Red Hot Christmas

by Mara White

  “I’m standing outside your door,” the text said. Amber was so confused she clamped her lips shut.

  It couldn’t be him, she didn’t give him her phone number or address. Did Chase come over to make a scene, accuse her of some malapropos from last night? Did Lou get a new number and she’d blown off their appointment? She slumped to the door, steadied herself against the frame and swung it open.

  Frankie stood before her in a track suit and sneakers. Shaven, perfectly coiffed and smelling like a pine forest. He held a mini potted Christmas tree in one arm and in the other a steaming coffee. A small dog circled his feet, came to a stop and stared up at her. Amber’s hair was piled on her head and she was wearing her glasses. The only clothes shielding her body were a wrinkled T-shirt and boy shorts. This wasn’t red sexy shoes and cocktail dresses.

  “I’m not a stalker, I promise,” he said. His smile was infectious.

  “Lou?” she asked him.

  Frankie nodded. He was so fucking sexy Amber had to mentally glue her feet to the floor to keep from falling into his arms.

  “Who’s that?” Amber said bending down to pet the dog.

  “My nephew. Long story. You upset about last night?” he asked her looking rather shy.

  “I thought you might be,” she told him, worry shadowing her face. She stood up and placed her arms across her chest.

  He merely shook his head, tipped his chin down and looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.

  “Amber, I came over here because I wanted last night to be the beginning of tomorrow. And the next day too. And the day after that,” he looked earnest, but also playful and open. The dog at his feet barked and then began to tap his little paws like he had to go pee. She opened the door all the way and let them in. He handed her the coffee and the miniature little tree. Frankie ran his fingers through his hair and the gesture nearly killed her. Her heart couldn’t beat out a normal rhythm in the presence of such a gorgeous man.

  “Last night was unforgettable and I didn’t, I don’t want you to regret it.”

  “I don’t,” Amber said trying not to explode from stress, excitement, and pure giddiness.

  “Sincerely, it was the best night-“

  “Shh! You don’t have to say anything,” Amber stepped to him and silenced him with a kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and going up on her toes. Her pulse flew in response to his touch and her heart soared to keep up with it.

  The tiny dog barked and bee-lined right for the red shoes she’d abandoned on the floor in the morning. He lifted his leg and promptly peed all over them. Frankie and Amber watched until he was finished. The dog took off sniffing and inspecting the baseboards.

  Frankie wrapped his arms around Amber and pulled her to him again.

  “Did I ever tell you that you look sexy as hell barefoot?”

  The End

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  Read on for an exclusive sneak peek of The Marriage Pact

  Prologue

  Jackie

  “The thumb is associated with the will and desire, do you see this here?” The woman asked as she pointed. Jackie did. Obviously. It was her hand. She glanced at her boyfriend, Kratch, and rolled her eyes. He grinned and stuffed more fried dough in his mouth. Jackie didn’t want to be at this table. Kratch had dragged her to the Tchotchke High School Fair because he wanted fried dough. And now here she was, sitting with a palm reader, of all people. Her sisters were running around at home, unsupervised, and she’d rather be with them—which was saying something.

  “Yes. I see it,” she answered.

  “This shows that your will and your desire won’t match up for a little while.”

  “Is that a problem?” Jackie asked dryly. At seventeen, she didn’t expect her will and desire to match up for a while. She had plenty of time to figure things out. She still had a year of high school to get through. Her forehead bunched up, trying to see the lines the woman was talking about.

  “No, no. There are great things showing for you. There are three main lines on each hand: the head, the heart and the life line.”

  “Great. Thanks. So . . .” Her boyfriend laughed, as the woman went on, “You’re a flashy little thing who doesn’t like to stay still and is constantly keeping busy. The one you are with now will be a long relationship, but he is not the one.” Internally, Jackie already knew that. Externally, she cringed. He was standing right behind her did this woman have no tact? She loved Kratch but she had big plans. She was going to get out of this small town. She was going to go to college and she wouldn’t allow Kratch to hold her back from that. “You will have a true love affair, my dear. He will appear out of nowhere and sweep you off your feet. But . . .” she pulled Jackie’s hand closer and inspected. “This will not come easy because of your will and desire. You will have many lovers and for a time, feel that your love life is tumultuous.”

  “Are you serious?” Kratch butted in. Jackie giggled. She couldn’t help it. This woman had balls. Calling out multiple lovers to an underage girl with her boyfriend standing right there. Jackie had to give her props for that.

  The woman shot him an irritated look. “Sh, young man.”

  Jackie yanked her hand from the lady’s grip and stood. Although she was pleased to hear she wouldn’t be marrying Kratch, she didn’t like hearing tumultuous and love in the same sentence. “Uh. Thanks. Here,” Jackie said and set a five dollar bill on the table. The woman winked at her, which made Jackie feel all sorts of weird.

  “You got big plans with someone else?” Kratch asked, slinging an arm around her as they walked the fair.

  She looked up at him. “Come on. You don’t believe in that crap, do you?” she asked.

  “Naw. Just makin’ sure you don’t.” He leaned down and kissed her.

