Promise Me Once

  I could see the interest rolling off of him for the girl. I wasn’t one of those jealous sister types - he could bang whomever he wanted - but not on my watch and definitely not with this girl. She wasn’t his type. No way, no how. I was almost sure of it.

  I stood my ground, keeping him at bay. Blondie might look innocent but looks could be deceiving. Take me. I looked like a bitch…okay, maybe I wasn’t the best example. But still, she could be some strange gamer girl with a tendency toward stalking. I didn’t know…

  I did have to hand it to her – she had balls. She reached around me with a sweet smile and stuck out her hand for Nathan to shake.

  “Hi. My name’s Keely,” she said, her natural pink lips pulling back in an easy smile.

  Nathan stepped around me and dropped the laundry bag at my feet, never taking his eyes from Keely. He took Blondie’s outstretched hand and shook it.

  “I’m Nathan,” he said, looking mesmerized by her.

  I felt both ill and awkward at the same time, seeing my brother turn on his charm for my new neighbor. I snorted with irritation and grabbed the handle of the laundry bag. I didn’t care who she was or why I felt like I knew her. As long as Blondie stayed out of my way, we were good.

  I had more important things to do anyway. There was a cowboy to forget. A dead boyfriend to remember. And a shitload of heartache to bury.

  ~~~~

  The party was in full swing and so was I. I grasped the cup tighter, swaying on my six-inch stilettos. The only thing holding me up was the table behind me, covered with empty plastic cups and a half-eaten bowl of potato chips.

  I raised the cup to my mouth, barely making it to my lips for another drink. Cheap vodka slid down my throat, warming me from the inside out. The alcohol would make what I was about to do easier. It always did.

  I scanned the crowd, looking over everyone with boredom. The party was a mixture of frat boys and sorority girls. Not really my style but I mixed well with them, especially the frat guys. They liked to drink and party. What else did I need?

  Speaking of needing… I needed a man to take my mind off a certain cowboy. Someone not so nice and not so decent. Someone that would prove any man would do.

  I pushed away from the table and took a few tentative steps forward. The room spun. That meant the alcohol was doing its job. I was feeling good. Numb to everything. Well, almost everything. Memories still plagued me and thoughts of Cash still lingered. Time to change that.

  I took a long drink from my cup and managed to stay on my feet as I went further into the room. The crowd danced around me. I was jostled one way then another as I squeezed past them.

  I was halfway across the room when the song changed, something fast and sexy. It’s just what I needed to hear. I started dancing, joining the girls and guys around me.

  I closed my eyes and held my cup up high, feeling the music move through me. I was in a world of my own that didn’t involve thoughts of Cash touching me, kissing me, or making me wish for more.

  I forced my eyes back open, hating that I couldn’t forget about him. Raising the cup to my mouth, I took a long drink, still continuing to sway to the music. As I did, my gaze automatically traveled over the crowd, looking for a hot, handsome distraction. What I found instead made me frown.

  Keely was talking to Nathan. He was inches from her, protecting her with his body from the drunk, sweaty crowd. She gazed up at him with adoration and interest, her light-colored eyes full of happiness.

  I had pouted early and thrown a fit when Nathan told me he invited her to the party. We were leaving Tate at home, why not Nathan’s new love interest too, I figured. But Nathan had put his foot down and said Keely was going.

  I wasn’t happy about it and made sure everyone knew, including Keely. But the girl had just looked me in the eyes and smiled. Right then I felt a tiny shred of respect for her. Tiny.

  I watched her. She was smiling up at Nathan like he had hung the moon. Her messy, uncombed hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, making it easy to see her delicate features. Her head was tilted to the right, listening to something Nathan was saying. When she did that, she reminded me of someone…

  My blood went cold.

  “No way.” I pushed the guy in front of me out of the way, not believing my eyes. I knew it felt like I had met her before, I just couldn’t figure out when or where. It nagged at me when I unpacked. Picked at me when I took a shower. Pestered me when I dressed. Now I knew why.

