Promise

Jason smiled and nodded. "Yeah... yeah, everything is okay. Just thinking." He took another bite of his sub and chewed slowly, quietly, before setting the rest of it aside and leaning his head back against the tree. He closed his eyes as the breeze combed through his hair. "I've been doing a lot of thinking actually... and... well, I know we've got a lot of history and I'm not gonna dig all that up."

He opened his eyes again and turned his head to see Katie's face. "But you once asked me to marry you... multiple times if I remember right." He gave her a wry grin. "And... I said no... for multiple reasons." He sighed. "I know I was engaged to Camryn once... but that was for completely different reasons and I'm so glad now that it didn't work out. Neither she or I were thinking straight, and it would have been a disaster." 

He picked up a twig to fiddle with. "Thing is... I wasn't ready then... and... I'm still not. I've realized I've got a lot to learn, and I don't wanna do anything to hurt anyone, least of all you. Which means using my head more than I used to, but... using my heart more too. So..." 

A pause allowed him to reach in his pocket and pull out a tiny object, which he held out to her. It was a dainty silver ring. Very plain with no stones, but two intertwined hearts were engraved into the otherwise smooth band, and on the inside were the words, I promise. 

Jason's voice had grown softer. "I can't promise when I'll be ready to offer more than this. But I can promise you're the only one. And this is for you... from me... so you know my heart belongs to you. And if you can be patient... then when the time is right... I'll ask you to share the rest of your life with me. That is... if you still want that kind of future."


Hunter laughed and just shook his head at Ryan. As much as he would like to believe her comment, he knew it was all just because she felt good here, away from home and it had little to do with him. "Admit it... the car stuff is way more exciting than hanging around the likes of me." He quickened his stride to come up beside her and bump her shoulder to force her to turn back around. 

Getting to the shop, he opened the door for her, then stepped in behind her. For not being in a big city, it really was a nice shop with tons to look at and browse. Hunter took a deep breath of the familiar smells before grinning at Ryan. "I feel like I just brought a little kid into a candy store. I thought I was the only one that got this excited over car parts."


It sounded like Ron had had a rough go of it, and Pete couldn't help but feel bad for him. He remembered about Ron's sister, but it was just as sad now. Deciding to let Ron move past the topic, he answered his question instead.

"My mom died in a drive by shooting when I was a kid. That's really what led me into law enforcement. I've got a brother who's..." He bit his tongue to keep from using too strong of words. "...who's got a lot of issues, so I sometimes gotta be careful not to see him while I'm on duty." He picked at a piece of broccoli and shook his head. Try as he might, it always bothered him to talk about Lewis. The last thing he wanted was to have to arrest his own brother. "Dad's in Utah, so otherwise I don't have any family around here. I do have a girl though."

He finally smiled. "Nikki. She keeps me grounded. Her mom just died recently so she's been going through a tough time but... yeah. Life's good." He took another bite of food and nodded slowly. "So you know Kirk and Adison right?"