She didn’t want him to object; she wanted him to forget to frown and have fun. Grabbing his hands, she pulled.
“I’m twice your size,” he said, beginning to smile.
With a neat twist of his wrists he tumbled her into his lap and laughed.
“The wrong idea,” she reminded, but wanting very much to be kissed.
“Right.” Alex’s gaze lingered on her lips. “Little pitchers have big ears—and eyes.”
Shannon pursed her mouth. “There’s always the utility room,” she suggested.
Apparently it was a suggestion he liked, because he swept her into the small dark room, slammed the door shut and cupped the back of her head. “I thought you’d hate being in here.”
“I’m a woman. I change my mind easily.”
That was all she got out, because Alex was kissing her so hungrily it was all she could do not to fall down. She felt him from her head to her toes and everywhere else between.
“J-just a friendly kiss,” she managed to say when his hands travelled up her rib cage.
“You don’t think this is friendly?” Alex’s thumbs rotated over her nipples and she moaned.
“Daddy?” came a plaintive voice on the other side of the door. “Where are you an’ Shannon?”
Alex uttered a single curse and Shannon grinned. “You bet it’s friendly,” she whispered. “But being that friendly is the way little pitchers get started in the first place.”
Didn’t he know it, Alex thought ruefully as Shannon eased free and opened the door.
“My goodness, Jeremy, you’re all ready to go,” he heard her exclaim. “You are growing up so fast. Let’s go get my coat, too. I …um, think your daddy needs a couple of minutes to himself.”
Alex took deep breaths and wished he was wearing loose sweatpants instead of jeans. When he could walk without cutting off his circulation, he followed Jeremy and Shannon into the living room. She looked at him with a merry expression.
“Feeling better?”
The little witch.
She knew exactly how aroused he’d been.
“Yes, I’m better. Where are we going?”
“I don’t know. Malls. Toy stores. Chocolate shops.”
“Yum,” Jeremy crowed. “I like chocolate.”
“So do I. Bet we can get your daddy to buy us a big chocolate Santa.”
Alex was resigned as he followed Shannon and Jeremy to the Jeep. A man could only fight the tide so long before getting pulled under, and Shannon was like the tide. An inexorable force sweeping through his life.
An ancient memory came to him of his father at the beach, solemnly explaining it was best not to fight a wave. If you got knocked over, go with it and then find your footing. A rare family vacation, beset by the usual arguments and recriminations, but in the middle was the remembrance of something good.
“Did you see him, Shannon?” Jeremy asked on Christmas morning as he danced around the living room in uncontained excitement. “Did you see Santa?”
Shannon shook her head. “Nope, I fell asleep like always.”
“Me, too. But he came, didn’t he?”
She looked at the packages around the tree. She’d put some of them there after Jeremy had drifted into slumber, but more had appeared. Alex must have sneaked down after they were both asleep.
“Yes, he came,” Shannon said, a silly grin on her face. The last two days had been glorious, a wonderland of time spent with the man she loved to distraction, and a little boy who was as dear to her as if she’d given birth to him. She wouldn’t let herself think about what would happen once the holidays were over. Not now, not until she had to.
“I gotta get Daddy.” Jeremy went racing across the room, only to find his father on the staircase. “Santa came! He came! See, Daddy? An’ he ate the cookies and drank all the milk.”
“I see.”
Alex sat on the steps, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt—he was everything she’d ever wanted for Christmas.
The scent of coffee came from the kitchen, the machine’s timer set by Alex the night before, but it was the empty plate of cookies that Shannon looked at. She’d forgotten to make it appear as if Santa had enjoyed his midnight treat. Alex had handled that little detail, and her heart swelled. Christmas was truly a miraculous time of year.
“Can we open presents now, Daddy?” Jeremy begged.
“Uh…okay.” He still didn’t look fully awake.
