Romantic Promises (Alluring Promises Series, #2) Read Free

if I should tell you or not, but I don’t want you to be surprised in a couple of weeks at the wedding.
    “Surprised by what?” I asked as I took a drink of my beer.
    Flynn quickly looked back at Z again. He took a deep breath once my brother nodded his head to Flynn, prompting him to tell me. “Stephanie RSVP’d ‘yes’ to the wedding. Stephanie and her husband.”
    I took another drink from my beer and tried to appear unaffected by what he just told me. I shrugged nonchalantly even though my stomach took a nose dive. “Good. That’s good. It’ll be great to see her again after all these years.”
    “I wasn’t going to invite her, but you know her parents were invited since we all grew up together. Mom insisted that Stephanie be invited too,” Flynn continued to explain as his eyes darted around the room, not looking me in the eyes.
    “No problemo. No worries.” I tried to change the subject since it was my turn to bet. “I raise you twenty,” I stated as I threw my bill into the center, glancing over at Clark since it was his turn. My heart was beating frantically and I felt sick to my stomach, but I’d never let the guys know that. Thankfully, we continued to play cards and ignored what was just said.
    Fuck. I knew the day would come that I’d have to see Stephanie again, but I just didn’t want it to actually happen. No one knew I still kept tabs on her through the internet. She’s married now and had a little girl not too long ago. I want to say I’m happy for her, but that would be pushing it. 
    She left for her college and we wanted our relationship to continue long distance. We promised each other we would make it work no matter what. I kept my end of the bargain.
    I decided to surprise her one weekend. She always teased me that I needed to be more romantic and I wanted to prove to her I could be. I had it all planned out. I had a room set up at a hotel nearby set up with rose petals from the door to the bed, champagne was chilling in a bucket near the bed and I even bought one of those stupid promise rings like a dumbass. I surprised her all right. A guy opened the door insisting he was her boyfriend. I was just about to knock the asshole out when Stephanie rushed into the hallway telling me it wasn’t a great time for a visit. I pretty much stormed off, pissed that she had taken me for a fool. I didn’t bother waiting for her explanation.
    I got up to grab another beer and to get away from the table as memories of Stephanie kept flooding my brain. Thankfully, I heard a knock on the door right after I pulled a beer from the fridge. I smiled to myself, knowing it would be a nice distraction from my thoughts of Stephanie. My smile brightened knowing this would cause a little stir in Flynn and Z’s happy little world.
    I opened the door and not only saw Diamond and Sunset, but about twenty other people. I had no idea who they were, but that was fine by me. I needed to get this party started and have some fun. I needed to forget that I would see Stephanie in a couple of weeks. My heart was caught in my throat just thinking about her again.
    I opened the door wider, stepped to the side and shouted, “Come on in! Let’s get this party started!”
    Flynn and Z started huffing and moping again like a couple of whipped guys, but once the others guys’ attitudes perked up they quickly got over it.  We turned up the music and let the party begin. We made sure to put all that alcohol we bought to good use. Pretty soon even more people arrived and the party really exploded. I looked around the room and smiled. Dancing, body shots, a poker game in the corner of the room, people in and out of the bedroom – now this is a bachelor party, I thought to myself.
    That was the last thing I remembered until the next morning. Well, not the last thing actually. I vaguely remember the manager knocking on the door asking us to keep it down. I calmed him down putting a drink and a Benjamin Franklin in his hand as