Promise Me This (Wilder Family, #3)

by Karla Sorensen

“You can put all those gorgeous locks to good use.” Sage’s face brightened. “Oh yes.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Absolutely not.” Harlow met my stubborn glare unflinchingly. “Ten minutes. That’s all we need.” “Please,” Sage begged. “Mom can’t teach me on herself. I just need to practice a little.” Weak. I was so fucking weak for these two.

Insight, more than we realized, was one of the greatest gifts in being able to let go of your past. We could study it and pick it apart, but until we got some of those missing pieces, almost an element of our own story could haunt us.

Some invisible being dropped a million bricks on my chest, a hard, unyielding pressure that I struggled to breathe through, and the slick, oily feeling of jealousy clawed up my throat. “Dinner, huh?” “Yup.” She laughed quietly. “I’m probably reading too much into it.” Somehow, impossibly, I answered with an even voice. “You’re probably not. A man asks a woman out to dinner when he wants her.”

Right. No belaboring the possibility with the tall guy with the wimpy fucking handshake and questionable listening skills.

“My parents always supported me, even if they didn’t dig into the why.” I swallowed around the thick lump of emotion clogging my throat. It was still so fucking hard to talk about them because any stories we told now, he was only part of them if it was revisiting the past. And what a good past he’d given us.

“I came because you’re always the person I want to be around when life feels unsteady.”

There was only one reason her happiness would matter this much to me. Why I’d face down everything that came her way. Not because I was the prince or the knight in her story—but because I was the dragon wrapping itself around the thing it loved most. Breathing fire and providing armor and ripping down every stronghold with the snap of jaws and fueled by the fierce way she’d embedded herself into me.

Once she was steady, I released her, rubbing a hand over the back of my neck. “You okay?” Jerkily, she nodded. “I think I’ll, umm, take a break from skating for a little. Go see what Sage is doing.” As she skated away, I clenched my jaw so tightly I was shocked it didn’t crack any bones. When I looked over at the counter, the old man working motioned me closer. I skated over to the counter, my eyebrows raised. He had a twinkle in his eyes as he studied me. “Maybe next time, young man,” he said, “if a beautiful woman is looking at you like that, don’t be the one pulling away.” I blew out a harsh breath, swiping a hand over my mouth as I left the rink.

My mom’s eyes lingered on mine, a disbelieving shake to her head. “You’re living with a man who isn’t your husband, Harlow. How do you think that looks? How on earth will you have the chance to find anyone that way? Ian’s always been rude. Unfriendly. That’s doing you no favors.” A stunning flash of angry heat curled my bloodstream, and in the moment I sucked in a sharp breath, filtering through all the many colorful words I wanted to spit at her to keep his fucking name out of her mouth, my daughter beat me to the punch. She stood from the table, her hands clenched in tight fists. “Don’t say that about him,” she said fiercely, her cheeks flared red and her eyes hard as I’ve ever seen them. “Ian’s my friend. He’s Mom’s friend. And he takes care of us. All the time.”

Sage remained standing, her entire body rigid. My chest ached, and I wanted to pull her into my arms and hold her tight until she softened again. My mom didn’t seem to be having the same struggles, and she tried to assert a little bit of control over the situation. “I’ve known Ian Wilder a lot longer than you have, Sage, and I’m allowed to have an opinion on him.” Slowly, I stood, tossing my napkin onto the table. “You’re allowed an opinion,” I said, voice low, positively brimming with warning, “but you don’t get to speak this one in front of me.” Sage came around the table and gripped my hand. “Or me. Maybe you should try to be more like him, Grandma. Maybe Mom wouldn’t have moved us into his house if you were.” The room pulsed with thick silence, weighted down with enough subtext to choke a horse. I tightened my fingers around Sage’s. “Why don’t you go wait outside, kiddo. I’ll be right there.” When she looked up at me, dammit, she looked proud. Of herself, and maybe me too. “I’m ready to go home,” she whispered. I cupped the side of her face and smiled. “We will.”

“Erik doesn’t get to stand up for him? I’ll make sure to rub that in the next time I see him.” She laughed. “He’s marrying us, you dick.” Adaline paused again, inhaling slowly through her nose. “Is that a yes?” “Yeah,” I answered in a rough voice. “I’d be honored.”

He turned, his face so earnest, his eyes searing into mine, and he held out his hand. “Will you dance with me, Harlow?”

As I registered the absolutely delicious, big shape of him pressing hard against my stomach—because God bless gray joggers—I saw stars. I didn’t want to simply kiss him, didn’t want this one small parcel of time on the front porch. I wanted Ian Wilder to fuck me into next week.