“Let your daddy have some coffee first.” She went to the kitchen and poured a large cup. Alex accepted it with a smile and tugged her down next to him. She did wonder if he was thinking about Kim and wishing she was there, but Shannon couldn’t resent the other woman’s memory. Kim had loved her family, and was surely watching over them the way Shannon knew her father was watching over her, comforting her in dark times, and rejoicing in the good ones.
“Do you want cookies with that?” she asked softly, to keep Jeremy from hearing.
“Cookies?”
Her gaze flicked to the empty plate by the fireplace and back again. “Yes. Thanks for remembering. I was so sleepy, I wasn’t thinking.”
“I didn’t eat anything. It must have been Santa.”
“You…” Shannon laughed and leaned into the arm Alex put around her.
After a while he shook himself. “I think it’s time to open presents,” he said, and Jeremy clapped his hands.
Soon the living room was a sea of paper and ribbon, something that Magellan—who’d also been a McKenzie houseguest—enjoyed immensely, along with the cat toys Santa had left him. Shannon held her breath when Alex opened her gift, an old ship’s sextant. He’d confessed a fascination with early sailing ships, but she couldn’t be sure it was something he’d like.
“Shannon…it’s extraordinary.” He lifted the instrument from its velvet-lined case and checked the settings, peering through the eyepiece. “But you shouldn’t have.”
“I wanted to. And you should talk,” she said, her fingers stroking the antique copper teakettle Alex had gotten to put by her fireplace. It was perfect. A little bit of Ireland, like her grandparents’ home.
“This is from me, Shannon.” Jeremy gave her a package and crawled into her lap. She had given him a telescope and books and other toys, but it was the picture of his mother that she’d sealed in a plastic key chain that he wouldn’t put down.
“Thank you, Jeremy. It’s darling—just like Magellan.” It was a silver pin of a skittish cat, dancing on his toes.
He kissed her and sat looking at the picture of his mother. They had talked the night before, Shannon guessing that one of his wishes to Santa was that his mommy come home from heaven. Another was that he get a new mommy—Shannon.
The conflicting desires weren’t troubling to a child Jeremy’s age. She’d simply told him that Santa couldn’t bring those kinds of gifts, but to remember that his mother wasn’t any farther than his heart, and that grown-ups had to work things out for themselves.
“I’d better get ready to go,” Shannon said after they’d bagged the paper and ribbons.
“We’ll get ready, too,” Alex promised.
He looked tense, she realized as she crossed to her condo carrying Magellan; she’d probably blown everything, asking him to have Christmas with the rest of the O’Rourkes. She should have remembered he didn’t have the best experiences with families. Yet surely it would be better once his sister arrived.
If she arrived, Shannon reminded herself. Gail McKenzie had sounded uncertain about her plans, saying only that she hoped to arrive on Christmas day from Japan and would prefer to rent a car rather than have anyone meet her. But it would be a great surprise gift if she did get there.
Alex bathed Jeremy and tried not to think about the way Shannon had looked when he’d gone downstairs to put Santa’s packages beneath the tree. Angelic, her fiery nature muted by sleep. If Jeremy hadn’t been dozing by the tree, he might have kissed her again.
“My son, the duenna,” he muttered. A four
-year-old chaperone.
“What’s a dwayna?” Jeremy asked.
“It’s just a word. You’ll find out when you learn Spanish.”
By the time they were both dressed and on their way next door, Shannon was already hauling boxes from her house and stacking them by the Jeep. “Why didn’t you wait?” Alex asked, hurrying to help her.
“I didn’t want to take longer than necessary.”
He scowled, wanting to remind her that men had muscles to do the heavy work, yet knowing she’d just say something sassy and laugh at him. But he was particularly annoyed when he discovered one of the boxes was filled with bottles of sparkling grape juice, and another with sparkling cider. They really were heavy.
“Don’t be mad,” Shannon said winsomely, handing him a bag of gaily wrapped packages.
“I’m not mad…yes, I am. Was mad,” he amended when she smiled. Though she’d said to dress casually, she wore a soft, expensive-looking sweater and a velvet skirt that hugged her faithfully. The cat pin Jeremy had given her adorned her shoulder. Once they were in the Jeep, she hummed a Christmas tune as they headed for her mother’s house.
