“Then you came along. Spent that snowy weekend with her and she came in that Monday different.” She smiled. “Happy. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.”

He snorted. “She might have started off enjoying my company, but she’s been a bit standoffish lately.”

Leaning against the doorjamb, Wendy shrugged. “I told you. Her ex really hurt her. I don’t blame her for being cautious.” She glanced at the floor then caught his gaze. “I just… Well, she’d be crazy not to like you and I can see from the way you look at her that you’re interested and…” She sucked in a breath. “Just don’t give up, all right?”

Giving up was the last thing he wanted to do. Especially since he now knew she was cautious. Not standoffish. Not disinterested. But cautious. For heaven’s sake. All this time that he’d been jumping to conclusions, he’d missed the obvious one. A bad divorce had made her cautious. He nearly snorted with derision. He of all people should have recognized the signs.

Finley suddenly appeared in the doorway. She pushed past Wendy and ran over to him. He scooped her off the floor. “Hey.”

“Hey! They have a candy store. And a toy store.”

Rory met Shannon’s gaze over Finley’s head. “You took her to see the competition?”

She laughed. “They’re fun, interesting shops.”

“I’ll bet.”

Unbuttoning her long white coat, Shannon said, “They really are. And because they’re unique and interesting they bring shoppers to town. Those same shoppers buy their one unique, interesting Christmas gift for the year at one of the specialty shops, then they come to us for the normal things like Christmas pajamas, tea sets and trucks.”

He slid Finley to the floor. “Makes sense.” His entire body tingled with something he couldn’t define or describe.

It wasn’t fear, though there was a bit of fear laced in there. He should be as cautious as Shannon. His heart had been stomped on, too.

It wasn’t excitement, though he couldn’t deny that every time he saw her his stomach flipped or his heart squeezed or his chest tightened.

It wasn’t anticipation, though how could he not feel a bit eager at the fact that Shannon didn’t dislike him? She was simply being cautious. Wendy had more or less given him a green light and now that he had it he didn’t know what to do with it.

How did a man woo a woman who’d been hurt?

Finley tugged on his hand. “Shannon said that if it was okay with you we could go shopping with her tonight.”

“Shopping?” He laughed lightly, so uncertain about what to do or say. He knew exactly what Shannon was feeling. The hurt of rejection. The sting of not being wanted, not being good enough anymore for the person who took a vow to love you. He knew how shaky she felt. He’d felt it, too. But attraction to her had quickly gotten him beyond it. Unfortunately, that hadn’t left him a road map for how to help her. “Why would a person who owns a department store need to go shopping?”

“For a Christmas tree,” Finley answered.

The words came out through a giggle and something that felt very much like a fist punched into his heart. Finley, the child he firmly believed would never experience the joy of Christmas had her joy back. Shannon was responsible for that. Her generosity of spirit was part of the reason he’d fallen for her so hard and so fast.

So maybe he should show her he could be generous, too? “Wendy, would you mind taking Finley into your office for a minute?”

Wendy reached down and took Finley’s hand. “Sure. No problem.” Very astutely, Wendy closed the door as they walked out.

Cautious himself now, Rory caught Shannon’s gaze. “I’d love to go tree shopping, too…if you really want us.”

She caught his gaze, smiled sheepishly, hopefully. “There’s a huge difference between going tree shopping as a single adult and going tree shopping with a little girl who is seeing the holiday for the first time.”

Boy, didn’t he know that? Technically, this would be his first time of seeing the joy on Finley’s face when she walked through a forest of evergreens and chose the perfect one to sit in their big front window, so the whole town could see the lights.

He felt his own Christmas spirit stir, remembered the first time he walked into the woods with his dad to get the family’s tree, remembered decorating it, remembered seeing it shining with lights on Christmas morning. His heart tugged a bit.

He swallowed. She wasn’t just changing Finley. She was changing him. “All right, then. We’re happy to go with you.”

Shannon insisted they take her big SUV to the Christmas tree farm on the top of the hill outside of town. Without streetlights, the world was incredibly dark. A new storm had moved in. Though it was nothing like the storm that had stranded Rory and Finley at her home the weekend before, it blew shiny white flakes in front of the SUV’s headlights.

She pointed at the big illuminated sign that said Wendell’s Christmas Trees. “Take the next right.”

Rory smoothly maneuvered the SUV onto the slim country road. After a minute, the lights of the farm came into view. A minute after that she directed him to turn down the lane. Snow coated the firs that formed a tunnel to a bright red barn that was surrounded by four white plank outbuildings. Floodlights lit the area. Cars were parked wherever appeared convenient. Some in front of buildings. Some at the side of the lane. Tree shoppers walked the thin lines between the rows of tall, majestic firs.

