Page 4 of Every Broken Promise
Three things happened at once. The first was that instead of moving forward, I was going backward. The second was that I almost had a heart attack, leading me to my third point. Tyler Kane had his arm around my waist. Every cell in my body was aware because no matter how many years had passed, my muscle memory remembered what it was like to be wrapped in his arms.
My throat constricted, and my heart finally decided it would not go into cardiac arrest, but instead, it would begin to beat out of my chest.
I had forgotten how good it felt to be wrapped in his arms. It was as if everything in the world would be all right. Ty had always been my safe place—until he wasn’t.
“Let go of me.”
I began to thrash around, trying to get out of his hold. That arm around me became tighter. His fingers dug into my skin. Out of all the days to wear a crop top, I had to go and pick today. The feel of his skin on mine was something I didn’t need a reminder of.
“No,” he stated as he dragged me all the way to the passenger door of his tow truck.
His hold on me loosened, but not enough to wiggle out and take off running.
Ty opened the door and looked down at me expectantly. I did what any self-respecting woman would have done: crossed my arms and glared at him.
If it weren’t for the goosebumps that quickly spread across my arms, I would say I imagined the way Ty’s thumb caressed my hip bone.
“Either you get in, Astrid, or I do it for you,” he firmly told me.
He opened the door wider, and I refused to look up at him as I climbed into the tow truck. This truck was not the same one I remembered. It was much newer, and I thanked God I had no nostalgic feelings toward it. Ty took my car keys from me, and before locking my car, he pulled out the weekender bag I had on my passenger seat.
The act stirred emotions in me that I wasn’t sure I wanted to feel. How did he make that seem so seamless?
The ride would be quick, or so I hoped, since Kanes’ Auto was right at the town entrance. From there, I could beg EZ to take me home. He usually tolerated me enough to give me a ride.
“Come on, Astrid. We’ve been best friends since we were six. We even swapped a handshake full of spit to make it official.”
In my peripheral vision, I could see him grinning at the memory while I scrunched my nose at the disgusting things my past tomboy self did.
Maybe that’s why his betrayal hurt me more than it did him. I considered him my best friend. I was always there for him whenever he needed me, but after the incident, all I could think about was all the time he wasn’t there for me.
Tyler bypassed the auto shop, and I immediately sat up straighter.
“Where are you going?”
Since he was essentially kidnapping me, I was forced to look at him. My question made him smile.
“Are you talking to me now?”
My jaw clenched, and I glared at him.
This made him chuckle.
I was so mad at him that I didn’t take in the familiar roads I had missed. People knew what they were talking about when they said there was no place like home. At that moment, I was made aware of a void I didn’t know I had been carrying… I had been homesick.
My anger for Ty was forgotten for a few minutes as my hand touched the windowpane while we took the familiar path toward my childhood home. The last thing I wanted was to cry in front of Tyler. I could feel the burn in my eyes and quickly blinked away the tears.
I had never wanted to leave, but after everything that had happened there was no way I could have stayed.
Tyler pulled up to the side of my house.
“Get some rest, Astrid. Come pick up your car tomorrow.”
I only nodded when my “thank you” refused to come out. I stepped out of the car and looked at my parents’ house, dying to run inside and hug my daddy. He always made everything better.
I was about to close the door when Ty spoke.
“I’m real glad you’re back home. I’ve missed my best friend.”
