The Promise Read online

  One of those scientists biting it meant we’d lost a huge investment.

  What also didn’t surprise me was that Berger went out and shared the news. I’d only seen Clancy Barrow in passing on a handful of occasions. He was not hands-on. He let Berger do day-to-day and pretty much everything else. Whereas Berger was visible, aggressive, driven, and hardworking, Barrow, surprisingly for someone in his position, was practically invisible, letting his executive vice president be the face of Wyler on a variety of fronts.

  There was, of course, another way to look at this. That being, if something went wrong, it would be Berger who would likely take the fall, even if it wasn’t on him what went wrong.

  “Do they know how it happened?” I asked Tandy.

  She looked uncomfortable for a second before she said, “Details aren’t making the rounds, but I do know he was shot.”

  She also knew I was shot and I remembered what I remembered every day about fifty times a day. This being that I liked Tandy. She was funny. She wore kickass clothes. She was a hard worker and totally on the ball. But also, she was sweet.

  “That’s terrible,” I pointed out the obvious.

  “Yeah. I didn’t know him, but still, it’s terrible,” she said, her eyes drifting across the office floor. They came back to me and she went on, “Anyway. The Tenrix stuff is on your desk. Chelsea brought the files around while you were working out.”

  Something about this coincidence sent a chill sliding up my spine, but I nodded, murmured, “Thanks,” gave her a smile, and went to my office.

  I had a million things to do, but after I dumped my workout bag, I reached right for the file on Tenrix. A lot of it I didn’t get because it was about chemistry and biology and we’d been told we’d have someone (though, not Dr. Gartner, obviously) explain it to us in detail.

  What I focused on were the mock-ups of the glossy brochures and pamphlets that had Proof stamped on them in big red letters. I read them and, in doing so, read what Tenrix promised to do.

  And from knowing Randy Bierman promised the same in the team meeting, weirdly, I didn’t believe a word.

  My phone ringing took me out of the Tenrix file.

  I stayed out of it, doing half a million of those million things I had to do, when close to five, my phone beeped.

  I looked at it, picked it up, and smiled.

  It was a text from Benny that said, Thinking about you, baby. Call me when you get home from work. I’ll take a break.

  It had been just over a month since the scene with Dad.

  Unfortunately, that month included a lot of me traveling.

  Fortunately, one of my trips was to Chicago, a territory rich in prospects and a trip whose primary purpose was to bring my rep to heel. He might have had more pharmaceutical experience than me, but he was my only rep not only not exceeding his numbers, but not making them.

  I’d extended that trip, working from Benny’s for three days and then having the weekend with him.

  I liked this. I liked being at Benny’s and playing house, falling into a pattern that included him having nights off to be with me and him also working. I didn’t mind him working. I went to the pizzeria with friends and saw him, or I stayed at his house and vegged.

  But it was more.

  What we had was not normal. Any relationship was work, but being separated, that work was harder. I never liked leaving him or him leaving me, but each time it was getting harder.

  When I was working at Benny’s, it felt normal. His house felt like home. Our schedule felt natural. Like the life and times of any average couple. I liked that. I wanted that.

  The same could not be said for when Ben came to see me.

  When Benny came to see me, it was definitely a visit. Not him coming home. Not natural. Not normal. Not anything but good to be with Benny.

  I loved being with Benny any way I could be.

  Still, I wanted more.

  In order not to take advantage and make Manny or Vinnie work the kitchens on their busiest nights of the week, namely weekends, in the last month, Ben had attempted a two-day visit during the week.

  This did not go great. Mostly because he showed in the morning when I was at work and all I could think about was coming home to him. While I worked, he putzed the days away at my place and hung with Cal, who was living in a house with his woman this close to having his baby, plus three females who were planning a wedding.

  Ben was a reprieve for Cal.

  For me, Ben was in Brownsburg and I was at work and I didn’t like that, the limited time we had, the fact that it felt like he barely got there and then he had to leave.

