His Promise

Chapter 4, His Promise

Chapter Four

She'd had to excuse herself before racing into the bathroom. She was shaking as she rested both hands on the counter, staring at her pale face and the ache that had replaced the spark she strived for in her bright blue eyes, which were now dark and filled with sorrow. Her face ached as her mind raced, trying to make sense of what Bruce was saying. He was the one who hadn't called and told her he wasn't coming home.

She was angry when she pulled open the bathroom door, fury pumping through her blood. She wanted to ram her fists in his chest to get him to admit to what he'd done, but when she walked into the kitchen, she froze. He was clearing the table and wrapping up the leftover food. The minute she stopped in the doorway, his eyes were on her. He didn't say anything as he watched her, and in the moment between them, so many unanswered questions hung thick in the air.

"You never came home like you promised. I waited for you." She jabbed her finger to the counter between them a little too hard, and she felt the pain shoot through her. "Ouch!" she snapped.

He reached out and took her hand, holding her finger, going into doctor mode, but she was so angry that she snatched her hand away. She wrapped her other hand around her jolted finger, welcoming the pain, which gave her some clarity.

"Maybe we need to have a talk, because I did call," he said. "I expected you to understand that I couldn't pass up the opportunity I was offered. I hoped you'd have enough faith in me to wait, but maybe that was too much to hope for."

He was standing so close, watching her, his expression annoyed and frustrated. It was the first time she had seen something so unforgiving in the way he looked at her. "What are you talking about? You have any idea how I waited for every one of your calls? You were at medical school, and I was working at the feed store. I knew how busy you were and that you needed to focus on your studies, but I'd have given up everything just to hear from you at any moment. There were times I waited by the phone, and my mother had to send me out of the house. You said you were coming home, and I counted those days, ninety-three days until your winter break! You never called to tell me you weren't coming home. Every day I came home and waited for the phone to ring. Your calls got further and further apart, and then they just stopped. I called your dorm, I left messages. Sometimes you called, then you didn't."

"Kim, I'm sorry, but you have no idea how busy I was with medical school—the studying, the classes. I called as often as I could."

"You never came home for Thanksgiving. I called you and learned you'd gone away without a word to me."

"I phoned you! I left a message." He was yelling.

"When?" she shouted back. "I went to your parents', and I knew I had to look pathetic, asking where you were and why you hadn't come home. The look in your mother's eyes, when she said she was so sorry but you weren't coming back for the holidays..." She was shaking as she stared at the fire burning in Bruce's eyes, turning his hazel eyes darker as he stared back at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"Kim, I had a great opportunity that was only offered to a few med students, and I was one of them. It was a mission trip to South Africa, a chance I couldn't pass up. I called and left a message for you, but you didn't call back. I called again and spoke to your mother! I tried to explain I wouldn't be gone forever, but it was six months. I waited, and you never called, and I had to leave. It happened so quickly."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. He'd talked to her mother? She'd married Craig a year later after much heartache and tears and her parents urging her his way. "I don't understand, Bruce. I never heard from you again until I saw you two years ago when you came home."

It was a day she'd never forget, walking into church the same way she had every Sunday, taking a seat in the second row from the back, alone. Her parents sat up front, but Kim preferred the anonymity. She hadn't paid much attention to anyone until the end of the service, and she saw him before he saw her. He had been shaking hands with a neighbor, and she'd felt as if a thousand jolts of electricity had just zapped her right through her feet, burning her to the spot, paralyzing her muscles so she couldn't move, couldn't think. She hadn't known whether to hide, to run, or to wait. Then he had seen her.

"No, I didn't come back. I learned you were seeing someone else. I was offered the chance to stay, and I did, for another six months. I heard you'd gotten married." He didn't say anything else, but he was watching her now as if she'd betrayed him. In a sense, she had.

Kim felt weak in the knees. "But you didn't call," she said again. It sounded so pathetic.

"I did call. You didn't wait," he said, quieter—and a little sad. "That's really what it comes down to, Kim. Whatever you think happened, what it really comes down to is that you went into the arms of another man."

He glanced around the kitchen, and she could feel the distance growing between them. This didn't make any sense, but she realized he was getting ready to leave as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He clutched them in his hand for a moment before looking at her with such sadness. "For whatever it's worth, Kim, I'm sorry," he said, and instead of staying, he walked past her and out the door.

***

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