The Promise (39 page)

Th
is simple action causes for the crowd to cheer again. Sophie smiles out to us shyly, blushing before quietly speaking again. “This is ‘Oh! Darling’ by The Beatles.”

By the reaction from the crowd, you’d have thought they were about to watch a rock star perform on center stage

I hold my gaze on Sophie, seeing her smiling seductively at me as she starts the beginning riffs of the song. I find myself to be immediately blown away. I’ve seen her play two acoustic songs now and know how good she us, but I had no idea that she could play like that.

“Holy shit,” I whisper under my breath as she begins singing softly again. This time her voice t
akes on a whole new bluesy raspiness that I’ve never heard outside of the bedroom.

Sophie is sex on a stick.

As she hits the higher notes, she belts them out like a pro, eliciting more cheers and hoots from the crowd. By the time Matt joins her for back up halfway through, the crowd seems to be losing their minds. Ana is cheering loudest of all and as I glance over to look at her, I see new tears streaming down both of her cheeks.

“God, I’ve missed her! Isn’t she amazing?” she yells over the cheers as she grabs a hold of my arm excitedly. All I can manage is a nod with a look of awe, the shock must be pretty clear over my face. At the end of the song, I see Matt pulling her over for a hug.

“You did it, Soph!” he proudly tells her. “You were so awesome, Babe!”

She has tears running down her cheeks but is all smiles. It looks as though a huge weight has been lifted off of her shoulders. He steps away and claps for her, joining in with everyone else in the crowd.

I watch as Sophie blows a kiss up to the sky before waving to the crowd and thanking them before making her way down the steps and heading towards me. A few people stop her on her way, either to embrace her or share kind words. After a few minutes, she’s finally standing by my side.

“Sorry it took me a second to get over here. A few people wanted to say hello and …”I don’t let her finish what she was going to say. I just place my finger over her mouth and smile.

“You’re here now and you were amazing by the way! I had absolutely no idea that you could play like that!” I tell her enthusiastically, making her blush.

“Thanks … I had a lot more fun than I thought I would have,” she admits as I hug her closer to my side. “Ugh! I need a drink now though. That was an emotional couple of hours,” she laughs. I hand her the last of my beer before leaving to grab her something a little stronger.

By the time I return with her rum and coke, Matt’s already begun to play the guitar and is singing an upbeat country song, one that I’m not familiar with. Glancing around, I see Sophie is dancing with JT in her arms. He’s squealing happily as she spins him around while singing to him and tickling his neck with kisses.

I watch her sing with him for the rest of the song. My heart swells to see her so happy and carefree. Once the song comes to a close, she carries him back over to where I’m waiting. He’s asking her something about a song. She looks at him and nods before placing him back onto his feet.

“Go ask Uncle Matty, Baby.”

With her words, JT takes off through the crowd as Sophie accepts her drink from me.

“You looked like you were having fun out there,” I say. “Do you feel like dancing some more?”

She smiles up at me and nods as she sits her drink down.

“Sure, but I promised JT dibs on the next one. He’s going to ask Matt to play
our
song next,” she smiles as she follows me out, with her hand firmly entwined with mine. The country song playing now is one I know well. It’s slow and easy to slip into. Sophie rests her head against my chest. I pull her close to me as we sway gently to Lucy’s version of ‘When You Say Nothing At All’ by ‘Keith Whitley’. “I’m so glad that you’re here, Chase. I know that it may be awkward for you but you being here is making everything so much easier for me,” she whispers into my chest. I kiss the top of her head and rub the small of her back affectionately.

“It’s never awkward being with you, Baby,” I say, appreciating the small humming noise that escapes past her lips. “Feel good?”

“Yes but that’s not what the noise was for,” she admits. “I’ve missed you calling me Baby.” She pauses but before I can explain, she speaks again. “I understand why you’re not being as affectionate with me as normal. I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to give me space while all of this is going on. But, Chase? My feelings for you haven’t changed. I still care very much for you and I’m so glad that I decided to give us a chance. I hope I didn’t scare you off with everything that’s going on right now.”

