“You mind if we grab some hot chocolate?” Alyssa prompted when they neared the food trucks lined up on one side of the park.
“I’ll get it for you, babe,” Henry offered.
She smiled at him sweetly, her eyes glittering with love.
Brady shook his head and looked away, trying to find someone he could talk to so he could give Alyssa and Henry some time to themselves. He appreciated her need to keep him from sitting at home alone on a Saturday night. Still, for him, the only thing worse than sitting home alone and watching the Christmas movie marathons that were running on every channel was being a third wheel to his ex-wife.
Luckily, he caught sight of Donovan across the way, and he sighed his relief. “I’m gonna talk to D. I’ll catch up with y’all later.”
Alyssa’s little crooked smirk told him she knew exactly what he was doing.
“Have fun,” she said. “Say hello to Reilly for me.”
“What?”
She giggled loudly, then hurried off after Henry.
Shaking his head, he started in the direction he saw Donovan.
“I’m startin’ to think you’re followin’ me.”
Brady followed the sound of her voice and found Reilly moving swiftly toward the gingerbread funhouse, their paths crossing with only a few feet between them.
“You’d know it if I was,” he told her, doing his best not to look at her legs. She was wearing a skirt and a pair of those fluffy-lined boots that seemed to be all the craze these days. Her boots went to about mid-calf and her skirt about mid-thigh, leaving quite a bit of her lovely, toned legs uncovered.
“Eyes up here, cowboy,” she said, and he realized she was walking backward, continuing away from him as he stared.
When he met her gaze, she winked, then crooked her finger, inviting him to join her.
Brady shook his head, but he didn’t outright reject her. Following her was a bad idea. All day, he’d been battling thoughts of her. More specifically, of that morning at the General Store when he’d touched her. It hadn’t been at all like the times in the past when he was able to think of Reilly as Donovan’s little sister. Brady wasn’t sure whether it was the moment or simply some sort of hiccup in the space-time continuum, but what he’d felt wasn’t remotely close to sisterly affection for the woman who had taunted him for years.
“Are you scared, cowboy?”
Yes. Yes, he was.
But not of her. He knew she was screwing with him because that was what Reilly did. She’d been doing it for years. What scared him was this insane desire he felt when he looked at her. It had been a long damn time since he’d felt something quite this … powerful. He feared it was more powerful than his ability to resist her, and he had a hell of a motivation to do that. Brady could only imagine the fallout that would happen if he were to entertain the notion of dating Donovan’s little sister.
Speaking of Donovan.
Brady looked across the park in the direction he’d seen him a few minutes ago. He was no longer there, so he searched the familiar faces around him until—
Was that Donovan and Tate going toe to toe in the middle of the park?
“Your loss, cowboy,” Reilly called out.
Brady jerked his attention from the two men squaring off and turned it to Reilly as she spun around and kept walking. When she reached the gingerbread house, she put her hand on the doorframe and glanced back at him, gifting him with one of her seductive smiles.
“You can’t do this,” he muttered under his breath even as he started following her. “It’s stupid.You’restupid.”
Goddamn. What the fuck was he thinking?
Knowing he was going to regret this but unable to stop his legs from moving, Brady followed her into the gingerbread house.
It was an actual two-story frame of a house built out of pre-made wooden forms designed to connect without screws or nails. The decor that made it look like a real gingerbread house was added after the fact. Since it was outside, the town opted not to use food-grade products in the design but rather to make it appear as though it was, so it only looked like candy. That didn’t stop some people from attempting to eat it.
Brady stopped at the door and peered inside. There were three different rooms, all on the lower floor since the second story was merely for show on the exterior. One room had a Christmas tree and a rocking chair set up beside a faux fireplace. Another was designed to be a kitchen, with appliances made of wood for the kids to play with if they wanted. It was also where they stashed the cookies—real ones that were replenished as they disappeared—for Santa. The last room had a sofa made of wood and foam and wrapped in white felt, making it look more like a giant marshmallow train.
Brady was familiar with the house because he was the one who had designed it. The exterior, anyway. Being that he was an architect, the mayor came to him with a design idea and asked if he would help in creating something that they could reuse year after year. He’d taken her idea and worked with some family friends—Wolfe and Lynx Caine—who built furniture for a living for the actual creation of it. This was the town’s third year using the house, and it had held up relatively well so far.
