All She Wants for Christmas (Kent Brothers 1)

"I wish it could last forever."

"Me too, Riley."

He waited, but she didn't say anything else, making him wonder if she hesitated because she didn't want to hurt him, or if she was waiting for him to make the next move.

Hell, he'd never been very good at figuring out what women thought, or what they wanted.

It took awhile before he realized she'd fallen asleep.

While she slept, he got up and wandered the house, wondering how he was going to approach this, how he'd ever ask her to stay with him.

Hour after hour he walked from room to room, realizing he'd be asking her to make all the sacrifices. He'd be giving up nothing, and she'd have to give up everything, or at least make a hell of a lot of adjustments in her life.

Great for him. Not so great for her.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Maybe the best thing he could do for her was let her go, instead of presenting her with a no-win scenario, because it was his only option, which meant what he had to offer her was really nothing special.

Really, nothing at all.

Chapter Nine

Ethan woke Riley early the next morning. Like, before dawn kind of early. He said he had to get over to his parents to be there before Zoey woke so they could do the whole gifts and Santa thing. He wanted to take her with him, but Riley thought it would be best if he had Christmas morning alone with his daughter.

Plus, there was something she had to do, so she told him she was going to go back to the B and B, take a shower and change clothes, and then she'd drive over to his parents.

She'd read his hesitancy last night, and at first she was hurt. She'd been hoping for some kind of declaration from him. She thought she knew how he felt, knew for sure how she felt, and was determined not to be the first to say something.

But she realized she held the upper hand now, that the situation wasn't at all the same now as it had been ten years ago.

He wasn't going to ask her to stay. Not now, not when he knew she had so much at stake.

Silly men and their egos. Didn't he realize she was in love with him?

And love always trumped everything, especially money and career. At least it did with her. And when you were in love, the rest of it could be worked out.

Not that she had any intention of walking away from her career. She wasn't stupid.

But she had an idea, so when Ethan dropped her off, she ran upstairs and took a shower and dressed, then grabbed her guitar and got to work. It took a few hours, but she finally had everything figured out. She'd already been working on it for days, she realized.

She loaded the gifts she'd bought into the car and drove over to Ethan's parents' house. Brody opened the door and grabbed her, planting a short but deep kiss on her lips.

"Merry Christmas, Riley!" he said, clearly already deep into the rum punch.

She laughed. "Merry Christmas, Brody."

He carried the gifts into the house for her while she greeted everyone. Zoey ran up and hugged her, waved some kind of fancily dressed doll in front of her face, then dashed off to play with all her new "stuff" as she called it, but extracted a promise from Riley that she'd come see all her presents as soon as she got settled and said hello.

"Coffee, hot chocolate, or rum punch?" Ethan's mother asked.

"Actually, a cup of coffee sounds great, thanks."

"With or without brandy or whiskey in it?" Ethan's dad asked as he came up and hugged her.

"Oh, now you're tempting me. How about a little brandy?"

"There's a girl after my own heart."

"There's a girl who'll be face down on the floor before lunch," Ethan said. "Merry Christmas, Riley." He pulled her into his arms and planted what Riley considered to be one seriously hot kiss on her lips. In front of his parents, and his brothers.

"Daddy, you kissed Riley."

And his daughter.

He broke the kiss and grinned at his daughter. "I did. Is that okay?"

Zoey nodded. "Yup. Will you come take my game out of the package?"

"Sure, honey." He shifted his gaze to Riley. "Sorry, Dad duty calls. Back in a sec."

Apparently, Zoey was utterly unfazed about the kiss between her and Ethan. One hurdle down. And as she surveyed his parents and his brother, Wyatt just shrugged, Ethan's mother beamed a smile, and his father grinned from ear to ear as he poured what Riley considered a face-down-on-the-floor-before-lunch dose of brandy into her coffee.

"You trying to get me drunk, Mr. Kent?"

He laughed and smacked her on the back. "Nah. Figured you're a tough girl and you can take it. Drink up, it'll put hair on your chest."

"Now there's an unattractive visual," Wyatt grumbled, taking the bottle of whiskey and pouring it straight into the glass with a couple ice cubes.