I look down and see the nervousness in her eyes and give her a small smile, “No, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me now, Babe,” I say with a wink, leaning down as I go to give her a kiss on the cheek but as I’m about to do so, she turns her head. Her lips meet with mine as she gives me a soft, small peck.

“Good. Now will you please stop being all weird with me? I’ve had my fill of you giving me space,” she whispers, reaching up and touching my face with her left hand. “Okay … well now that we have that settled, I believe I need to talk to a man about a dance,” she says before looking over to JT, who’s waiting impatiently not far away from us. As her eyes meet with his, he smiles brightly before running straight over to her. She reaches down and picks him up to in her arms as the next song, apparently
their
song, begins to play.

She softly sings the words to him
, with him joining in until he doesn’t know any more of the words. She playfully dances with him as he grins lovingly and affectionately at her, resting his head on her shoulder as they spin around to the music.

Once the song is over, Matt immediately
begins to sing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd’ as Sophie spins JT around again, which makes him laugh wildly with his joy. I happily watch her dancing with him for the next half hour or so, finding myself to be falling full force into a different level of love with her that I never knew existed … until now.

Sophie

We had breakfast over at the diner with my Aunt Debbie before returning back to the house so we could help clean up after the party. We also wanted to be sure that JT was all packed and ready to travel back with us.

Lucy is packing his third bag and I can’t help but watch her and laugh, “Luce, I promise that I’ll take great care of him. Listen, everything is going to be fine so will you please just stop panicking?”

“I know you will. I’m sorry, it’s just that I’m not used to being away from him and I worry about him, you know?” she asks, with the worry evident over her face. “Chase is good with kids, right?”

“Yeah, he’s great with them. Why would you worry about that?”

“I’ve just seen the way he’s around you and I know that he’s a big part of your life now. I want to make sure JT will be around good people, is all,” she says as I pull her over to give her a hug.

“He’s great with kids, but if he proves otherwise, you know that would tell him to get lost before I would let anything happen to my little man,” I try to reassure her that JT will be in good hands. “Stop stressing out, Luce. It’ll only be for a couple of weeks and we’ll call you every day. You can come up and see us whenever you want, okay? We’ll even Skype if you want to. The important thing here is that you do what you have to do and don’t worry about a thing with us,” I promise her.

“I just hope I can get everything back under control in a couple of weeks.”

“W
ell there’s no rush on my end, Honey. JT is always welcome and he can stay as long as he wants. You know that,” I say, trying to make her feel a lot more comfortable with the situation in hand.

“I have something that I need to tell you, Sophie …” she says hesitantly, which makes me look down at her so I can search her face as my own curiosity kicks in. “… I hit on Chase yesterday.”

“What? Why would you do that, Lucy?” I ask, completely surprised by what she’s just told me. I feel the hurt and anger rising within me almost immediately. How could she do that? “What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you think it was okay to hit on my boyfriend?”

“I’m so sorry, Sophie! I was upset, I’d drank a lot and was feeling really emotional about everything. It was when he was outside changing his shirt, before you both headed into town ... I saw him and I knew that it was wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on with you two because he was acting like y’all were just friends,” she looks down to the floor meekly. “If it makes you feel any better, he told me off.”  Her telling me this, although I ‘m feeling really hurt and maybe even betrayed, I feel a small smile spreading across my lips as she tells me the latter part.

“Well I guess that makes me feel a little better. What did he say to you?” I ask as I fold my arms across my chest while waiting for her to answer me. She begins to hesitate, which only makes the anger I’m feeling become stronger inside of me. “Lucy, you’d better start talking now before you really piss me off!”

“He told me he was with you and that he knew I was emotional and everything because of the occasion, but that it didn’t change anything. He said that he wants you and only you,” she begins to explain while I continue to glare at her. “I tried to tell him I was sorry and didn’t know what to think, but he wouldn’t even let me try and explain. He just said that nothing I could do or say was going to change his mind and that he didn’t want to hear another word about it.”

“Why are you only now telling me all of this? Why didn’t you tell me when it happened?”

“It was right before the ceremony and I didn’t want to upset you. I’m so sorry, Sophie. I was a little drunk and honestly didn’t know y’all were still serious. I thought that maybe you’d broken up or were just friends who fooled around or something,” she says. I can tell she means it but I’m still feeling pretty peeved about all of this.