  I crossed the room quickly, pushing people out of the way roughly. My insides twisted with a sick feeling. When I reached Keely and Nathan, I pushed my way between them.

  “What’s your last name?” I asked Keely, getting straight to the point.

  Her smile wavered. She stared at me wide-eyed from behind her big, ugly glasses. Nathan shrugged and sipped his beer when she looked at him with confusion. He was used to my questionable antics.

  I sighed and tried again, growing aggravated. “Your last name, Keely. What is it?”

  Keely chewed on her bottom lip as she studied me, then started chewing on a fingernail.

  “Marshall. Why?” she asked, mumbling around her finger.

  My stomach rolled. The room spun. I felt ill and faint at the same time. This could not be happening.

  Keely - my brand new, annoying, nerdy neighbor - had Cash’s last name.

  “And…and do you have a brother?” I asked, barely able to get the words out. I was tempted to take up nail biting myself.

  Keely stopped chewing on her fingernail and started back on her bottom lip again, gnawing on it with her teeth. “Yeah. His name is Cash. How do you know—”

  I didn’t wait for her to finish. I turned away, feeling sick.

  “Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.” I rubbed my forehead as I walked away. “Oh, holy fucking fuck.”

  “Hey. You okay?” Nathan asked, jogging to catch up with me. He grabbed my elbow, turning me around.

  I couldn’t look him in the eye. Nathan had seen me after the night with Cash. He had seen me broken and crying. Seen the war I fought with myself. I didn’t want him to worry about me or see me as batshit insane.

  So I lied.

  “Yeah. I’m okay,” I said with a shaky voice.

  Nathan looked at me like he didn’t believe me, but he didn’t say anything. I pushed past him and continued walking, playing like everything was okay when it was not.

  Keely is Cash’s sister. Keely is Cash’s sister. The words kept replaying in my head like a bad song on repeat. I bumped into strangers and was jarred by drunk sorority girls as I pushed my way through the crowd, but I didn’t care. Keely was Cash’s sister.

  I didn’t know how I missed it. It was there. In her eyes. In her mannerisms. I had seen it from the first moment I met her; I just refused to acknowledge it. She had the same light gray eyes as Cash. The same tilt of her head as he did. I even saw it in her smile, almost an exact copy of her brother’s.

  What the fuck is life doing to me? Hasn’t it torn me apart and ripped me to pieces enough?

  Apparently not. Fate had just played a cruel, cruel joke on me.

  Keely had walked into my life.

  Just days after I had walked out of her brother’s.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cash

  I stared at the ice-cold longneck in front of me. It was my third of the evening. My last attempt to forget about Cat.

  She was on my mind again. Hell, when wasn’t she? She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I reminded myself that she had been only a one-night stand.

  A thanks-I-needed-that kind of gal.

  But after days I still couldn’t get her out of my thoughts. It made me cranky as hell. I shifted on my barstool, wishing I could just forget her and her pretty little ass.

  I was still thinking of that ass and me cupping it when a loud argument broke out behind me. Some shit about spilt beer. I paid no attention to it and took a long drink of my beer, keeping my back to the fight and my
nose out of it.

  “Damn drunk cowboys,” Jo scowled, watching the men argue as she picked up a dirty shot glass and wiped the counter clean with a dirty rag.

  I gave in and glanced over my shoulder, finding two big, bearded guys facing off, one of them so drunk he couldn’t keep his eyes open. The other was so wide his belly hung over his belt.

  They were yelling, talking smack and looking for a fight. I watched it with a raised brow, wondering when the fists would start flying. Jo wasn’t going to wait that long.

  I turned back to my beer just in enough time to see her reach under the bar and pull out a metal baseball bat. It was electric blue and had a few scars here and there. I cringed to think where they had come from.

  The argument behind me grew in volume, the men now shouting at each other. I watched with a mixture of humor and sympathy as Jo waddled from behind the bar and started to shove past people, keeping the arguing men in her sights and the baseball bat in her hands.

