All She Wants for Christmas (Kent Brothers 1)

They took a slow drive back to the house, giving Riley a chance to fix her hair and put on some lip gloss so she didn't look quite so...ravaged by the time Ethan pulled into the driveway. They made a mad dash to the house where Ethan's mom was waiting with the door open.

"It's horrible outside. I was so worried about you." She enveloped Riley in a hug. "I already sent Brody and Wyatt home, which is where you both need to go before this gets any worse."

"Yes, Mom," Ethan said, with a roll of his eyes, then a laugh and a kiss.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to spend more time together. I blame my son for that." She glared at Ethan.

"Already discussed and apologized, Mom. Topic's closed."

"Okay, okay. You two get on the road."

"I've driven in snow before. I have a four wheel drive, Mom."

"And I'm still your mother and I'm going to worry. You should drive Riley back to her place."

"I have an SUV, too, Mrs. Kent," and at her look, corrected it to, "Stacy. I'm sure I'll be fine, but thank you."

"I'll follow her," Ethan said. "To make sure she makes it there safe."

"That'll make me feel better." She hugged Riley and Ethan and they were out the door.

Snow pelted her on the face as the wind picked up. "Wow. It's really coming down."

"Really, do you need me to drive you back to the B and B?"

"No, it's not that far. I can make it."

"Okay."

He seemed as reluctant to let her go as she was to be let go of. But since Ethan's mother was peeking through the blinds, she opened her car door. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah. Later."

She started the car up. She hadn't thought about gloves because she was a moron, so gripping the icy cold steering wheel was torture, but she managed to back out of the driveway and made the trek back to the bed and breakfast. She had to admit it gave her some comfort to see Ethan's SUV behind her the whole way. When she pulled into the parking lot and turned off the car, he waited in the street until she opened the front door and went inside. Only then did he drive off.

Leaving her aching and frustrated. And alone.

She sighed and turned off the lights.

Chapter Seven

There was a holiday celebration at town square tonight, with Christmas carolers, ice skating on the makeshift rink, a parade and, of course, Santa. It was one of Zoey's favorite parts of the holiday, though Ethan wasn't sure if it was because of all the events that took place at town square or because she knew that meant Christmas was only a couple days away. Either way, he loved watching the joy in her eyes. He fed off her excitement and this was the event that always got him in the mood for Christmas.

Because it had snowed, the whole town had a holiday look to it, which made everything perfect. Wreaths hung on every street light, banners and lights decorated every store front, and with the seven inches of snow they'd gotten the entire town looked like something out of a Christmas movie.

Zoey had spent the past couple days building snowmen in the yard, complete with black button eyes, tattered scarves, carrot noses and red gumdrops for the mouths. It had stayed cold enough that Mr. and Mrs. Snowpeople were still standing, which thrilled Zoey even more and thankfully had given her something to do so she hadn't bugged him nonstop about when Christmas was.

The only drawback to this extravaganza was that Riley would be singing.

Not that there was anything wrong with her singing. It was just that he'd been kind of avoiding her since two nights ago in the car when he'd totally lost his mind and climbed all over her. Fortunately she'd been busy wrapping up all her biography stuff since then and he hadn't run into her.

Today was supposed to be her last event, a filmed thing where she would sing a medley of Christmas songs from her last holiday CD. Everyone from town would be there, Riley would sing after the parade, and then she and her entire crew would pack up and go, along with all the media.

So really, what had been the point of refiring the past between them, except to remind him that the two of them were worlds apart and he still couldn't have her?

He didn't deserve to have her.

Besides, there was Zoey to think about. Her life was here in Deer Lake where his family was. Where Zoey's family was. Riley's life was somewhere else, probably always on the road on that big tour bus of hers.

And even though he'd driven home the long way to get his riotous libido under control that night, and he'd been thinking about Riley nonstop ever since, especially about that hot interlude in the car and how it had felt to remap her body with his hands, it was pointless.

She was going her way soon, and he was staying here.

With his daughter.

So despite wanting to call her the next day, or go over to the bed and breakfast to see her, he hadn't. Because his life was reality, not fantasy.

And since Riley had left, the icy cold hand of reality had firmly clenched him in its grip.

"Daddy, I want to go ice skating."

He looked down at his adorable daughter who looked like a puffy pink marshmallow in her pink coat, pink hat and pink mittens. He'd done her hair in pigtail braids this morning and she'd insisted on puffy pink bands to hold them. She even wore pink boots.

The girl liked her some pink.

"We'll go ice skating later. The parade's about to start. You don't want to miss it, do you?"

Her eyes got big and wide. "Oh. No. Let's go, Daddy."

She tugged on his hand and dragged him toward the center island of town where the parade ended. They were lucky and found a bench to sit on, a perfect viewing area for the parade. They were joined shortly by his mom and dad and brothers.

"It's cold as a well digger's--"

"Brody," his mother warned, casting her glance to Zoey.

"Shovel," Brody finished with a tweak of Zoey's nose.

Zoey giggled.

Wyatt shoved his hands in his pockets, turned up the collar of his coat and looked about as happy to be there as he would be if he was having a root

canal.

But missing the annual town Christmas event would somehow be a direct insult to their mother, and even Wyatt wouldn't do that, no matter how much he hated the world these days.

When you lived in a small town, parades weren't exactly like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. They didn't go on for hours. You had the cops because they could run their sirens and all the kids liked that. And the fire department, too. Then there were the middle school and high school bands, a few local clubs like Rotary and Knights of Columbus, some private organizations and businesses who put some holiday floats together, and that was pretty much it.

And then came Santa on his big float at the end, waving from on top of his makeshift chimney. Dave Bowman was doing a fine job as Santa this year, and Ethan suspected Dave's rosy cheeks were due to the shot or two of whiskey Ethan had seen him downing at McGuffey's Tavern prior to the start of the parade.

The Santa float was always the biggest hit with the kids, since Santa's "elves" tossed candy. There was Tori dressed as an elf in her green stockings and short skirt, her flaming red hair a perfect compliment to the whole elf gig.

"Damn," Brody whispered. "Her skirt is short enough that every time she bends over, you can see--"

Brody whistled instead. Tori shot him an evil glare and threw candy at his head.

"Maybe you shouldn't look." Ethan suggested.

"And maybe I should." Brody unwrapped the candy, popped it in his mouth and walked away.

The parade over, the crowds milled around for a while. Zoey amused herself by playing a few games, ice skating and, of course, eating. Chairs were being set up at the town center gazebo area for Riley's concert. The television crews were in hot turnout today, no doubt because it was the weekend and that meant people from surrounding areas would come, increasing attendance.

Great. Good for the town, Ethan supposed, but it just meant more crowds.

"Riley Jensen is going to sing today, Daddy."

He smiled indulgently at his daughter. "I know."

"There's no backstage today, because she's gonna sing on a stage that has no back." Zoey giggled.

"So I noticed. We'll just hang out here and listen, okay?"