by Susan Meier
He paused, faced Shannon. “Once I get up there, is there something to hang the lights on?”
“The previous owner left her hooks. They’re about six feet apart.”
He started up the ladder. “Perfect.”
He looped the string of lights on the first hook on the right side of the porch and strung them on hooks until he couldn’t reach the next one. Then he climbed down to reposition the ladder. At the bottom of the ladder, he smiled at Shannon. She quickly looked away.
Deciding he’d simply caught her off guard, he moved the ladder over to the center of the porch, climbed up and hung the rest of the lights. When he came down, Shannon skittered away from the ladder.
Okay. He hadn’t imagined that, but she could be eager to get done, not in the mood for tomfoolery.
He brushed his gloved hands together, knocking the roof dust and snow from them. “What now?”
“Now, I have a Santa’s sleigh to set up in the front yard.”
He peered at her. “Really?”
“Hey, my dad loves Christmas. It would be a disappointment for him if we didn’t set up the sleigh.”
“Okay.”
They walked into the shed and Shannon went directly to a lump covered by a tarp. Flinging it off, she revealed a life-size Santa’s sleigh, complete with a plastic life-size Santa.
Finley crept over. “Wow.”
Rory laughed, amazed that things Finley used to hate now amused her simply because Shannon got her to relate to Santa the same way she did cartoon characters.
She turned to him with wide eyes. “It’s so big.”
“Yeah, it is,” Shannon agreed. “But my dad loves it.”
Rory walked over. He knocked on the sleigh and confirmed his suspicions. “It’s plastic.”
“Yeah. That’s how I know we can lift it.” Shannon faced him, so he smiled at her.
She quickly turned away. “Anyway, it’s light. Won’t be hard to carry out. We just have to anchor it.”
Disappointment rose, but he smashed it down. They were working. She was single-minded in her determination to get the house and yard decorated for her dad. She wasn’t rebuffing him as much as she was simply focused.
Once they got into the house, he’d be better able to gauge her mood.
They worked like a well-oiled machine. Rory took one side of the sleigh. Shannon took the other. Because Rory was walking backward, Finley directed their steps. When they had the sleigh set up, they brought the reindeer out and lined them up them in front of the sleigh. Shannon arranged small red and green floodlights around the big plastic sleigh and turned off the huge spotlight.
Multicolored lights twinkled around the porch. Santa’s sleigh sat in a flood of red and green light. Finley jumped up and down, clapping her hands. Shannon looked extremely pleased that the decorating was done. And he was feeling downright jolly himself. Now that the work was done, they could play. So he reached down, grabbed two handfuls of snow, patted them into a ball and threw it at her.
She turned just in time to see it and ducked. “Hey!”
“Hey, yourself.” He reached down again, grabbed more snow and tossed it before she could react. This snowball thumped into her thigh.
Finley screeched with joy and bolted behind Santa’s sled for cover.
Shannon brushed idly at the snow on her jeans, glanced over at him and casually said, “You want a war?”
He motioned with his hands for her to bring it. “You think you can beat me?”
Rather than answer, Shannon bent, scooped snow and hurled a snowball at him. He dived behind an available bush. But that only gave Shannon time to scoop up two more handfuls of snow and heave them at him.
She was good. Fast. Having been raised in snow country, she seemed to have a system down pat. And Virginia boy that he was, he didn’t quite have the technique she did.
The battle lasted no more than five minutes and ended when he saw Finley shiver.
Walking out from behind the bush, he raised his hands in surrender. “Finley’s cold.”
Shannon thwacked one final snowball into his chest. “You lose.”
“Hey, I’m from the south. Considering that we get about two snows a year, I think I held my own.” She laughed.
And his heart did a small dance. He’d been correct. She’d missed all his smiles and cues because she was focused on decorating. But things would be different now that they were done.
When he reached the porch steps, he caught Finley’s hand and slid his other arm across Shannon’s shoulders. She immediately slid out from underneath it.
