Page 33 of Promises to Keep

Into my hair he said, “I could send ye tae the compound with them, but then I am sayin’ goodbye tae ye in order tae save m’mother — tis nae fair, daena make me choose.”

I looked up at him and took the kiss we both needed. “I will go with you, you don’t have to choose between my warm bed and rescuing your bitch mother — you promised your mother to save her, which means, as your partner, I promised her. We will do it together.”

* * *

Hayley, standing outside the van, asked, “Quick question, since I won’t be around to save your ass. Do you have a gun?”

“No. I…”

She huffed exaggeratedly. “You need to wake up every morning and strap your gun on, like me, learn from me.”

I said, “You have one right now? Out on the streets of modern New York? Where?”

She patted her fanny pack. “I keep a small pistol on me here. Seriously, sister, you don’t? As much as you’ve gone through, if you aren’t packing, that’s on you.”

I said, “I suppose if a bad guy got me he would probably just get my gun, I don’t really trust my abilities.”

She scoffed. “How many knives do you have on you? You need confidence. I’d like toseea bad guytryto get my gun.”

“I have two knives on me.”

“Bad guys will totally take those two knives,especiallyold-school bad guys.”

“The gun is not historically correct, it’s—”

Her eyes went wide. “You’re planning to load up a six-pack of Coke in a cooler to take to the past! What the hell are you doing with that? Giving eighteenth century kids diabetes is what you’re doing, going to start the whole thing a couple of centuries earlier.”

“I don’t think a six-pack of Coke is likely to destroy the history of the world, but a weapon just might. Then again, the sugar trade was pretty brutal. Wait! Imagine the sugar trade with future guns.”

“Imagine the sugar trade with people all jacked up on caffeine with future guns…? I mean, okay, you have a point, weapons in the wrong handsarethe worst thing, but you know… you aren’t getting any younger, your husband, bless his heart, has been fighting legions of bad guys for too long. I think you need to arm up. It’s time, wear a gun. You’ve been through firearms training, I’ve seen you shoot, you’re very good.”

“I know that’s just in the eighteenth century, this is the twenty-first century, it seems excessive.”

“Have you looked around? Besides the crime, everywhere, you’re a time-traveling queen, in Manhattan, I don’t think there’s anything excessive about it at all.”

“You’re probably right. I’ll get one as soon as I can.”

We hugged and she climbed into the van.

Goodbyes had been said, most of our family was loaded up in the van: Mookie and Haggis were sitting in the middle seat. The kids were spread out in the two back rows. All the passengers were still very packed in though three of us weren’t continuing on.

The van slid away from the curb and we waved, Isla turning all the way around in her carseat to give me a last wave, staring at me wistfully through the back window.

I waved and smiled. Then said to Magnus, “Our Isla has removed her seatbelt.”

I texted Emma:

Hey, make sure Isla buckles back up

Emma texted me back:

Gotcha, oops! See you in a few days at our new place, stay safe.

Me:

You too, see you then.

I turned to look up at the Park Lane hotel, no longer full of our kids and friends and family, now just me, Magnus, and Lochinvar, walking up the steps to the lobby, greeted by the concierge, heading up the elevator to our mostly empty rooms.

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