Promise Me Always (16 page)

When the ceremony was finished, I snaked my way through the massive crowd to find my parents and friends. Finally spotting everyone, I raised my hands in the air, celebrating my achievement. My dad was the first one to spot me and greeted me with giant hug. “You did it, Tessa. I am so proud of you,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. My father was always my biggest fan and I was a total daddy’s girl.

“Thanks, Daddy.” I gave him a kiss on the cheek as my mom pushed him out of the way to get her turn at congratulating me.

“Congratulations, Tess! We knew you could do it,” she praised me, kissing my forehead and giving me a little squeeze.

I hugged her back. “Thanks, Mom.”

Palmer, Cole, Lexi, Avery, Shane and Devin all gave me huge hugs and congratulated me. That’s when I started looking around for Blake. He promised me he would be here for the ceremony. He was supposed to have gotten a ride with Devin, but I didn’t see him anywhere. I suddenly felt sick.

“Devin, where’s Blake? I thought he was coming with you,” I asked sadly. I couldn’t believe he didn’t come—he had promised me.

Devin nodded his head, motioning for me to turn around. When I did, I saw Blake standing up against the wall with an amazing bouquet of red, pink, and yellow gerbera daisies. While the flowers were beyond beautiful, I still couldn’t help but stare at the man holding them. He looked absolutely delicious in his khaki pants and his white button up dress shirt. His sleeves were rolled up his sculpted forearms, showcasing the sexy art work that lined his one arm. You could see the slightest trace of his defined chest pressing up against the white fabric. I was in awe and speechless, feeling tears prick the back of my eyes; I was overwhelmed with emotion. I padded over to him and he embraced me in his strong arms, pulling me close to him in his signature way.

“Congratulations, baby girl. I am so proud of you,” he whispered in my ear. The feel of his warm breath on my neck made me weak in the knees.

“Thanks,” I said, shyly. “I almost thought you broke your promise when I didn’t see you with everyone.” He handed me the flowers and I looked down at the ground, completely mortified that I had just said that out loud.

He lifted my chin with his finger, looking straight into my eyes. “Tessa, I would never break a promise to you. I could never hurt you like that,” he smiled at me, shaking his head slowly in disbelief. “You know me better than that.”

I lifted up on my tip toes and kissed him softly. “I know, Blake, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Has anyone told you that you look absolutely adorable in that cap and gown?” he whispered as his eyes roamed over me.

“Oh, my God! I look like an idiot. I forgot I was even wearing this silly thing.” I slapped him in the chest, more than a little mortified.

“You look beautiful no matter what you’re wearing. Seriously, though, do you get to keep it? I think maybe you should wear just that and nothing else a little bit later tonight,” he winked at me.

Before I could answer him, my parents walked up behind us. “Hey, honey, are you ready to get going? We have some celebrating to do!” My dad beamed with pride. “You’re coming along right, Blake?”

“Of course, Mr. Collins. I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Blake said as my dad lightly slapped him on the back.

“Blake, just because you’re obviously interested in my daughter,” he snickered, looking down at the huge bouquet I had in my hands and raising his eyebrows, “doesn’t mean you have to start calling me Mr. Collins all of a sudden.”

“Sorry, Craig, it won’t happen again,” Blake chuckled.

Blake had known my parents for a few years—we ran into each other at lots of events. My dad and Blake got along pretty well. It was actually really nice not having to do the whole awkward “meet the parents” thing. Plus, I knew Blake would have been nervous meeting my father. My dad was famous when we were in high school. He was known as the “intimidating dad” amongst all the guys. He really wasn’t that intimidating, he was just protective of his daughters. I was not at all surprised by the reputation he had, though. When I was fifteen and went on my first real date, he was cleaning his shot gun on the kitchen counter when the guy picked me up. I will never forget the look on my date’s face when he walked in to meet my father. From that night on, my dad was known as being hard core. I didn’t get very many dates in high school and I am pretty sure my dad had something to do with that.

My phone buzzed in my purse just as we were heading out. My parents were already in their car and I was stepping up into Devin’s completely pimped out, lifted truck when I pulled my phone from my purse. I had a new text message from a number I didn’t recognize. When I opened it, I was confused. I was looking at a picture of Blake and me, kissing in the lobby of the hotel room at the firefighter’s ball. My heart rate quickened when I saw the text under the picture. In large, capital letters it simply said—
MINE.

My whole body started to shake and my head started spinning. I am sure my face was pure white. Jared was there that night! I didn’t know how, but he had been there somewhere, spying on me. I felt sick. My thoughts drifted back to what he had said last week on the phone when he was enraged. His harsh words filled my head.

“Don’t fuck with me, Tess and don’t lie. I know what you did and what you have been doing.”

“Tess, are you okay? You look like you have seen a ghost or something,” Blake asked, climbing into the truck and wrapping his arm around me.

“Um…yeah, I’m fine—just a little light headed. I didn’t eat anything this morning and I’m starving. I guess I am just too excited,” I lied.

I didn’t need Blake worrying about Jared. It was just a picture. It’s not like he was threatening me or anything. Jared was just jealous and upset that I finally left him. And I knew Blake would more than likely wind up in jail for assault if he found out about this. I put my phone away and tried to ignore the disturbing feeling that was washing over me.