Running up the steps, she said, “I’ll make cocoa!”
Finley scrambled after her.
But Rory stayed at the bottom of the steps. What the heck was going on here? He wasn’t so bad at reading signals that he was misinterpreting Shannon’s. She felt something for him. He knew she had. He frowned. Had.Maybe hadwas the operative word? Maybe they’d hadfun over the weekend, but she didn’t feel anything more, anything deeper?
CHAPTER EIGHT
W ALKING INTORaleigh’s Department Store the next morning, Rory had the unshakable feeling that whatever he and Shannon had been feeling for each other over the weekend, it had slipped away.
Disappointment lived in his gut. But with his gloved hand wrapped around Finley’s much smaller hand as they walked through the brightly decorated store, he reminded himself that he had a child who was his first priority and a potential store purchase that was his second. Sure, Shannon was the first woman in two years to catch his eye, but she clearly wasn’t interested.
He had to be a man and accept that.
He walked into Shannon’s office with Finley in tow and she jumped off her seat. “Finley! I’ve got a great day planned for us.”
He should have been happy that she was so eager to amuse his daughter while he worked, except he had the weird feeling that their roles had flipped. She now liked Finley more than she liked him.
Which was cute and nice, but he felt like last year’s handbag. A must-have when it was in style, totally forgotten now that it was old news.
Finley skipped over. “What are we going to do?”
“Well, first I have to get some work done. But that should only take me a couple of hours. After that I thought we’d go outside and stroll through the park. So you can see a bit of the city.” She glanced at Rory. “If that’s okay.”
If her eyes shone a bit, it was over the prospect of having fun with Finley. Not because she was happy to see him, or tremblingly aware of their chemistry.
“Sure. It’s fine.” His heart beat hollowly in his chest. There was no more doubt in his mind. If she’d ever felt anything for him, she’d rejected it. He took off his topcoat, hung it on her coat tree, walked over to Finley and stooped down in front of her. “You be good for Shannon.”
She nodded. “I will.”
Shannon rounded her desk. “I’m sure she will, too.”
Rory peeked up at her. Her pretty black hair spilled around her, a tumble of springy curls. Her blue eyes sparkled with happiness. She was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. And she was sweet. Nice. Smart. Fun.
An ache squeezed his heart. He’d lost her even before he’d had a chance to fully decide if he wanted her.
Realizing that was probably for the best, he gave Finley another reminder to behave then headed for the accounting department. An examination of the books confirmed what he’d suspected from looking at the annual statements she’d sent him. Raleigh’s Department Store made a lot of money even when her dad ran it. But profits had leaped when she’d taken the reins.
At noon, he ambled back to Shannon’s office suite. Wendy wasn’t at her desk, so he walked back to Shannon’s office, only to discover Shannon wasn’t there, either. With a sigh, he strolled to the window and gazed out. The city below bustled with activity. Silver bells and tinsel on the streetlamps blew in the breeze. The gazebo in the center of the little park looked like i
t was wearing a white snow hat. The city was small, comfortable. It would be a good place to raise a child. And, if he bought this store, he’d need to spend so much time here for the first three or four years of ownership that it might be a good idea to move here.
“She’s happier than I’ve ever seen her, you know?”
Wendy’s unexpected comment caused his heart to jump. He spun from the window. “Excuse me?”
“Shannon. The past few days she’s been happier than I’ve ever seen her. She came back from South Carolina broken. Genuinely broken.” Wendy paused for a second, then shook her head. “Whatever her husband did to her, it was devastating. She doesn’t talk about it, but she didn’t have to. It was easy to see he broke her.”
Indignation roared through him. He’d like to find the bastard and give him a good shaking.
“Then you came along. Spent that snowy weekend with her and she came in that Monday different.” She smiled. “Happy. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.”
He snorted. “She might have started off enjoying my company, but she’s been a bit standoffish lately.”
