Page 86 of Promise Me Nothing
“Her name’s Hannah. She’s Lucas’ sister.”
Vicky hums as she drops a lime into each drink. But then, out of the corner of my eye, I see her pause. Look up at me.
“Hannah… Morrison?”
I run my tongue over my teeth, fuming at myself for not realizing that my mother talks to Vicky about everything.
I made the mistake once. Just once. In an argument with my mother about dad and money and a bunch of bullshit, I told her.
About Henry’s remaining family.
About Hannah.
“Wyatt,” she whispers, her eyes wide. “What are you doing?”
I push my shoulders back. “None of your business, Vicky.” And then I take a drink in each hand and turn to head out to the patio, guilt tugging wildly at my throat as I leave her in my wake.
“Drink time,” I call out, and Hannah turns my way, tapping Ivy on the shoulder.
I put your Shirley Temple in the fridge earlier,I tell Ivy once I’ve set the margaritas down on the small table between two pool loungers.
She scampers inside.
“This is delicious,” Hannah says, taking a second sip of her margarita, then licking her lips.
I’m not even the slightest bit embarrassed to say it gets me a little bit hard. Though I’m also not a creep, so I take a seat on a lounger, discretely adjusting my shorts.
“So, what does your tattoo mean?” I ask. “I meant to ask before.”
“It’s going to sound stupid, so just remember that I was eighteen when I got it.”
“Like you’re that much older now,” I joke.
She smiles. “I’m almost twenty-two. I’m definitely older now.” Hannah sets her drink down next to mine and heads over to the steps to the pool, dipping a toe in, before walking slowly down into the water. “Free is exactly what it sounds like. I always felt like I was… I don’t know, imprisoned in these foster homes where no one ever really gave a shit about me. And around that time, I’d started to forgive myself for my own mistakes. It just felt like the right word.”
She lifts her arms and tugs out her ponytail, her long hair tumbling down over her shoulders. “And the feather was how I felt at the time. Like I was just being blown all over the place with no clear… anything. No family, nowhere to go, nothing that mattered.” She shrugs. “I decided to embrace it. See it as being free rather than being lost. Otherwise I never would have moved on.”
She lowers into the water, floating for a second, dipping her head back into the pool then rising out.
“I know it sounds ridiculous…”
“It doesn’t.” I shake my head, the wonder I feel when I look at her continuing to grow. The coincidence that I’d used almost that exact same analogy when thinking about her spirit while we were on the run earlier. “It’s anything but ridiculous, Hannah.”
She gives me a little smile, then dips back into the water so only her eyes and the top of her head can be seen.
I turn and grab my drink just as Ivy joins us outside, a Shirley Temple in her hand.
Look who’s here!she says, a big smile on her face.
Lucas appears from behind her, swim trunks on, towel in-hand.
He gives me a grin and a wink. “Time for a dip.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hannah
I grin as I count my tips for the evening. Four hundred and eighty-seven buckaroos. In one shift. I can’t ever remember making that much money in one evening before, let alone on a Wednesday.
