Page 76 of Every Broken Promise
Now,on my way to Sunny Pines, where Rachel was, all I could think about was Tyler and prom night. The only thing making things better was the fact that I would be getting bougie coffee from their local shop.
Once I got to the address Rach had given me, I had to do a double take at the house I was parked at.
Nice didn’t begin to cover it.
I grew up in Oakhill and went to school in Willow Grove, so I had never been around opulence. Even if someone was well off you couldn’t tell from their houses. That was not the case here. Sunny Pines had money, that much was obvious now.
My mom did mention that the Dunnetts were responsible for most of the town’s growth. When I got out of my car, I knocked on the door, and Rachel opened it.
“Thank you so much for coming. I didn’t know who else to call,” she told me.
“Dude, what are friends for? Don’t worry about it.” I waved her off as I stepped inside.
An old man was sitting down on one of the love couches. He wasn’t ugly, but he seemed like he had better days.
I turned to look at Rachel.
“Is that your sugar daddy? I mean, he’s not what I would have envisioned, but his house is dope.”
If he didn’t have the face card, at least he had the pockets to meet sugar daddy requirements.
“Astrid,” Rachel scolded me.
I put my hand up in mock surrender.
She walked into the living room and motioned me to follow her.
“Paul, this is Astrid, my friend. Astrid, this is Paul, my ex-father-in-law.”
Well, that made more sense. Rachel said she was divorced, and if she belonged to this family, she probably did okay with her spousal support. Not that it mattered as she still had a good job, but it made me feel better that I didn’t have my shit together like her.
“Nice to meet you, sir,” I told him, and he nodded almost like he was embarrassed.
Rachel took me into the kitchen and explained what she wanted me to get from town.
“I would do it, but I don’t want to leave him alone,” she said, but I felt like she was hiding something.
“It’s all good. I don’t mind. What do you want from Emma’s? I’m thinking I want something caramel, but a part of me also feels guilty because of the calories.”
“Whatever is fine with me,” she told me. “I’m sorry for pulling you away on a Friday night.”
“Don’t worry, I wasn’t doing anything exciting.”
I ran all over town, getting everything on Rachel’s list. It seemed like she would be meal-prepping for her ex-father-in-law. Just as I was pulling up into the coffee shop, my backstabbing car informed me I needed an oil change.
Seriously, did Tyler jinx me?
There was no way I could show up there and ask for an oil change. I didn’t know his work schedule, and even if I went while he wasn’t there, I was sure his brother would narc on me.
First coffee, and then I can attempt to take on all my problems.
The place looked the same as the last time I came here. I looked at the wall, and I saw they had a ‘quote of the day’, and I wondered if that was something that always happened or if it was new.
We were just friends that spoke like lovers, and that seemed to be enough for two teenagers who were scared to love one another.
That was not what I needed to see, especially today. What kind of voodoo nonsense was going on here? Did they have contact with the girl at the crystal shop?
I slowly pinched myself, but sadly, I wasn’t dreaming.