Leaning against the doorjamb, Wendy shrugged. “I told you. Her ex really hurt her. I don’t blame her for being cautious.” She glanced at the floor then caught his gaze. “I just… Well, she’d be crazy not to like you and I can see from the way you look at her that you’re interested and…” She sucked in a breath. “Just don’t give up, all right?”
Giving up was the last thing he wanted to do. Especially since he now knew she was cautious. Not standoffish. Not disinterested. But cautious. For heaven’s sake. All this time that he’d been jumping to con clusions, he’d missed the obvious one. A bad divorce had made her cautious. He nearly snorted with derision. He of all people should have recognized the signs.
Finley suddenly appeared in the doorway. She pushed past Wendy and ran over to him. He scooped her off the floor. “Hey.”
“Hey! They have a candy store. And a toy store.”
Rory met Shannon’s gaze over Finley’s head. “You took her to see the competition?”
She laughed. “They’re fun, interesting shops.”
“I’ll bet.”
Unbuttoning her long white coat, Shannon said, “They really are. And because they’re unique and interesting they bring shoppers to town. Those same shoppers buy their one unique, interesting Christmas gift for the year at one of the specialty shops, then they come to us for the normal things like Christmas pajamas, tea sets and trucks.”
He slid Finley to the floor. “Makes sense.” His entire body tingled with something he couldn’t define or describe.
It wasn’t fear, though there was a bit of fear laced in there. He should be as cautious as Shannon. His heart had been stomped on, too.
It wasn’t excitement, though he couldn’t deny that every time he saw her his stomach flipped or his heart squeezed or his chest tightened.
It wasn’t anticipation, though how could he not feel a bit eager at the fact that Shannon didn’t dislike him? She was simply being cautious. Wendy had more or less given him a green light and now that he had it he didn’t know what to do with it.
How did a man woo a woman who’d been hurt?
Finley tugged on his hand. “Shannon said that if it was okay with you we could go shopping with her tonight.”
“Shopping?” He laughed lightly, so uncertain about what to do or say. He knew exactly what Shannon was feeling. The hurt of rejection. The sting of not being wanted, not being good enough anymore for the person who took a vow to love you. He knew how shaky she felt. He’d felt it, too. But attraction to her had quickly gotten him beyond it. Unfortunately, that hadn’t left him a road map for how to help her. “Why would a person who owns a department store need to go shopping?”
“For a Christmas tree,” Finley answered.
The words came out through a giggle and something that felt very much like a fist punched into his heart. Finley, the child he firmly believed would never experience the joy of Christmas had her joy back. Shannon was responsible for that. Her generosity of spirit was part of the reason he’d fallen for her so hard and so fast.
So maybe he should show her he could be generous, too? “Wendy, would you mind taking Finley into your office for a minute?”
Wendy reached down and took Finley’s hand. “Sure. No problem.” Very astutely, Wendy closed the door as they walked out.
Cautious himself now, Rory caught Shannon’s gaze. “I’d love to go tree shopping, too…if you really want us.”
She caught his gaze, smiled sheepishly, hopefully. “There’s a huge difference between going tree shopping as a single adult and going tree shopping with a little girl who is seeing the holiday for the first time.”
Boy, didn’t he know that? Technically, this would be hisfirst time of seeing the joy on Finley’s face when she walked through a forest of evergreens and chose the perfect one to sit in their big front window, so the whole town could see the lights.
He felt his own Christmas spirit stir, remembered the first time he walked into the woods with his dad to get the family’s tree, remembered decorating it, remembered seeing it shining with lights on Christmas morning. His heart tugged a bit.
He swallowed. She wasn’t just changing Finley. She was changing him. “All right, then. We’re happy to go with you.”
Shannon insisted they take her big SUV to the Christmas tree farm on the top of the hill outside of town. Without streetlights, the world was incredibly dark. A new storm had moved in. Though it was nothing like the storm that had stranded Rory and Finley at her home the weekend before, it blew shiny white flakes in front of the SUV’s headlights.
