The Marriage Pact (Vows and Veils #3)

Prologue - Kaitlyn

CEDARHURST, ILLINOIS

“Oh, you look beautiful, Kaitlyn,” her mom said, clutching her hands together with tears in her eyes as Kaitlyn held up the hem of her dress, tottering cautiously down the stairs.

“I don’t think I can survive a whole night in these heels,” Kaitlyn replied, for she already felt her new shoes rubbing.

Her mom smiled, holding up a pair of flats.

“Make your entrance, then put these on. No one’s going to notice.”

Kaitlyn smiled. Her mom was always thoughtful like that.

“Thanks, Mom. Do I really look all right?” she asked, glancing at her reflection in the hallway mirror.

Prom night was a big deal at Cedarhurst High.

The popular kids had talked about nothing else for weeks: what they were wearing, what music would be played, how they’d spike the punch, what they were arriving in, and, most importantly, who they were arriving with.

Getting a date had seemed more important than getting into college.

Kaitlyn wasn’t one of the popular kids, not in that sense, at least. She and her friends were excited, of course, but prom night wasn’t just about glitz and glamor.

There was sadness, too. It was the last time they’d all be together, before going their separate ways, some to college, some to jobs.

“You look perfect, Kaitlyn. I’m so proud of the young woman you’ve become. You’re smart, you’re kind, and you’re going to make a difference in the world. I know it,” her mom said, putting her arms around Kaitlyn and kissing her on the cheek, just as the rumble of a car came from outside.

Kaitlyn’s heart skipped a beat; it was Alex.

She glanced again in the mirror, pushing up her red curls and checking her angles.

The dress, a blue ankle-length gown her mom had bought her, suddenly felt too tight.

Had she done her makeup properly? Her hand had been shaking as she’d held up the mascara brush.

But there was no time now. She heard footsteps on the porch and the ring of the bell.

Kaitlyn’s mom went to answer the door, but, instead of Alex’s face, they were confronted with an enormous bunch of red roses, the scent of which immediately filled the hallway with a sweet perfume.

“Goodness! Are you there?” Kaitlyn asked, smiling as Alex’s face appeared around the side of the bouquet.

He grinned at her, looking very handsome in an ivory tux, with a black bow tie and a red carnation in the buttonhole. He’d combed his dusty-blond hair up, slicking it back, and was clean-shaven — quite a contrast to his usual scruffy jeans and thrift-store shirts.

“These are for you,” he said, handing Kaitlyn the flowers.

They were beautiful, but Kaitlyn felt guilty for accepting them. They must have cost a fortune, and she knew money was tight for Alex, whose mom worked three jobs to make ends meet.

“They’re lovely. But you didn’t have to,” she said, taking the roses as her mom hurried to fetch a vase.

Alex smiled.

“It’s prom night. And you’re my date. It would look pretty bad if I didn’t bring you flowers.”

Kaitlyn smiled back at him. He was sweet.

They’d known one another all through high school, but there’d never been anything “romantic” between them.

They’d been in the mathletes and on the debate team together.

Alex was far better at math than Kaitlyn, but she could run circles around him when it came to arguing. She always won.

“That’s cute. I suppose we’d better get going. Not that anyone’s going to be waiting for our grand arrival,” Kaitlyn said, calling out a goodbye to her mom, who was now fussing with the roses.

Prom night was all about being seen and making an impression.

There was a pecking order. Felicity Baxter and her “Pinkies” — the cheerleading team — would arrive first, in the open-top cars of their football-team boyfriends.

Stereotypes abounded and hierarchy ruled.

With her homemade jewelry and awkwardness in a prom dress, Kaitlyn fully expected to be at the bottom of the pile.

Still, it didn’t matter. She and Alex would talk about the mathletes and how they’d beaten Madison High the previous week in a debate on the Fifth Amendment.

But the evening was set to be tinged with sadness.

It was only recently that Kaitlyn and Alex had started hanging out in this way — a dating sort of way.

But, in a few weeks, he’d be moving to Harvard to start his math and business degree on a scholarship, and Kaitlyn would be going in the opposite direction, to take up a course in ceramic art in California.

It felt like the end of something that had never really started.

“I did my best with the car,” Alex said as he hurried to open the door of the front passenger seat.