"Too early for that, Wyatt," his mother warned.

Wyatt kissed Mrs. Kent on the cheek. "I'm here. Isn't that enough?"

"I suppose, but that's all the whiskey you get today. Switch off to coffee after that."

Wyatt nodded, but Riley caught the roll of his eyes as he walked away.

"He's had it rough the past couple years," she explained to Riley after he walked out. "But I sure wish he'd get over Cassandra, stop with the bitterness and move on with his life."

"With some people it takes awhile."

"You talking about yourself?"

Riley laughed. "I guess so. I carried a grudge for a long time."

"But now you're over it."

"I did it all wrong, Mrs. Kent. Stacy. I wish I had known then what I know now. I would have done things differently."

Ethan's mother held up her hands. "No way to change the past or predict the future."

"I made a mistake in running. I should have stood my ground and fought for Ethan."

She smiled. "I'm glad to hear you say that. Did you tell him that?"

"Not exactly."

Mrs. Kent rolled her eyes. "Hell's bells. What is it with you kids not telling each other how you feel? You're talking to the wrong person. Go. Go tell my son you love him."

Riley smiled. "I will. Sometime today. I promise."

She gave Ethan's mother a quick hug, then wandered out to find Ethan. He was on the floor with Zoey, who was playing a handheld game while Ethan frowned over instructions.

"It says to reach Level two--"

"I'm already on Level four, Daddy," Zoey said, not looking up from her game.

"Oh." Ethan tossed the instructions in the pile of trash.

Riley laughed. "Technology is for children, you know." She sat down on the floor on the other side of Zoey.

"So I'm beginning to understand."

Riley watched Zoey play the game for a while, then Zoey handed it over to Riley to play.

She figured it out after a few rather embarrassing tries and Zoey showing her how it was done. Then she realized she wanted one o

f these handheld game devices, especially when Ethan showed her the catalog of software that went with it.

"It has cooking recipes. It tells you step-by-step instructions while you're cooking. And here I thought it was a kid's device."

"It's multifunctional for all ages," Zoey said.

Riley looked at Ethan, then at Zoey. "How old are you again, kid?"

"Seven."

"Are you sure? You're awfully smart for seven."

Zoey giggled. "That's what my daddy says, too."

Riley excused herself to help Mrs. Kent set the table for lunch. They ate an abundance of turkey and dressing with more side dishes than Riley could count. It was the best holiday home-cooked meal she'd had in ages. After they cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher, it was time to sit in the living room and Riley handed out the gifts she'd bought for everyone.

She'd bought Wyatt and Brody new coats, thick down ones that would be great for the job site. She gave Mr. and Mrs. Kent a new television because they'd been complaining their old one was about to give up the ghost. She gave Zoey a guitar and the little girl's eyes widened. Then she squealed.

"Really?"

"You're old enough, but you'll have to take lessons."

"I'll practice every day. I want to play like you do."

"You have a beautiful voice, Zoey. But you only have to play guitar if that's what you want to do. Otherwise it can just sit in your room and you can look at it and think of me."

She grinned. "Cool."

"Now I have a gift for you," Ethan said, interrupting her. "It's not as nice as the gifts you gave my family, but I've been working on it for the past ten years."

She tilted her head to the side. "You have?"

"Yeah. You seeing Zoey's room last night reminded me, so I finished it today."

He handed her a box. She opened it and inside was a carving much like the ones of Zoey's Noah's Ark animals. Only it was a woman sitting on a stool with a guitar.

"It looks just like you, Riley, when you're singing and playing your guitar," Zoey said.

Riley's eyes filled with tears. She lifted her gaze to Ethan. "It does. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's the best gift ever."

Ethan leaned over and brushed his lips over hers. "I love you, Riley. I always have. I always will. I don't have much to offer, but what I have is yours. A home. A family. My family. My love. Forever. I want you with me. I want you to be a part of my life."

Her heart swelled and soared. The words she needed to hear made joy spring from every pore, from every fiber of her body.

She sniffed, fighting back the tears. "I have a gift for you as well, Ethan."