be back in a minute,” he muttered to the postal clerk, shoving his credit card in her direction. Muffled groans of protest came from the waiting customers, but Alex ignored them. “Miss O’Rourke,” he said, catching Shannon at the exit. “That is… Shannon.”
“Ever the gentleman, Dr. McKenzie,” she murmured. “But I can manage this door on my own.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“You mean you don’t want to hold the door for me?” Shannon sounded offended and he groaned.
“No, that is, yes, of course I do, but…”
Too late he saw the faint humor lurking in her green eyes.
He’d been had, yet he wanted to laugh as well. There weren’t many women who could forgive a supposed insult that quickly. Especially one concerning family. Whatever faults Shannon O’Rourke might have, holding a grudge didn’t appear to be one of them.
“So, what did you want?” she asked.
Alex hesitated. He didn’t want anything, but for Jeremy’s sake he should keep things cordial between them. “It’s just… I’m sorry I upset you. And I want you to know that I appreciated the way you handled Jeremy. That’s all.”
“Oh.” Confusion filled her eyes.
A woman as beautiful as Shannon O’Rourke probably expected to be asked for a date, but he had no intention of getting involved with anyone, much less someone like Shannon. His friends and colleagues, everyone, kept saying it was just a matter of time, that if you’ve had one good marriage, you’re more likely to have a second good one.
But he didn’t buy it.
With Kim he’d gotten lucky, because he sure wasn’t good husband material, not with his family background of domestic warfare and divorce. God, he’d hated all the screaming and fighting.
“Sir,” called the postal clerk with an edge of irritation in her voice. “There are a lot of people waiting.”
“Better go.” Shannon flipped her hand and pushed through the double glass doors.
Alex released a harsh breath as he watched the gentle sway of her hips as she headed for her car. Kim had been gone for almost a year. There wasn’t any reason to feel guilty for enjoying a woman’s legs.
Except he did feel guilty.
The rustle of restless feet and throat-clearing dragged his attention back to the post office. He returned to the counter and signed the credit slip, accompanied by applause from the line of postal customers. He walked outside with Jeremy while Shannon was still waiting to pull into the busy street, and his son dragged his feet, watching sadly as her sleek sports car finally merged into traffic.
“Come along, son.”
“I like her, Daddy.”
“I know. I’m sure you’ll see her again. Shannon is our next-door neighbor.”
Jeremy let out a very adult sigh. “But you made her mad.”
It was undeniably true, even though she’d appeared to forgive what he’d jokingly implied about her brother. Yes, Shannon O’Rourke was temperamental, but she’d also shown that she was loyal.
A far cry from his own family.
After his parents divorced, Alex and his two siblings had been pawns in their incessant power struggles. And now they didn’t see one another anymore. They were too far-flung for one thing; his brother was in the Arctic studying global warming and his sister was working in Japan. As for his mother and father, they’d each been married and divorced several times to other people, and they still hated each other with a passion that poisoned everything around them.
“Shannon isn’t upset with you,” he said finally. “So it’s okay.”
“But she’s mad at you, Daddy.” Jeremy was obstinate in his own way, and he obviously felt that Shannon being mad was a problem, regardless of who she was mad at.
Alex rubbed the back of his neck. After his rotten up-bringing, he’d worried he couldn’t love a child. But from the minute his newborn son, all red and wrinkled, opened sleepy eyes and blew a bubble at him, he’d turned into a marshmallow where the kid was concerned.
“I know, son, but you still don’t need to worry about it.” He would have said everything was “all right,” but he’d said it too often when Kim was sick, and he’d felt like a hypocrite each time Jeremy crawled into his arms and believed him.
His son gave him an exasperated look, which would have been comical if his eyes weren’t so serious. “Can we get her a Christmas present?”
A Christmas present?
What did you get for a woman who must have everything?
“We’ll get a poinsettia,” Alex promised. Plants were usually safe, especially since it should look like a seasonal gesture. Or as an apology for the verbal faux pas he’d stumbled into over her brother.
Jeremy looked relieved, and as they trudged back to the Cherokee, he turned his head to gaze in the direction Shannon had driven. For the first time in a year he wasn’t clutching Mr. Tibbles to his chest; instead, he was casually swinging the rabbit by one arm.
Alex let out a sigh of his own. He had to be careful. Seeing too much of the woman next door could lead Jeremy into getting ideas about a new mommy.
Yet as he fastened his son into the child’s car seat, Alex couldn’t help thinking about Shannon. She was undoubtedly headstrong and opinionated, as different from his wife as a woman could be. He’d considered casual dating since Kim’s death, but none of the women he’d met were particularly interesting.
And none of them were like Shannon O’Rourke.
Chapter Two
Shannon let herself into the condo and tossed her purse onto the couch before plugging in the lights on the Christmas tree. She had to be out of her mind even to have considered offering to babysit.
“Me, babysitting. Hah!”
Yet even as she scolded herself, she remembered Jeremy McKenzie’s solemn blue eyes and a familiar ache filled her. She’d been eight when her father died, leaving her confused and hurt. The thought of Jeremy feeling the same way tore at her heart.
“I’m not the motherly type,” she muttered. She couldn’t change a diaper or even heat a can of soup, though Jeremy was surely old enough not to need diapers any longer. Even that she wasn’t certain about, though she was pretty sure most kids were potty-trained by the time they were two or three. How old were her twin nieces when they’d stopped needing diapers? It was embarrassing to realize she didn’t know. They were her nieces, and she loved them dearly. Sinking into the chair next to the phone, Shannon dialed her youngest sister.
“Hey, Kathleen. When did Amy and Peggy get potty-trained?” she asked without preamble.
“Shannon?”
“Yes.