  In other words, this wasn’t working for me.

  The problem with that was, I didn’t need a résumé that said I jumped jobs every year. Possible employers needed to get the hint that they weren’t going to dump the money and time into a hiring and training process for someone who didn’t have staying power. So I felt I had at least another sixteen months with Wyler.

  The other problem with that was, although Ben seemed just as disappointed to watch me leave or leave me, he hadn’t mentioned our future and what it might bring, or the fact we might need to plan to bring it to normalcy. That including being together more than a few days a month and then such impossible dreams as wedding, kids, and family.

  I wasn’t exactly getting younger. In fact, my birthday was a few weeks away.

  Ben wasn’t either.

  I didn’t know how to bring it up. If Ben was good with what we had, after nearly fucking us up in the beginning, I wasn’t big on rocking that boat.

  But this didn’t mean the fact that Ben hadn’t even mentioned it wasn’t beginning to worry me.

  I did not include this in the text I sent back, which only read, Okay, honey, I’ll be leaving in a few.

  I focused on getting as much of the last half a million things I needed to do done so I could get home and call my man, have a brief conversation with him that would leave me wanting more, and then eat alone, hang at my house alone, and go to bed.

  Alone.

  I was closing in on feeling I’d done what I needed to do when my phone rang and I saw the time on my computer said that it was after six. In other words, I’d lost track so it wasn’t the “few” I’d told Benny it would be.

  He was probably worried and this was my thought when my eyes went to my cell.

  My brows drew together when I saw the screen said, Keira Calling.

  I grabbed the phone, took the call, and put it to my ear.

  “Hey, honey.”

  “Mom’s havin’ the baby!”

  My heart thumped hard in my chest and I came right out of my seat.

  “Right now?” I asked.

  “Yeah!” she cried, then chanted. “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod.”

  “Where are you?”

  “At home. Kate is, like, freaking! Joe called. They were out pickin’ up dinner and it just happened. He took her right to the hospital. We gotta get her bag. We gotta get gas ’cause Kate says she’s almost out. And we gotta call everybody.”

  “Stop right there,” I interrupted. “Kate’s in a state and she’s drivin’ you?”

  “We gotta get going!” she shrieked. “And I got, like, seven million calls to make.”

  Hurriedly, I went about turning off my computer. “Do not leave that house, Keirry. I’m comin’ and I’ll take you both.”

  “You got a two-seater,” she pointed out.

  “We’ll take Vi’s Mustang.”

  “Oh, right,” she muttered.

  I kept closing down and grabbing shit as I said, “Listen to me. Are you listening to me?”

  She sounded like she was hyperventilating when she said, “I’m listening.”

  “Get the keys to your mom’s car. Make sure she has everything she needs for her and Angela in her bag. Grab some waters, some pops, and some snacks ’cause we probably got a wait ahead of us. Make your calls. Deep breathe. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”


  I was rushing through the mostly deserted floor on my way to the elevator when Keira replied, “It’ll take you forever to get here.”

  “It takes a while to have a baby, honey. Just try to keep calm. I’ll get there as fast as I can and we’ll get to your mom and Cal.”

  “Okay, Frankie.”

  “Mawdy’s bag doesn’t have nightgowns!” I heard Kate screech from a distance through Keira’s phone.

  I tagged the elevator and smiled.

  With Ben in Chicago, and Cal, Violet, and the girls the only friends I had close, I spent time with them. Dinners at their place, dinners at mine, dinners at Frank’s Restaurant in town. They were the only things keeping me sane, being so far from Benny and everything I knew.

  Doing it, I’d gotten to know the Winters–Callahan family.

  And now I knew that Kate, who was normally level-headed, lost it when her mom was about to give her another sister.

  “Well, get her one!” Keira yelled back.

  “Keirry, honey?” I called.

  “Yeah, Frankie?” she asked.