“Did you seriously think that even if we had have broken up that I would really have been okay with you dating him? What would you have done then, Lucy? Even if you really thought he was just some guy I was screwing, which of course you should know better, did you really think that I’d be okay with you sleeping with him? Didn’t you ever stop to think about how that would make me feel?” I’m starting to get angrier with her by the minute. I know she has a drinking problem she’s trying to get past, but she’s a mother now and what she did, well it isn’t okay. “I know you have a problem, Lucy. I understand more than most people how hard it can be to work through, but you seriously need to get your shit together!” She tries to interrupt me as I speak but I just keep going my voice getting louder as I speak more words. “Fuck my feelings, Lucy! I don’t need your lame ass sorry, but JT deserves more from you than this. That little boy right through there is more important than any drink you’ll ever take!” I almost scream at her, pointing towards the door and in the direction of her beautiful son.

“Sophie, I’m so sorry!” she wails. I calm down when I see how hard she’s crying and finally bring her closer to give her a hug.

“Come here,” I say before she begins to sob into my shirt. “I’m sorry I’m being mean but you have to stop this drinking shit, Lucy. You have to stop for that special little guy through there, you hear me?”

“Do you hate me now?” she whines as her sobs begin to ease some.

“Of course I don’t hate you, Lucy, but you need to listen to me and listen good, okay?” she looks up and our eyes meet. “Back off of my boyfriend you crazy woman!” I laugh.

“I promise I wouldn’t have if I’d have known. I’m sorry, although he must really love you because I was using my best moves too.”

I grab the bags from the floor before making my way over to the door.

“I
’m not sure about
love
. Maybe my moves are just better than yours,” I shrug my shoulders and throw her a wink, making her laugh a little before she follows me out.

We walk through to find Chase sitting on the couch with JT. They’re watching cartoons together but Chase immediately looks up and a smile crosses over his lips when he sees us.

“You ready, Baby?” he asks, which makes me smile at the endearment I’ve so greatly missed.

“Almost, but can I talk to you for a second?” I ask, watching him as he stands before following me through to the laundry room. He brings his gaze to meet with mine as I close the door, standing stoically for a minute before I speak again. “Lucy told me about what happened yesterday.”

Realization crosses over his features before he speaks, “Sophie, I didn’t want to upset you …”

“I know that and I also know that you told her no,” I say and he looks at me with curiosity.

“So then why am I in trouble?” he asks, his question making me smirk.

“You’re not in trouble, Chase. I just don’t want you to keep shit like that from me, okay? You don’t know this about me yet, but those kinds of things make me crazy,” I tell him as I watch him exhale a nervous breath. The look over his face is enough for me to feel my face soften and let out a small laugh. “Nervous much?”

“Sorry, I just didn’t want you to think that I would have …” He begins but I put my hand over his mouth so he doesn’t say any more...

“I know you wouldn’t,” I say as I hug myself closer to him. “That’s one of the reasons why I like you.”

“Thanks, Baby. I like you too,” he laughs before kissing me on the top of my head. “God with that look on your face I thought for sure you were about to kill me,” he says with a grin. “You’re pretty cute when you get all jealous and possessive.”

“Shut up!” I blush, tap his arm gently and then head back out, with him following closely behind me while chuckling to himself.

We go to say our goodbyes and when it’s Lucy’s turn to say goodbye to Chase, I notice her glancing over at me before quickly shaking his outstretched hand.  “It was nice to meet you, Chase. Thank you for coming out yesterday.”

Although she’s no longer touching him, I didn’t miss the way her eyes just raked over his chest as he answers her politely. I clear my throat, which causes for her eyes to instantly widen and redirect away from him.

“Nice to meet you, Lucy. Thanks for your hospitality,” he says as he smiles. For JT’s benefit and his benefit alone, I wrap my arms around her and give her a small squeeze.

“Seriously Lucy, what the hell is wrong with you? We
’ve
just
talked about this!” I whisper as I shake my head at her behavior.

