Beyond Promise

by Karice Bolton

  “I hadn’t even thought about that,” Brandy said, opening up the menu. “Should we do the family style option?”

  “I think so. How about I put you in charge of that?”

  “My kind of project.”

  The hostess led Ayden’s mom and dad through the restaurant, and I hopped out of my chair to give them each a hug

  “You look amazing,” his mom said, taking my hand in hers. “This wedding thing really suits you.”

  “I can’t stop dreaming about it,” I confessed. “But your daughter pulled me into the swimsuit department at Nordies today, and that almost blew me out of the water.”

  “I’m sure you looked fabulous. I’m the one who should be worried being surrounded by you young ladies on a beach all week.”

  She took a seat across from Brandy and glanced across the table at my drink and smiled.

  “Where’s Ayden?” his mom questioned.

  “He’s going to be late. He’s trying to finish up at the office.”

  “I’m sure his mishap put him behind.” She frowned and slipped her napkin in her lap as Jason, Katie, and Gabby walked to the table.

  “It is like Antarctica out there.” Gabby shivered. “Can we come with you tomorrow?”

  “Go for it.” I smiled and noticed Brandy hadn’t stopped staring at the menu as she tried to pick items to complete our family dinner.

  “Is it that tough?” I asked her, ribbing her arm.

  “It is. I can’t decide between eggplant or chicken parm.”

  “With the men we have at the table, my gut says chicken.”

  She folded her menu up and placed it next to her plate. “Then chicken it is.”

  Gabby folded her arms around Brandy and then myself before taking a seat next to Brandy’s mom and dad. Jason plunked Katie in between Gabby and himself. They all ordered their drinks, and Brandy placed the long order for us all.

  Aaron and Mason strode in, and Mason slid a gentle kiss across Brandy’s cheek, and she grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

  “Where’s Ayden?” Mason asked, taking a seat next to Jason.

  “He’s going to be late. He’s at work.”

  “Ahh.”

  The server delivered bread and took drink orders from the latest arrivals as Brandy began detailing our swimsuit expedition.

  “Do you think it’s fair to expect us to step into a swimsuit in the middle of winter?” Gabby reasoned. “I’m as pale as a ghost, and I’ve even been indulging in the products I sell.”

  “It would be unfair for some of us, if you didn’t,” Jason laughed.

  Gabby beamed and pulled some crayons and a coloring book out from her purse and placed them in front of Katie, who immediately began coloring.

  “I was thinking of saving this until we arrived in Bermuda, but with my luck I wouldn’t be allowed to pack it on the plane or they’d lose my luggage,” Ayden’s mom said, and we all turned to see her tugging two small boxes out of her purse. “I’d wait for my son to arrive, but I think I’d lose it if he were here so it’s best to do it without him, especially since we’re in public.”

  She slipped the small boxes toward Brandy and I. Brandy nervously glanced at me and then at her mom as she took the ivory box from her mother’s hand. I took the lightweight box, and my pulse accelerated as all eyes were on us.

  “My great-grandmother had two daughters, and she gave each of them a locket necklace. My mother and her sister wore them until their passing.” Brandy’s mom glanced at the table and her eyes met mine. “You’re already like a daughter to us, Lily. I’ve always been so proud of Brandy’s impeccable taste in friends. And Gabby that goes for you too.”

  “Thank you,” Gabby said, wrapping her arm around Katie.

  “But when my son told me he wanted to marry you, I couldn’t have been happier to know you’d soon officially be family, and I knew I wanted you to have the other locket. Okay, enough of my speech. Open it up, both of you. I thought when it came time to wear the something old, this would qualify.” She smiled and her eyes went to her daughter as she opened the box first.

  Brandy removed the lid to reveal a beautiful silver locket with a round stone in the middle of filigree.

  “Go ahead,” Brandy’s mom prompted. “Open yours too.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Brandy replied, picking up the long chain.

