right here and right now, she was a lonely woman, and she had both Rory and his daughter in her yard, enjoying her company. She’d be crazy to be upset. Crazier still to withdraw just because there couldn’t be anything romantic between her and Rory. The smart thing to do would be to simply relax and enjoy their company.
She picked up the sled. Studied it. Could she ride this down the slope and get it stopped on the ledge? Or would she go racing down the hill?
She smiled. Either way she’d probably make Finley laugh. So why not?
When they returned to the house, Shannon realized she hadn’t taken anything out of the freezer for dinner. Her only choice was to thaw some hamburgers in the microwave and make use of the frozen French fries her mom always bought in bulk then had to give away because she and her dad couldn’t eat them all.
As soon as they stepped into the kitchen, she walked to the refrigerator, removed the meat from the freezer section and tossed it on the counter. Unzipping her dad’s big parka, she said, “That was fun.”
Rory helped Finley out of sweater number one. “Really fun.”
Finley grinned. “Lots of fun.” She sat on the floor as her father tugged off her little pink boots, then helped her slide out of the first of her two pair of jeans. “But I’m hungry.”
“Me, too! I thought I’d make burgers and fries.”
Finley bounced up. “All right.”
Rory ruffled her hair. “Go wash your hands while Shannon and I get started on the food.”
She nodded and all but skipped out of the room.
Shannon unwrapped the hamburger, set it in a bowl and put it in the microwave on low.
As it hummed behind her, Rory said, “What can I do?”
“I guess we could plug in the fryer to heat the oil for the fries.”
She rummaged through a cupboard beside the sink and found the fryer. After pouring in fresh oil, she plugged it in.
Rory laughed. “That still leaves me with nothing to do.”
“You could go check on Finley.”
“I probably should. She had such a busy afternoon that I may find her asleep on the bed.”
While he was gone, Shannon hung her parka in the hall closet and took the breakfast dishes out of the dishwasher.
When he and Finley returned to the kitchen a few minutes later, Finley was carrying a little laptop. Rory joined Shannon at the counter where she was forming the hamburgers. “She can play a game or two while we cook.” He pointed at the hamburgers. “How many of these should we make?”
“How many do you want?”
“I’ll eat two. Finley will eat one.”
“And I’ll eat one.” She glanced down at the plate. “We already have four. So it looks like we’re done.”
He nudged her aside. “I’ll take it from here. Usually I grill hamburgers, but I can use a frying pan, too.”
Shannon retrieved plates and utensils and stacked them on the table. She grabbed a handful of paper napkins and set them beside the plates.
Finley glanced up. “Can I help?”
Surprised, but not about to turn down help, Shannon said, “You can arrange the plates and silver while I start the French fries.”
Finley nodded. Shannon walked back to the refrigerator, removed the frozen fries and put them into the fryer.
Dinner conversation was very different from the quiet lunch. Finley chattered about how much fun she’d had sledding and how silly her dad looked on a sled. Rory reminded her that she didn’t think him silly the times he rode down the big hill with her and she giggled.
Shannon basked in the ordinariness of it. A happy little girl and her father who clearly adored her. They bantered back and forth as Rory cut her burger in half and poured ketchup for her fries.
Shannon took a bite of her own hamburger. Rory was a nice guy, with a big heart, trying to raise a daughter abandoned by her mother. She supposed that was why he’d pulled away rather than kiss her that afternoon. He was too busy to be looking for a romance. But as quickly as she thought that she reminded herself of her decision not to even ponder a romance with him anyway. She’d seen the expression on his face when he talked about having more kids. A son. No matter what he said or how busy he was, someday he’d want to remarry. He’d want that family. Those kids.
And she couldn’t have any.
The aching pain filled her as it always did when confronted by her barrenness. The loss. The unfairness.
For the first time in months she wanted to flirt. Wanted to be pretty to somebody—and she had to pull back.
For both of their sakes.
“WELL, SHE’S ASLEEP.” Rory plopped down on the sofa beside Shannon, who was pulling strands of tinsel through her fingers to untangle them. Supper had gone well. But after the dishes had been cleared, Finley had begun to nod off, so Rory had taken her for a bath. “She went out like a light the second her head hit the pillow.” Rolling his head across the sofa back, he smiled at her. “You’re great with her.”
Shannon laughed. “Not really. In case you didn’t notice my strategy, I simply kept her busy until she dropped from exhaustion.”
He laughed.
“I’m serious. She’s obviously a smart little girl. She bores easily. The trick to preventing tantrums might be simply keeping her busy.”
“I can’t always do that. I have a company to run. So it’s her nanny, Mrs. Perkins, who gets the brunt of her moods. Though she spends a lot of time entertaining Finley, there are days when Finley only wants me. If she breaks down and calls me and I come home, we feel like we’re rewarding Finley for bad behavior.”
“You are.” She turned her attention to her tangled tinsel again. She didn’t like to pry, but he needed help and now that she’d spent a little time with Finley, she realized she’d learned a great deal watching her friends and their children in South Carolina. “There are lots of things you can do to discipline her. The first is to get her accustomed to hearing the word no. But you have to be smart about it. If she’s tired or hungry, she won’t take well to it. If you don’t watch her mood, and discipline her when she’s not open, it’ll make things worse.”
He tweaked her hair. “How’d you get so smart?”
She shrugged. “I pay attention?”
He laughed. “Right.” He paused, obviously waiting for her to say more, and when she didn’t he said, “I’m serious. I’ve asked you this before, but you always blew me off. And I’m curious. Did you read a book or something? Because if you
