The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland

Kennedy

“She looks beautiful, doesn’t she?”

One of Felicity’s great-uncles sat down next to me. Someone had introduced us earlier at the church and I vaguely recalled meeting him some years earlier, but damned if I could remember his name.

The table I’d been assigned at the reception was located next to the dance floor, and I was the only one sitting at it at the moment. Well, and the old guy next to me now. Everyone else seemed to be out on the dance floor or off having a good time. We stared out at the crowd of people jumping around. He must’ve thought I was looking at the woman wearing ten pounds of white and dancing off tempo to the music. But I didn’t give two shits about her anymore. No, my eyes were following the gorgeous lady in the purple dress, the one currently dancing up a storm with my mother. The two of them were hysterical, laughing like they’d known each other for years.

“Yeah. She’s beautiful.”

My mother started to turn right, and Riley grabbed onto her arm to guide her to turn left with everyone else. Riles was pretty good at line dancing. I definitely liked the way her hips moved. My mother, on the other hand, was not so coordinated. I was going to owe my date a foot massage after how many times Mom had stamped on her feet.

I sipped my water, and my eyes caught with Riley’s across the room. She waved for me to join them out on the dance floor, but I was enjoying the view from here just fine. I smiled, but shook my head.

“I haven’t seen my grand-niece since she was a little girl. How about you? You know the bride and groom well?” Apparently, Felicity’s uncle didn’t remember much about meeting me earlier, either, which was just fine.

“Actually, no. It turns out I don’t really know either of them too well.”

Uncle What’s-his-name loosened his tie. “My wife is on the other side of the room. She’s on my ass about watching my carbs. Steal me a piece of that bread in the basket over there, will ya? She’s too busy yapping her face off to notice right now.”

I chuckled. “Sure.”

While Felicity’s great-uncle was busy munching on his carbs, the music changed to a slow dance. Riley and my mother hugged, and my date started walking toward our table. I moved the breadbasket and butter to within the old guy’s reach and nodded. “Have at it. I’ll be back.”

I stood and held out my hand to Riley. “Feel like dancing some more?”

She planted her hands on her hips. “I’ve been trying to get you to dance with me all night. Now you ask me to dance? When your mother’s worn me out?”

I linked my fingers through hers and tugged her back out onto the dance floor. “C’mon. I’ll do all the work. I was grumpy earlier. But my mood has improved.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck. “Oh yeah? Well, I’m glad to hear it. Weddings are supposed to be fun.”

I slid my arms around her and pulled her flush against me. “It’s getting more fun by the moment.”

Riley sighed and turned her head to rest against my chest. We swayed in unison, gliding around the dance floor slowly. One song ended and another began, yet neither of us made an attempt to return to our table. I definitely had no desire to let go of her anytime soon. She felt so good in my arms.

I’d been dreading coming back home for years, dreading this day in particular. And yet somehow at the end of it all, things didn’t seem quite so dark because of her. Riley had done more for me than she would ever know, and I felt like I owed her some honesty. So when the second slow dance ended and a pop song came on, I took her hand and guided her out of the party.

Earlier when I’d gone to the men’s room, I’d watched a waiter sneak behind a set of heavy drapes and disappear through a hidden door. He happened to be coming back in, smelling like a cigarette, at the same moment I finished up in the bathroom, and I caught a glimpse of a nice little secret balcony overlooking the frozen lake outside.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere quiet.”

I looked around to make sure no one was watching, and lifted the drapes.

“After you.”

Riley laughed. “Oh wow. How did you even know this was here?”

“I have my ways.”

It was a clear night, unseasonably warm for upstate New York in December, which meant it was a balmy forty-five or so. Riley stood at the railing and looked out at the lake. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I miss the smell of Upstate.”

I missed the smell of her perfume, which I’d been enjoying while we danced so close. I took off my tuxedo jacket and stood close behind her, wrapping it around her shoulders.

“Thanks.”

I rubbed my hands up and down her arms over the jacket. “No. Thank you for coming with me. I wouldn’t have come if it weren’t for you, and I really needed to be here tonight.”

She turned around and looked up at me. I didn’t back up, leaving her sandwiched between the railing and my body.

“I’ve had a good time, Kennedy. I’m glad I came, too. Your mom is so much fun.”

“Yeah. She really likes you. I knew she would. I bet if she ever wrote one of those corny Christmas letters, you’d be in it.”

Riley laughed. The soft, feminine sound made my chest feel warm, even though every exhale turned into a frosty cloud as it met the cold air.

I looked down at my feet. “There’s something I didn’t mention about the bride that I thought you should know.”

“Oh?”

I took a deep breath and looked up. Riley’s big blue eyes were just waiting for me. “Felicity…well…she used to be my fiancée.”

“Wow. Okay.”

It was the first time I’d told anyone that. Of course, people knew—people from here. But no one from outside my old Rochester life even knew I’d been engaged. And you know what, it tasted a lot less bitter today than it did just a few weeks ago.

