The Keeper's Vow (29 page)

Mrs. Barnes was there, but Katie hardly
recognized her. It must have been the dress, bright green, it
squeezed and pulled, making her normal Frankenstein-body, frogish.
Many faces smiled at her. She felt pretty.

“Allison.”

“Hi, Mr. Heckler. How are you?” Allison
said, shaking hands with the tall, thin lipped man Katie had met
the day she met Tristan. The man who’d brought Glock.

“I’m doing well,” he said, smiling. He
extended his hand out to Katie.

“Katie Watts. It’s a pleasure to meet you
again. Mr. Carver won’t stop talking about his three favorite
students. I expect nothing but the best from the daughter of
Katalina Rockwell and Drew Watts. That is fine lineage. The
Rockwell’s date back to the fifteenth century. Fine lineage. This
Tristan, I thought he was a little strange, but he turned out to be
a star. Where is he?”

“Nice to meet you again, Mr. Heckler. I’m
not sure where Tristan is,” she said, shaking his hand.

“No matter. Mr. Carver is saying you’ve
broken records. A Bright young lady, like our rising star,
Allison.” He flashed a smiled at Allison. “I look forward to
writing you both recommendations for Elite Force entry positions. I
always say, ‘
it’s the amazing young women who pave our
future.
’ Have you met my son Michael?”

Katie and Allison shared a look. “He’s in a
few of my classes.” Katie held back a laugh.
He’s also the most
annoying kid in those classes.

“Michael is around here somewhere, I’ll make
sure he says hello to you girls.”

Katie and Allison nodded, smiling graciously
until they got far enough to make faces.

“I swear every time I see that man he’s
trying to set some poor girl up with his son. But I bet he’d like
you dating Michael with your, ‘
fine Rockwell linage’
,”
Allison said, impersonating Mr. Heckler.

Between
Silent Night
playing softly
above them and the normal-ness of it all, Katie felt amazing. She
even caught her dad talking to a few people she didn’t know. He
looked happy enough.

Katie danced with Allison, who got an
unexpected peck under a mistletoe by Adam. Katie made a face at
Allison, but she pretended not to notice. Brian seemed to be in
high spirits. He laughed loudly and gave Katie a hug when she
bumped into him almost as if he’d forgotten he was supposed to
avoid her.

Even Christi was at the party—Brian must
have invited her. She smiled at Katie, wearing a sleek black dress
Katie would have thought was cute if anyone but her was wearing it.
She remembered what Christi had said a few months ago, about them
seeing a lot of each other now that she was a guardian. It must
have been Lucinda chastising Will, as he sang a loud rendition of
Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer
over the string quartet,
that put Katie in an over-the-top Christmas spirit, because she
smiled back at Christi and sort of meant it.

Katie had been around the room two or three
times with Allison, small talking to people she didn’t recognize.
All the while, she looked for Tristan. The one person she really
wanted to see. The
only
person she wanted to see. She left
the party and checked his room and the rest of the house but he
wasn’t anywhere, the last place was the backyard.

He was standing by one of the large pine
trees—they’d decorated—that lit-up the snow covered yard.

“Tristan,” she said, wishing he was in his
warm room and not out in the cold.

He turned around and stopped short, giving
her a long look. Katie wished she’d grabbed that sweater. What had
she been thinking wearing something like this? She obviously looked
like she was trying way to hard to get attention and he was
probably laughing at her—and hearing everything right now.

She stared at the blinking lights and
decided she didn’t care.

He smiled.

“I just wanted to see where you were. You
should come inside,” she heard the start of
Jingle
Bells
.

“I don’t know anyone in there.” He was
handsome in his black suit. He looked like he belonged in there
more than anyone else.

“You know me.” She rubbed her arms, he knew
her better than anyone else at the party. She watched him watch
her. The fresh smell of pine coming off the tree filled her nose in
the thin, cold air.

“Go inside before you get cold.”