  Jackie scoffed. “Definitely not. With my luck, I’ll be barefoot and pregnant with your rug rat three months after graduation.” With her luck she would, but she was doing everything in her power to change her luck, as the last years of high school ticked away. Kratch cackled. He didn’t laugh. It was louder than that, more . . . cackle-y. Jackie leaned her head on his shoulder as they checked out the other booths. A tumultuous love affair—what kind of nonsense was that.

  By the time she got home, her dad had the girls in bed. No matter, she still went in and kissed each one on the forehead and made sure their blankets were pulled up to their chins. Jackie couldn’t sleep until she knew her younger sisters were safe and sound in their beds. When her head hit the pillow, she tried to fall asleep but her brain was in overdrive. “You will have a true love affair, my dear. He will appear out of nowhere and sweep you off your feet. There are great things showing for you.” She didn’t know what that meant. She came from a poor family, running a depressed farm. She was small town. Who wants small town? She had sisters to raise. Who would sweep all that off their feet, she wondered. More like sweep it under the carpet. Still, the idea took root. Jackie smiled. Maybe her luck really would change. Clichés were truths anyway—and wasn’t there one about there being another person out there for everyone?

  She stretched out her limbs before pulling the comforter over her. A distinct pink pink pink prevented her from falling asleep. She stood up and stomped to the window.

  “Jackie—I love you!” Kratch called up toward her. He knew she hated that sunshine song by Len. He had altered to include her name. She pressed her forehead against the window and used her hands to signal Kratch to go away. He beamed up at her and she couldn’t help but smile back. He was a goofball. She watched as he mouthed goodnight and started walking back through the fields between their farms.

  Ryan

  “Ryan, you’re on
in five,” the guy wearing the headset told him, as he handed him a bottle of water. Ryan ran his hands through his hair and walked over to the wings. He usually did at least one or two of these presentations every year. It was really Jackie’s cause but he cared about it, too, and didn’t mind the commitment.

  Today he was at UW Madison, their alma mater, speaking to ten thousand students whose majors somehow aligned with the engagement. He walked on stage to loud applause, got some hollers from the ladies. Those still made him blush and he took a long sip of water before he got started.

  “Thanks a lot for having me today, UW! This is my alma mater and this school will always hold a special place in my heart. I’m a former Badger, also a Packers fan, party school, right, guys?” The crowd was going so wild, he decided to wait for them to cool down a bit. He counted to thirty, took another sip of water.

  “My name is Ryan Walters, class of 2006. I bet you wonder why I’m wearing scrubs today?! Well, as we get into it, I’m going to show you some things. In addition, it’s my uniform; I’m a licensed Physical Therapist at UCSF. I love my job and the program here at UW is incredible, so check it out, if you haven’t already picked a major.”

  He was sweating a little under the bright lights, but at least he wasn’t nervous. He’d been in this auditorium many times as a student, sat in those same stadium seats and looked up at this podium.

  “I bet you’re all wondering what driving safety has to do with public health, and questioning why in the world they send a PT to talk about that kind of stuff, right?”

  They cheered and a couple of girls yelled out something in unison.

  “Well, I’m not going to talk about driving safety or public health or even physical therapy. I’m going to tell you all how I met the love of my life, right here on this campus.”

  Cheers and whoops shot up from the crowd. They loved him now but they would hate him once the lecture was finished.

  “Any of you ever hear of a marriage pact? Where you and one of your best friends start to see people settling down around you and you get scared that maybe you’ll never find the one and be banished to a life of eternal solitude? You know that feeling or am I alone in this?”

  More cheers and hollers from the enthusiastic audience.

  “Well, me and that love of my life? Her name is Jackie, by the way. We made one of those silly pacts to one another, right out in front of this very building, over there in the parking lot.”

  Ten thousand necks craned to get a glimpse of the expanse of asphalt that Ryan was referencing. Some cheers and a few whistles sounded through the crowd.

  “And we stuck to it, we went through with it. We were one in a million. So sit back and listen while I tell you today about how Jackie stole my heart, shattered it and eventually blew new life into it.”

  Chapter 1

  Ryan

  Ryan was more than a little tipsy, he was drunk. Mexican beer night at the frat house—tacos and Dos Equis, a perfect combination. But despite the rowdy sparring and the anthem chanting, he couldn’t help but keep an eye out for Jackie. She was a freshman and just getting to know the lay of the land, meeting new people every day and diving into heavy coursework. He met her during the first week of classes, standing behind her in line at the Starbucks closest to campus. She was one of those girls who might just have rolled out of bed to get to class, hair in a messy bun, lounge pants that were questionably pajamas, flip-flops and a giant backpack slung over one shoulder. It was only half zipped, like she’d come from wherever she’d been, in a great hurry. Her laptop under her arm, the cord dragging on the floor behind her.

  She smelled like lilacs and he liked how she shifted her weight from one flip-flopped foot to the other, noted that her toenails were painted a bright shiny red on one foot and white on the other. School colors. But when it really hit him that she was someone who just might be a kindred spirit, was when she groaned audibly at the long orders placed by V-neck sweater-ed, skirt and pearls-wearing sorority girls, as they asked for their coffees.

