Promised (The Promised Series)

her I’m still here.
    “Wyn, I know you don’t love Shay. You can barely stand him. So I don’t have high hopes.” She takes one hand off the wheel to wipe at the tears spilling out of her eyes.
    “You have the first part right, but you’re forgetting something.”
    “What else could be so important that you’d marry someone you don’t love?” She asks on a sob. Her hormones have taken over and she’s full on crying now.
    I drop my hand from her shoulder to her pregnant belly. “I have a little namesake on the way that’ll need me to teach her how to be awesome.” I look up at Dani and continue. “And a best friend who I wouldn’t know how to live without.”
    She covers my hand on her belly with her own. “I don’t know what I’d do without you either.”
    “Well, you wouldn’t be as awesome; that’s for sure.” I tease.
    She pushes my hand off her belly and then grumbles. “I think you have that backwards. Kind of like you think my child is going to be named after you.”
    “Hey, the middle name counts as naming her after me. She will forever be Lil Wyn.”
    “You do realize she isn’t here yet, so I could change my mind about doing that.”
    “You love me too much to change your mind.” I point out smugly.
    “Hmmph. I’ve changed my mind; you should choose Linc.” She grumbles as she rolls her eyes.
    “Oh hush, you know you love me.” I reply on a chuckle.
    “Only on days that end in Y.”

February
Chapter 19 – Linc
    ~Help You Get Through~
    “Let me make sure I have this right. You want your sort of girlfriend to move in with us while she tries to find a college so she doesn’t have to marry the man she is engaged to?” Mom’s sitting across the kitchen table from me. She was trying to enjoy her morning coffee when I joined her. It’s been around three weeks since the party that brought Wyn back to me and I’m just now gathering the courage to bring my plan up to Mom for approval.
    “I guess you could say it that way.” I murmur, elbow on the table, head lying against my propped up hand.
    It’s Saturday and she hasn’t changed out of her robe and pajama’s. This is one of the few days she doesn’t have to rush out of the house to be at Aunt Kelly’s (her sister) bakery first thing in the morning. She’s been helping there since we moved to town at the beginning of the school year and I know she loves it, but she also loves her down time at home. Hence it being almost ten a.m. and her still being in her night clothes, just now starting her first cup of coffee.
    She sets her coffee cup down and straightens herself, pulling her robe tighter. “Lincoln, I don’t really know if this is a healthy relationship for you to be in.”
    I sit up straight in my seat. “Mom, you don’t know her. If you did, you’d see what I see in her. She’s been put in this difficult situation. She doesn’t want to marry him, but if she doesn’t, her family will turn her out. Can you imagine how hard that would be for a seventeen year old girl?”
    “I feel for her, but why do you have to be the one to save her?” Her grey eyes are appraising me.
    “I don’t look at it as if I’m saving her. I like to think it’s me giving the girl I love a chance to be who she wants to be.” I explain, holding her stare with the golden brown eyes I inherited from my dad.
    She holds my stare for several more beats, then looks away running her fingers through her dark brown hair, the same color she passed down to me. “Are you sure this is what she wants? She could be leading you on for a last hooray before she gets married.”
    “This was my idea, not hers. I can’t tell you she’s made the final decision about what she wants, because she hasn’t. She’s afraid to turn her back on her family because she loves them. But Mom, she also wants a different life for herself. She’s torn and it breaks my heart to see it and know I can’t fix this for her. The only thing I can do is show her she has options.”
    She picks her coffee mug back up as she sighs. “Fine, see if she can come over so I can meet her. We’ll talk more about it after that.”
    I rush to her side of the table and give her a tight hug. “Thank you so much. She’ll be over in a few hours.”
    She hugs me as she grumbles. “I guess I need to get out of my night clothes then.”
    *******************************
    I meet Wyn outside when she arrives. I take her hand as soon as she’s out of the car, pulling her into a