They stopped in front of the first outbuilding. Rory helped Finley out of the car seat they’d installed in the back of Shannon’s SUV for her. She glanced around in awe. “Wow.”

Rory stooped down in front of her. “I’m going to let you walk until you get tired. But as soon as you get tired, you need to tell us. It’s too cold to be out here too long.”

Even as he said that a gust of wind blew away the tiny white flakes of snow that glittered in his hair and fell to the shoulders of his black leather jacket. Shannon watched, mesmerized. He was so gorgeous, yet so normal.

He rose and took Finley’s hand. “So how do we do this?”

Shannon took Finley’s other hand. “We get a tag from the cashier over there.” She pointed at a young girl who stood in front of a table holding a cash register. “Then we walk down the rows until we see a tree that we like and we tag it. One of us goes out to get one of the helpers to cut down our tree while the other two stay with the tree.” She looked around at the large crowd of tree shoppers. It might not have been such a wise idea to wait until this close to Christmas to choose her tree. Of course, with last weekend’s storm she hadn’t had much choice. “Since they’re busy, this might take a while.”

Finley grinned. “I don’t care.”

Rory laughed. “Yeah, you wouldn’t. If you get cold or tired, somebody’s going to carry you.” She giggled.

Shannon laughed, too. Not just because of Finley but because Rory was such a good dad. So easygoing with Finley and so accepting of her limitations.

After getting a tag from the cashier, they headed into the first row and Shannon drew in a deep breath of the pine-scented air.

Rory reverently said, “This is amazing.”

Shannon glanced around, trying to remember what the tree farm had felt like to her the first time she’d seen it. Tall pines towered around them. Snow pirouetted in the floodlights illuminating the area. The scent of pine and snow enveloped them.

She smiled. “Yeah. It is amazing.”

He glanced over. The smile he gave her was careful, tentative. A wave of guilt washed through her. She’d been so standoffish with him the past two days that he probably thought she hated him.

“Did you come here often as a child?”

“Every year with my dad.” She laughed, remembering some of the more memorable years. “He always had a vision of the tree he wanted. Some holidays it was a short, fat tree. Others it was a tree so tall it barely fit into our living room.”

He smiled. “Sounds fun.”

“It was.” She swallowed. After her behavior the past two days, he would be within his rights to be grouchy with her. Actually, he could have refused to take this trip with her. Instead, here he was, with his daughter, ready to help pick out a tree and carry it into her house for her.

With a quick breath for courage, she said, “What about you? Did you have any Christmas traditions as a kid?”

“Not really traditions as much as things we’d pull out of a hat every year to make it special or fun.”

“Like what?”

He peeked over at her. “Well, for one, we’d make as big of a deal out of Christmas Eve as we did Christmas. My mom would bake a ham and make a potato salad and set out cookies, cakes, pies and then invite everyone from the neighborhood.” He chuckled. “Those were some fun nights. We never knew what to expect. Sometimes the neighbors would have family visiting and they’d bring them along. Some nights, we’d end up around the piano singing carols. One night, we all put on our coats and went caroling to the people on the street who couldn’t make it to our house for some reason.”

“Sounds fun.”

“It was fun.”

He said the words as if he were resurrecting long-forgotten memories and it hit her that he’d been left that Christmas two years ago as much as Finley had been. She wondered how much of his own Christmas joy had been buried in the pain of the past two years.

“Tell me more.”

“After the big shindig on Christmas Eve, you’d think Christmas day would be small potatoes, but my mom always found a way to make it special.” He laughed. “I remember the year she tried to make apple-and-cinnamon pancakes.”

“Sounds yummy.”

“Only if you like charcoal. She got it into her head for some reason or another that they’d taste better if she didn’t use the grill but fried them in a frying pan the way her mom used to when she was little.”

“Uh-oh.”

“She couldn’t adjust the temperature and most of them burned. At one point the pan itself started burning.” He shook his head and laughed. “I’ve always been glad my dad was quick with a fire extinguisher.”

Finley began swinging their arms back and forth. Rory took another deep breath of the pine-scented air. A small shudder worked through Shannon’s heart. It was the perfect outing. Just like a mom and dad with their daughter, they walked the long thin rows, looking for the tree that would make their living room complete. And every time they’d start walking after pausing to examine a tree, Finley would swing their hands.

“What about this one?”

Rory had stopped at a towering blue spruce. Shannon studied it critically. “You don’t think it’s too tall?”

