Promised (The Promised Series)

going to drive him to his house and make sure he gets in alright. You follow, then once I have him settled, we can head home.” I explain, crouching down to talk to her at the driver’s side window.
    “Are you sure you’ll be okay riding with him? He is smashed.” She asks, watching the Challenger closely, as if it’ll give her the warning she needs to pull me in her car and take off without having to help Linc.
    I place my hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention back to me. “I might not act like a normal gypsy, but I still am one. So I’ve handled a lot worse than this. Plus, this is Linc. He’d never hurt me.”
    Dani places her hand over mine. “Hate to break it to you, but he already has.”
    “That was my choice, Dani. You know that.” I pull my hand back and shove it in my coat pocket.
    “Fine, let’s get him home so we can get back ourselves.” She grumbles and rolls up her window, ending our conversation. She’s mad at Linc for the spot he’s put me in. She was fine with him at first, but I think seeing me be the good little gypsy fiancée with Shay has pushed her towards blaming Linc. She doesn’t like seeing me as anything but myself. And these past two weeks, I haven’t been myself. I’ve been playing my role. A role I hate.
    I straighten up from the crouch I’m in and let out a sigh. Time to get this over with.
    “I’ve missed you.” Linc blurts out as soon as I have the car moving down the road. I let the pain wash over me at those three little words. I’ve missed him too, more than I can tell him, but he knows where we stand at the moment.
    “Linc,” I sigh.
    “Tell me you don’t miss me, Wyn. Tell me this forced separation isn’t hurting you just as much as it’s hurting me.” He demands. I can’t tell him that I miss him like crazy. And if I tried to form those words, he’d see them as the lie they are. So I stay quiet, focusing on the road in front of me.
    He takes my silence as his answer and decides to switch from demands to questions.
    “Why can’t you choose me?”
    “Linc.” I sigh again, hoping he’ll hear the pain in my voice and leave it be.
    “No, I deserve to know. If you’re going to throw our love away as easily as you would last week’s trash, I deserve to know why. This doesn’t only affect you.” He slams his fist against the dash to emphasize his words.
    “Other than the fact that if I choose you I’ll never see my family again.” I turn my eyes to him for a second and see him watching me intently. God, I’ve missed those eyes. I let out a sigh and then I continue, “I won’t have anywhere to go. I don’t have my own money, so where would I live, Linc? How would I eat? What kind of future would I have?”
    “Damn it, Wyn! Do you think I’d ask you to do this and not have your back?”
    “Linc, you’re leaving for basic training at the end of the summer.” I point out what should be obvious, but apparently he needs the reminder.
    “And you could stay with Mom and Dad until I’m back. Then, once I get my station, you can live with me in the base housing.” He apparently has thought this out, but his plan has holes the size of Texas.
    “Linc, they won’t let you move your girlfriend on the base with you.” I point out, shaking my head.
    “They’d let my wife.” The air leaves me at his words. Did Linc just propose?
    Fudge!
    Double Fudge!
    “Linc-” I start, but he cuts me off.
    “No, I don’t want to hear the next excuse. You have options. I’m your option! You can marry me instead of him. I’ll make sure you have a home over your head, food in your stomach and anything else your heart desires.” He pulls my right hand off the wheel and into his.
    “I love you, Linc.”
    “I love you too.”
    “But I don’t want to be married at eighteen. I don’t want to depend on someone else to take care of me. I want to go to school and learn how to take care of myself.” I thought this would hurt his feelings, but Linc being Linc, he doesn’t let it faze him. Well, at least he doesn’t let it show if it does.
    He gives my hand a reassuring squeeze and says. “Fine, we won’t get married at eighteen. You can stay at my parent’s house until we get you in a college. But I will marry you someday. If you don’t want it to be at eighteen, I can handle that, but it’s going to happen.” He sounds so sure of those words. So sure that it makes me think it could all be that simple. I could go to school, live at his