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I took the wheel since I not only knew the way better than anyone else, but I’d also been dubbed the designated driver. Adrian had requested no girls, which the rest of us were good with, but we had a keg, and someone needed to make sure the groom made it back for his big day.
Might as well be me.
We coasted up to the ski resort I’d purchased that spring. My PA had it all equipped. The lodge had enough space to accommodate skiers and snowboarders in hordes, but it was now silent and more like a rustic getaway—with a ski lift.
The couches and chairs in the main lodge had been pushed closer to where the fireplace crackled. A coffee table was laden with chips and dip, popcorn, breaded pickles and cheese curds, and several other appetizers.
I cranked up the sports channel on the big screens, and Adrian, Maddox, River, Wesley, and I sat by the fire with plates of food in our hands.
Nostalgia swept through me. These had been my homeboys during college. We’d lived together, eaten together, hung out, laughed, joked, and gotten into the occasional fights, too.
These guys were the closest thing I had to brothers.
“Can’t believe you’re the first one from Sigma Phi Rho to tie the knot,” River said. “I mean, aside from Grey, but he got kicked out, so I’m not sure he really counts.”
He lounged on the couch with a beer in one hand and his feet propped on an adjacent chair. River had been quiet and studious, but occasionally back at the frat, he’d let himself be the life of the party. I wondered if he’d show his wild side tonight.
“Believe me, after what Will did to him and Bria, it counts. Besides, I doubt I’m the first,” Adrian said with a laugh. He sat across from me on one of the chairs surrounding the coffee table. “The fraternity’s been around a lot longer than we have.”
“She’s hot,” River said. “Where’d you say you met her?”
Adrian and I exchanged a look. He’d told me all about how he’d nearly lain right on top of Gabby because hedidn’t know she was sleeping in his bed after she broke into his cabin last spring.
He relayed the story again, and River whooped and lifted his glass bottle. “Finding hot women in your cabin, I’ll drink to that.”
We all tipped back our bottles. The vanilla taste of cream soda swirled on my tongue.
I didn’t mind missing out—I’d never been a big drinker anyway.
“Hawk, what’s going on with you?” Wesley asked. He sat forward to place his beer on the coffee table and adjusted the glasses on his nose. “You dating anyone?”
Ella’s face instantly flashed in my mind. I hadn’t had much of a chance to make good on the secret I’d shared on the flight here, and with the wedding tomorrow, I only had one more day to do so.
“Are any of us but Adrian?” I deflected.
It got uncomfortably silent. The guys all exchanged furtive glances.
“Oh, come on, I didn’t really take The Pact seriously,” River said.
“That is exactly why I didn’t enter it in the first place,” Wesley said. “I was crazy about Hazel, and I knew I could never keep something like that.”
During the night of the hazing when Wes had first joined Sigma Phi Rho, The Pact had been presented. Wes had opted out because he’d said he was already in love.
He’d left the frat for good that night, but Adrian had kept in touch after that. He didn’t like to burn bridges. In fact, itwas thanks to Adrian that most of us had communicated at all since graduation.
“Too bad we ended things,” Wesley added.
“You did?” I said. “Dude, that sucks.”
“Yeah, I was going to propose to her—” Wesley shook his head and lifted his bottle to Adrian again. “Never mind. Adrian, congrats on snaring such a great gal. It’s clear you and Gabby are happy together.”
“We are,” Adrian said. “I couldn’t have asked for anyone better, not if I’d gone out to look for her myself.”
“Maybe that’s why she landed in your lap,” River said, and we all laughed again.
“Seriously, though,” I said, leaning in and wanting to give him a hard time for the heck of it.
Tomorrow was it. The real deal. Packaged and sealed to one woman for the rest of his life. Excluding Wes, marriage was something we’d all denied we wanted. I still wasn’t sure I’d changed my mind.