Kaitlyn laughed. Alex had fixed the car up himself. It barely ran and was always breaking down. Tonight, he’d cleaned it and tied balloons onto the wing mirrors.

“Let’s hope we don’t break down in front of the Pinkies,” Kaitlyn replied, shaking her head as she climbed in.

“Drive-thru first? Don’t say I don’t treat you,” Alex said, getting in beside her.

He turned to her and smiled. There was something so endearing about him.

Kaitlyn didn’t know why she hadn’t noticed it before, when they might’ve had a chance of something more.

It was as though the past few months had changed everything, as much as she was trying not to allow it to change anything.

They’d soon go their separate ways. These things never lasted.

The road to a breakup was paved with good intentions.

“Let’s just get there. We don’t want to be late. And I don’t trust myself with a hamburger in this dress,” Kaitlyn replied.

Alex nodded, turning the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. He turned it again, and this time the engine spluttered, before the car — whose nickname was Betsy — shuddered into life. They pulled off along the street with a jolt, Alex grinning as he ground the gears.

“She just has to get me to college, that’s all,” he said.

Passing the drive-thru, they saw several of their classmates in the parking lot — dates dressed up, slurping colas in ball gowns. Others were making their way to the high school, and there was much waving and pointing as they passed those they knew.

“There’s Casey and Joe. Doesn’t she look different with her hair up?” Kaitlyn exclaimed, waving to one of their fellow mathletes, who was just pulling into the parking lot, driving her date, who also waved.

“It’s going to be quite a night,” Alex said.

Betsy seemed relieved when her engine was turned off, and Alex jumped out of the car and came to help Kaitlyn with her dress.

She wasn’t used to making a graceful exit from a car in a ball gown and almost tripped over the hem as she did so.

The honking of horns and cheers from a group of students announced the arrival of the Pinkies.

There were no shuddering engines there. Music was blaring from the car speakers as a convoy of cheerleaders, each with their respective dates, were driven into the parking lot.

“Here’s the ticker-tape parade. Jump up and down with a pompom in hand, and let your cleavage do the talking,” Kaitlyn whispered.

Alex laughed.

“Would you want to be a Pinkie?” he asked.

Kaitlyn shook her head. Having been on the receiving end of many a Pinkie put-down, she knew perfectly well who she’d rather be.

“We’ll always be the mathletes,” she replied, smiling at him.

The Pinkies were being welcomed with bunches of flowers and fake tiaras by those girls who aspired to join their ranks.

Felicity Baxter, dressed as though she were marrying a Hollywood A-lister, had just stepped out from the enormous tinted-windowed SUV that had brought her to the prom.

Her dad worked in finance, and her mom sold cosmetics to celebrities.

Cameras flicked, and Felicity fluttered her eyelids and waved. Kaitlyn rolled her eyes.

“Come on. We’d better get to the punch before someone spikes it,” Alex said.

The two of them pushed their way through the crowd of Pinkies and their sycophants, making their way into the high school, past the lockers and into the auditorium, now transformed from lunchtime cafeteria to glittering prom hall.

The decorating committee had been working hard; it looked wonderful, with silver drapes catching the glittering light of the disco ball, and the stage erected for the crowning of the prom king and queen.

“Who do you think it’s going to be?” Kaitlyn said, knowing the answer full well.

Alex smiled.

“Not us, that’s for certain. Come on, let’s get a drink. There’s Sean and Rachel.”

Their fellow mathletes, and joint champions of the school’s most recent chess tournament, were sitting together at one of the little tables.

They’d been together since the eighth grade.

They were a cute couple, and Kaitlyn had been relieved to learn they were both going to the same college.

She couldn’t imagine them breaking up. They were made for one another.

“I love your dress,” Rachel exclaimed as Kaitlyn and Alex joined them at the table.

Rachel was wearing a peach-colored gown and looked very elegant.

She was naturally pretty — blond, with blue eyes, and a smiling face.

Sean was always well-dressed. He liked to look good, and because his mom ran a clothes store in town, he always had something new to wear.

Tonight, he was dressed in a light-blue tux and yellow bow tie, which would’ve looked garish on anyone else, but seemed to suit him well, especially with his new, broad-rimmed glasses.

“You look so pretty,” Kaitlyn replied, smiling at Rachel as she sat down next to her.