give her the love she needed. Not after only a few days together.
“Nothing happened last night.” Nothing that he’d tell one of Shannon’s employees. But as quickly as he thought that, it dawned on him that if Wendy, her trusted secretary, didn’t know why Shannon was so heartbroken then Shannon might not have told anyone.
Except him.
He felt burdened and honored both at the same time.
“I’ve been divorced. I know how difficult the first Christmas alone can be. Give her some space. She’ll be fine.”
With that he pushed open the swinging door. He spent the morning listening to the human resources director explain Raleigh’s hiring policies, its wage structure, its bonus and pension plans. Glad for the distraction, he listened intently, but the second he left the big office and headed downstairs to Shannon’s office, the weight of her troubles sat on his shoulders again.
When he arrived at her office, Finley raced into his arms. “We went to the park! Saw the people sing. They were funny.”
“Funny?”
Shannon laughed. “One of the singers dressed up as a reindeer when they sang ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’ It was hysterical.”
He smiled. He couldn’t help it. Finley was really coming around about Christmas. If she kept this up, in a few more days she might actually like the holiday. But, more importantly, Shannon looked better. More peaceful. He knew that was due in part to Finley’s company, but he genuinely believed that since they hadn’t really “fallen in love” she’d very quickly gotten beyond their near-miss romance.
“So…” He caught her gaze. “Are we ready for lunch?”
She looked away. “You go on without me.”
Finley whined, “Awww!!”
Shannon peeked up, smiled at her. “Sorry, but because we played all morning I have a little work I’d like to catch up on.”
A combination of fear and guilt clenched in his stomach. She didn’t want to be around him anymore. Or maybe she wasn’t having as much fun around Finley as she seemed? Maybe having a child around was pure torture? “If Finley’s a bother, I can have her sit in a room with me.”
Her eyes softened. “Finley’s never a bother.”
And he nearly cursed. Of all the mistakes he’d made around Shannon that was probably the stupidest. It had been clear from the beginning that she loved being around Finley. He was the one with the problem. He had absolutely no clue how to relate to Shannon anymore. Probably because he knew something about her that wasn’t true for most women, and he was barely accustomed to dealing with “most” women. Of course, he was clumsy and awkward around her.
But at lunch he decided that he wasn’t going to abandon her. He might stop his romantic advances. He definitely wouldn’t kiss her again. Those things only seemed to make her unhappy, but he wouldn’t, by God, take Finley away from her in the last two days of their trip.
That evening, after they’d eaten supper in a little Italian restaurant, he loaded Finley back into the car.
“Where’re we goin’?”
“Shannon’s.”
“All right!”
“I have no idea what she’s going to be doing tonight, but whatever it is, we’re going to help her.”
Blissfully clueless, Finley shrugged. “Okay.”
“I mean it, Finley. This might be a little hard for you to understand, but Christmas means a lot to Shannon and I don’t want any tantrums if she says or does something you don’t like.”
“Okay.”
He bit back a sigh. He couldn’t be sure that Finley really got it. But he did know he couldn’t let Shannon alone that night.
She answered the door wearing a bright Christmas-print apron over jeans and a red sweater. Her dark hair swirled around her sexily, but the drop of flour on the tip of her nose made her look just plain cute.
“Hey!”
She stepped away to allow them to enter.
Rory guided Finley inside. “We weren’t sure what you would be doing tonight but we suspected you might need some help.” He caught her gaze, smiled tentatively. “So we’re here.”
She headed for the kitchen, motioning for them to follow her. “I’m baking cookies.”
Finley gasped. “What kind?”
Shannon turned and caught her gaze. “Christmas cookies.”
Finley frowned but Shannon laughed. “Don’t you think it’s about time you learned how to bake them?”
“I’m six.”
Shannon headed for the kitchen again. “I know. But next year you’ll be seven and the year after that eight and before you know it you’ll be twelve or so and you’ll want to be the one who bakes the cookies. So, just trust me.”
Finley wrinkled her nose and glanced up at her father. Recognizing she might be more opposed to the work than the idea that the cookies were for a holiday she didn’t really like, he said, “Well, you don’t think I’m going to bake our cookies, do you?”
In the kitchen, the dough had already been prepared. Shannon had it rolled into a thin circle. Cookie cutters sat scattered along the side of the cookie dough bowl.
He ambled to the center island as Finley hoisted herself onto one of the tall stools in front of it.
“You see these?” Shannon displayed a bunch of the cookie cutters to Finley. “We push these into the dough.” She demonstrated with a Christmas-tree-shaped cutter. “Then pull it out and like magic we have a cookie that’s going to look like a tree.”
Finley grabbed for the tree cutter. “Let me.”
Rory tugged her hand back. “What do we say?”
She huffed out a sigh. “Please, can I do one?”
Shannon laughed. “You may do as many as you like.” She laughed again. “As long as there’s dough.”
And Rory’s heart started beating again. He hadn’t realized how worried he was, how guilty he felt, until Shannon laughed and some of the burden began to lift.
Finley and Shannon cut twelve shapes and Shannon removed the cookie dough from around them. They lifted the shapes from the countertop onto a baking sheet and Shannon rolled another circle of dough.
They worked like that for about twenty minutes. When Rory also joined in the fun, it took even less time to cut out all the cookies in a circle of dough. As they cut shapes and filled cookie sheets, Shannon slid the trays into the oven. Using a timer, she kept close track of their baking times and in exactly twelve minutes she removed each pan of cookies.
When
