A Promise Of Home (A Lake Howling Novel Book 1) by Wendy Vella Page A

injury you end up with.”
    Branna struggled one-handed to put the coffee on, and then took a deep breath before facing her old friend.
    “I’m sorry, Belle, really sorry; it was never my intention to hurt anyone. I just needed to get out of there; you know how I am in those kinds of places, and the reasons why.”
    “You’re not fifteen anymore.”
    “I know it,” Branna sighed. “But I’m no better for the years that have passed; in fact, I’m probably worse.”
    “Worse how?”
    Belle started getting cups and rinsing them out, as they hadn’t been used in some time. She then started foraging through the supplies Branna had brought with her.
    Branna leaned on a cabinet and watched while she tried to think about what to say. She wasn’t big on confidence sharing; she wasn’t big on friends either, for that matter. In fact, this woman was probably the only true friend she’d had since her mother’s death, but Belle knew pretty much everything there was to know about her. Over the three years they had been friends, Branna had unloaded her fears, her angers, and everything else that was personal to her onto her shoulders and Belle had simply listened and not judged, then offered the one thing Branna had needed, friendship.
    “Come on Bran, spill, you know I’ll get it all out of you anyway.”
    She laughed, and it felt good. Branna could feel the comfort of what they’d once had again, the teasing and companionship that had always been there for them.
    “Going to Washington was what I wanted when I left here. WSU offered me anonymity, a place to be a face but nothing more. I worked hard and passed with flying colors, but I never formed any connections like I did here with you and Georgie and Dan and over time it was just easier to be that way. I guess when I walked out of the clinic yesterday, I did so without thinking about you or Doctor McBride, because that was what I’ve always done. I’m not good about thinking of anyone else but me,” Branna said honestly.
    Belle added the milk. “It bothered me that you were going to WSU two years younger than everyone else and with all those issues you always had.”
    “Two years was a lot at that age,” Branna conceded. She’d skipped grades because of her intelligence, which had done more to hinder her than help.
    “And there was me thinking that you’d be partying in Washington, making friends, and doing the wild thing,” Belle said.
    Branna took the cup she was handed and followed Belle back to the living room. She took Dan’s chair, so Branna took Georgie’s, which was now hers. Belle put the bag of delicious smells on the small table between them.
    “Did you get these from Buster? Because he picked me up this morning and gave me a muffin that tasted like ambrosia.”
    “No other place like it. That man can bake.”
    Branna bit into the muffin and made a small appreciative noise. “So, why has Howling’s most adored son turned into the ice-man, Belle?”
    “Ha, ask me about the national deficit; it’d be easier than trying to understand Jake McBride.”
    “Yes, I noticed how surly he’s become.”
    “You two should get on fine now; he avoids people too.” Belle swallowed a mouthful of coffee and sighed. “Jake trained as a doctor, then went into the US Medical Corps and I know he was in Iraq, because I work with his mother and she was scared the entire time he was there. Then, one day, a year ago, he came home and started fixing everyone’s cars and he’s still doing it, much to Doctor McBride’s confusion.”
    “Okay, so that explains the flashlight thing he did with my eyes, and the lecture I got this morning about head injuries, but not why a trained doctor is now a mechanic.”
    Belle thought about that for a few seconds as she took another bite and Branna realized that she was happy to be sitting here with her old, maybe still, friend. She was not on edge with Belle; sharing confidences and gossiping wasn’t making her itch like it