It all seemed so right. Still, panic skirted the edges of Alex’s consciousness. He didn’t want to examine what he felt for Shannon. It was much easier dismissing his feelings as simple physical need and gratitude for what she’d done for Jeremy than acknowledging that something deeper and more complex had been growing since the day they’d met.
Shannon gave easy-to-follow directions and it wasn’t long before they pulled into a tree-lined driveway. Alex didn’t know what he’d expected to see, but the big old rambling house wasn’t close. A porch wrapped around the house, and people spilled from the doors as they parked. It was the homiest place he could have imagined.
“Merry Christmas. You’re late,” cried a collection of voices, followed by hugs and exclamations of, “We missed you last night.”
“What about last night?” he whispered in Shannon’s ear when they stepped inside the front door. “Were you supposed to be here?”
She bit her lip. “The family usually has dinner and attends a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. I didn’t have to go. We would have been welcome, but I figured…well…you know. And I didn’t want to disappoint Jeremy.”
Alex knew why Shannon hadn’t said anything; she’d known he wouldn’t want to attend the service.
“Goodness, is this Jeremy?” asked an older woman, who approached them with a warm smile.
Jeremy nodded, still clinging to Alex’s hand, but he looked intrigued by the color and laughter and happy chatter that filled the comfortable house. It was a new experience for both of them—like walking into a Norman Rockwell painting.
“My name is Pegeen,” said the woman, introducing herself. “I’m Shannon’s mother, and you must be Alex.” Her Irish brogue had been softened but not erased by her years in America.
“I like Shannon,” Jeremy declared before his father could say anything.
“So do I, darlin’. Do you want to meet my other grandchildren? The two oldest are close to your age. You’ll enjoy playin’ with them.”
Jeremy readily released his grip on Alex’s hand and followed Pegeen.
“I should have known,” Alex murmured, shaking his head. It had been days since Jeremy had wanted Mr. Tibbles with him, and though Alex had put the rabbit in the Jeep as a precaution, it seemed apparent the stuffed animal wouldn’t be needed.
“You should have known what?” Shannon asked.
“That your mother is a Pied Piper, just like you.”
She grinned and drew him into the living room, introducing family as she went. The names became a blur of brothers and sisters, in-laws and children. And Kane O’Rourke, who held a small baby on his shoulder, was no longer the brisk executive or accusing brother, but a doting father. Meeting him that way, Alex would never have guessed he owned a multi-billion dollar corporation.
“Who’s going to help bring everything in?” Shannon said, and though they complained, her five brothers donned coats and trooped out to the Jeep Cherokee.
“You always bring too much,” Kane said when they were piling gifts near the Christmas tree, then carrying her contributions to the meal into the kitchen.
“But I didn’t do it all. Alex, what is this about?” she asked, looking into several of the boxes.
“I had to contribute something and you wouldn’t tell me what to bring.”
An arm reached over Shannon’s shoulder and took a can of cashews from the box she was examining. “Great, I’m starved.”
“You’re always hungry, Connor.”
“Dinner isn’t for hours.”
With Alex distracted by her brothers Shannon took his coat and hung it with hers in the hall closet on the way to the kitchen. She wanted a word with her mother.
“Mom,” she said, entering the kitchen.
“Yes, darlin’?”
“You do remember what I told you about Alex being just a friend, don’t you? There’s nothing going on between us.” It wasn’t quite a lie, but Shannon crossed her fingers nonetheless.
“He seems a fine young man.”
“Yes, but what did you mean by asking Jeremy to meet your ‘other’ grandchildren? Like he’s one of them?”
“A slip of the tongue, love.”
Her mother never had slips of the tongue.
“Do not get carried away,” Shannon warned. “Alex doesn’t want to get married again. He has been very clear on the subject, so nothing is going to happen between us.”
