Promise Me (30 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Kate

When I got to class two Fridays after Jack and I had taken a break, he was already there, and he was grinning like he’d gotten away with something evil.

“What is up with you?” I asked him.

His smile widened. “It’s Friday.”

“That it is,” I agreed as I took the seat next to him.

He’d been lounging back, so he sat up straighter and turned to me. “Come on, Kate, you can at least look a little excited.”

I gave him an exaggerated excited look. “Yay, it’s Friday.”

He rolled his eyes. “Seriously?! Aren’t you excited that we can hang out again, and isn’t it killing you to know what I’ve got planned for us this weekend?”

I eyed him skeptically. “Of course I’m excited, but I’m not sure I should be all that thrilled about what we’re doing given the look on your face. I think I should be scared.”

In truth I had been counting the days until we could hang out again. Seeing him in class hadn’t been enough. Even though it had been less than two weeks, I’d
missed
him.

Jack waved me off. “Don’t be scared. This is going to be so much fun. What time are you done with classes today?”

“Noon.”

“Cool. I finish at one-thirty, so I’ll come by after and get you, and we’ll head out.”

“Excuse me?”

The last time Jack and I had talked about doing something this weekend had been almost two weeks earlier. He’d talked about making plans, and I’d taken the weekend off work, but we’d yet to discuss what we were doing and who was coming with us. I assumed he had invited a slew of people, and part of me was fearful that I was going to feel like an outsider all weekend. With him and his frat brothers, Alyssa, and God knew who else, I wasn’t sure I’d have much in common with anyone. But I was going to be a good sport and go with the flow. Jack wanted me to get to know his friends and his girlfriend, so I was going to do that.

“Excuse what?” Jack asked, looking confused.

“What are we doing? Where are we going? Who else is coming?” I asked him.

He laughed. “Oh, shit. Sorry. I guess I forgot to fill you in on the details. We’re going to my aunt and uncle’s house.”

“We are?” I asked, thrown off by that. Were they out of town or something? Was he throwing a party there?

Jack nodded. “Yeah, I really want you to meet them. Aunt Deena knows all about you – she has for years – and she’s been begging to meet you since we started hanging out again. She was ridiculously thrilled when I told her we were coming to hang out for the weekend.”

“So, your aunt and uncle are okay with a bunch of your friends crashing at their house for the weekend?”

“What bunch?” Jack asked in confusion. “No bunch. Just us.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Just us? Like me and you? That us?”

“Yeah, who else would I be talking about?”

“Uh, your friends who you were talking about doing something with this weekend. I assumed you’d at least invite Cullen, Micah, Logan, and your Sunday football friends, and you talked about me getting to know Alyssa better. Why just us?”

“Oh, well, what I didn’t realize when we were talking about making plans for this weekend was that I was already supposed to be going home. You see, twice a year, my high school friends and me – there are six of us, and we all spread out across the country for college – we come home for a weekend of fun and debauchery. I figured it would be really cool for you to meet all of them.”

“So, I’m crashing your guys’ weekend?” I asked in disbelief.

Jack shrugged. “I was more so thinking of you as one of the guys, so not really. They’ll love you. You’ll fit right in.”

I laughed, because his thought process was nothing short of hilarious. “I highly doubt that.”

He waved a hand in dismissal. “It’ll be fine.”

“Jack, I’m not going home to your aunt and uncle’s house with you,” I told him, because he was crazy if he thought I was.

“Why not?” he asked, sounding a little hurt.

“Because it wouldn’t exactly be appropriate.”

“What do you mean?”

Was I really going to have to spell it out for him?

“Jack, what did Alyssa say about this when you told her?”

“She was fine with it,” he said, and I knew he was lying.

“No, she wasn’t.”

“She was,” he insisted, but there was a vagueness to his tone. “We actually talked everything out. She knows all about you and our past, and she’s okay with us being friends.”

“You really talked to her? You told her everything?”

“Sure,” he said noncommittally. “I talked to her the night you told me we had to stay away from each other, like I told you I was going to. I told her about our past, I explained why we were so close, and I told her I wanted you in my life. Then we had a long talk about our relationship – that we probably should have had a year ago – but it was really good, and now we’re better than ever.”

“And she’s really okay with me going home with you and meeting your family?”

“She knows you’re going to sleep in the guest room, and she trusts that nothing is going to happen.”

“It’s not,” I insisted, because he’d just told me that he and his girlfriend were better than ever.
Nothing
was going to happen.

“I know,” he agreed.

I sighed as I mulled everything over, stalling, because going home with Jack felt like a bad idea, but at the same time, I really wanted to say yes. “Are you sure this is okay?”

“Kate,” he said in exasperation. “It’s fine. Aunt Deena and Uncle Rob are excited to meet you, Alyssa’s cool with it, and I can’t wait to show you where I’m from. Not to mention introduce you to my friends. It’s going to be a really great weekend.”

I sighed again, because this felt like a mistake, and I wasn’t normally someone who let myself do things that would turn out bad. I’d spent a lifetime looking at things from every angle before making a decision and only taking calculated risks when absolutely necessary, so going against my better judgement in a situation like this felt wrong.

But Jack was looking at me with puppy dog eyes, and I’d stayed away from him for two weeks. I missed him. I wanted to hang out with him so badly, but hell if I wasn’t seeing warning signs when I thought about being alone in a car with him for three hours, spending the night under the same roof as him, spending two full days with him, and then spending another three hours driving back to Austin.