  My hands were shaking as I lifted the lid and saw the matching necklace. While the locket itself was around an inch long, the actual locket was very delicate. I couldn’t believe Ayden’s mom was willing to give me something of such great sentimental value. It meant so much to me. I lifted the tiny chain from the box and examined the locket closely.

  “I’m in shock,” I whispered. “This is too kind of you. I can’t accept this.”

  “I’d be heartbroken if you didn’t.” His mom’s smile was genuine as her eyes stayed on mine. “You’re part of our family, Lily. You always will be. You took such good care of our knucklehead son, and for that, we’re forever grateful.”

  Brandy unclasped the chain, and Aaron helped to fasten it around her neck. It looked lovely the way the locket laid against her chest. Brandy motioned for me to turn, and I complied as Brandy fastened the necklace around my neck too. My palm pressed against the locket, and I swore I felt a comforting energy surround me.

  “Thank you so much. I’ll treasure it forever.” And maybe if I have a daughter she’ll get to wear it someday.

  “Thank you,” I said again. Brandy hugged me and placed her head on my shoulder.

  “Now, I couldn’t forget my other daughter, Gabby. How does that work? Let’s see…Aaron will marry Brandy and since Aaron’s your brother, that makes you a sister-in-law to Brandy, too, and that’s close enough to inheriting another daughter, right?”

  “It’s so wonderful to be gaining children left and right without the tuition bills,” Brandy’s mom chuckled, pulling out yet another box from her purse. “I couldn’t leave you out either.”

  Gabby started shaking her head. “You didn’t have to do anything.”

  “I know, but I wanted to. Unfortunately, there’s no long and involved story with this gift, but it’s just as special.”

  Gabby took the small box from Brandy’s mom and thanked her just as the appetizers were delivered. I noticed an odd trade of glances between Aaron and Brandy, and my stomach tightened. What were they hiding?

  Once the server left the table, Gabby opened the box, revealing a beautiful silver cuff bracelet.

  “That was my mom’s bracelet. A funny story about that bracelet was she thought it was too “show-offy” as she put it. I, on the other hand, love it.”

  “It’s gorgeous,” Gabby replied. “Absolutely amazing.”

  “Glad you like it.”

  “I love it.”

  Mason shoveled a few fried ravioli on his plate, along with some olive tapenade. “Guys get the short end of the stick, I see.”

  His dad’s boisterous laugh filled the air. “What do you mean? We get to marry these lovely women.”

  “I guess that’s good enough,” Mason retorted. “But my woman is going to be really sad she missed this meal.”

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  “She’s on the dance committee and they’re planning the Christmas dance,” he answered.

  “They’re actually allowed to have a Christmas dance?” Brandy asked.

  “Perks of a small school on an even smaller island.”

  As we all enjoyed the amazing appetizers, I glanced at Brandy who was, no doubt, hoping I’d forget my earlier request.

  Which I hadn’t.

  “Gonna let me in now that we’re being fed?” I whispered.

  She let out a deep exhale and glanced at Aaron. “Might as well. Everyone at the table knows except you.”

  My blood froze at the admission and my appetite took a nosedive.

  “I can’t take it anymore. I’m horrible at hiding things and Lily won’t stop pestering me. We need to tell her
what’s going on.”

  Brandy’s mother gave a sideways glance to her husband, who’d stopped eating, and Gabby glanced at Jason.

  I glanced at Katie, who seemed equally as oblivious as I was, and waited for someone to begin.

  “Shouldn’t we wait until Ayden gets here?” Mason asked nervously.

  Mason was never nervous.

  “Nope.”

  “Maybe we should only tell Lily and wait until we’re sure Ayden’s out of the woods,” Ayden’s mom replied.

  What was going on here?

  “Would someone please just tell me?”

  Aaron scowled and wiped his mouth with a napkin before slapping it down on the table.

  “Viktor went to the police,” Aaron began.

  My heart started hammering in my chest. “So?”

  “He’s attempting to press charges against us all.”

  My blood boiled. “What? It was self-defense.”

  “Yes…and…no,” Brandy’s mother responded.