“Felicity and I were together since high school. We got engaged right after we graduated college. That’s what she wanted. She’d been talking about it since sophomore year.”

“But you didn’t want that?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t know what I wanted. My parents were high school sweethearts and got married at twenty-two. Her parents were together since they were fourteen and got married at twenty-one. They say Rochester is a medium-sized city, but it feels like you live in a small town. I don’t know if I wanted it or not back then, but it felt like what I was supposed to do. Everyone expected it.”

She nodded. “I get that. Sometimes we get so caught up in things we’re involved in, we forget to take a step back and look at what we’re really doing.”

“Exactly. Anyway…I guess I started to pull away mentally so that more and more of my time didn’t include her. I applied to the space program. I joined a golf league. Every opportunity I had, I went out with the guys. I wasn’t looking for other women or anything, but I wasn’t paying attention to the one I had, either.”

“Okay…”

I shook my head. “Felicity always spent a lot of time at my house. She would come over and just hang out with my mom or my brother if I wasn’t home. And she got closer to Bradley when I was too busy out trying to be anywhere but where I belonged. One weekend I went golfing in Saratoga with the guys. A guy I was with broke his ankle, and I wound up coming back earlier than expected.”

Riley’s eyes flared. “Oh no.”

“For the last four years, I’ve been putting the blame on the two of them. But they weren’t the only ones in the wrong. I can see that now.”

Riley looked down for a long time. I started to worry that maybe she couldn’t look me in the eyes because I’d disappointed her with what I’d done. But when she looked up at me, her eyes were swimming with emotion.

“Nothing. And I mean nothing, gives any person the right to cheat on the person they’re in a relationship with. I don’t care if you avoided her phone calls and spent months at a time away from home. All she had to do was tell you that she didn’t want to be with you anymore. But instead, she took the coward’s way out by keeping you around while she tested the waters with Bradley. People cheat because they’re paying too much attention to what they don’t have than what they do have. There were other ways to get your attention, Kennedy. And don’t even get me started on your brother. What an asshole.”

I just stared at her. It looked like smoke was about to billow from her ears. She was so damn angry—angry on my behalf. If I hadn’t already thought she was sexy as all hell, seeing her nostrils flare in my defense would definitely have done the trick. I liked fiery Riley. In fact, I was pretty damn turned on.

“You’re unbelievably sexy when you’re pissed off.”

She definitely hadn’t expected me to say that. Her mouth dropped open. It looked like an invitation to me. So before she could close those pissed-off lips, I moved in closer, cradled her face in my hands, and sealed my mouth over hers.

She whimpered into my mouth, followed by a moan, and it pleased me to know she wanted this as much as I did, because watching her all night had been like foreplay.

Riley’s lips were so soft, her mouth so hot. I wanted nothing more than to drive home right now to my mother’s empty house and take her back to my bedroom. Screw this reception.

Riley pulled back when a group of people invaded our hideaway. The smell of cigarette smoke soon filled the air, which was our cue to leave.

“We should go back in,” she said.

I reluctantly agreed and followed her back into the reception area.

The bouquet toss was just about to happen when we walked in. My mother spotted Riley and dragged her out to the middle of the dance floor where a group of other single women had congregated. Riley shrugged and rolled her eyes as she looked back at me, trying to be a good sport. She was so fucking cute. I gave her a thumbs-up.

When it was time to throw the bouquet, Felicity—trying to be funny, I guess—turned around and aimed it straight at Riley. It was so obvious. She might as well have handed it to her. There was no way Riley couldn’t have caught it, unless she intentionally tried to miss. Everyone clapped anyway as Riley lifted the bouquet up in the air.

As she walked back toward me, I was dragged away by my uncle for the garter toss—the men’s version of the bouquet throwing. I knew how this worked. Whichever guy caught it would have to slide the garter up the leg of the woman who caught the bouquet: Riley. There was no way I was going to let any other man in this place have the opportunity to lay a single hand on her.

I had one job and one job alone, and I wasn’t going to mess it up. When it came time for my brother to throw the garter, I leapt into the air, nearly knocking down a passing old man to catch it. It was a close call, but in the end no one got hurt and victory was mine.

The DJ directed Riley to sit in a chair that had been placed in the middle of the dance floor, then called me out to join her. I playfully spun the garter around my finger as the DJ started playing Nelly’s “Hot in Herre.” The crowd whistled and shouted a bunch of suggestive comments.

Kneeling down in front of her, I slowly began to slide the garter up Riley’s leg, savoring the feel of my fingers against the soft skin of her inner thigh. As I looked up at her smiling face, the bouquet still in her hand, the most unexpected thing happened: I freaked the hell out.

I didn’t understand it, but I’d gone from happiness overload to a feeling of sheer panic. The music became drowned out by the voice inside my head.

This girl lost her boyfriend in an accident. He freaking died. She can’t afford to be hurt again. It’s why she hasn’t had a relationship in so long. And you’re incapable of relationships—this very wedding is proof of that. So, what the hell are you doing, Kennedy?