Page 17 of Every Broken Promise
She already felt betrayed by me. I didn’t want her to have the same feelings toward her parents. I wasn’t going to be the cause of a rift between them. As hypocritical as it sounded, I never wanted to cause her pain.
Which was ironic since that was the reason we were here now.
When Mrs. Hart texted demanding that I show up today for Sunday dinner, I was all too happy to comply. Astrid might have changed her hair to look brighter and did her makeup in a way that made heads turn. And added piercings that, before knowing they belonged on her body, made my cock twitch. But I was counting on the fact that the girl still had a serious sweet tooth to try and win her over.
I pulled the door toDelicia’s, and despite coming here often, I was overwhelmed with the options. A fucking dessert was not going to fix my fuckups, but damn if I wasn’t going to try.
A smile graced my lips when I looked at the pinkconchadisplay. What came to mind was all the times Astrid had pink crumbs running down her shirt because the crust was flaky.
I grabbed a few of those and the pig cookies. I don’t know why they were shaped that way, but who was I to judgetradition? They tasted good, and since Astrid’s parents loved the Mexican sugar cookies, I grabbed some of those, too.
“Lupe, I know it’s not winter, but could you please make me some hot chocolate? I will pay you double,” I yelled, assuming she was in the back.
There was hot chocolate, and then there was Mexican hot chocolate, and the two didn’t compare. Astrid loved their hot chocolate, and I fucking hoped since leaving town she had been deprived of it. If I brought her some, she would be forced to think of me from now on.
Man, I was pathetic.
“Are you for real?” a voice that did not belong to Lupe questioned me.
My head snapped up, and I instantly recognized her. She was Lupe’s daughter. From what I remembered, she had been in Adam’s grade. The town was small, and the population was ninety-nine point nine percent white, and then there was Lupe and her family. Thank God they moved here; otherwise, I would be coming to the Harts’ house empty-handed.
“I’m dead fucking serious. I need it to be the best batch you ever made.”
She cocked her head and looked me over. Chicks did that all the time. They loved coming to the auto shop themselves so they could check out my brothers or me.
“Tyler,” I said, tilting my head.
Her lip twitched.
“I know. I went to high school with you and your brothers.”
Her eyes were dark, almost black. Her hair was dark brown with some reddish highlights. She had dark brown skin and big pouty lips.
“This is the part where you offer up your name,” I told her.
She did not seem amused by this.
“We only sell hot chocolate from autumn through winter.”
I couldn’t help but think that her mother would have done it, and based on the way her eyes narrowed, I had a feeling she knew I was thinking it.
“Exactly why I said I would pay double.”
“Give me a good reason to make it?” She crossed her arms.
“Shouldn’t your goal be to keep the customer happy?”
She raised a perfectly shaped brow at me.
“Would you go to McDonald’s in December demanding a Shamrock Shake? I don’t know why people think small business means no boundaries or lack of respect for their rules.”
I gritted my jaw.
Point taken.
“It’s for my…” The sentence trailed off because I couldn’t even get the wordsbest friendout. Not after EZ pointed shit out, and I finally acknowledged the fact that she couldn’t even say my name. “It’s for someone special. She fucking loves that shit, and right now, I really need to catch a break because she’s pissed at me, and I’m going out of my damn mind trying to fix it without making her hate me even more.”
“Luna,” she said.