“Better too tall than too short. If it’s too tall, we can always shave a few inches from the bottom.”

She looked at it again. The needles were soft but bushy. Healthy. The branches were thick. There were no “holes,” as her father would say. No places where you could see the wall behind the tree because there was no branch filling in the space.

“I like it.”

“Then let’s tag it,” Rory said, reaching out to grab a branch and attach the tag. His arm brushed against her and Shannon jumped back. When their gazes met, she immediately regretted it.

He was so good to her, so kind and she was nothing but jumpy.

She swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

He pulled away. “You’re just nervous.”

That sounded like as good of an excuse as any. Especially since it was true. He did make her nervous. He made her shaky and antsy and all kinds of things because she liked him. Still, she didn’t need to tell him why she was nervous.

“It’s cold. It’s close to Christmas. I have lots of work to do.” She shrugged. “So, yes, I’m nervous.”

He cast a quick glance down at Finley, who was preoccupied with fitting her little pink boot into the footprint of someone who had walked down the row before them. “You’re not nervous because you like me?” He smiled endearingly. “Not even a little bit?”

His question was so unexpected that she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, stalling, trying to figure out what to say. She didn’t want to insult or encourage him.

Finally, confused and out of her element, she said, “I’m not sure.”

He laughed. “You like me.”

Her breath stuttered into her lungs at his confidence. She was on the verge of denying it, like a third grader confronted by the cute guy in class and too afraid to admit her crush, but he didn’t give her time.

He turned and faced Finley. “Want to stay with Shannon or walk back with me so that we can get one of the tree cutters back here to help us out?”

She didn’t even hesitate. “I’ll stay with Shannon.”

He gave Shannon a wink before he turned and headed down the row. Finley said, “I like your tree.”

Shannon glanced down with a smile. “I do, too.”

“My dad picked out a good one. He’s smart.”

“Yes, he is smart,” Shannon agreed, but her throat was closing and her knees were growing weak. He hadn’t confronted her about liking him to give her a chance to argue. He’d made a statement of fact, then walked away, as if giving her time to accept it.

Accept it?

She knew she liked him. She fought her feelings for him every day. He hadn’t needed to tell her. He hadn’t needed to get it out in the open for them to deal with.

She sucked in a breath. Stupid to panic. In another day or two, he’d be done looking at her store. Then he’d leave. And the rest of their dealings would be done through lawyers. Even if they had to meet to sign an agreement, it would be at a lawyer’s office.

They wouldn’t spend enough time together for her “liking him” to mean anything. Even if he liked her back.

Which he did—

Oh, dear God. That’s why he’d said that! He was preparing her to hear him tell her that he liked her.

With a glance down the row, she saw Rory returning with the tree cutter. She moved Finley out of the way as they approached.

As if he hadn’t just dropped the bombshell that threatened to destroy the entire evening, Rory said, “You can go down and pay if you want.”

She nodded, and, holding Finley’s hand, she raced down to the cashier. She paid for the tree and directed Finley to the SUV, where Rory and the farm employee were tying her blue spruce to her vehicle’s roof.

As they got inside the vehicle and headed home, Shannon and Rory were quiet. But Finley chatted up a storm.

“So how do we get the tree in the house?”

Rory said, “We’ll park as close as we can to the porch, then I’ll hoist it on my shoulder and hope for the best.”

Finley giggled. Shannon almost laughed, too. She could picture him wobbling a bit with an entire tree on his shoulder.

“And then what do we do with it?”

He looked over at Shannon. “I’m guessing Shannon has a tree stand.”

“What’s a tree stand?”

Shannon took this one. “That’s the thing that holds up the tree. Since it doesn’t have roots anymore, it needs help standing.”

Finley nodded sagely. “Oh.” Then she grinned. “Do we get hot cocoa after that?”

“As much as you want.”

Rory peeked over at Shannon. “But not so much that she’s too wired to go to sleep tonight.”

An unexpected longing shot an arrow straight to her heart. She wanted them to stay the night. She wanted to put the tree up in the living room, make hot cocoa and decorate the tree with them. Not just Finley, but Rory, too. She’d liked his stories of happy Christmas Eves and Christmases. She liked that his mom couldn’t cook any better than she could. She liked that he didn’t mind telling stories of his past. She liked that he didn’t mind leaving her with his child, doing the heavy lifting of the tree… Who was she kidding? She also liked that he was good-looking, funny, smart—and that he liked her.

She turned to look out the window. He liked her. Her heart swelled with happiness, even as her stomach plummeted. He could like her until the cows came home, but that didn’t change the fact that they wouldn’t ever be together.

