Page 41 of Every Promise Broken

Kitten.

Kitten.

It’s on repeat.

Followed byhusband.

What have I gotten myself into?

How am I going to survive him if I’m folding this easily at apet namehe used to call me?

Realizing I’ve just spent the entire who knows how long since Conrad walked away staring in his direction, I turn my head, focusing on Nana because I think she just said something that I completely missed. “I’m sorry, what? I zoned out.”

She chuckles. “I said, you two are so cute.”

My brows dip. “Why?”

“The way you two whisper to each other, and the way you can’t keep your eyes off him.” She smiles sweetly. “It’s like you’re falling in love all over again.”

Chest squeezing, I force myself to laugh softly. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, sweetie. A love like that should be shown, loud and proud.”

Thankfully, I’m saved from having to reply because Conrad walks up to our table, setting the food down before lowering himself onto the bench seat beside me. He grabs one of the papertrays, handing it to his nana. “Here you go. I got you a diet Pepsi too.” Then he hands me mine. “I know how much you love these. Hope that’s okay.”

I glance down at what he sets in front of me, my mouth watering at the sight. A giant pretzel with what I’m assuming is beer cheese.Yum.“More than okay,” I reply. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I got you a bottle of water too.”

Why is my heart beating so fast? Over food.

Lord, help me.

What the hell is going on today? Is Mercury in retrograde or something?

Clearing my throat, I do my best to push all of this out of my head as I dig in to my pretzel. Looking over at Conrad’s side, I ask, “What did you get?”

“A bacon cheeseburger.”

“That looks good,” I hum, mostly to myself.

“Want a bite?” he offers.

“Oh, no. That’s okay.” I shake my head.

“Here, I’ve got plenty.” He holds it out for me, clearly not letting me off the hook until I take a bite. Conceding, I move to grab it from him, but he shoves past my hand, bringing the burger up to my mouth…like he wants to fucking feed me.

My eyes lift, meeting his, finding humor staring back at me. Then I hear Nana giggle to herself across from us.

“You can’t be serious,” I deadpan, burger still right in front of my face.

His lips curl up into a devilish grin before he says quietly, “Open up,kitten.”

My chest constricts hearing that name, the blood running hot in my veins. I drop my mouth open, and he shoves the burger in, a rumbly chuckle sounding from him as I bite off a chunk. I don’t taste any of it, similar to how I don’t notice anything around me other than Conrad and that damn smirk he’s wearing. Cheekshot, I know they’re bright red right now, and there’s a distinct heat pooling low in my spine.

“Whit?”

I snap my head to where the sound of my name came from, my heart now sputtering for an entirely different reason. “Reggie?” Swallowing the bite of burger, I cough as it goes down wrong, and I nearly jump out of my seat when I feel Conrad’s massive hand pat on my back. “Wh-what, uh… Hi. What are you doing here?”

---