One Last Promise (A Bedford Falls Novel Book 2) Read online

  Then again, could Alex be so enraged with Paul that he wasn’t giving much consideration to seeing Damon entangled on the floor with his sister? Highly unlikely. Or had his already hostile demeanor skyrocketed because he’d walked in on them? Most definitely!

  Damon didn’t want to confront Alex, but if he waited until the right time, which would never come, the ensuing period would escalate his friend’s animosity, turning it from bitterness to pure hatred. For that reason, and because Alex deserved his honesty and respect, Damon walked across the dirt and gravel strewn road until stopping a few feet behind his best friend. He took a deep breath and prepared to begin…

  “You promised me,” Alex said, his voice cold and hard.

  Now Damon had an answer; his rendezvous with Kelsey made Alex forget about Paul’s wicked deeds. Although Damon could trivialize his tryst compared to the situation the group now faced, he refused to act as if kissing Kelsey meant nothing; in fact, it meant everything. So he had to approach this topic with great care. “I really feel for her.”

  Alex scoffed. “You just met her. Is that how all of your conquests begin? You have feelings for them, and then you dump them?”

  The idea of leaving (or losing) Kelsey made Damon sick to his stomach. “I don’t want to—”

  Alex spun around and swung a left hook into Damon’s right eye, sprawling him out on the ground, kicking up a puff of dust. He hovered over him with a sneer. “You promised me. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

  A flare of pain speared through Damon’s head. He put a hand to the tender spot then looked up at Alex. “You don’t understand, I—”

  “Don’t say a goddamn word.” His cheeks twitched in fury. “You could have any woman you want. Why did you go after my sister? Because it was forbidden? Because it was a challenge?”

  “No! Because I…” Damon didn’t want to say what wanted to burst from his mouth.

  Alex flung out his hands in a fit of rage. “Because what? You were horny?”

  Damon thought about the attractive woman who hit on him tonight. If he’d simply been horny, he would have gone home with her. But she wasn’t Kelsey. And even though Kelsey had made it clear she had no intention of ever considering him as anything more than her brother’s friend (up until that point, anyway), he burned for her so badly that he wouldn’t accept anyone other than her in his bed. That idea, far from the frightening him, lit a fuse of hope inside him.

  “What the hell are you smiling about?” Alex shouted.

  Damon got to his feet. The pain behind his eye no longer throbbed. In fact, he felt so light and full of the promise that better days were ahead that he stood with his arms at his sides, unwilling to try to block any other punches his best friend might throw. He would take whatever punishment Alex wanted to dole out. That damage would pale in comparison to the agony he’d endured, in the form of loneliness, over the past decade.

  Alex walked up to him.

  Damon couldn’t help that a little moisture had entered his eyes. “I could love her…if she gives me the chance.”

  Alex met his gaze, inspecting, scrutinizing for sincerity. And after what seemed like forever, he jerked back as though an electric current had zapped him. Disbelief entered his expression. And shock soon followed it. Disconcerted, he took a step backwards, unsure how to deal with the revelation he’d just experienced. Then he lowered his gaze, turned around, and walked toward the cabin.

  Damon hadn’t expected a hug or even a pat on the back. Neither did he expect Alex to threaten him if things didn’t work out. Damon knew that if Kelsey allowed him into her heart, and he broke it, Alex would return and break…him. He had no doubt about that. But he’d risk it. Dedicating his life to Kelsey and standing by that promise seemed like the closest he’d ever get to a sure thing in his life.

  So he took Alex’s silence as a positive first step toward acceptance. Damon let out a heavy sigh. Now he just had to find out if Kelsey felt the same way he did – after the group decided how to handle the issue of not having a ride back home.

  He followed Alex into the house. His friend had left the door open for him: another good sign, one that didn’t evoke resentment or anger. So far, so good. He stepped inside and shut the door.