  “Deep breathe. Calm. It’s all gonna be great. It’s gonna be amazing. Something beautiful is happening. Yeah?”

  I heard the rush of breath come with her “Yeah.”

  “Be there soon,” I promised.

  “Okay. See you soon, Frankie.”

  “’Bye, honey.”

  “’Bye, Frankie.”

  I disconnected. The elevator opened. I dashed in, hit the button to the parking garage, and as the doors were closing, I didn’t fuck around with Recents. I just dialed Ben’s number right into the phone.

  “Hey, baby,” he greeted.

  “Vi’s delivering Angela right now,” I told him.

  There was a hesitation before he asked, “Come again?”

  “Vi…is…delivering…Angela right now!” I was near on shrieking myself when I finished.

  “Jesus, that’s fuckin’ great,” Ben replied.

  “Uh…yeah,” I agreed. “I’m off to pick up the girls. They were driving themselves, but they were freaked. I don’t want them behind the wheel.”

  There was another hesitation, this one weighty, before he whispered, “My Frankie.”

  “I don’t have time for you to be sweet right now, Ben. I only have time for you to tell me you’re coming down as soon as humanly possible.”

  There was a smile in his voice when he said, “I’m comin’ down as soon as humanly possible.”

  “Awesome,” I whispered as the doors opened.

  “Be safe with you and those girls,” he ordered.

  “I will.”

  “Okay. Love you, baby.”

  I stopped dead on my mad dash to my Z.

  “’Bye,” he finished.

  “Uh…’bye, Benny.”

  He disconnected.

  I stood there, frozen.

  Love you, baby.

  Oh my God.

  Love you, baby.

  Oh my God!

  Ben told me he’d never loved a woman.

  And now he’d just told me he loved me.

  What I did next, I didn’t care that security probably saw me doing it on the monitors and would rightly think I was crazy.

  Cal and Vi were having their baby.

  And Benny Bianchi loved me.

  I did a war whoop and a big feet-thrown-back cheerleader jump. In pumps. Holding my phone, my computer bag, my purse slung over my shoulder. Just like a woman in a commercial who successfully got through her stressful day as an executive and did it without getting underarm stains.

  Fortunately, I landed firm on my feet.

  Then I ran right to my Z.

  * * * * *

  I was sitting in the maternity waiting room of Hendricks Regional Health.

  Next to me sat Kate, who was wired and fidgety.

  Across from me sat a man who’d introduced himself as Pete Riley, Vi’s father. He’d arrived not very long ago from Chicago.

  Standing and swaying a sleeping baby named Jack in her arms was Keira.

  The baby belonged to two other people who were there. Kate introduced them as “Colt and Feb,” and I knew them because Vi talked about them as her neighbors, though I hadn’t met them (until then).

  I also knew them, because a while ago, they were all over the news when a serial killer had gone on a killing spree in Feb’s name. Obviously, she did not want this or the attention it garnered after he’d killed a slew of people and committed suicide by cop. But still, shit happened in life and you got on with it.

  In Feb’s case, she got on with it by finally marrying her hot guy and high school sweetheart, namely Colt, and giving him a baby.

  There was also another woman there. Her name was Cheryl. She had a lot of blonde hair, showed a lot of skin, what skin she didn’t show she still hinted at since everything she was wearing was skintight, and she had a lot of attitude. I liked her immediately and wished there would be a time when I could introduce her to Nat (if I ever started speaking to her again) so she’d be inspiration to be what you were, not give a damn, but not be a skank doing it.

  She had her son with her, Ethan, who had long since fallen asleep in a chair, his weight slanted sideways and resting on Colt, who had his arm around the kid.

  Colt and Feb had brought an enormous bucket of KFC. Cheryl had brought “everything they had left” from Mimi’s, a kickass coffee shop on Main Street in Brownsburg that I’d discovered a couple of weeks before. This meant a plethora of cookies and brownies.

  Thus, the snack stash Kate and Keira brought was unnecessary.