Pulling into her driveway, Rory said, “I think the easiest way to get the tree off the SUV is for me to stand on one side, while you stand on the other. You untie your side of the ropes first. I’ll do mine second. Then I’ll ease the tree off on my side.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Finley leaned forward. “Yeah. Sounds like a plant.”

Rory laughed. “She said plan. It sounds like a plan.”

“But a tree is a plant!”

Shannon slanted him a look. “She’s got you there.”

They got out of the SUV laughing. Rory stood on the driver’s side, while Shannon stayed on the passenger’s side.

“Okay,” he called. “You untie the ropes on your end.”

As quickly as she could, Shannon undid the ropes currently holding the tree to her side of the SUV.

“Okay!”

“Okay!” Rory called back. “Now, I’ll untie mine.”

The branches of the blue spruce shimmied a bit as he dealt with the ropes. Then suddenly it shivered a little harder, then began to downright shake. Before Shannon knew what was happening, it rolled toward her, and then tumbled off the roof.

Finley screamed and raced up the porch. Shannon squealed and jumped out of the way, but the tree brushed her as it plopped into the snow.

Rory came running over. In a move that appeared as instinctive as breathing, he grabbed her and pulled her to him. “Oh, my God! Are you all right?”

Even through his jacket she could feel his heart thundering in his chest. Feel his labored, frightened breathing.

“It just brushed me.” She tried to say the words easily, but they came out slow and shaky. It had been so long since a man had cared about her so much that he hugged her without thinking, so long since she’d been pressed up against a man’s chest, cocooned in a safe embrace. Loved.

She squeezed her eyes shut. There it was. The thing that scared her about him. He was tumbling head over heels in love with her, as quickly as she was falling for him. She’d spent days denying it. Then another two days avoiding it, thinking it would go away. But it wasn’t going away.

They were falling in love.

CHAPTER NINE

RORY PULLED THE TREE UP and hoisted it over his shoulder the way he’d told Finley he would.

Shannon watched him. Her heart in her throat with fear that he might hurt himself, then awe at the sheer power and strength of him. He might work in an office all day, but he was still a man’s man. Still strong. Masculine. Handsome.

Oh, Lord, she had it bad.

And the worst part was, he knew.

Thanking God for the built-in chaperone of Finley, she scrambled up the stairs behind him. She could hear Finley’s little voice saying, “Okay, turn left, Daddy.” She squealed. “Duck down! Duck down! You’re going to hit the doorway!”

Shannon quickened her pace.

Rory dropped the tree to the living-room floor with a gentle thump. He grinned at her. “You women. Afraid of a little bit of dirty work.”

Shannon glanced down at the pine needles around her feet. “A little bit of dirty work? I’ll be vacuuming for days to get these needles up.”

Rory laughed. “Where’s your tree stand?”

“It’s by the window.”

He made short order of getting the tree in the stand. After removing her boots and coat, Finley stood on the club chair nearby giving orders. “It’s leaning to the left.”

He moved it.

“Now it’s leaning to the right.”

They were so cute, and it was so wonderful to have them in her house, that her heart filled with love. Real love. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had fallen in love with them. Especially Rory. Finley would grow up and move on. But she could see herself growing old with Rory.

And that was wrong. Really wrong. So she ducked out of the living room for a minute or two of private time in the kitchen.

Busying herself with making cocoa for Finley, she chided herself. “So you’re falling in love. Big deal. He’s gorgeous. He’s good with his daughter. And—” She sucked in a breath. “He likes you, too. Is it any wonder you’re being drawn in?”

The kitchen door swung open. Rory walked in. “Are you talking to yourself?”

Her blood froze in her veins. This was a consequence of living alone for the past few months. She did talk to herself. Out loud.

Hoping he hadn’t heard what she’d said, only the mumbling of her talking, she brushed it off. “Old habit.” Turning from the stove to face him, she said, “Not a big deal.”

Then she looked into his eyes, saw the attraction she’d been denying and avoiding, and her pulse skittered. What she wouldn’t give to be able to accept this. To run with it. Step into his arms and look into his eyes and just blatantly flirt with him.

As if reading her mind, he walked over, caught her elbows and brought her to him. “Thanks for tonight. Finley had a great time and I did, too.”

His entire body brushed up against hers, touching, hinting, teasing her with thoughts of how it would feel to be held by him romantically. Her heart tumbled in her chest. Her brain said, Say you’re welcome and step away, but her feet stood rooted to the spot. She’d longed to be wanted for an entire year, yearned for it. And here he was a whisper away.

“Do you think we should have a little conversation about what I told you at the tree farm?”

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