  “I’ll have a hot, skinny, mocha frappucino, hold the chocolate shavings but go extra heavy on the whipped cream. Oh! Extra shot! Did I say extra shot? And for Chrissy, a salted-caramel hot chocolate with an extra shot and full fat milk, that skinny bitch, and no whipped on that one. Don’t even think about it because last time you got it wrong and she practically threw it in my face.”

  Then mystery girl started muttering his own thoughts under her breath.

  “Just order a fucking coffee. Go to the goddamned ice cream shop, muther fuckas!”

  He laughed out loud. Flip-flops had headphones on, so she couldn’t even tell how loud she was talking. She kept glancing at her watch and when she turned her head to profile, he could see she was mouthing “mother fucka, mother fucka.” He had no idea if she was singing or if she really just wanted her coffee. Maybe she had to pee. But he laughed and she looked and immediately pulled down her giant headphones.

  “Did you say something?”

  “Nope,” he replied, still laughing; the girl cracked him up.

  “Oh,” she replied. Looking confused, she pulled her headphones back up.

  When it was finally her turn, she ordered a venti coffee. He liked her style. He liked it ever more when she took it from the barista and immediately started drinking—no sugar, no milk. He ordered the same thing.

  He took a few sips, watching her over his steaming cup. Coffee on the counter, she wrestled with the dangling cord, wrapping it around her hand and shoving the computer into her backpack. She picked it up to leave, but from holding the cup too tightly, the lid popped off and hot coffee sloshed over the rim, burning her wrist. A napkin stuck to the underside of her flip-flop and she shook her leg muttering, “Goddammit!” He laughed in earnest that time, not trying to be polite or a jerk, just a natural laugh at how she battled with every single aspect of her morning. She looked up at him and they made eye contact. She started laughing, too.

  “Need help?” he asked her.

  “Yeah, but I don’t know with what.”

  “Not exactly your day, huh?”

  “It will be, as soon as I finish this coffee!”

  “Ryan,” he said walking over to her and offering his hand. His approach was easy, friendly.

  “Jackie,” she said smiling. He noticed that she wore tiny, thin gold rings on almost every finger of her hand. She also wore a gold pendant that was nothing more than a tiny arrow pointing down to the spot between her breasts.

  “Walk you to class?”

  “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

  “Here, let me get your bag. Looks heavy.”

  “Okay, Prince Charming.”

  She laughed but her eyes were bright when she said it. Something about her lit him up.

  Now, they were a few months into school and he couldn’t help but keep an eye on her, feel protective over her in some capacity. She was just eighteen and he was already a junior. He wasn’t in to her, he didn’t think, but he liked her. A lot. She never failed to make him laugh and she was easy to talk to. Jackie wasn’t necessarily a head-turner but her dark brown curls and warm brown eyes grew on him, until he sometimes felt lonely when she wasn’t around. They’d been out together a bunch and it had never gotten sexual. Jackie liked to play pool and drink beer, she’d eat just about anything, including the scrambled eggs and toast he’d made her the morning after the first night she’d slept over. It was the only thing he knew how to make and he got a little rush from serving her breakfast. It was fucking cold in Wisconsin and she’d left her jacket at a party the night before. They were both pretty drunk and he didn’t want her walking back to her dorm room alone. He really hadn’t wanted to walk her back himself. So, they’d compromised and the two of them squished into his twin and surprisingly, it wasn’t awkward at all. Sort of like siblings or cousins, it felt natural to be close to her. They’d cuddled and whispered and joked like two kids at a slumber party, until they fell asleep from the late hour and the
booze. Nothing happened and strangely—he hadn’t really wanted it to.

  Searching for her face through the crowd, he spotted her by the fireplace, dirty dancing with some friends. She was wearing a tube dress that really showed off her figure. He knew she’d run track and field in high school and had been good at it. Long jump record-holder for her high school; he’d laughed when she told him.

  She was laughing and bumping her ass on what appeared to be her roommate Deanna’s leg. As he watched her, he automatically smiled, she brought a warm feeling to his whole face—or maybe it was the hundred proof rum he was drinking. Jackie spotted him watching and raised her hand and waved. He waved back and smiled. She hadn’t forgotten he was here. Ryan kept his eye on her and realized in that moment of observation—seeing her goof around with her friends, that the reason behind his neutrality was that he liked her too much to risk a bad relationship. He wanted her in his life and the safest way to keep her there, was not to have sex with her. Jackie was worth more than that. She was special. His heart was buoyant as it floated across the room, searching for her smile.

  “Are you going to eat your toast?”

  “No, take it.” She tossed it onto his plate. She seemed sad today, distant. Not the usual smiling, witty girl he’d come to enjoy, almost more than anything else at college.

  “Everything okay?”

  It was their Sunday morning late brunch thing they’d started doing last month, or more like any excuse for him to see her, was what it felt like to him. But that morning, she wasn’t herself. Except for the hair piled up precariously on her head, rain boots and shorts, not a stitch of makeup, but she didn’t need it.

  “Are you going home for Thanksgiving?” she asked him. Jackie was stabbing her eggs. They’d ordered the Hangover Special and usually Jackie could pack the whole thing away.