“Sophie, I’m sorry! I don’t know what the hell my problem is!” she whispers back as I pull away from her.

“Whatever. I’ll call you when we get to Rockport,” I say, giving her an exasperated eye roll before walking over to the door that Chase is opening up for me. I glance up to find him grinning at me. “Shut up!”

“I didn’t say a word,” he laughs before walking around to his side and climbing in.

Making that sure JT is settled, I sit myself down in the passenger seat, quietly fuming.

Once we’ve backed out of the driveway and are heading out of Camden, Chas
e looks over at me with a smile. “Why are you sitting all the way over there?” he asks, but I just shake my head at him. He reaches over and unclips my seatbelt, whispering huskily, “Come here, Killer.” He pulls me over to his side like it’s nothing at all and begins to wrap his arm around me, kissing me quickly on the lips without taking his eyes off of the road. “It’s seriously hot when you get jealous, Baby,” he whispers so that JT can’t hear him.

“We have an audience,” I warn and notice him glancing at me with a hooded expression.

“Which is the one and only reason why I haven’t pulled over,” he whispers again, into my ear this time before kissing my neck and releasing me from his hold.   Resting his hand on my thigh, he squeezes it gently before settling his hand discreetly, but possessively, between my legs.

Holy shit that’s hot!

I look back behind me and see that JT is playing with his truck on the seat, completely oblivious to anything that’s happening in the front of the truck. My face feels on fire right now and judging from the smirk that’s crossing over Chase’s face, he knows it.

“Aunt Sophie?” JT calls from the back seat of the truck.

“Hmm?” Is all I can manage. God that man has managed to turn my mind into complete mush within seconds.

“Can we have music on?” he asks. I nod dumbly for a second before I finally find my voice again.

“Uh, y-yeah,” I answer, but as I reach for the radio, I knock my purse onto the floor which causes for the contents to spill out all over the floorboard. “Shit!” I hiss, reaching down to pick everything up as I hear Chase beginning to laugh at me.

“Aunt Sophie, you aren’t supposed to say bad words!” JT reprimands me.

“Yeah, Aunt Sophie! What’s wrong with you?” Chase laughs harder and looks down at me.

“I know,
Honey. I’m sorry … it just slipped out,” I say over my shoulder as I sit back up and place my purse back in the seat beside me. Chase’s hand reaches in front of me, towards the radio dial.

“Let me get it for you, Baby. It’s obvious to me that you might be a little flustered right now,” his words and laughter make me roll my eyes and only blush harder.

“You’re going to regret that!” I threaten him, noticing the seductive grin he’s now wearing, widening over his face.

“Really? Hmm … and how do you think you’ll teach me my lesson?” he challenges, which only makes me bite down on my lip in response. “Sophie
, don’t do that while I’m driving.” He growls, making me return his grin with one of my own as I look over at him and let out a small whimper, keeping my lip captive to torture him some more.

“Why, are you all flustered, Chase?” I whisper in the best seductive voice I can.

Chase reaches down and places my hand over the crotch of his pants. I can feel his erection pushing furiously against his jeans. A sharp intake of breath escapes my lips as I catch his gaze again.

“Something like that,” he answers. Moving my hand away from his cock, I place it gently on his leg, silently loving that I have th
e same kind of effect on him as he does on me. “When’s his bedtime?”

“Eight o’clock,” I say, noticing him glancing down to his watch before letting out a sigh and looking back over to me again. “Why?”

“Okay, I want you on the couch at eight thirty then,” he says, while shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

We’ve already discussed that even though Chase and I spend the night with each other every night, it might be better for JT if we ease him into the situation.

We plan to sleep separately for a few nights and let him get used to us all being together, before Chase sleeps at the apartment or we stay over at his place. We still plan on spending afternoons and dinnertime together, but it’s important to me that I maintain as much normalcy for JT as possible while he’s in a new environment.

We arrive back in Rockport a few hours later. Chase helps us up with our bags as we get settled into my apartment.

We don’t have a spare room at the apartment, so we decide that JT will sleep with me until we can figure something else out.

Chase leaves us to it so he can run a couple of errands, grabbing some things from the store for me while JT and I hang out together.