  “Viktor almost killed Ayden. How is that not self-defense.”

  “Ayden wasn’t the one who threw the punches after the fact.”

  “After the fact, Ayden was left to lose consciousness, and if it hadn’t been for all of you, Viktor would’ve continued to pummel him. This makes no sense.”

  “Well, we probably didn’t need to all pounce on Viktor as we did.”

  My heart was thudding inside. “Like hell.”

  “That’s my daughter-in-law,” Ayden’s dad muttered. “Love her fire already.”

  “We’re hoping the prosecutor sees the situation clearly,” Ayden’s mom continued. “But as of now there are potential assault and battery charges.”

  I couldn’t believe it. We’d gotten through the nightmare of the event and were finally getting to focus on our future, and then this horror of a human being wanted to act as if he was the victim in all this?

  “What about Ayden? He’s not pressing charges.”

  “Not yet, but we may need to go down that path. Only time will tell,” Ayden’s mom responded. “We’re in a wait-and-see situation, which was why we didn’t want to tell you before your wedding.”

  “We hoped it would all blow over,” Mason jumped in.

  “Is that a chance? A real possibility?” I questioned.

  “It is,” Ayden’s mom acknowledged.

  Ayden didn’t need protecting anymore than I did. But he’d been through so much. If there was the slightest possibility this whole fiasco could blow over, maybe we didn’t need to tell him. I didn’t want anything to interfere with his recovery or our wedding.

  “Wow. That wasn’t what I expected to hear. I don’t do well with things being hidden from me, and I know Ayden’s just as bad… But maybe we shouldn’t.” I stopped myself.

  I looked at Brandy and saw something more resting behind her stare. Aaron’s gaze flew to the entrance, and I saw Ayden making his way over to the table.

  Even though I thought about hiding it from him, it didn’t take long for Ayden to figure out something was very wrong as his eyes went from one worried expression to the next.

  “What? What did I miss?” Ayden asked.

  I felt guilty for wanting to keep it away from Ayden, but we’d been through so much. I didn’t want something to trigger amnesia or make his headaches come back. I didn’t even know if stress could do that, but I didn’t want to chance it.

  “We didn’t want you to wind up reliving everything again so soon. We hoped it would either go away or wouldn’t pop up until after the wedding,” Aaron began.

  “Why would it matter? What’s going on?” Ayden asked.

  My eyes connected with Ayden’s, and my gaze fell to the window behind him, shocked at what I saw.

  “Ayden, was it snowing when you came inside?” I asked.

  All the heads at the table turned to face the window as the snowflakes fell slowly to the ground.

  He shook his head and glanced behind him. “Whoa. Did anyone hear we were going to get snow?”

  I shook my head and reached for my phone. Every once in a blue moon, we’d get snow in November, but not this early in November. I looked at my weather app as if that would tell me, “No, it’s not really snowing outside,” and couldn’t believe my eyes.

  “Guys, we have a National Weather Advisory. We’re getting a snowstorm,” I announced.

  “What time does your plane leave tomorrow?” Gabby asked.

  “At night. Like ten o’clock.”

  “Whatever snow we might get will be gone by then,” she stated

  “I don’t know. The weatherman didn’t even predict this,” Ayden’s mom replied. “We were just supposed to have cold temps, which made me all the more excited to get out of town.”

  I glanced at Ayden as he bent down to give me a hug, and I knew this was a sign from above to keep this tiny revelation from him for the moment. We needed to focus on the future and the wedding and getting out of town.

  “We’ll be fine,” he assured me.

  We both glanced out the window again as the snow quickly turned to a white sheet, and I couldn’t do anything but laugh.

  Because we both knew how the city of Seattle handled snow. It shut down like we were in the middle of an apocalyptic event.

  Every.

  Time.

  “Do you realize in less than seventy-two hours you’re going to be my wife?” Ayden murmured next to my ear. He’d just come inside from putting the last of the luggage in the car. Within hours we were going to be on our way to Bermuda. My wedding dress hung on the front door, and I’d tucked Ayden’s ring in my purse, along with both of our passports. So far everything was going according to plan. Except for the once-every-hundred-year blizzard that was laughing at us from the great beyond.