  Marisa tended to a fire she must have started, while Kelsey chatted with her. Only a couple feet away, but looking as though she stood in a different room, Cassandra stood with her arms folded, listening in. When she turned and saw Damon, her face shined so brightly that dimples appeared in her cheeks. At a time where she should feel out of place and probably more uncomfortable than anyone right now, since she’d come as his “date,” Damon couldn’t have asked for a more selfless and loyal friend. He returned her smile, silently appreciating her support.

  “So,” Damon said, drawing everyone’s attention in the living room. “There’s no reason to let...” He couldn’t even bring himself to say Paul’s name aloud. “I’m not going to let…him…ruin our weekend.”

  Alex nodded, unwilling to look away from the fire. “I agree. But he already ruined our weekend. I say tonight we figure out a way to get back home and leave first thing tomorrow morning. If we stay any longer than that, I won’t be able to think about anything else except getting back at him.”

  “I agree,” Marisa said with clenched teeth.

  “He must have paid off an employee at the resort,” Kelsey said, “then burst into our lockers and stole our cash.”

  Damon nodded in agreement. He slipped in behind her and traced his arms around her waist, drawing a look of agitation from Alex, which almost made him consider retracting his arms. But he had no intention of letting his friend come between…whatever he and Kelsey might have together. Damon couldn’t hide how he felt, and he wouldn’t tip-toe around Alex. His friend needed to accept the truth and deal with it.

  “Does anyone know someone with a van or SUV?” Marisa asked. “Or someone who lives nearby who can help us?”

  Alex said, “Dad wouldn’t mind. He likes taking long trips.”

  “Absolutely not!” Kelsey said. “I will not have him or Mom coming to rescue me.”

  Damon suspected an inferiority complex at work, but a moment later inspiration struck, driving away whatever thoughts he had about approaching her on the subject. “Alex, you said Scott Mettle lived in Madison, right? That’s what? An hour from here?”

  Kelsey wriggled out of his grasp and turned toward him, her face tight with trepidation. “Not a good idea.”

  If he’d suggested hitching a ride with the grim reaper, Damon doubted he’d get a different response. Scott Mettle, the singer/songwriter who had scored two platinum albums, although it took a decade for each to reach that status, had once dated Kelsey’s sister, Ashley, in high school. Apparently, Ashley had broken up with him, and Scott had gone on to record songs about their relationship on both of his albums.

  “Yeah, bad idea,” Alex said. “I got a text from Ashley a little while ago, saying that she’d landed, picked up an Impala rental, which unfortunately isn’t big enough for all of us, and had just gotten to my place.” He turned to Kelsey. “I left a key under the mat for her.”

  From what Alex had told Damon earlier, Ashley refused to allow her parents to pick her up from the airport. It seemed Ashley held plenty of pent-up animosity toward them ever since she left home at eighteen. This was the first time in fifteen years that she’d agreed to return for the holidays, albeit late due to flight delays. And since Ashley held a grudge against Scott for using their past as a vehicle to create two of the most beloved cult albums of the past twenty years, she never wanted to see or hear from him again.

  Damon shrugged. “Then we won’t tell him that Ashley’s back in town. It shouldn’t be that difficult. It’s only a three to four-hour ride.” When no one spoke up, he said, “Anyone have any better ideas?”

  No one said a thing.

  Alex pulled out his phone. “He friended me on Facebook. I’ll see if I can get in touch with him.”

>   Kelsey gave him a solemn look. “You think he’d refuse? I’m sure he’ll want any news about Ashley he can get.” She addressed the group: “She’s the love of his life. And even now, fifteen years later, he still hasn’t given up on her.”

  “How romantic,” said Cassandra in a dreamy voice.

  “As far as I know,” Alex said, “they haven’t seen each other or even talked since they broke up. But I think he used his music to reach out to her.”

  “So incredibly romantic.”

  “Hey,” Alex said in a somewhat excited tone, catching everyone’s attention. “Good news: Scott will pick us up tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m.”