Tess seemed distracted all evening. Her parents treated us all to an amazing dinner. While we were all living up the high life at one of the most pristine restaurants in town, I kept catching Tess drifting off in thought. She looked worried and at moments her face would pale and she would look a little sick. Every once in a while, I would reach my hand under the table and rub her leg just above her knee. She would snap back to the present, giving me a little smirk. I had no clue what was diverting her attention tonight, but she needed to relax. Tonight was supposed to be all about her and her accomplishments.

After dinner, we climbed into Devin’s truck and headed back to the house. I had been planning the perfect surprise party for Tess all week long. Matt, Cam, and Cara had been setting up the party all day and I sure hoped they were done. I pulled out my phone and texted Matt that we were on our way. A few minutes later, he replied back that we were good to go.

“Why are we going this way Dev?” Tess asked as he exited the highway. “Isn’t this the long way?”

“Yeah, it is, but I need to run by the shop and make sure Pete closed up,” Devin replied.

We needed to give everyone that had gone to dinner time to get over to our house for the party, so Devin thought making a quick stop by his shop would kill sometime.

Devin owned a custom car shop and was really starting to make a name for himself. DB Customs was the best car shop in the state. Devin could transform, restore and fix just about anything with a motor. He always loved cars. Even when we were younger, he would always be putting those little plastic models together. He used to get really creative with them and mix up the parts from different models, creating his own masterpieces. Once he was sixteen, he stopped messing around with the models and quickly began purchasing old beaters and fixing them up in our garage. When our father passed away, he decided to use the asshole’s insurance money to open up his shop. He also had purchased the house we both lived in.

Devin had no issues spending Dad’s pity money like I did. I personally didn’t really even want it and that is why I only spent it when it was going to benefit someone else. Devin, however, accepted the money with open arms, saying that it was the least the prick could do after the way he treated us. It only took a couple of years for Devin’s business to take off. He just recently hired Pete as the general floor manager so he could concentrate more on the design aspect. The highlight of his career happened a year ago when a local sports celebrity from the Denver Broncos paid him to restore a custom 1970 Dodge Charger. Needless to say, after that job, Devin got extremely busy. I was so proud of him and myself for proving our asshole father wrong.

After we made a long stop at DB Customs, we finally started making our way back to the house. I texted Matt one more time, informing him we were around the corner. We pulled up into the driveway and Devin parked the car. I slid out of the truck and helped Tess down, grabbing her by the hips to steady her as she jumped from the lifted truck. Once I closed the door, I picked Tess up in my arms and carried her towards the front door; she giggled as she nuzzled into my chest.

“I am so proud of you, baby girl,” I said, reaching for the door knob.

She popped her head up and kissed me on the cheek. “Thanks, Blake.”

I swung the door open and, just as I set her down on her feet, all of the lights in the house flicked on and people jumped out from all over the place. “Congratulations, Tess!” was shouted in unison by our friends and family, as they tossed confetti in our direction.

The house looked great. Matt, Cam and Cara had balloons and streamers in red, black and silver all over the house and a large black banner hung over the fireplace that read “Congrats, Graduate” in big silver letters. Brent was set up in the back of the room and the music was already thumping. Everyone that Tess loved was here, even her parents. The sparkling red and silver confetti that was still falling down around us was getting stuck in Tess’ hair. She stood there, stunned for a minute, with her hands over her mouth. Her eyes glossed over, in a little shock, before she finally shrieked with joy and jumped into my arms.

“Oh. My. God. This is amazing!” she squealed into my ear. “When did you have time to set this all up?” she asked, confusion written across her face. I nodded over to the corner where my cohorts were all standing, watching our girl’s reaction. They all waved and Tess’ smile grew even larger. “Thank you, Blake. This really is incredible!”

“Anything for you, baby girl,” I whispered in her ear. “Anything.” I picked her up and planted a soft kiss to her forehead before releasing her. She was jumping up and down as she made her way over to Palmer, Lexi and Avery.

I watched her make her way through the room, making sure to stop and thank each and every person for coming. She was glowing and I couldn’t keep my eyes off her as she made her rounds. Every once in a while, she would look in my direction and flash me a provocative smile. She was so sweet and so damn sexy in her short, dark purple dress that hugged her curves. I drank in her amazing body as I readjusted my pants. Her black stilettos were making her already perfect legs even more flawless and I made a mental note to make sure she left those on later. Suddenly, all I could think about was getting this party over with so I could devour her for the rest of the night.

The evening was going better than planned and Tess seemed really relaxed. Whatever she had been stressing over earlier was completely out of her mind. I really wish I knew what had been bothering her. It all started right after her graduation ceremony—she looked scared when we piled into Devin’s truck to go to dinner. I sure hoped I hadn’t done anything to upset her. Knowing me, I’m sure I did. I always screwed shit up.

The party was starting to wind down and I was sitting out on the porch, watching as Tess said goodbye to her parents. She gave them both hugs and Craig waved at me before they got in their car and drove away.

As Tess started making her way back up to the house, I couldn’t help but wonder why she wanted me. I mean, yeah—I was good looking, or so I was told. And, from what I heard, I was a pretty good in bed. But that was all I could offer her. How could I ever make her happy? She would want more than a set of abs and a decent lay—that was superficial shit and I knew that wasn’t what mattered to her.