“You’re Karter’s little sister.” That should kill all my fantasies. The bro code.
“Yeah.” Her eyes mist over and I wish I hadn’t done that to her.
“Where can I take you?” I ask her, my heart thumping. I’ve never felt like this and I don’t think that the damn bro code is going to stop me from having what’s meant to be mine.
And this woman is mine alright. Her and her kids. It’s taken me years but I’ve finally found her.
“Can you take me up to Christmas Country?”
“Absolutely,” I nod my head to the truck and she turns to lift some bags out of the back. I grab them from her hands and her scarlet brows lift.
“I can take that.”
“Nope. Not while I’m breathing you can’t. What would Karter think if I did something like that?”
He’d tell me to quit staring at his sister and thinking filthy thoughts, is what he’d say.
But that’s not gonna stop me. I’m gonna stay at Christmas Country one way or another and I’m gonna convince Kinsey that I’m more than just her big brother’s friend.
I’m the man that’s meant to be hers.
CHAPTER 3
Kinsey
Sighing, I shut the door on the bedroom that I set the kids up in for now. The wind is howling around the house but luckily the electric is still on. I didn’t expect that, but Landon knew where the generator was out and got it started almost immediately.
Landon Winters. My big brother’s best friend. Those words ache like a toothache right now.
My brother’s death a month ago was like a salvation and a kick to the belly all at the same time. The loss…
My eyes close and tears sting the corners again. I can’t believe he’s gone.
I ran out of Wildwood like my ass was on fire as soon as I turned eighteen. Wanted to see the world. Wanted to find a suave, good-looking man that didn’t wear flannel and cut trees in his spare time.
Wanted to get away from Landon Winters and how he made me feel.
I always liked him. But the problems started when I hit seventeen. Crush didn’t feel like a strong enough word. My whole body felt like it was on fire every time he was near me. My skin flamed and I ached to touch him.
But he didn’t see me as anything but Karter’s little sister. Never even looked at me.
He smiled at me sometimes when I pushed myself into their business. But he would just pat me on the head and then turn back to Karter.
There was no way that I could stay there and suffer, watching him hook up with some other girl.
Although Karter told me he never got married, that doesn’t mean he didn’t date.
So when I got the nerve to leave home I never looked back. My parents passed away when I was sixteen and Karter raised me the last two years before I left. He was the best. He would do anything to protect me. He worked like a madman at our family’s Christmas tree farm and it seemed to be thriving.
My eyes dart around the room and study the peeling paint, the warped wood floors. It’s obvious that the house hasn’t been taken care of for awhile.
Guilt creeps up inside me, choking me.
Did I leave my brother alone with no one to help him after all he did for me?
Shaking my head, I step back into the huge living room. Landon has a fire going and he’s standing there, holding his hands out to the fire.
Big hands, firm, square jaw. Straw-blond hair streaked with gray peeking out from the hat he’s still wearing.