  * * *

  Feeling a little better now that they had a ride back home, but still guilt-ridden that Paul had betrayed and robbed them, Kelsey packed her belongings into the plum-colored suitcase on her bed before getting ready to fall asleep. Thankfully, Paul would not be joining her. (She’d planned to have him sleep on the floor anyway, but if she had to have a consolation prize for all the damage Paul had brought upon them, at least she didn’t need to break it off with him.)

  A knock on the door startled her. “Come in.”

  The door opened, and Damon stepped inside. “Hi, got a minute?”

  His intense gaze made her thighs vibrate with excitement. But she had no idea what their make-out session downstairs meant. Kelsey hoped Damon wanted a long-term relationship. But she decided to tread lightly and not get too caught up in something that may never happen.

  “I said ‘come in,’ didn’t I?” Since those words could also mean something sordid, she hoped he didn’t get any crazy ideas, because against her better judgment, she might take him up on it. “What’s up?”

  He stepped inside, closed the door, and nodded toward the bed with the stirrings of a wicked smile. “Should I take the left side tonight?”

  Her stomach plummeted. “What? No. You didn’t think—”

  “Chill,” he said, revealing a wide grin. “I’m kidding.”

  That response made her abdomen sink even further. First he joked that he wanted to sleep with her, and now he admitted to having no intention of having sex with her. Frustration burned inside her. She clamped her mouth shut to find out why he’d dropped by.

  Damon walked over to the other side of the bed, sat down, and scooted over so that he leaned against the dark wooden headboard. He crossed his legs and looked over at her. “You know it’s not your fault, so why do you keep beating yourself up over it?”

  Great! Now he planned on mocking her. With all of these mixed signals, Kelsey figured she’d kick him out in extreme frustration in less than a minute. Nonetheless, she felt obliged to answer. “Because I brought him along. If I hadn’t, we wouldn’t be in this jam.”

  “As I remember, Marisa invited you both. So technically, you could blame her as well.”

  “But she didn’t reject him.”

  His left eyebrow shot up. “So, you dumped him, huh?” A self-satisfied grin appeared.

  “No, not exactly. But I planned on it.” Seeing his conceited grin irritated her. “And it had nothing to do with you.”

  A knowing smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth.

  “It didn’t.” She didn’t know whether to find him charming or irritating. Now that she’d stored away everything and had set out her clothes for tomorrow on the desktop at the other end of the room, she closed her suitcase and folded her arms. “You stopped by…why exactly?”

  He placed a couple fingers to his right eye. “A gift from your brother.”

  “He hit you?”

  “A solid left hook.”

  A warm feeling settled inside her chest. “Good. You deserved it.”

  “For what?”

  “Kissing me when Alex told you there’d be repercussions if you did.”

  “But you enjoyed it. I could see if you were against the idea, but we had a good time.”

  She shuddered at the words, “we had a good time.” Kelsey hated terms like “hooking up” or “hanging out.” Singles nowadays attributed these terms to dating because they wanted to give the impression that if things didn’t work out with someone, on the surface, they wouldn’t look too upset – even if they were torn up on the inside. She understood the rationale, because when you felt like crap after getting dumped, the last thing you wanted was to have people pity you. But she’d never been one to hide behind her feelings. If she felt horrible, she wanted to feel every last shred of pain so she could get over that experience as soon as possible.

  Therefore, hearing the words “we had a good time,” made Kelsey cringe. “How did you know,” she said, raising both hands to make quotes with her fingers, “we had such a great time?”

  “I said, ‘good,’ but if you prefer the term, ‘great,’ who am I to argue?”

  “Can’t you be serious…at least some of the time?”

  Damon’s eyebrows drew together. “I thought…” He sat up straighter, looking a little uneasy. “I thought we, well, you know…”

  “No,” she said, glad that he disclosed some vulnerability. “What did you think?”

  “That we…made a connection.”

  The uncertainty in his eyes blended with hope. And not just in the way of a casual hookup, but something deeper, something meaningful. She could have let out a deep sigh of relief. Still, she had a long way to go toward making sure Damon followed through with his insinuation. For a person who hadn’t been in a relationship in over ten years – and often had casual flings – it would be all too easy to fall back into old habits. And since Kelsey had no intention of becoming a one-night stand, she would take this relationship slow to be sure he understood what he was getting into.

