Page 117 of Promises We Meant to Keep

“Shhh.” Elia stepped toward the front door and pulled Kamryn with her. “Come on, Mom’s sweet potato pie is to die for. Some might say…orgasmic.”

forty-one

“Ugh, I’m stuffed.” Kamryn sat down heavily on the mattress, watching as Elia pulled the earrings from her ears and tossed them into the small plate on the dresser. How often had she done that growing up? Kamryn wasn’t sure that she could imagine Elia as a teenager, or as a teenager in this house in particular. Would she have been a straight-A, goody-two-shoes teenager? Or would she have been a rebellious one?

Elia chuckled as she started pulling off her shoes and tossing them to the side. Kamryn was completely entranced with every single move that she made. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get over Elia. And sure, they still had problems they would need to work out, but at least they were working on them together.

“Are you trying to be a tease?” Kamryn asked. “Because if you are, you’re succeeding at it.”

“Maybe.” Elia gave her a wicked grin. “I do have a gift for you, though.”

“A gift?” Kamryn frowned. She hadn’t realized they were exchanging gifts… at Thanksgiving… What tradition was this? She pulled herself to sit up on the bed and pulled off her own shoes. If Elia was getting comfortable, she was sure they were going to be staying in here the rest of the night.

Elia smiled over at Kamryn from the dresser that she was leaning against. This seemed almost like a trap, Kamryn wasn’t sure. But there was such an ease from earlier in the night, and Kamryn was so happy. She’d been worried after Abagail left with her…parting gift…that they were going to struggle to get back into the swing of things, but she was glad to find that it was easy.

Standing up, Elia turned around and took a medium-sized wooden box from the dresser and started to walk toward Kamryn. That was her gift? It’d been in plain sight the entire time? Also, who gives gifts at Thanksgiving?

Kamryn was still stumped on that last one. She ran her fingers through her hair and eyed the box as Elia came closer, sliding it into Kamryn’s fingers before she sat next to her on the bed. “I couldn’t help myself when I saw it online.”

“Online?” Now Kamryn was even more interested than before.

“And I couldn’t wait until Christmas to give it to you either.”

Were they planning for Christmas? Absolutely. And that thought alone made Kamryn so happy. She remembered all those times she’d planned for holidays with Lauren and then they’d break up before they got there, only to get together again last minute and Kamryn would have to scramble to get anything ready for the holiday.

Everything with Elia was so much calmer and easygoing. It really was easy to love her. At least now it was.

“Are you going to open it?” Elia asked, nearly as impatient as a toddler on Christmas morning.

Kamryn eyed her carefully. “I’m scared to open it.”

“Why?”

“What could you possibly have come up with for a gift?” Kamryn ran her fingers along the smooth and polished edges of the wooden box. It was gorgeous. Even if the box itself was the whole gift, then Kamryn would love it. But she had a feelingthere was something else inside. Elia didn’t do things half-assed at all.

“You’ll have to open it to find out.”

Kamryn hesitated only a moment longer before she slid the lid of the box off and immediately burst into laughter. Inside, nestled in red fabric, was a whisk, and not just any whisk, but a golden whisk. She plucked the item out of the box, and grinned down at it, reading the engraved handle.

Promise Whisk.

“You got me a whisk?” Kamryn very nearly burst into tears. She’d never gotten such a heartfelt gift before. Not one that would mean so much to both of them. Kamryn ran her fingers along the metal and couldn’t stop smiling.

“You gave your whisk to the kids. I figured you needed a new one.”

“To cook with?” Kamryn snorted. She couldn’t remember the last time she cooked in her apartment. She usually ate at Elia’s. “You think I’m going to use a golden and engraved whisk to make my scrambled eggs in the morning?”

Elia laughed lightly and shook her head. “Well, no. Probably not. But the whisk is all about telling truths and highlights, and I wanted you to know what a highlight you’ve been to my life. I can’t imagine how this semester would have gone without you in it, to walk right alongside me, to be with me, toprotectme.”

Kamryn took in a shuddering breath. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“I know I couldn’t have done it without you.” Elia moved in, kissing Kamryn’s cheek. “But the whisk is just the added good-luck charm that I think we both needed.”

“It’s not a good-luck charm.” Kamryn ran her fingers over the wires again, admiring the way the light shone off them. “It’s a truth teller, it’s a positivity master, it’s what I want to keep in the forefront of my mind always. I don’t want to live in the negative,and I think the world would be better off if we tried to be more positive.”

“You’ve always believed that,” Elia said, “even when you were a student at Windermere.”

Kamryn nodded. She had always believed that. She’d also forgotten it a time or two in the meantime. The whisk was the perfect reminder. “I’ll treasure this.” She settled the whisk back into the box and closed it up. “Thank you.”

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