Promises to Keep (16 page)

For a full week she cried, ignoring her family’s attempts to get her mind off Travis and his desertion of her. Only the fear that she’d fail her final exams if she didn’t get a grip on herself kept her from falling into depression. She mopped up her tears, dove back into her classes, and worked hard to recover what she’d lost from weeks of apathy. She still missed him horribly, but told herself it was his loss.

Some days, she even convinced herself.

As she walked into the living room to wait, Annie swore she wouldn’t cry like a baby. When Travis arrived, she’d act like a woman, with grace and dignity.

Then she heard his car as it squealed to a quick stop in front of the house. With a deep breath, Annie moved to the door, placed her hand on the knob, and wrenched it open before he could knock.

His eyes seemed to glow as he stared at her. One look at him and Annie forgot her anger, her resolve to be calm and mature. The door hadn’t fully closed behind him before she jumped into his arms and clung as he covered her mouth in a desperate kiss. More forceful than he’d ever kissed her before. More passionate.

They kissed with fervor as Travis pushed her up against the door. He leaned into her, held her so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. His hands rushed over her, stroked beneath her tee shirt. She hadn’t bothered with a bra when she’d dressed that morning and now, as she felt Travis’s hands cup her, she was fiercely glad of the omission. Annie arched into his caress.

Suddenly he picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he stumbled up the stairs, carrying her to the room she still shared with Susan. They fell onto her bed and the old mattress sagged beneath their combined weight.

This isn’t right
. She yanked at the buttons of his jeans, tugged at his shirt.
Don’t be stupid, Annie.
She could hear the sob in her throat and gasped for air as she wriggled out of her shorts, loosened by his fingers.
This is a mistake.
Yet she didn’t back away.

Her hair was in her eyes. She shook it out of the way and lifted her arms for him to pull her shirt over her head. His mouth skimmed her bare skin, and, shivering, Annie clenched her fingers around his neck and held him fast.

Her panties hung off one thigh, and his briefs were down around his knees. She still wore a sneaker. She didn’t care. She couldn’t stop. Couldn’t think of anything except the need to crawl inside his skin and never come out.

When he pressed against her, she opened her body to him and clung. He fused his mouth to hers and she kept her eyes open, unwilling to let him out of her sight as he made love to her. Yet even as she clutched him, so tight a sliver of paper couldn’t have passed between their driving bodies, her mind wouldn’t ignore the inner voice asking why he’d cut her from his life.

She cried brokenly against his neck when she tightened, climaxed. Travis buried his face in her tangled hair as he reached for his own release.

The room was silent, but for the sound of their labored breaths, her soft sobs, and the words he murmured in an attempt to soothe her.

“Why haven’t you called me, Travis? Was it just your classes keeping you busy? Or is it something else?”

She sat up in the mussed bed, her hands locked around her knees. Now that they’d satisfied their first urgent rush, she was determined to get the truth from him.

With a sigh, he leaned into the pillows stacked against the narrow headboard. She heard hesitation in his voice. “Classes
have
been tough. And it’s been hard to find enough time in the evenings to even eat dinner, much less make phone calls. But that isn’t an excuse, Annie. I let you down, and I’m sorry for it.”

She started to speak but he held up a hand to stop her. “Just listen, okay? Mother has pressured me almost nonstop since I got to Yale. She wouldn’t let up on the idea that I should schedule my classes semester to semester with no break in between. She expected me to stay at school and work my ass off. She didn’t seem to care how burned out I’d be if I took classes spring semester through the summer months and then ripped right into fall semester. I wanted to go against her, but—well, I had to do as she ordered.”

Distressed, she reached for his hand and soothed her fingers over his palm. He gripped her fingers. “The dorm phones were always jammed, especially on the weekends. After Mother agreed to let me have a cell phone for emergencies, it was a lot easier calling you on Fridays. I heard from Martha once in a while, but she’d never get into much detail about how Dad was doing.” He dragged his free hand through hair that already stood on end. “So I kept slogging through more homework than I’d ever seen in my life, and worried a lot about Dad.” He brought her hand to his mouth for a kiss. “Talking to you once a week was my salvation, Annie.”

His words might be sweet to hear, but she couldn’t accept them at face value. “If that’s true, then why did you stop calling me?”

“Mother cut me off in April.” At her gasp, he nodded. “It’s true. I picked up my cell phone to call you, and got a message it was no longer in service. I couldn’t understand it because I knew the monthly statement was paid. I found out Mother canceled everything. She’d seen the billings and realized I talked to you every week for hours.” His hand tensed on hers. Sarcasm sharpened his tone. “I guess my calls to you weren’t much of an emergency, except for my own sanity. She never said anything to me about it, just canceled the phone.”

“How could she do something like that? What right did she have? If you pay your bills—”

“It wasn’t really my phone, Annie. I fooled myself into thinking it was. And I no longer have money. She found the credit card statement and realized I’d bought your ring.” He traced the glittering stone on her finger, lifted his shoulders in a weary shrug. “I never found out until I tried to use my card off campus. She told the board members I wasn’t allowed any funds because I had proven I might slack off at Yale unless I remained focused.”