She pointed at the big illuminated sign that said Wendell’s Christmas Trees. “Take the next right.”
Rory smoothly maneuvered the SUV onto the slim country road. After a minute, the lights of the farm came into view. A minute after that she directed him to turn down the lane. Snow coated the firs that formed a tunnel to a bright red barn that was surrounded by four white plank outbuildings. Floodlights lit the area. Cars were parked wherever appeared convenient. Some in front of buildings. Some at the side of the lane. Tree shoppers walked the thin lines between the rows of tall, majestic firs.
They stopped in front of the first outbuilding. Rory helped Finley out of the car seat they’d installed in the back of Shannon’s SUV for her. She glanced around in awe. “Wow.”
Rory stooped down in front of her. “I’m going to let you walk until you get tired. But as soon as you get tired, you need to tell us. It’s too cold to be out here too long.”
Even as he said that a gust of wind blew away the tiny white flakes of snow that glittered in his hair and fell to the shoulders of his black leather jacket. Shannon watched, mesmerized. He was so gorgeous, yet so normal.
He rose and took Finley’s hand. “So how do we do this?”
Shannon took Finley’s other hand. “We get a tag from the cashier over there.” She pointed at a young girl who stood in front of a table holding a cash register. “Then we walk down the rows until we see a tree that we like and we tag it. One of us goes out to get one of the helpers to cut down our tree while the other two stay with the tree.” She looked around at the large crowd of tree shoppers. It might not have been such a wise idea to wait until this close to Christmas to choose her tree. Of course, with last weekend’s storm she hadn’t had much choice. “Since they’re busy, this might take a while.”
Finley grinned. “I don’t care.”
Rory laughed. “Yeah, youwouldn’t. If you get cold or tired, somebody’s going to carry you.” She giggled.
Shannon laughed, too. Not just because of Finley but because Rory was such a good dad. So easygoing with Finley and so accepting of her limitations.
After getting a tag from the cashier, they headed into the first row and Shannon drew in a deep breath of the pine-scented air.
Rory reverently said, “This is amazing.”
Shannon g
lanced around, trying to remember what the tree farm had felt like to her the first time she’d seen it. Tall pines towered around them. Snow pirouetted in the floodlights illuminating the area. The scent of pine and snow enveloped them.
She smiled. “Yeah. It is amazing.”
He glanced over. The smile he gave her was careful, tentative. A wave of guilt washed through her. She’d been so standoffish with him the past two days that he probably thought she hated him.
“Did you come here often as a child?”
“Every year with my dad.” She laughed, remembering some of the more memorable years. “He always had a vision of the tree he wanted. Some holidays it was a short, fat tree. Others it was a tree so tall it barely fit into our living room.”
He smiled. “Sounds fun.”
“It was.” She swallowed. After her behavior the past two days, he would be within his rights to be grouchy with her. Actually, he could have refused to take this trip with her. Instead, here he was, with his daughter, ready to help pick out a tree and carry it into her house for her.
With a quick breath for courage, she said, “What about you? Did you have any Christmas traditions as a kid?”
“Not really traditions as much as things we’d pull out of a hat every year to make it special or fun.”
“Like what?”
He peeked over at her. “Well, for one, we’d make as big of a deal out of Christmas Eve as we did Christmas. My mom would bake a ham and make a potato salad and set out cookies, cakes, pies and then invite everyone from the neighborhood.” He chuckled. “Those were some fun nights. We never knew what to expect. Sometimes the neighbors would have family visiting and they’d bring them along. Some nights, we’d end up around the piano singing carols. One night, we all put on our coats and went caroling to the people on the street who couldn’t make it to our house for some reason.”
“Sounds fun.”
“It was fun.”
He said the words as if he were resurrecting long-forgotten memories and it hit her that he’d been left that Christmas two years ago as much as Finley had been. She wondered how much of his own Christmas joy had been buried in the pain of the past two years.