Forever Promised Read Free Page B

Amy smiled at her and hefted Jon-Jon up so Kimmy could grab him and blow tummy bubbles. Kimmy was a beautiful woman in her thirties, with brown hair that hung unbound to her waist, in spite of the heat, and a serene oval-shaped face with brown eyes exactly like her twin brother’s. She blew the tummy bubbles and Jon-Jon giggled loudly.
    “Kimmy!”
    “Heya, Puppy. Have you had any cake yet?”
    Jon-Jon’s eyes got big and round. “Cake?”
    “Kimmy, you snot!” Amy complained. “You know he wears it more than eats it!”
    “That’s all right,” Kimmy said warmly. “I’ll wash him off when we’re done.” She hefted the toddler over to the table, and Amy stood up from the bank, keeping a careful eye on the two girls.
    “Are you going to hang around, Benny?” she asked.
    Benny looked over to where Crick sat, looking embarrassed. He tried, while she was watching, to stand up completely, but his leg gave out, and he gritted his teeth. He’d been putting a lot of stress on his leg and his arm, trying to get ready for this event, and he’d overdone it. Pretty much the only person he’d let help him when he was like this was Deacon.
    “Crick needs to go home,” Benny said quietly. “He’s going to need Deacon’s help to get in the truck.”
    Amy looked up and frowned. “God—I knew he shouldn’t have been helping load chairs yesterday! He said he was fine, but—”
    Benny shrugged. “He’s stubborn,” she said, because it was true. But it was also true he pushed himself, like he hadn’t almost gotten himself blown halfway to hell, and he didn’tlike people to know he wasn’t just as fit as anyone else. But then, part of that was Crick’s reluctance to give up even one iota of the job of taking care of Deacon.
    “I’ll go find Deacon,” Benny decided, because hey! How bad could a conversation with Jon be?
    “Hey, Benny—” Amy called behind her, but Benny was already halfway to the tree, and Lila picked that moment to fall into the surprisingly cold water and shriek loud enough to break the plastic glasses for the sparkling cider. Amy didn’t try to get her attention again, and Benny didn’t look back.
    She rounded the corner of Promise Rock quietly, expecting to have to wait until the boys were done talking to get Deacon’s attention, and what she heard in Deacon’s voice made her pause.
    “Damn, Jon! That’s a hell of an opportunity!”
    Jon’s reply, when it came, was rough and shaky, and she stayed quiet in the shade of the oak tree while Deacon and Jon stood facing the sun, their backs to the rock and to her. “It would mean leaving you.”
    “Yeah, well, that would suck,” Deacon said, clapping Jon on the shoulder. Jon made a strangled laugh sound, and Deacon settled back against the rock again.
    “I love it here!” Jon protested, and his voice sounded weak to Benny, and probably weak to Deacon as well. “My family loves it here. We grew up here, and my kids love it here—”
    “Jon, let’s get one thing straight. Nobody loves Levee Oaks that much, not even the founding fathers, whoever the hell they might have been. You love us. Now, when I was going to uproot this place four years ago, you were going to move with me, so I know you can do this—”
    “Okay, so this place sucks, but Deacon— !”
    “Jon, do you realize what you’ve been asked to do?”
    “Yeah—wear a fucking suit!”
    “No! You’ve been asked to go to Washington and work for a cause ! Do you get that? All this bullshit Crick and me, and Shane and Mickey and all those kids in Promise House, have been through—hell, Jeff and Collin’s medicine and treatment— all of that bullshit, all of that difficulty, has been given the stamp of approval by the powers that fucking be. You got asked to go change all that, Jon! Jesus ,do you know how huge that is!”
    Benny clapped her hand over her mouth, because for once in her life, she needed to keep it shut. Oh hell. Hell, this was enormous. Jon ? Jon was