All She Wants for Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

have been in there with you, there would have been no relaxing.”
    She laughed. “It’s no big deal.” She looked down at Riley. “From now on you’re welcome to be wherever I am.”
    “See, Daddy? I told you she liked me.”
    “You’ll be sorry you said that. You won’t even be able to go to the bathroom alone.”
    Riley arched a brow. “She’s a kid, Ethan.”
    “She’s seven. And demanding. Trust me on this.”
    Riley looked down at Zoey. “You ready for the concert?”
    “Yup.”
    Suzie came over. “I have a spot all picked out for you two side stage with a great view. Why don’t you come with me so Riley can get set up?”
    Ethan took Zoey’s hand. “Let’s go, Zoey.”
    “See you two later,” Riley said, and moved off, a few people following after her.
    Suzie set them in a chair at the side curtain where they had a perfect view of the stage. Ethan hoisted Zoey in his lap and waited while Riley set up with her band.
    She looked beautiful in tight jeans and cowboy boots, a flowing turquoise top, her hair spilling in soft waves over her shoulders and long earrings that sparkled in the light. She wore bangles on both wrists that shimmered in the overhead lights, too. She looked magical. She looked like a star. Hell, she was a star.
    The announcer came out and the packed-to-capacity crowd went crazy. Ethan had never seen so many people in the high school gym. Once word had gotten out that Riley had come home, people from the surrounding cities came in droves. The gym was at capacity, given that it was a free concert. Ethan heard Riley’s crew had set up a big screen and speakers outside for the overflow of people who couldn’t get inside, especially since the fire marshal was keeping a close count on the number of people in the gym.
    After the announcer left, the crowd started clapping, their raucous cries and stomping feet commanding her to come out, demanding the curtains to part. But when the lights went out and the stage went black, a hush fell over the crowd. The curtains opened to a darkened stage and the spotlight fell on Riley sitting on a stool with her guitar.
    Riley began to play, the song so familiar Ethan could hum it in his sleep. One of the songs from her first album, a song of loss and pain so deep it brought a stab of pain to him as she sang the words that had torn him apart the first time he’d heard them.
    “Turns out forever meant different things to us after all.
    Loving you was gonna hurt me after all
    After it all, after it all, all the tears and all the pain
    I still loved you, after all.”
    Her voice struck him deep in his heart. When she was younger, he’d loved to listen to her whenever she picked up her guitar. But then it had just been her and her guitar in his basement or in his room or his parents’ living room or wherever they were gathered with their friends. And later, when he’d bought her CD, he’d been struck by the sheer magic of how incredible she sounded.
    But the maturity of her voice and listening to her live was so much better than what he remembered from ten years ago, and light years from plugging in his iPod. This was the voice of an angel, and she sang only to him, about him, and even when she damned him for the sins he’d committed it was pure heaven.
    Even Zoey was enraptured, her blue eyes wide, her normally chirpy voice silent as she leaned against his chest and stared at Riley as she went through the strains of song after song. Whether fast and upbeat and singing about cutting loose and dancing, or the slow and haunting strains as she sang of love gone wrong, she wrapped her music around Ethan and his daughter, further reminding him of what he’d given up all those years ago.
    Every note further sealed for him that he’d made the right choice in letting her go, in not trying harder to find her after she’d left. This is what Riley had been meant to do, and if he’d had to fall into Amanda’s trap and lose Riley for this to happen for