Read Promise Bound for Free Online

about the letter?”
    She blinked. “What letter?”
    Fine. We could do this later. I kicked open my door and got out. Lily followed. Jason pulled in behind us, and once the driveway dust settled, Daniel got out of his car with the baby. He handed Lily a folded piece of paper.
    “What’s this?” she asked, unfolding it.
    “It was tucked inside the blankets,” Daniel said. “It fell out when I put him in the car.”
    I looked over Lily’s shoulder and read the note aloud: “Ambuj. Born from the water.”
    Daniel said, “I know, right?”
    “I don’t get it,” Lily said. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    Daniel took the note back and shoved it in his jeans pocket. “I think it’s what Pavati wants to name the baby. We talked about it back when …,” Daniel faded off. “Pavati’s father was from India. Ambuj must be Hindu or something for ‘born from the water,’ but how does someone walk around Bayfield with a name like that?”
    “He won’t be walking around here for long,” Lily reminded him. She bent down and tugged at her leg warmers. “As soon as he’s walking, he’s out of here. Got it?” She held out her arms and Daniel passed her the baby. Lily looked good holding him. Very natural. I liked it.
    The front door opened and Sophie wheeled Mrs. H onto the porch. “Is that who I think it is?” Mrs. H asked, her voice lighter and more gleeful than any of ours had been. Of course we’d let her in on the Daniel-Pavati situation months ago.There was no point in secrets anymore. Now that her husband and her daughter broke into tails on a regular basis, Mrs. H had raised her bar when it came to weird. Sophie had been right about her all along. Mrs. H was stronger than her wheelchair let on.
    “Is it a boy or a girl?” she asked.
    “Boy,” Daniel said.
    “Oh, bring him here. Bring him here!” she exclaimed. Lily climbed the porch steps and tried to place the baby in her mother’s arms, but Mrs. H declined, saying, “Oh, no. You hold him. I’ll just look from here. Isn’t he darling, such a sweet baby.” She looked up at Daniel. “What did your parents say?”
    Daniel shifted his feet and Lily raised both eyebrows at him as if to say,
See what an idiot you are?
Her expression made me choke back a laugh, and Daniel shot me an irritated look.
    “I haven’t exactly told them yet,” Daniel said, as Lily handed the baby back to him. “I’m going to be staying at my cousin’s apartment in Washburn. She’s been deployed to Afghanistan for the next eighteen months, and she’s letting me stay rent-free so long as I keep the place up. My parents are just glad to have me finally move out.”
    “Oh, dear,” said Mrs. H. “A baby isn’t something you can just drop on your parents.”
    I turned her wheelchair around and pushed her back through the door while Lily trailed us into the house.
    “Yeah,” Daniel said uneasily, following us inside. “I don’t think this is something I can ease them into either. My brothers, too. Better they don’t know.”
    “You can’t be expected to hide a baby for twelve months,” Jason said.
    “Jason’s right,” Mrs. H said. “Maybe you should leave him here with us.”
    “Mom!” Lily exclaimed, stopping our progression into the family room with her hand placed firmly on the armrest of the chair.
    “No!” Sophie said.
    Mrs. H looked at both of her daughters with surprise and disappointment. “Who better to take care of him than us? We’ve already got three under this roof.”
    “Absolutely not,” Lily said.
    “Excuse me,” said Mrs. H, “who’s in charge around here?”
    The baby squirmed, stretched, and let out a rhythmic pulsing cry.
    Sophie scowled at him. “It’s not fair,” she said. “He’s just a baby. He’ll be swimming in a year and at the rate I’m going he’ll beat me.”
    Daniel balanced the baby against his shoulder and tapped its back uncertainly.
    “You don’t know that,” I said, putting my arm around