keep going,’ Leo encourages, so I turn again to find a page of writing. I meet his eye, and he nods for me to read.

Today, I took Luke over to Doug’s house. He liked them all a lot, and they liked him too. Zoe seemed to want to hang out with him the most, and that kinda sucked, but he looked so happy. I don’t know whether I should tell him that she’s who I want to marry. I think maybe that would make him sad, and he’s already kinda sad, so I probably won’t.

I inhale sharply and swallow the lump in my throat as he flicks through another book and hands that one to me.

Luke kissed Zoe. He said he thinks he loves her. I could tell him that I love her, that I loved her first, and I know he would step away, but he deserves this, and so does she. I’ll be quiet. I’m too young for her anyway. It just sucks.

‘Leo.’ I gasp as he hands me another book. I flick through the pages of beautiful sketches until I find a small paragraph of writing.

Luke and Zoe got married. Fuck.

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