  “I thought we had something,” he said. “Didn’t we?”

  “You mean, do we?”

  “Yeah, do we…have something?”

  She met his penetrating gaze, once more grateful for the apprehension in his eyes. “We just might.” Then she gave a tiny smile, so she wouldn’t come off as either heartless or a ballbuster.

  “Well, all right.” He bounced off the bed and pointed to the spot he’d just vacated. “So should I take this side?”

  Grinning, she shook her head. “You get to sleep on the sofa downstairs. You can keep Max company.”

  Damon made his way over to the door. Just as he stepped through the threshold, he spun back to her with a wistful smile, holding the door open with one hand. “I’m looking forward to learning more about you, Kelsey.” He held her stare for a moment then turned around and closed the door behind him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The next morning, after everyone had showered, changed, and eaten breakfast from the stocked refrigerator and pantry, Kelsey answered the door to find a man in his early thirties wearing a worn black leather jacket and blue jeans standing before her. Below stylish thick blond hair, a shiny silver cross dangled from his left earlobe.

  “Kelsey?” he asked, a gentle smile working a firm jawline of sexy stubble. He looked her up and down. “Wow. I remember you when you were,” he placed a hand up to his chest. “You’re all grown up.”

  “Who would have thought?” Reeling from the compliments supplied by her first crush, a man who had never noticed her while he fawned over her sister, Kelsey didn’t even realize that she’d reflexively played with her hair until she felt a presence behind her. “Hey, Scott.”

  “You’re Scott Mettle?” Damon asked, coming up behind her, eyeing the way she reacted beside their guest.

  Kelsey couldn’t help but act a little giddy in Scott’s presence. She’d always regarded him as a true rock star – not the kind that snorted cocaine around the clock and wrecked hotel rooms out of boredom, but the soulful, brooding, romantically tragic kind that lived for music and playing for the masses.

  Even the yellow station wagon that boasted a handful of rust spots and looked as if it were built in the mid-1990s didn’t upend her awe of a man that had the same charisma and stage presence as Bono,
the misunderstood poetic nature of Kurt Cobain, and the sincerity and melodic songwriting talent of Bruce Springsteen. In addition, he had the most urgent, powerhouse voice that could unite an arena in thunderous applause. If he lowered his pitch, he could usher in a loving or brokenhearted delivery, depending on the song, in such a way that it had moved Kelsey to tears too many times to count. All told, she felt he deserved to belong in the same echelon of the aforementioned musicians, but because he’d mastered the musical landscape a year too after the peak of both hard rock and grunge, he had never broken out of cult rock star status.

  “Scott,” Alex said, coming up behind Damon. “Glad you could make it on such short notice.” He clasped hands with Scott and drew him into a man hug then waved him inside. “This is Damon. He’s a good buddy of mine.”

  “Cool.” Scott stepped into the cabin. “Hey, man…” He held out a hand.

  Damon shook it, looking surprised by the strength in the man’s grip. “Good to meet you.”

  Kelsey said, “Thanks again for coming on such short notice.”

  “No worries. I was coming down to Chi-town anyway to meet up with some session players at a recording studio. Your stop is on the way, so why not?”

  “You’re making a new record?” she asked, unable to contain her enthusiasm. He hadn’t recorded a CD in almost fifteen years. He’d become as legendary of a recluse as Axl Rose, albeit without all of the accomplishments and expectations.

  “That’s the plan.” His phone indicated that he’d just received a new text message. “I’m going to check on this.” He gestured to his ugly yellow station wagon. “Have everyone pile into the Cheese Box when they’re ready.” He spun around and doodled on his phone.

  “Wow,” Kelsey said, exuberant at the prospect of another album. “He better not let me down. I’ve waited fifteen years for another kick-ass CD. And a tour. I’m dying to hear him sing “‘Loving You is Killing Me.’ He wrote it about my sister, and he hasn’t played it live in almost two decades.”