Forever Promised by Amy Lane Read Free Book Online Page B

and Crick were going to dissect, uhm, debrief, uhm, dish about the honeymoon, and then Crick said that, oh crap!”
    Deacon’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he glowered at Collin.
    “He said we weren’t supposed to go for ice cream after practice, didn’t he?” Deacon asked grimly, and Collin smiled with all his teeth.
    “Here, Angel,” he said, taking the cloth from Parry’s unresisting hands. “Let Uncle Collin clean this up super quick for us so we don’t make Crick any more pis—uhm, irritated than he already is.”
    Parry looked at him with those big bluebell eyes. “That’s a good idea,” she said solemnly. “Uncle Crick gets pissed off when people get home late for dinner.”
    Collin stared at her for a minute, and Deacon shut his eyes, apparently just as the phone picked up.
    “Yeah,” Deacon said, like Crick could read his mind. “We’re coming. No, Collin didn’t relay the message—he was too busy signing us up for coaching duty. Why? Because that other guy was a douchecanoe. Yeah, I don’t care if she hears me, you already taught her ‘pissed off’, douchecanoe is an improvement. Where’d I get that? The team mom. You don’t have a corner on the swearing market, Carrick James, and neither does your sister. Yeah, we’re coming home. Dinner? Well, sort of. Does ice cream count? No, I’m not being facetious, it was an honest question, dammit!” He listened for a moment and let out a grumpy sigh. “Okay, so beans for them and rabbit pellets for me. I understand. I’m being punished.”
    Crick let out an indignant squawk on the other end of the line and Deacon just chuckled and hung up the phone.
    Collin shook his head. “Wow, Deacon, you can be a real asshole sometimes!”
    Deacon flushed and shrugged. “It’s cute listening to him get all riled up. Sometimes he needs to remember he was a hell-raiser too. It’s good for him.”
    Collin grinned widely and eyeballed the distance over the counter before aiming and shooting to pop the rag into the hamper by the sink.
    “Thanks, Mom!” he called. She’d already gone back to the little accounting room to count up the drawer and the safe while they’d been finishing up their ice cream.
    “You’re welcome, sweetie!” she called. “Tell me how much I need to donate so they get their banner and their party, ’kay?”
    “We’re going in halvesies!” he told her and then ushered Deacon and Parry out of there before his mother could protest. He was actually tickled by the idea they’d both be in the team photo. After his severely misspent youth, it seemed like the height of legitimacy to end up on the wall in a picture with a bunch of little kids he could teach his bad habits to.
    They got outside, and Deacon grinned at Parry Angel. “So, Collin drove the Camaro, Angel. Do you want to ride in the back with him or in the extended cab with me?”
    Parry Angel grinned, eschewing Collin’s pride and joy, the recently repainted red-and-black vintage Camaro with the tricked-out engine that featured the chrome-plated intake manifold system on the outside of the hood, in favor of the battered family pickup truck with the car seat firmly belted in the back.
    “Sorry, Uncle Collin!” she called winsomely, and Collin laughed and tapped her nose with a finger that was only now, after almost two weeks off, starting to lose some of the ever-present grease.
    “No worries, Angel. I’ll see you at home.” It figured. Nobody, not even fun Uncle Collin, was going to get between that child and her Deek-Deek. Yeah, she called him Deacon now ,but Collin could still remember when she was three and she called him Deek-Deek, and everybody thought it was adorable. Nobody was going to let either Parry or Deacon live that down.
    As Collin followed Deacon to The Pulpit, he reflected that it had been a very, very quick two and a half years. Of course, he would have married Jeffy two years ago, after their painful courtship and Deacon’s heart attack and