“Now, darlin’, you can’t blame me for bein’ a bit hopeful. You’ve never brought a young man to dinner, much less Christmas dinner. I haven’t seen you so happy in a long while.”
“He’s a widower, Mom. It hasn’t even been a year,” Shannon said desperately. All she needed was to have her mother try some misplaced matchmaking. “Please don’t say anything.”
Pegeen touched her face. “I’ll only say that I love you, dear. Now go on, and don’t worry. It’s Christmas.”
Shannon hurried back to the living room and Alex made room for her on the couch. He was debating a point in football, and she rolled her eyes at how quickly the men had found a topic of common interest. There were times she felt like the odd person out in her own family. The women would congregate in the kitchen, talking about cooking and babies and other domestic interests, her brothers would talk sports or some other manly pursuit, and she didn’t fit with either.
“How is that new kitten of yours doing?” asked Connor after several minutes. “Except for being skin and bones, he seemed to be healthy when I checked him.”
“He’s doing fine.” She looked at Alex. “Connor has to endure the entire family bringing their animals to him for treatment.”
“Like having a doctor in the family?”
“Something like that.”
Alex nodded and wondered why he’d worried about coming to dinner at the O’Rourkes’. They were normal people, down-to-earth and thoroughly likable; no one would know they had access to inconceivable wealth. And Jeremy was having a ball, laughing and running around with two little girls who were as alike as two peas in a pod. His son was too young to think about the implications of having dinner with a woman’s family, anyway.
Other O’Rourkes arrived, aunts and uncles and cousins whose names Alex didn’t have a prayer of remembering. Children were hugged and given treats. Food was everywhere, snacks to hold everyone until the main event. Which, judging by the rich scents rolling from the kitchen, would be a feast of grand proportions.
Shannon divided most of her time between him and Jeremy, and Alex found himself missing her whenever she disappeared to chase after his son. It wasn’t as if he’d barely seen her that day, or any other day in the past few weeks, and he didn’t want to think about the implications.
“Try this,” Shannon said, appearing after a particularly long absence.
He bit into the pecan and butter pastry. “It’s g
reat, but I’m not going to be able to eat dinner if you keep feeding me.”
“Just be grateful she’s not trying to cook dinner,” joked Connor. “Or you’d need your stomach pumped.”
Everyone laughed, and someone else added, “Or we’d be out on the street, waiting for the fire department to arrive.”
“Hey, I only set fire to stoves, not houses,” Shannon said lightly, but Alex saw her lips tighten. She left a couple of minutes later and he frowned, surprised her family didn’t know she was bothered by their teasing.
He gave Connor a cold look. “If you had half the brains of your sister, you wouldn’t say stupid things,” he said, not caring if he sounded rude, or what they would think about him defending Shannon when it had obviously been a family joke.
He followed Shannon, grabbing both their coats when he saw her stepping out onto the front porch.
“Hey,” he said, closing the door to shut out the prying ears of her family. “You’re going to freeze out here.”
“I’m tougher than I look.”
Alex wrapped her in a coat. “Tough, right. You’re shivering and turning blue. Why didn’t you tell Connor and the others to stuff it?”
“Why should I? Everyone had a good laugh.”
He caught her chin and made her look at him, frustrated by the way she guarded her deepest feelings. “You didn’t enjoy it. You act like you don’t care, but I know that isn’t true, so don’t pretend with me. Please, Shannon.”
The remote expression in her eyes slowly vanished. “I’m used to the kidding. It’s just that with you and Jeremy here…” She shrugged and rubbed her arms. “I mean, I explained we were just friends, so they don’t have any reason to think it would embarrass me in front of you. But with families there’s always this… I don’t know…thought when someone new comes. An anticipation, wondering whether that person could be the ‘one,’ no matter what has been said.”
Alex waited, trying to understand.
“New relationships are fragile and you have a son to think about. So having Connor joke around like that without thinking…it just…”
“Hurt?” Alex finished for her.
Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (O'Rourke Family 5) Page 13