“It’s no fun without you,” she said,
chattering her teeth for extra effect. He was alienating himself
because inside were a bunch of people who had Christmas’ and
families and stories to tell. He wanted his own family and his own
stories. The ones he had were too much to talk about. She
understood that. Every time she glanced around the room, she’d
wonder what it was like to see her own mom laughing and singing
Christmas songs. If her mom would have bought her a dress and
taught her how to be pretty. She almost had that.

“That’s a bit grim, Katalina.”

“Then help me clear my mind. Come in with
me. Have fun with me.”

“On one condition,” he said, walking over to
her. His usual smirk appeared on his face. It made her smile. Not
the closed mouth kind, but the kind where it seemed like a no
matter how big or long she smiled it wasn’t enough.

“Sure.”

“I get to tell the pervert story.”

“Tristan!” she hissed. “Jesus, can you
forget that already?” She couldn’t stop her cheeks from
burning.

“I’ll never forget anything as vivd as
that—except when you tried to honeypot me.”

“I was not. You seriously have a dirty
mind.”

“
You
were holding
me
down and
biting me. I don’t even have to mention your shocking Russian
accent. I don’t even think it
was
Russian.” He laughed his
contagious, easy laugh.

“You know what? I give you permission to
fantasize about it however you want. I know what really
happened.”

“So I have permission to fantasize about you
now?”

She burned so much the snow around her
melted. Her stomach dropped in a free fall. She swallowed trying to
slow the banging in her chest.

“I didn’t mean it like that. You don’t have
go all stiff on me. It was a joke, Katalina. Stop staring at me
like I’m a perv.”

“I wasn’t,” she half laughed, cursing
herself.

There it was, that weirdness that sometimes
happened to them. Like a train that had just jumped the tracks.

“We should probably go inside.”

She nodded and took the biggest breath of
her life. Why was she such an idiot? Tristan nudged her with his
elbow. “You look really nice, no pervertedness intended.”

She blushed, the words ‘
thank you
’
caught in her throat because she was scared of what saying it,
would give away. “Tristan, I don’t think you’re a pervert.”

“Oh, I know. You’re projecting
your
true feelings on me,” he said, opening the backdoor.

“Really?” she laughed, stepping inside.
“That’s your theory?” He closed the door behind her.

“Who honeypotted who?”

“Stop saying that,” she said, moving toward
the growing voices. She stopped in the hallway before turning the
corner and peeked at the party. She didn’t want to be apart of
everyone else yet.

“Why?” he said right behind her. His breath
brushed the back of her neck. His chest pressed against her back as
he peered over her shoulder. The pressure was warm, her stomach
jumped up, down, sideways, and around in circles. It took a world
of strength to turn her body into him casually.

“Why what?” she said, stretching her neck to
look at him. He didn’t move back or give her space. He didn’t smile
or blink.

“Why don’t you want to go out there?”

She swallowed. She couldn’t say it.
It
was a lump in her throat burning to be out. She forced
herself not to think it, even though it was obvious.

“It’s really not. You—should say it.”

Her chest pounded so loud she could hear it
over the music. Her throat burned as she opened her mouth to say
what she’d been feeling—what she
was
feeling. That she…but
she couldn’t. She stood so still, she shook.

He leaned closer, just as still as she was,
his heart pounding hard against her back. She felt every beat, just
as fast as hers. They were too close to pretend it wasn’t what it
was. Did this mean he was meeting her halfway?

Katie leaned in closer…

“There—you are,” Allison said, making them
both jump apart. Her eyes grew wide as she realized what she had
walked in on. “Uh—a few of us from school got together in the
dining room. We were playing cards. Just thought I’d find you
before we start.”

Katie lost her voice. It was still stuck in
between her and Tristan. His lips were so close to hers. His eyes
were on
her
lips.

Katie nodded, taking deep breaths, and
followed Allison to the dinning room, aware of Tristan’s arm
brushing against her as they went. He’d let his fingers brush
against hers and if they happened to connect for a second he made
no effort to pull them away, and neither did she.

Her insides were smiling again. She shook
with an electric vibe; scared, and yet hoping, he felt it.

When they got to the dining room there were
only two seats left—next to each other—and she smiled again. “Do
you want anything to drink?” Tristan asked. His voice was a little
raspy. He cleared it. For the first time ever, she saw his checks
turn pink.