It was that edge—the sheer, relentless need blossoming between us—that melted away any reservations. There were no whispers in my mind of we shouldn’t or this is a bad idea or what will happen tomorrow, because the only thing left behind was a blindingly simple truth—this is what I was yearning for.

I already had a broad-shouldered hottie giving me intense looks full of longing. Any more of those and I’d lose my shit. Unless he started following it up with intense tearing of clothes and some honesty, I could only take so much. I was ready to burst out of my skin if there wasn’t a reckoning with that man soon.

The Thoughts and Feelings had streamlined now, in the wake of such a kiss, and oddly enough, I wasn’t scared. We needed to talk, I was ready for all the cards to be out on the table—his and mine and why he’d kissed me like that and then apologized, and why I very, very much wanted to do it again.

“Honey, I’ve been so excited to come watch this. You have no idea.” As she took a seat, her eyes soaked in all the chaos in the building. “Really?” I asked. She patted my arm. “Are you kidding? I had a million kids in different activities, and I’ve just been waiting for my granddaughters to be old enough to start attending all over again.” She gave my mom a friendly smile. “Not that Sage is my granddaughter. I promise I won’t overstep, but she sort of feels like a nice bonus, with the two of them just next door.”

“I don’t need to understand it. Them loving what they do is plenty for me.” The line of my mom’s throat moved on a tight swallow. “And you don’t … you don’t worry about them failing?” Understanding filled Sheila’s face, as it often did. “No. Because even if they do, I think it’s pretty wonderful that they were willing to try, no matter the outcome.”

“And if he wants it to be more?” I asked lightly. It wasn’t a push, not really. It was a genuine question, that under any other circumstance in the world, I’d ask my best friend’s opinion. When he answered, the words—rough and low and charged—lifted the hairs on the back of my neck. “Then he’s a smarter man than I gave him credit for.” His eyes never left mine, and the racing echo of my heart screamed in my ears. Then he swallowed, his brow flattening as he dragged his gaze away. “I’ll see you and Sage later at home, okay?” I watched him say goodbye to Sheila and walk away from the field. Something about his answer tied my heart in knots.

“He’s nice. Funny at practice.” Yeah, I was sure the guy was a fucking saint who rescued kittens and taught the youth of America. I’m sure they’d erect a statue of him downtown before long. I rolled my lips between my teeth until the urge to punch him passed.

My voice sounded like I’d chewed glass when I was finally able to speak. “What’s the reason?” Her bottom lip trembled. “Does it mean we’d lose you if she starts dating him? Or … or she marries him?”

Sage sniffled again, wiping under her nose with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “It doesn’t bother you either, then?” A thousand answers crowded the back of my mouth, and I wrenched them down, choosing these words with more care than I’d ever managed in my entire life. “I want your mom to be happy,” I said. “I’ll always want that for her, and having the two of you in my life is more important than anything else.”

After a moment of indecision played over her face, Sage flung herself forward, wrapping her arms around my waist in a tight hug. With a hollowed-out chest and the distinct feeling that she was anchored under my ribs much in the same way as her mother, I wrapped my arms around her to return it. That was when she buried her face into my chest and whispered, “You’ll be a really great dad someday, Ian.” It was like she punched a hole straight through flesh and bone, and I stood in stunned silence as she waved and ran off.

“I’m in love with her.” I swiped a hand over my mouth, not pausing to consider what dominoes might tip over as a result of letting it be said. “And I’ve been afraid to admit it because if she doesn’t love me back like this, or if I do something to screw it up, I am completely terrified to lose her forever.”

“You look at me like I’m your whole world,” I admitted quietly. “Like it almost hurts to feel something this big for someone and not know if it’s just you.” I sucked in a fortifying breath, my pulse spreading in a giant throbbing beat over my skin. “It’s probably the same way I look at you.”

“You are the love of my life, Ian Wilder,” I said, tears filling my eyes. “And there is nothing to be scared of. Not when we’re together.” The first tear fell as I kissed him sweetly. He pulled back, his own eyes glossy too. With the pad of his thumb, he brushed the tear away. “My heart has been yours since we were five years old, and I don’t ever want it back.”

“If I can hit two orgasms before you even lose the pants, will you call me your good girl?”

“You are it, Harlow, for the rest of my life. I’ll want to marry you soon. Fuck dating, we’ve known each other way too long to deal with that bullshit. I want everything. You, me, Sage, whatever little smart-ass kids come after. Everything.”

“I asked my dad if you could be there.” My head lifted. “Really?” He nodded. “He said they were keeping the ceremony just for family. I was so pissed. I told him I’d trade Erik for you, which he didn’t appreciate.”

don’t even get me started on Poppy throwing everyone’s world upside down—we