Meet Me under the Mistletoe. Julianna Morris
He’d asked around and learned a great deal about the O’Rourkes since meeting Shannon. People in all walks of life counted them as friends. They were highly respected, were active in church and charity work, and gave generously of both their time and their money. Shannon served on the boards of three foundations and was personally credited with saving an inner-city homeless mission.
No wonder, he thought, staring at her stunning beauty and trademark smile—a smile that said she was ready to take on the world single-handedly. The force of her personality alone was probably enough to save a hundred homeless missions, much less one. She was so…electric.
He smothered a half laugh, remembering the way people had described Shannon as cool and sophisticated. They were blind if they couldn’t see the wildfire beneath that polished surface.
“Hello, Shannon,” he murmured, illogically annoyed that she’d barely noticed him. Once upon a time the opposite sex had found him reasonably attractive.
Yet even as Alex formed the thought, he stomped on it. Shannon O’Rourke might be a beautiful woman, but he’d rather appreciate her beauty from a distance. He didn’t have to own Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to admire the painting.
“Hello.” Shannon smiled. “Are you having trouble putting up your Christmas lights?”
“Some.” Alex flexed his thumb and a sharp throb went through it. He’d been distracted, thinking about Jeremy and the day-care center’s third request for the name and phone number of a backup person to call in case of emergency. He had a babysitter for when the daycare was closed, but except for Shannon, there wasn’t a single person in Washington with whom Jeremy would willingly go if his father wasn’t available. That was the problem. Shannon was good with Jeremy and had an excellent reputation so there wasn’t any reason not to ask…besides wanting to keep that precious distance between them.
Damn.
Around Shannon he felt as if he was being sucked into a whirlpool with no bottom. The sensation reminded him too much of when he was a kid and had no control over his life, or the crazy people masquerading as his parents.
“If you’re hungry, I was going to order some Thai food for dinner,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. “You’re welcome to join me.”
He hesitated.
“Consider it a welcome to the neighborhood,” she said breezily. “I should have brought you cookies or something, but…” Her voice trailed and she shrugged.
That but had some interesting undertones to it. Shannon had a way of saying things that had so many layers of meaning, he could get dizzy trying to figure them out.
“Yeah, you blew your chance of being nominated for the neighborhood welcome party,” he said, trying to sound humorous. “Tami Barton made us a casserole. Naomi Hale did Jell-O salad, and Lisa Steeple brought us a cake. And there’s also been homemade candy, cookies, several kinds of bread and some sort of cheese log rolled in almonds.”
“Let me guess, mostly from the unmarried women in the condo association? I know Naomi, Tami, and Lisa are all unattached.”
Alex frowned, realizing there had been quite a few single women—divorced or never married—knocking on his door lately. It had been the same in Minnesota. After Kim’s death few days had gone by without a knock on the door and a woman standing on the other side. Their culinary offerings had ranged from child-pleasing dishes to gourmet meals. It was one of the reasons he’d come to Seattle, trying to get away from would-be mothers, looking for a ready-made family. Hell. He must have been blind not to see the pattern. Lisa and Naomi had been too friendly, but he’d ignored their flirting the way he’d always ignored feminine overtures that didn’t come from his wife.
A pang went through him as he reminded himself that Kim was gone. He’d never put much thought into the marriage vow “till death do us part.” Women usually lived longer than men, and he’d figured he’d go first. But he hadn’t gone first, and now he had to deal with a reality that didn’t include Kim.
His stomach turned as emotions crawled through it, a reminder of those horrible, empty days after the funeral, when he’d cursed himself and God…and his wife for being human enough to get leukemia and die.
“Alex?”
“Yeah,” he said tightly. “They were mostly single.”
Shannon’s gaze flicked over him, seeming almost as tangible as a touch. “I may be single, but I promise not to bake you any cakes or cookies.”
“Skip the Jell-O salad and casseroles, too, okay?” Alex muttered. He didn’t want anything that reminded him of the food at Kim’s wake.
“I promise.” Once again something unknown flickered in Shannon’s expressive face, but he couldn’t begin to guess at the meaning. “And you can skip the offer of Thai food, if you prefer. I may be single, but I’m not on the prowl like Lisa or the others.”
“What’s ‘on the prowl’?” Jeremy asked.
He was examining them both with his serious eyes, and Alex saw that Shannon was as nonplussed as he was over the question. For some reason it reassured him. She was so darned confident about everything, it was nice to know there were some things she wasn’t certain how to handle.
“It means that Shannon just wants to be our friend,” Alex said.
“That’s right,” she added quickly. “Just friends.”
The emphasis she put on the words drained some of the satisfaction from Alex, which just proved how illogical he could be. The last thing he needed was a neighbor who saw him a potential mate, particularly a neighbor as unsettling as Shannon.
Chapter Three
“Actually, Thai sounds good,” Alex found himself saying to his astonishment. “But Jeremy may not like something so different.”
“That’s all right. I can ask the delivery guy to pick up a hamburger on the way over. Does that sound good to you, Jeremy? We’ll have him get french fries, too.”
Naturally, Jeremy looked thrilled. He loved fast food, particularly since his mother hadn’t allowed him to eat any. Alex had tried to stick to Kim’s rules about their son’s diet, but convenience foods were called convenient for a reason…they were convenient.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t cook. His work had taken him to some remote parts of the world where restaurants didn’t exist. You learned to cook or you didn’t eat. But between work and trying to spend time with Jeremy, it was easier to grab a bag of precut salad mix and a microwave dinner. Now that things were becoming more settled, they would have to start a routine that made them both comfortable.
“That would be fine,” Alex said. “Except I doubt you can get the delivery person to run an errand for you.”
Shannon’s smile turned even more beguiling. “Wanna bet?”
No.
He definitely didn’t want to bet.
She could probably charm a perfect stranger into doing something they had no intention of doing. Like him, for example. He’d fully intended to keep his distance, and now they were having dinner together again. He had to be out of his mind.
“You can try the Thai food if you want,” Shannon told Jeremy as they went up her walkway. “I just love the peanut chicken. It’s sweet and yummy.”
“Uh…okay.”
They chattered away and Alex nodded in resignation as his son agreed to try a few of the exotic dishes Shannon enthused about. One of the few discordant notes in his marriage had been Kim’s lack of culinary adventure, and Jeremy was just as stubborn about trying new things…or had been until now. His son had done nothing but talk about Shannon ever since meeting her, so he’d probably eat live worms