  I hadn’t heard from my mom since I’d called her from the hospital, and truthfully, that wasn’t a surprise, and I was okay with the idea of them not showing up. At this point in my life, I couldn’t imagine my parents showing a sudden interest in me.

  Ayden’s mom had provided a wonderful amount of support the moment we’d gotten back from Paris. She helped with contracts, picking out flowers, and going with me to choose my dress. All things I hoped when I was a little girl I’d be doing with my own mother, I’d done with Ayden’s mom. And then of all things to be given a gift that was of such incredible sentimental value, I knew I’d found my place in life.

  “What I really can’t believe is that we’re having a snowpocalypse, and it’s not even Thanksgiving. Then I’d follow that up with I can’t believe in less than seventy hours I’ll be a Rhodes. A real Rhodes. If we can get there.”

  “Not even a blizzard is going to stop that process. There’s no escaping us now.”

  “I’d never want to.”

  “I’ll go lock the windows upstairs, and then I guess we should take off,” he said, sounding as amazed as I felt. We’d finally made it to this moment. “I think we do have enough time for one little—”

  “Nope. Not gonna happen. We need every second on that roadway to make it in time.”

  Ayden climbed the stairs and groaned. “This is crazy.”

  “But you’re kind of intrigued by not getting any, aren’t you?” I hollered after him.

  “Only marginally.”

  We were going to Bermuda before the others. I wanted to make sure we had all the details finalized before our guests arrived, and we both wanted some time alone before the frenzy started. Although with the weather, it already felt like the frenzy had started.

  My phone buzzed, and it was Ayden’s mom wondering if we’d gotten to the airport yet. No, but we probably should have…

  I quickly texted that we were about to leave and received another text back that made me chuckle.

  Did you remember to pack wedding dress, garters, sandals, rings (both of them) curling iron, straightener, aspirin, baby powder, swimsuit, hairbrush, and something old, something blue and something new and something borrowed? See you soon and
lots of love to you and our son. Drive careful.

  The garters! I forgot the garters. I texted quickly back.

  Thank you! I totally forgot the garters. See you soon and love to you.

  I jogged down the hall into the master bedroom.

  “I almost forgot the garters,” I shouted.

  “Where are they? I can go get them.”

  “I got it. They’re in our bedroom.”

  I rustled around in the second dresser drawer until I found the two garters I’d decorated with beads and tiny flowers. It was Gabby’s idea and I loved it. I glanced toward the river and took a deep breath in. We’d made it. We were almost to our wedding day. The blizzard had laid a thick, white blanket of snow with only the river trail etched along the bank.

  Perfection!

  “We should probably get going,” Ayden said, walking into the room.

  We were taking a red-eye flight to JFK and then a morning flight to Bermuda. Hopefully, everyone was heeding the Mayor’s advice and staying off the roads, but if we weren’t, I’d imagine others weren’t either.

  “I am officially psyched. I can’t believe it’s here,” I almost squealed.

  “About time,” he laughed, ushering me down the hall.

  I shoved the garters in my purse, and Ayden unhooked my garment bag, containing my wedding dress, from the front door.

  “Alright. Let’s hit it.” He turned on the alarm, and we both exited our home into the brisk November air.

  “I can’t believe I’ll be cooking the turkey as Mrs. Rhodes.” He grabbed my elbow as I slipped on the porch.

  “I can’t believe we’ll be eating a turkey you cook as Mrs. Rhodes.”

  “Hey now.” I playfully pushed him as we made our way to the car, snow crunching underfoot. He hung up the dress in the back seat, and I climbed into the front seat. It was freezing outside. Only yesterday I was trying on a swimsuit, and today I was bundled up like I was headed for a ski trip.

  Just as he opened the front door and crawled in, another flurry hit. He closed his door quickly, but still let a crazy amount of snow into the car.