“Soda. Thanks,” she said, finding it hard to
look at him. Not without her heart jumping around like a caged
manic. He left and she sat down.

She was surrounded by Brian’s new friends:
Ethan, who was staring at Allison in a creepy kind of way; Christi
who was talking Michael’s ear off; Adam who was smiling at Allison;
the girl Jenn Black who’d beat the crap out of her in
Preliminaries; and, of course, Brian, who was getting up from his
seat across from her—probably to run and hide.

To her surprise, it was exactly the
opposite. He sat in the seat next to her. “Hey,” he smiled so that
his eyes formed little rainbows. There was a hint of alcohol and
egg nog on his breath and his face was a tinged with pink.

“Hi.” They sat quiet for a second, listening
to everyone else’s conversation.

“I’m sorry. For everything. I really am. I
miss you. A lot.” He looked at her, waiting probably for her to say
something back. But she didn’t have anything to say. She had been
waiting so long for this apology that she’d forgotten all the lines
she had prepared. “I’m not just saying this because you look really
pretty, which you do. I’m sorry. This is coming out all messed up.”
He took a deep breath. “I’ve wanted to say something for a while
now, but you’re always with Tristan. I don’t know how many times
I’ve stood by the backdoor waiting for you to take a water break.”
He stopped and closed his eyes. “That sounded even worse didn’t it?
I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” she said, wanting to stop
him. She had imagined him groveling for her forgiveness a thousand
times, but seeing him do it, listening to him try, hurt something
in her—like watching him fall in training. “I get it. Water under
the bridge.”

“Friends again then?” he said, grabbing his
cup from on the other side of the table. He took a drink and smiled
at her.

“Sure,” she said, smiling back. He grinned
and hugged her. A laugh escaped her as he gave her a squeeze. They
let each other go and laughed again.

“Okay, enough girl stuff,” he winked.

She sunk when Tristan walked in the room
carrying a single glass of fizzing soda. As soon as he saw Brian
his blue eyes hardened.

He handed Katie her drink. “You’re in my
seat,” he said.

“There’s a chair open right there,” he
pointed to the one across from them.

“Then go sit in it.”

Katie cringed. They were like bulls kicking
up dirt ready to charge.

“What’s your problem?” Brian said a little
loud. Everyone looked up. Tristan narrowed his eyes and opened his
mouth.

“Okay, let’s start the card game. Poker? Go
Fish?” Allison said loud and overly cheerful. Katie offered Tristan
a smile but he frowned, moving to the empty seat across from
her.

“I like Poker. Go Fish sucks,” Jenn said.
She had pretty green eyes that matched her strapless dress.

“I second that,” Adam and Allison said,
almost at the same time. They looked at each other then laughed. No
one else said anything.

Allison dealt the cards, and Katie looked at
her hand completely confused. She didn’t know how to play. Allison
disappeared and brought back a bag of candy canes, starburst,
M&M’s, skittles, and little Reese’s cups. She gave everyone
candy and explained the rules, but Katie didn’t hear. She stared at
Tristan. He was watching her.

She pretended to play but got lost in which
candy was worth how much, it didn’t help that Tristan threw random
candies at her from across the table. Every time she’d look up he’d
smile that crooked smile and his eyes would shine.

“Tristan stop throwing money,” Allison
scolded.

Katie threw a candy cane back at him, aware
of everyone’s eyes on them. It made her feel superior in a way. No
one else was in on their joke. They were the only two people in the
room, and they belonged to each other. And everyone knew it.

“I don’t know if that’s more or less than
what I’ve thrown at you,” he said.

“This is why you don’t throw money. Do I
need to explain the currency again?”

Tristan threw two candy canes at Allison.
“Is that enough to shut you up?”

Katie laughed so loud everyone stared at
her, hiding their own laughs as Allison rolled her eyes.

“Michael! Would you eat a hundred dollar
bill, Michael? Because, that’s what you’re doing right now. That
candy cane was a hundred dollar bill,” Allison said.