A look at The Promise: An NFH Novel

It’s 12:30 in the morning. I just finished moving furniture around and cleaning up and I thought it would be fun to post a teaser, mostly cause I am a tease 🙂

Meet Reed Bradford, from The Promise. 

If you are interested in reading the first teaser, here it is: The Promise 

Enjoy!!!

An Excerpt from “The Promise”

“I guess it all started when I found out that Santa Claus isn’t real,” the little pain in the ass that was trying to get out of detention said from her usual spot.

“That must have been very traumatic for you,” Reed said absently as he finished reading through the rest of the emails, deleting the ones from parents demanding to know why he’d fired Miss Dawson, others calling him a fucking moron for not firing her sooner, and a few writing just to let him know that he was an asshole.

“It was,” Jen said with a sniffle, “It really was.”

“And when did this life altering event take place?” he asked, not bothering to read the next email when he saw the word asshole in capital letters and moved on.

“Last week,” Jen answered with a forlorn sigh that had Reed’s lips twitching.

“I see,” Reed murmured, closing his laptop as he leaned back in his chair. “And this is why you couldn’t go to detention?”

“I just don’t think I’m ready to be around all that joy,” Jen whispered. “Not yet,” she said with a sniffle and a forlorn sigh that had him nodding sympathetically.

“It’s too soon,” Reed agreed, matching her sigh with one of his own as he grabbed a pen and started writing a note.

“It is,” Jen whispered as she helped herself to the dish of hard candy on his desk.

“You don’t belong in detention,” Reed said with an understanding smile as he held the note out to the little con artist.

“Bless you, Principal Bradford,” Jen said with a watery smile and a sniffle as she climbed off the couch and took the note. “Bless you.”

“I can only hope that this will help ease the pain,” Reed said as he put his laptop in his bag and stood up, more than ready to call it a day.

“It will, Principal Bradford. It will,” Jen said with a little sniffle as she headed for the door only to stop dead in her tracks with a horrified gasp when she looked down at the note.

“If you hurry, you should be able to make it to the library before it closes,” Reed said, heading for the door.

“How could you after I shared my pain?” she asked before adding, “How?”

“Easily,” he said, locking his office before walking past the little pain in the ass that should probably be heading to the library if she wanted to avoid another two weeks of detention.

“Ten pages?” the little deviant asked, catching up with him in the main lobby.

“Not enough?” he asked, reaching for the note only to have her jump back with a startled gasp and a, “No! It’s more than enough!”

“Good, then I’ll see you in the morning,” he said, once again heading for the front door and freedom.

“Did I mention that my gerbil died?” his little shadow asked, once again catching up with him.

“No,” he said, heading for his truck.

“He did. It was tragic. Very tragic,” she murmured with a sniffle that had his lips twitching.

“When did he die?” he asked, opening his truck door and carefully tossing his bag on the passenger seat.

“Ten years ago, but the pain is still fresh,” Jen said as she stood there, hugging herself and giving him a sad little smile that had him sighing in defeat.

“Fine,” he said, plucking the note out of her hand and crossed out the ten-page paper that he assigned and made another quick note before handing it back to her.

“Bless you, Principal-No!” she gasped in horror.

“Merry Christmas,” he said, gesturing towards the large hall that housed the library.

“That’s just so wrong,” she said in mock horror as she turned around and headed to the library where she would probably spend the next hour conning some unsuspecting freshmen into doing her paper for her, but that was a problem for another day.

Right now, the only thing he cared about was going home, grabbing an ice-cold beer and throwing a steak on the grill while he did his best to forget about all the bullshit that could wait until tomorrow, but that all changed when he looked down at his phone and saw the text message that was waiting for him.

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