The Promise Read Online Free PDF Page B

are you doing this, by the way?”
    “You'll see. It's a beautiful little town I've been in love with for years. I spent a summer there once as a kid. It's only about an hour from here. It's the perfect place.”
    “You've got a license?”
    “Don't need one. It's one of those crazy towns where you do it all in one shot. You ready?”
    Ben downed the last of the coffee and nodded. “I think so. Jesus, I'm getting nervous. Aren't you scared?” He looked at Mike more soberly now, but Mike looked strangely calm.
    “Not a bit.”
    “Maybe you know what you're doing. I don't know … it's just that … marriage … ” He shook his head again and stared at his feet. It reminded him that he had another loafer to find. “Nancy's a hell of a nice girl though.”
    “Better than that.” Mike spotted the other loafer under the couch and handed it to him. “She's everything I've always wanted.”
    “Then I hope the marriage brings you both everything you want, Mike. Always.” There was a bright glaze of tenderness in his eyes, and for a moment Mike held him by both arms.
    “Thanks.” And then they both looked away, anxious to get going, to laugh again, to taste the moment with glee instead of solemnity.
    “Do I look all right?” Ben checked his pants for his wallet, then searched for his keys.
    “You look gorgeous.”
    “Oh shove it … damn … where're my keys?” He looked around helplessly as Mike laughed at him. The keys were attached to one of the belt loops on his trousers.
    “Come on, Avery. Let's get you out of here.” The two left, arm in arm and singing the beer hall songs of summers before. The entire building could hear them but no one really cared; the whole place was populated by students living off campus, and two weeks before the end of school everyone was raising hell.
    They pulled up outside Nancy's place on Spark Street ten minutes later, and she waved nervously from the window as Mike honked. She felt as though she'd been ready for hours. A moment later she was standing beside the car, and for a few seconds both young men fell silent. It was Mike who spoke first.
    “My God, Nance … you look beautiful. Where did you get that?”
    “I had it” They exchanged a long smile, and none of them moved. She suddenly felt every bit a bride, despite the late hour and the unorthodox circumstances. She was wearing a long white eyelet dress and there was a little blue satin cap on her shiny black hair. She had worn the dress as a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding three years before, but Mike had never seen it. She was wearing white sandals and carrying a very old, very beautiful lace handkerchief. “See, something old, something new … the handkerchief was my grandmothers.” And the cap was blue. She looked so beautiful that for a moment Mike didn't know what to say. Even Ben seemed totally sobered as he looked at her.
    “You look like a princess, Nancy.”
    “Thanks, Ben.”
    “Hey, listen, you got something borrowed?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You know … something old, something new … something borrowed …” She laughed and shook her head. “Okay, here.” He bent his head forward and began to fumble with something at his neck. A moment later he held out a narrow, handsome gold chain. “Now, this is just a loan. My sister gave it to me for graduation, but I opened it early. You can borrow it for the wedding.” He leaned out of the car to fasten it around her throat and it fell just above the delicate neckline of the dress.
    “It's perfect.”
    “So are you.” Mike said it as he got out of the car and held the door for her. He had been so stunned by the way she looked that he hadn't been able to move. “Get in the back, Avery. Darling, you sit in front.”
    “Can't she sit on my lap?” Ben made a feeble protest as he scrambled toward the back, and Mike gave him the finger. “Okay, man, okay, don't get excited. I just thought maybe since I was the best man, and—”
    “You'll be