The Color of a Promise (The Color of Heaven Series Book 11) by Julianne MacLean Page A

I wanted to do was grab him by the jacket, drag him back outside, and tell him to go home and sober up. Study, for pity’s sake! But I was not that heartless. I had to at least make an effort not to crush him completely.
    Kyle rolled over and sat up on the edge of my bed. He clasped his hands together in his lap, looked up at me, then tears began to stream down his cheeks.
    “I’m so sorry. Whatever I did, I won’t do it again. I’ll be better. I promise. Just tell me what it was.”
    “You didn’t do anything wrong,” I found myself saying, knowing that I couldn’t be truthful with him right now. He wasn’t in any state to discuss the nitty-gritty of our relationship, or what had been lacking. I couldn’t tell him that I’d grown out of the “party-party” dynamic that was such a big part of who he was.
    What I needed to do was talk him off the ledge and convince him that he should go home and focus on studying for his exams.
    “I must have done something wrong,” he said, grabbing fistfuls of my shirt in his hands, pulling me toward him and pressing his cheek up against my belly, “or you wouldn’t have broken up with me.”
    I didn’t know what to say. He was completely different from the person he had been in the frat house earlier when he called me a bore.
    All I could do was take hold of him and pull him to his feet. It wasn’t easy. He was almost a dead weight.
    He stared into my eyes with a muddled expression. I doubted he could even see straight. Then he drew me into his drunken embrace and slobbered in my ear. I smelled the heavy odor of booze on his breath, and it disgusted me.
    “Please, don’t end it, Meg. I can’t live without you. You’re the most amazing girl I’ve ever known. You’re so smart,” he argued, running his hands clumsily over my hair, kissing my forehead. “And you’re so beautiful.”
    “I’m not so beautiful right now,” I said, hoping to lighten the mood so I could just get rid of him. “I haven’t brushed my teeth or washed my hair. I’m in study mode.”
    “That’s what makes you so beautiful,” he said, still stroking my head and face. “You’re so brilliant.”
    Oh, God. I was certain he wouldn’t remember any of this in the morning, so what was the point of this conversation when these were such important, precious hours? I couldn’t let them go to waste. I had a whole semester of material to catch up on.
    So I did what I had to do. I cupped Kyle’s face in my hands and spoke firmly. “I didn’t mean it,” I said. “We don’t have to break up. I just need some quiet time to study. That’s all.”
    He stared into my eyes with the same inebriated, dazed expression, as if he didn’t understand what I had just said. For a moment, I thought he might get angry, then his shoulders slumped with relief. “Do you mean it?”
    “Of course,” I replied. “But if we’re going to work things out, I need you to understand and respect that I need these hours to hit the books. Please, Kyle. You understand, right?”
    His speech was slurred. “That’s why I love you, babe. Because you’re such a brainiac. I respect that.”
    I laughed dutifully and tried to speak with a note of humor. “Well…if that’s why you love me, then you have to let me study. I’ll be mad if you don’t.”
    He nodded and staggered backwards until he fell onto my bed, then he started laughing and couldn’t stop.
    I was breathing heavily by now, angry yet apprehensive, because I had no idea what he might do next. There was something so unpredictable about him.
    Maybe it was selfish, but all I wanted was for him to leave me alone so I could get back to work. I would have said anything to make him go.
    “What a klutz,” Kyle said, fighting his way off the bed, then falling to the side and knocking over the lamp on my bedside table.
    I grabbed hold of him and tried to help him to the door. “Will you be able to get home okay?” I asked. “And will you promise you’ll