Page 5 of My Rival for Christmas

But when I look into her wide, pleading gaze, I know in my gym bag is where that box is going to stay. Even if it feels like razors are being dragged across my chest, I tighten my arms around her and whisper, “I promise.”

The relief that exhales into her face is palpable, and it’s in that moment I know.

No matter what happens, I would rather Paige think the worst of me than find out I’m already breaking my promise to her.

That I never meant it at all.

Six Years Later…

CHAPTER ONE

paige

What isa girl to do when the foundation in which she has spent the entirety of her life dedicated to comes crashing down?

Escape into the mountains, of course.

Just as any sane twenty-four-year-old would do if she found herself in my position, I’m sure.

When my best friend Kylie told me about an exclusive invitation she got to a luxury ski resort and spa that had recently reopened in a remote mountain town in Canada, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

It only dawned on me after that I basically invited myself.

Not that Kyliewouldn’thave invited me, per se, but it’s only in hindsight that I realize this might have been a trip she probably wanted to take with her boyfriend.

Oh well. He can go on the next one.

As someone who is dating a hardworking influencer with an insane amount of followers and gets invites to go on lavish trips all the time, Kevin should be thanking me for giving him a break.

Especially since they were just in Bora Bora for a makeup brand trip a month ago.

Kevin can let me have this one. I’m keeping the excitement alive for him. Can’t have him getting too spoiled by this kind of lifestyle, now.

Never mind the fact that this is, technically speaking, my first vacation ever.

And maybe that is why I forgot to abide by proper vacation invitation etiquette.

Because I don’t know it.

In my defense, though, I was already a bottle of wine deep when Kylie called, had just gotten done talking to my brother who likes to plant self-care ideas in my head like he’s my therapist when he’s more messed up than me, and suddenly, for the first time in my life, found myself with an open calendar.

Safe to say—I panicked.

But that’s what happens when you lose a skating partner for the second time in two years.

It starts to give your already existing self-doubt a bigger complex.

Thankfully, Kylie either knows a best friend of eighteen years ranks higher than a boyfriend of five or, as my best friend, she’s all too happy to share in a little girls’ trip at Christmastime with me because she didn’t immediately laugh in my face, telling me I was crazy.

No, being the kind and generous person she is, Kylie welcomed me without hesitation.

Yeah, it’s one of those reasons. I just know it.

Definitely not because she knows I panicked. Practically on the verge of tears for the duration of our entire conversation.

Some people will call it divine intervention that she called me at the exact moment I was about to throw my ice skates out the fire escape window, but I know for a fact her call came from a higher power.

My surly, overprotective older brother.

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