His fingers clenched on hers. “They’re all old school. Most of them went to Yale and Harvard. They grew up on trust funds and such, and they believed her. She contacted the Dean of Students and set up a monthly stipend for me. I get enough credit for food and school supplies, as long as I make those purchases on campus. Very few actual dollars end up in my hand. At first I couldn’t believe she could get away with something like this, but it’s more common at the big colleges than you’d think.” He dragged a hand over his face, reddening his eyes when he pushed against them. “My mother’s been in control since she brought my father home from the hospital. She has his Power of Attorney. She has control of all of the companies, everything.” His voice dropped to a rasp. “And she has control of me.”

“Oh, Travis.” Annie reached out for him and he fell into her arms. She held him close, unsure of how she could soothe him, make this better for him. How could she tell him she knew what he was going through, when she didn’t? Her mama was so wonderful. His sure wasn’t. Her daddy cuddled her and told her he loved her, and his daddy was unable to give Travis any support. What could she say to make him feel better?

After a minute or so, he pulled away, brushed a lock of hair from her damp cheek, and tucked it behind her ear. A trace of red still ringed his eyes, but his voice had steadied. “It’s not fair of me to lay this all on you, Annie. As long as I know you understand what I’m going through and you’re here for me, I’ll be all right. My mother can’t take that away, although if she could think of a way to do it, I bet she would. But she can’t change how much I love you. She’s pretty much pulled everything else from me.”

“Well, she didn’t take your car. At least you have a way back and forth from school.”

“But I have no money for gas. I had to borrow money from Catherine, and—”

“What? What did you say?” Annie wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. She sat up slowly. “Do you mean Catherine Cabot? Why would you borrow money from her?”

“Um—” He suddenly wouldn’t look at her, and instead plucked at the wrecked sheets. His cheeks held a telltale flush.

She grabbed his arm to still his movements and bring his attention back to her. “What’s going on, Travis? Why would you borrow money from someone you’ve always told me was a pest and a nuisance, someone you don’t even like?”

“Listen, Annie—”

That was as far as he got, before she jumped up from the bed and reached for her shorts. He stretched his hand toward her, and then dropped it into his lap when she moved out of reach. “It’s not what you think. It’s just that I see her once in a while, that’s all.”

She faced him with her hands on her hips. Sharp pain lanced through her as she struggled with her temper. “You see a girl your mother desperately wants you to marry someday, ‘once in a while.’ And you borrow money from her. That’s all. So, are you two buddies, now?”

“No, of course not. Just sometimes, she comes by . . .” He trailed off and looked away.

Her hands clenched so hard that her nails scored the soft skin of her palms. “And how often would you be having her for company? I have a right to know.”

Travis closed his eyes as if in defeat. “She’s attending prep in New Haven. She has a year to go and then she starts at Yale. She lives in a sorority house, in town.”

“And?” She steeled herself to hear the rest of it, knowing it would be very bad.

“And I . . . see her. Sometimes during the week, and on the weekends.”

Oh, God. She was
right. It
was
bad. Catherine Cabot, going to the same college as Travis. Seeing him any old time she wanted, with Ruth Quincy’s blessing.

Annie cleared the hoarseness from her throat. “After your classes are through, she comes over. Is that what you’re saying?”

He remained silent, his eyes downcast. She felt herself stiffen all over, an ache from head to foot as if someone plowed her under and kept on going. Hit and run.

What a dim bulb she’d been. How very stupid and naïve. Annie picked up a brush from her dresser, dragged it through her hair. Anything to occupy her hands so they wouldn’t reach out and choke Travis.

Silence reigned in the small bedroom for perhaps a minute, until, with a furious cry, she whirled and threw the brush at his head, missing him by mere inches. “You could have told me, Travis! You could have at least fed a pay phone a handful of quarters and let me know what was going on with your mother. I would have tried to understand. Maybe I could have helped. But you had no intention of telling me anything.”

“No, I would have told you. I was going to tell you, Annie.” But his protest lacked conviction, and she heard it for herself.

“You only told me because you slipped up. At least be big enough to admit it.” Her anger deflated, Annie bent and picked up her forgotten panties, crossed to a wicker hamper under one of the windows, and placed them inside, thinking hard all the while.

His mother was behind it. And shoving Catherine in Travis’s face when he was down and vulnerable was a clever trick Ruth had pulled on Travis in the past. But he’d been different back then, and she didn’t know why his attitude changed so much in just a few months. He knew better. He knew his mother, what she was capable of. That was the thing hardest to understand, why he was suddenly going along with her.

Unless—?

“Your mother has something on you. Doesn’t she? For some reason she’s made you accept Catherine in your life. Is that it?” She crossed the room and stood before him. “Please, just tell me the truth.”

Travis seemed to search for words, hesitating before his shoulders slumped. “She doesn’t have anything on me, Annie. Only the money thing, and I suppose if I wanted to badly enough, I could tell her where she could shove her money. I could quit college, get a job somewhere, and live my own life. But I don’t want to quit school.”

He caught her arms, his earnest gaze holding hers. “I’ve dreamed of going to Yale, of walking the same halls as my dad, for most of my life. I wanted to be just like my father, wanted to be the Quincy Heir, even though so much of the prep work involved my mother’s pain in the ass visions of what being the Heir really meant. Golf lessons and fencing, for Christ’s sake. But I put up with it because I knew what it would mean to me, once I had it all in my hands.”

“Travis—”

“If I defy her, she’ll cut me off. At least for now, she’s paying my tuition.” Self-recrimination throbbed in his voice. “It’s the only funding I have available to me for college. My grades didn’t make the scholarship cut. I need her money to keep going, at least right now. As much as I hate it, I need to stay on her good side.”