The Pact: 4-Book Steamy Romance Bundle

1
Wyatt

“Well?” my brother Mason asks, looking at me hopefully across our table at the Frost & Fire. “What do you think, man? Are you in?”

He isn’t the only one waiting on my answer. My two other brothers, Chase and Sean, are also looking at me right now, a total of three pairs of eyes that all share the same blue. But Chase’s distracted expression tells me his thoughts are mostly elsewhere, and Sean is looking at me with imploring eyes that say, dude, if you’re not in, I’m backing out too.

“I don’t know,” I say. “Who would I even ask?”

Mason grins and shrugs. “Finding someone is part of the fun of it.”

“And where the hell am I going to find someone?” I ask. “I’m not downloading some stupid app on my phone.”

“So find someone in person. Come on, Wyatt. I bet a ton of nice, pretty women come into your business every day. All you need to do is turn on the charm.”

All three of my brothers chuckle at that. I’m a lot of things, but charming isn’t one of them.

I sigh, still thinking it over. I don’t want to agree to the pact that Mason just proposed, but even I have to admit that his reason for suggesting it is valid. This year has been a rough one, with our mom going through treatment for cancer, and I’m in full agreement that we should make this Christmas as special as possible for her.

I’m just not convinced that Mason’s idea is the way to go about it.

“Can’t we do something else?” I say. “Hire some carolers to come by during the party or something?”

“Is that even a service you can hire?” Sean asks skeptically.

“You can hire people to do anything these days,” Chase says, then checks his watch. At the same time, our server comes over to ask if we need anything else or if we’re ready for the bill.

“The bill would be great, thanks,” Mason tells her.

As our server walks away, Mason gives me a meaningful look. “She’s pretty, right? You could ask her.”

This is one of many differences between Mason and myself: he thinks that anything is possible, while I stick to being realistic. Even if I could turn on some charm and chat up our server, I doubt she would go for it. I’ve gotta be more than a decade older than her. I’d just be the pathetic thirty-nine-year-old hitting on the young, pretty waitress.

“Look, just say yes, man,” Mason says. “It’ll be good for you to get out there in the dating world. And you know how happy it will make Mom when the four of us show up with plus-ones.”

As resistant as I am to this stupid pact, my brother is right. Our mom has always dreamed of having four daughters-in-law and a plethora of grandchildren. And despite there being four of us Reynolds brothers, we haven’t given her any of that yet. I’m not about to get married or have a kid just to make our mom happy, but the four of us bringing dates to our parents’ annual Christmas party will thrill our mom. There’s no doubt about that.

And even though Mom has been doing well with her treatment and the doctors are optimistic about a full recovery, you never know. As gut-wrenching as it is to think about, there’s a chance that this could be our last Christmas with her.

“Okay, fine,” I say with an exhale. “I’m in.”

“Sweet,” Mason says, beaming. He picks up his almost-empty pint glass and holds it above the middle of the table. “Here’s to finding the women of our dreams.”

I don’t know about the of our dreams part, but I raise my glass and clink it against my brothers’ glasses.

The four of us are walking out to our cars when Chase asks me if things are crazy busy at the shop yet. I shrug as I pull my car keys out.

“Not quite, but it’s ramping up,” I tell him.

“You’ve got Macy helping you out, though, right?”

Macy is the daughter of some family friends of ours. Our parents and her parents have been good friends for decades. Macy’s work recently had layoffs, and I agreed to hire her for seasonal help at the pack-and-ship.

“Her first day’s tomorrow,” I say.

“Ah, gotcha,” says Chase. “Well, I hope that goes well.”

I shake my keys in my hand. “Yeah. I sure hope she’s competent.”

Chase laughs. “I’m sure she will be. Didn’t she go to college on a full-ride academic scholarship?”

“I have no idea.”

“Pretty sure Mom said that about her. But maybe I’m getting her mixed up with someone else.” Chase claps me on the back. “All right, bro. See you later. And don’t worry too much about the pact thing. I’m sure it will work out somehow.”