  “Break it up, assholes!” she yelled. “Break it up or I’ll bust your balls and send them home in a to-go sack!” She smacked the bat against her palm for effect, sending her message across loud and clear.

  I looked over at the men, wondering if they were listening. Yep. Both of them were staring at Jo like she had two heads. The argument was forgotten. The spilled beer a thing of the past. Now all that mattered was the tough, gray-haired woman that was as round as she was tall barreling toward them. She had hardness in her eyes and was aiming to crack a few skulls in with her weapon of choice.

  The two men took a step away from each other and Jo took advantage of the space, getting between them.

  “I know your mama, Gerry,” she said to one. “Patched up her black eyes plenty of times when your daddy came around.” She squinted hard at him, not afraid of his massive size as he looked down at her. “You think she would be happy to see you right now? All full of vinegar and piss, talking trash to your cousin?”

  Gerry hung his head down with embarrassment, the fight leaving him. I was surprised he didn’t piss his pants. Jo could do that to a fella.

  She swung around, facing Guy #2 when he snorted.

  “And you, Mr. Piss Poor excuse for a husband,” she said, poking him in the chest. “Go back home to your pregnant wife or she’s gonna find a new daddy for her next baby.”

  “Yes, Miss Jo.”

  She huffed and smacked the bat against her palm again as she watched the two men walk away, the argument forgotten. The crowd went back to its drinking and Jo eyed everyone with unspoken warning, daring anyone else to cause trouble.

  I grinned, tipping my hat to her when she glanced at me. The scowl on her face disappeared and a twinkle appeared in her eyes. She loved that dramatic shit no matter how much she grumbled and bitched about the drunks messing up her bar.

  She cast one more glance over her shoulder at the crowd and then walked away. When she did, the person behind her stepped forward, catching my attention.

  It was him. The man that had cornered Cat in the parking lot the first night I met her. The same man who couldn’t take no for an answer.

  New Hat Asshole.

  He was staring at me like he wanted to cut my throat. I returned his glare, daring him to do his worst. I was pissed at Cat for not returning my calls, angry at myself for caring, and damned well tired of trying to forget her. At the moment, I was in a shitty mood.

  And then this guy appeared.

  His buddy was with him again, standing at his side and staring me down. He was huge, reminding me of one of those wrestlers on TV. His head was shaved but he had a goatee the color of midnight, looking too dark to be natural.

  I watched as New Hat Asshole took a drink of his beer, keeping his gaze on me. I tightened my grip around my own beer bottle. I wasn’t one for fighting, but this guy had touched Cat.

  That made him a dead man to me.

  Someone walked between us, blocking my view of him. I took that as a hint from the universe and relaxed. I had to get it through my mind that Cat wasn’t my responsibility. She had been mine for only one night. That was it. We were nothing but a one-time – strike that two - screwing. She had said as much that night on her porch.

  I turned back to the bar and took a drink of my lukewarm beer. Thirty minutes passed before I downed the last bit in the bottom of the bottle and put it on the counter.

  “Another?” Jo asked, grabbing my empty longneck and looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

  “No, ma’am. I’m done for the night,” I said, laying a ten down.

  “Stay out of trouble,” she said with a wink, grabbing the money.

  I tipped my hat at her and headed for the door.

  The sounds of the bar followed me. Loud music. Laughter. The clink of beer bottles. I wanted to hear Cat’s musical, teasing laugh instead just like I had the first night I met her. I wanted to see her at the bar again, the little sundress of hers riding up her legs. Or hear her sweet mouth offer a blowjob for a drink, something that probably felt as close to heaven as a man could get.

  “Shit,” I muttered, hitting the door open with the palm of my hand.

  Gravel crunched under my boots as I stepped off the covered entrance. The heat was sweltering. I heard talking off to the side, but figured they were just some people outside for a smoke…that is until I heard the mutter.

  “There he is.”

  The hair on the back of my neck rose and the muscles in my shoulders tensed as footsteps sounded behind me.

  “Hey, jackass!”