He already had a way of getting under my skin, and too many times over the past few weeks I’d wondered what it might be like if he wasn’t with Alyssa. I liked him – I liked so much about him, and maybe a part of me always had, but this was different. I was
attracted
to him. I kept my feelings hidden, and I never allowed myself to act on anything, but shit, I only had so much self-control.

Not that he was even interested in me. I knew what I felt was completely one-sided. He was in love with his girlfriend. According to him, they were better than ever. So maybe I didn’t have anything to worry about. Maybe this really would just be a harmless, fun weekend.

“Please say you’ll go,” Jack said in a voice that I couldn’t say no to.

And hell, I’d already taken the weekend off work. If I stayed in Austin, I wouldn’t have much to do. My other friends all worked at Ray’s, so they’d be there all weekend. I’d have the four walls of my apartment to stare at, which didn’t sound fun at all.

“Okay, fine,” I told him, hoping I wasn’t making a huge mistake.

The wide grin that lit up Jack’s face made my stomach do a little flip. He was so freaking gorgeous, and when he smiled, it just made him that much hotter. But damn, I
really
shouldn’t be thinking things like that.

“This is going to be so awesome,” he gushed as Professor Hall stepped to the front of the room to start class.

“I hope you’re right,” I muttered as I prepared to start taking notes.

* * *

It was just after five when we pulled onto Jack’s street, and I had to hold back from letting my mouth hang open in awe. The houses were completely unreal, and although I knew his aunt and uncle had money, what I was seeing was nothing like what I’d expected.

“
This
is where you grew up?” I asked in wonder.

“Isn’t it insane? I’d never seen houses this big until I moved here, and it took a long time for me to wrap my head around the fact that this was home.”

“I’ll say. These are beautiful.”

“This is ours,” he said as he turned into the circular driveway of a Mediterranean style house that was set back from the street.

All I could do was stare at the fountain in the sprawling front yard, the balcony that stretched across the front of the upstairs, and the house that seemed to go on forever. It was absolutely gorgeous with pristine landscaping and lights that highlighted the front of the house as the sun had started to set.

“Wow.”

Suddenly I was the poor kid again, feeling like I didn’t belong and like the second I stepped foot in a place that nice, I would look out of place. I looked down at my jeans, sweater, and Converse sneakers, wondering if I should have dressed a little nicer.

“Do I look okay?” I asked Jack as he turned off his truck.

“You look great,” he said immediately, apparently not getting what I was asking.

“I’m serious,” I insisted as he started to open his door. “Am I dressed okay?”

“Okay for what? We’re grilling out.”

I glanced back at the house that looked even more assuming now that we were parked in front of it.

“Yeah, but we’re grilling out in
there
,” I said, gesturing to the house with my thumb.

Jack looked at me for a few seconds like I’d lost my mind, and then he started laughing. “Are you being serious?”

“Yes,” I said miserably. “Your aunt and uncle are going to think I’m some vagrant. Why didn’t you tell me to put on a dress or something?”

Jack looked amused as he shook his head, and then he hopped down from the truck. I watched him walk around to my side, too panicked to even consider getting out. I was mentally recalling all the things I’d thrown into my overnight bag and realizing that nothing I brought was going to work. I was going to have to get Jack to take me shopping, and I was going to have to spend money I didn’t necessarily have buying things that might come close to appropriate. And even then they probably wouldn’t be nice enough.

Jack opened my door, making me jump. Then he held his hand out to me. “Come on.”

“Jack,” I said miserably, hating that the insecurities that had plagued me for years had come right back.

He shook his head. “Kate, my aunt and uncle are the most down to earth people you’ll meet, and this is Texas. Jeans are the norm, and the only time my Aunt Deena ever dresses up is when we go to church or when she’s meeting with a client. Most of the time she wears cowboy boots or sneakers. She’s really laid back, and so is my Uncle Rob.”

“So they’re not going to think I’m white trash?”

“No, they’re not. Not for a second,,” he said, still holding out his hand to help me down.

I took it and let him help me, and then I watched as he grabbed both of our bags and threw them over his shoulder. 

“My aunt and uncle are the most welcoming, accepting, wonderful people I know. They’re not judgmental, and they are going to love you because you’re sweet and smart, and you’re so damn caring. And just so you’re not concerned, I’ve already talked you up so much that there’s very little you could do to not win their favor. They already think you’re the greatest because of what you did for me when we were kids. You’ve seriously got nothing to worry about.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding as I listened to him speak. “You’re sure?”

“I’m positive.”

I nodded as I tried to take what he’d said to heart and psych myself up to go inside when a voice rang out behind me.

“What are ya’ll doing out here? I’ve been standing at the window waiting for you to come in for five minutes, but you took too long, so I figured I’d just come out.”

“Hey Aunt Deena!” Jack said, his whole face lighting up as he greeted his aunt.

“Hi Jack,” she said, giving him a hug. “How was the drive?”

“It wasn’t bad,” he said as I took a few seconds to drink in the woman who’d given Jack the life I always knew he deserved.

She looked younger than I’d expected, but I remembered Jack telling me she was his mom’s younger sister. She couldn’t have been more than forty-five, but with long blond hair, flawless skin, and bright blue eyes, she had a definite youthfulness about her. Not to mention that she was wearing a long sleeved white t-shirt and bootcut jeans, and she was barefoot. I realized then that Jack had been right, and I’d been panicking for nothing.

“Oh my goodness,” she said in her thick southern accent as she turned to me. “You’re Kate.”