Page 48 of Nixon’s Promise

At the sound of my brother’s voice I jumped up and followed the path Nix had taken. The whole time praying there wasn’t a new trauma.

There was only so much I could take. I’d spent the last hour relaxing with Nix, therefore I wasn’t prepared for drama.

“Hey, Micky,” Mandy greeted me with a smile.

A smile.

What the fuck was going on?

“Hey. What are you guys doing?” I asked her. “Everything okay?”

I braced for more words and her general piss-poor attitude.

“Yeah. We’re headed to the Freeze for milkshakes. Wanna come?”

I may’ve jerked in surprise. I also may’ve blinked a few times to make sure it was my sister Mandy in front of me and not, say, Mother Teresa. Or someone as equally kind. I hadn’t heard her speak to me so pleasantly in so long I’d forgotten how sweet my little sister could be.

Damn, I’d missed her.

I saw her everyday and I missed her more now than I had when we’d gone months without seeing each other. This was the Mandy I loved. Happy, smiling, and thoughtful. I wanted this Mandy back forever. I wanted Nixon to know this side of her. She was so damn funny. But you could see her wit through all the nastiness she tossed around.

Suddenly Nixon was close. He slid his arm around my middle and tucked me close. I watched both my siblings’ reactions. Zack was smiling and Mandy looked thoughtful. I guess I needed to have a conversation with them about Nix. Just one more thing to address, in my growing list of must-have discussions.

“Sure. Park McKenna’s car and we’ll take my truck.”

I stopped breathing. Actually held my breath. Nix was going to go to town with us to get milkshakes? I wasn’t sure this was a good idea. Everyone, and I mean, everyone would be talking about the outing come morning. People were nosy, they liked the latest juicy gossip, and Nixon coming home had been the topic of conversation for months. I knew this, because Becky was still keeping me updated. Becky was not a gossip—you could tell her anything and she’d never utter a word. She was a vault. That, and I think with two boys and a husband, she pretty much forgot whatever the secret was five minutes after you told her. Either way, she didn’t talk but she listened.

She also worked at the chemical company in town as an IT manager, and apparently the women she worked with loved to talk.

“I can drive,” Mandy told him.

“I’ve got two rules. I never ride bitch on the back of a bike or four-wheeler and I don’t ride passenger.”

Mandy cut her eyes to Nixon. “That’s—”

“You can call it whatever you want, Amanda, but it won’t change the fact that I’m driving. So, we can stand around and wax lyrical about my male ego or we can go get milkshakes.”

“Well, as long as you understand your rule is egotistical, I guess there’s no reason to debate it,” Mandy sassed. “But I’ll have you know, I’m a really good driver.”

“Bet you are, darlin’, but we’re not gonna get to observe your skills behind the wheel tonight.” Then he turned to Zack. “I left my truck up at the barn. You think you can bring it up here?”

“Yeah.”

“The keys are in it.”

Zack was beaming when he took off in a jog toward the barn.

“You know he can’t drive, right?” I asked.

“He’ll be fine. Besides, there’s nothing he can hit.”

“Really? You have two barns, a white shack thingy, and a metal shed.”

“A white shack thingy?” He chuckled.

Number four. I was giving myself a mental high-five when he leaned down and kissed my forehead. God, I loved when he did that.

“Well, I don’t know what to call it.”