  I glanced over my shoulder. New Hat Asshole and his buddy were tailing me, looking eager to cause some trouble.

  “Where’s the girl?” New Hat Asshole asked, thrusting his pointy chin at me and following me at a leisure pace.

  I just continued walking. Outside I was calm but inside I burned, wanting to send someone to a fiery hell. Rage like I had never felt before took over me, eating at my insides and hollowing out my patience.

  “Hey! I’m talking to you! Where’s the chick?” New Hat asked in anger, spitting out each word like they were disgusting. “She owes me.”

  I drew to a stop, keeping my back to them. “She doesn’t owe you a thing,” I said in a low voice.

  New Hat chuckled. “Hell, yeah she owes me and she’s got a goooood thing coming to her the next time I see her. I guar-on-tee it.”

  That’s it!

  I spun around, the control in me shattering. Cat may not be mine, but I wouldn’t stand by and let any man threaten her.

  My fist caught New Hat in the nose, my knuckles slamming into his face. The sound of flesh on flesh echoed across the parking lot. The crunch of bone on bone was followed by a spurt of blood.

  He howled and cupped his face. Blood ran between his fingers. I didn’t have time to gloat. His buddy charged me like a bull on steroids.

  I stepped out of the way just as he ducked his head and shot toward me. When he got close enough, I buried my fist in his gut. It didn’t seem to faze him. He spun around and took a swing at me but I ducked, my cowboy hat flying.

  “Fuck him up, Clay,” New Hat yelled at his friend. “Make him suffer.”

  I kept New Hat in my line of vision but watched Clay crack his knuckles then his neck.

  “Be my pleasure, Daryl.” With a pig-like grunt, he rushed me.

  I steeled myself to take him head on, keeping my stance wide. I had already received one bloody nose for Cat. I didn’t want to take another.

  When Clay got close enough, I threw a hard right hook to his chin. It snapped his head to the side, dazing him. I hit him again and again until he backed away, straggling on his feet.

  Without missing a beat, I swung around and punched New Hat (aka Daryl) in the face. He was caught off guard, giving me the perfect opportunity to catch him in the nose again. Bone cracked and pain shot through my hand when it connected with his face, but my only thought was Cat and him touching her again.

  Daryl screamed with pain and grabbed his nose, cuppi
ng a hand over it. I pulled my arm back to hit him again, but then I heard Clay behind me, lumbering to his feet.

  I whirled around just in time to find him charging me once more. I jabbed a short, powerful blow to his shoulder. It pushed him back a step. Just what I wanted. I threw a hard punch to his jaw. His stomach. As the guy kept coming toward me, I kept hitting. His head. His stomach again. The guy was big but I was mad.

  When he finally dropped to the ground, I stopped. I was breathing heavy, my chest drawing in deep lungfuls of air. The red haze of anger still clouded my vision as I stood over Clay.

  “You son of a bitch! You son of a bitch! You broke my nose! You broke my nose! I’m going to bury you then fuck her!” Daryl screamed behind me.

  I pivoted around, finding him lying on the ground, holding his nose and crying like a baby. The thought of Cat walking into Cooper’s when I wasn’t there and finding this man waiting for her, pushed me over the edge. All the control I had disappeared.

  The bar door opened and part of me realized it was probably Jo. I didn’t wait for her to jump in with her bat or sawed off shotgun. I rushed toward Daryl. Gravel ground into my jeans and cut into my knees as I skidded to a stop beside him, dropping to the ground. I pulled my knife out of the sheath attached to my boot and grabbed hold of Daryl’s bloody shirt. With one yank, I pulled him up and put the tip of the blade under his chin.

  “Stay away from her,” I growled between clenched teeth.

  Daryl stopped wailing. He grew still. His eyes grew wide at the sight of my knife. He looked up at me with fear, his nose swelling to a purple mess.

  “Okay. Okay. You can have her,” he said, holding up his hands in a sign of surrender. “I…I don’t want her anymore. She’s all yours.”

  “You’re wrong,” I hissed. “She’ll never be mine, no matter how much I want her to be.”

  With that, I shoved him back to the ground and stood up. I flipped the knife around in my hand and stuck it back in its sheath in one smooth movement. Picking up my hat, I put it on then pulled the brim low. Without another glance at Daryl or his friend, I walked away.