Page 115 of Promise Me

“This isn’t funny,” I tell her.

“It’s a little funny. I mean, what are the odds?”

I can’t help but warm at the carefree look on her face.

I laugh too.

“You two better not be fucking laughing!” Linc yells through the door.

I roll my eyes, then zip my pants, leaving her to put herself together.

I open the door.

Linc’s face is even more red as he glares at me.

“Hey, man.” I lean against the closed door.

“Fuck. You—” he says and walks off down the hall. I’m hot on his heels as he steps out the front door.

“Linc, stop. Let’s talk about this.”

“My sister!” he yells.

“I know.”

“My sister!”

“Yes.”

Then he pauses, and I almost run into him.

“That’s my sister!”

Oh hell, we’ve broken him.

“I know she is, Linc, but she’s so much more than that to me.”

He continues to shake his head at me.

“I asked you to help her, Hudson. Keep her stress-free. Not … not …” His hand flies up to gesture at the house. “Not whatever the hell that was. Fuck!”

“I did help her, Linc. I helped her the best that I could, but you know what else happened? She helped me. She made me a better man in just weeks, Linc. How could I not fall for her?”

“You’ve known her for years, and now,nowyou two decide that you should be more. Five weeks ago, you two couldn’t even be in the same room. Hell, no one could be in the same room as you two, and now you’re ... fuck.”

“You need to calm down,” I say in a calmer tone.

I want to yell back, but I’m not.

“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down, Hudson. This is not okay. She doesn’t remember your past! Not all of it. It's not fair to her that you’re tri?—”

“If the remainder of that sentence is you accusing me of tricking your sister, I will not feel even an ounce of guilt forpunching you right now. I did not trick her. I tried to avoid this. I tried harder than you think, but she changed me. She fixed me. She fucking brought me back to life, Linc. How the hell was I not going to fall in love with someone who would do that for me?”

His head jerks back as if I did, in fact, punch him in the face.

“You love her?”

I don’t hesitate.

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