Page 33 of Break Me Like a Promise (Oak Valley)

Ruby set two plates on the table — an auctioned picnic table painted black with the benches removed, a project of her mom’s that Colton helped with when he was sixteen — and he started removing the food items from the bag. They plated and sat across from each other, the gnawing hunger so bad that Colton dug in quickly.

When he took a breath from inhaling his food, he saw Ruby had barely picked at hers.

“I thought you liked tacos?”

She shrugged. “Just trying to go over the bus timeline, figure out when it’ll be done.”

Colton set down his food, wiping his tongue of his teeth while he thought. “Well, if it goes according to plan, we could probably have it finished by June.”

Ruby didn’t flinch at his use ofwe. But what he said was dependent on how his interview went, if he’d be flying out to interview in San Francisco or even moving there.

“Why are you helping me, Colt? And don’t give me the bullshit, ‘I don’t want you to get hurt.’ Give me honesty.”

The look she gave him cut to the bone, as if she put up a wall he missed the construction of.

“I don’t know, Ruby. I just couldn’t… not. And I know it means you’ll be out of here faster than if you did it alone, but I can’t seem to stop myself.”

“Better than staying here for god knows how long.”

He felt the sting, knew it was intentional. “Yeah, now that my knee’s healed more, I’m itching to get out.”

“Oh, yeah? Is that way you’ve been stuck here, your knee?”

Colton shrugged. He didn’t know how to explain his sense of pride and responsibility. How living with his family had enabled him to heal, how he felt staying and helping around the house was a way of repayment. Plus, it had brought him and Katie closer, and as much as he hated the auto shop, it had saved him when he was on the edge of despair.

“So what’s next for Colton Taylor?” she asked through a mouthful of food.

He met her gaze, her smirk, knowing he couldn’t tell her about San Francisco. Not until it became something.

Not until he became something.

“Anything but being here.” He picked at his food some more.

“I get that.”

“I bet. You just itching to take off in that school bus?”

“You know it.” She smiled at him. “If you could go anywhere in the world right now, no holds barred, where would it be?”

It was a game they’d played when they were teenagers, with everything that informed what they wanted their lives to look like. Colton thought of the dreams they’d had, which ones had come true and the ones that hadn’t. He’d gotten out of Oak Valley, but his traveling had been limited to the continental U.S. Better than nothing, but he’d had bigger dreams than that.

“Hmmm maybe Thailand? Or India? Morocco. Some place that’s the complete opposite of here.”

“Oh yeah, all of those would be awesome. I think I’ll have to second your choices. Why haven’t you gone yet?”

He shrugged, her question inadvertently reminding him of all the ways he’d failed. His career, his dad, even maybe his mom if he didn’t get the job. Ruby.

“You have a lot of money, life’s too short. Take the trip.” Her voice took on a hard edge, one he recognized from her insistence he go to school far away from home. It was a tone that had built up when he accepted the full ride football scholarship at the good — not great — school a few towns over, so he could live at home and keep an eye on his mom and Katie.

It was the tone of the beginning of the end.

“I’m saving.” He cleared his throat, the food not as appealing as before.

“Ah.” She visibly relaxed, digging into her food a bit more. “Are you finally going to open up your own pastry shop?”

“What? Where did that come from?”

She scoffed. “I mean, Colt… You can’t play football anymore and you love being in the kitchen. I just thought —”

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