  Calls had been made and a number of people would eventually descend. Before I got a chance, Keira had called Vinnie and Theresa. They’d also (weirdly, to my way of thinking) called Vi’s dead first husband’s parents, who, apparently, were tight with the new family, including Cal. Not to mention they’d called their grandfather, who wasted no time getting there, and a variety of other people, as evidenced by Colt, Feb, Jack, Cheryl, and Ethan being there.

  So all was in order.

  Except no word from delivery.

  We did get an update, procured for us by Colt, who was a cop, since he arrived when we’d been there over an hour and hadn’t had one. He’d flashed his badge and we’d found out that Vi’s water had broken in Cal’s truck and things went fast. Fast, as in, upon arrival, she was nearly fully dilated. A hint that things would continue to go very swiftly.

  But that was hours ago.

  “Is this okay?” Kate asked quietly from beside me, and I saw Keira’s head whip around when Kate asked the question.

  I reached out and took her hand. “Yes, honey.”

  “It seems to be taking a long time,” she noted, her voice uncertain and shaky.

  “That happens,” I told her.

  “On TV, people can visit a woman in labor for, like…ages before she goes into delivery,” she informed me.

  This was true and it happened not on TV as well.

  I didn’t tell Kate that.

  I said, “Like all babies are different, all births are different. Sometimes it takes time in delivery.”

  “I don’t like it,” she whispered, and I squeezed her hand.

  “It’s gonna be okay,” I told her, my eyes on Keira and suddenly, Feb moved, getting up quickly and going directly to Keira.

  My head turned the other way when I felt movement there, and I knew why Feb went to claim her boy.

  Cal, in scrubs, was coming our way.

  He looked haggard and my heart skipped a beat, but he didn’t even get to a full stop before he announced in a gruff voice, “Vi’s good. Angie’s good. Everybody healthy.”

  Kate shot out of her seat and, almost simultaneously with Keira, did their best to take Cal off his feet when they hit him full on. They did their best, but Cal was a big, powerful guy. He rocked but stood strong.

  It was then I received one of those unexpected but precious gifts life could send your way, that being watching Cal wrap both girls i
n his long, strapping arms, drop his dark head, and kiss the hair on both of theirs, murmuring, “It took Angie a while to wanna join us, but now it’s all good, babies.”

  I heard Kate’s choked sob, but Keira just burrowed closer into Cal.

  I stood with everyone else and we approached—but didn’t get close, giving them their moment—stopping and huddling.

  “You wanna see your mom and sister?” Cal asked the girls, his focus totally on them. No one else was in the universe (except, of course, Vi and his new daughter).

  “Yeah,” Keira said unsteadily.

  “Absolutely,” Kate said croakily.

  Finally, his eyes came to the gathered crowd and he murmured, “Be back.”

  He shifted the girls, turned them, and moved them in the direction from where he’d come.

  I watched them go. Then I gave jubilant smiles to people I barely knew, who returned them just as jubilantly, and I went right to my purse.

  I grabbed my phone and called Benny.

  Only when I heard his deep, easy, sweet voice saying, “Give me good news, baby,” did I start crying.

  But my tears were jubilant.

  * * * * *

  Benny parked in Frankie’s guest spot, shut down the Explorer, and jumped out, turning toward Frankie’s apartment only to see her hustling his way, hair big, makeup heavy but sweet, wearing a bright orange sundress that showed skin and cleavage. This was paired with some sexy, high-heeled sandals. She was carrying a huge basket covered in cellophane that had a massive pink bow and looked to be filled with a gigantic mound of baby clothes, all pink. She was holding it awkwardly to the side so she could see him.

  “Please tell me you didn’t dress that way for work,” he remarked when she was ten feet away.

  She gave him a look.

  It was two days after Vi had Angela. Two days too long for Frankie, who had wanted him down immediately. But Vi had had Angie on a Tuesday, so he waited for Thursday when he could push it into a long weekend with his woman.