CHAPTER SIX

      AT SIX O’CLOCK that night Rory and Finley stepped into a very comfortable hotel room. A double bed sat in the middle of the room, and, as he’d requested when he made his reservation, a cot for Finley sat beside the bed. As he tossed their suitcases into the closet and slid his briefcase onto the desk, the feelings from the kiss he’d shared with Shannon that afternoon still vibrated through him. Unfortunately, all those wonderful sensations were mitigated by the awkwardness afterward. Worse, he couldn’t stop thinking about Shannon herself. Her future. What would she do without the store?

      He might not be taking away her “dream” but he was taking away her job. And maybe her home. With only one department store in her small city, there was no other store in town for her to manage. She’d definitely have to move away.

      They’d been so busy all afternoon that she’d easily avoided talking abut her life and that kiss. But he had to talk to her again. He couldn’t sit here in a hotel all night and wonder. Plus, he’d finally figured out she probably didn’t want to talk about her decisions in the hallway of an office where she could be overheard.

      Finley shrugged out of her jacket, but he pushed it up her arms again.

      “Hey!”

      He stooped down in front of her. “I have a favor to ask.”

      She blinked.

      “You know how Shannon took us in this weekend?”

      She nodded.

      “Well, she did us a favor.”

      She tilted her head in question. “Uh-huh.”

      “So now we have to return the favor.”

      “We do?”

      “Yes.” He pulled in a breath. It wasn’t a fabulous plan, but it was the only plan he could come up with, so he was running with it. “Shannon was supposed to decorate her house for Christmas over the weekend.”

      Finley’s eyes grew round and large. She wasn’t a dummy. She knew what was coming.

      He sucked it up and just told her straight out. “But because we were in her home, she didn’t decorate. She entertained us. So since we owe her for taking us in, I was thinking we should go to her house and help her do the work she would have done had we not needed her help.”

      He’d couched his request in such a way Finley would see how much they were in Shannon’s debt. Still, she frowned. “I don’t want to.”

      “I don’t doubt that. But didn’t she give you a way to think about Christmas today that made it seem easy for you?”

      “Yeah.”

      “So, she’s done us more than one favor and now we’re going to repay her. That’s the way life works.”

      Her lower lip jutted out.

      He rose anyway. “Suck it up, kid. We owe her. We’re doing this. And no hissy fits or diva behavior. You might not like Christmas but Shannon does and I won’t spoil this for her. So we’re going.”

      She sighed heavily but didn’t argue.

      He found a phone book and ordered Chinese food before shepherding Finley back to the car. They stopped for the takeout food, and were on Shannon’s front porch within the hour.

      She answered their knock quickly, as if she’d been standing right by the door. When she saw them, a smile of pleasure blossomed on her pretty face, making Rory realize he’d made the right choice. “Hey.”

      He held up the Chinese food. “I brought a peace offering.”

      She motioned for them to step inside. “Peace offering?”

      He handed her the bags of food, and wrestled out of his topcoat. “We wasted your entire weekend. So we decided to help you decorate.”

      Her gaze flew to Finley. “Really?”

      “Yes.” He glanced down at his daughter. “Right?”

      Finley sighed. “Right.”

      Shannon led them into the kitchen. “Well, thank you very much. I can use the help.” Depositing the food on the center island, she added, “Would you rather eat first and decorate second, or eat as we decorate?”

      “How about eat as we decorate?” He slid his gaze to Finley, hoping Shannon would get the message that if Finley was busy eating then she wouldn’t actually have to decorate. An easy way to avoid trouble.

      She nodded slightly, indicating she’d caught his drift. “I have some paper plates we can use.” She walked to the cupboard to get them. “We’ll make it like a picnic.”

      They set everything up on the coffee table between the floral sofa and twin sage-green club chairs. When it came to dealing with Finley, Shannon was fine. But when the room grew quiet and Finley was busy eating rice and sweet-and-sour chicken, shivers of fear sprinkled her skin.

      He’d kissed her. Spontaneously. Wonderfully. And everything inside of her had responded. It wasn’t a kiss of lust or surprise, as it would have been had he kissed her over the weekend. This kiss had been…emotional.

      They liked each other. Two and a half days of forced company coupled with a day of walking through her store, finding out about each other, had taken their physical attraction and turned it into an emotional attachment.

      It was wonderful…and scary…and wrong.

      She knew the end of this rainbow. If they got involved—dated—at some point she’d have to tell him she couldn’t have kids.

      And everything between them would change. Even the way he saw her—

      Especially the way he saw her.

      She pulled in a breath. Told herself to settle down. If he bought the store, she would leave. If he didn’t, he would leave. He’d go back to his life and company in Virginia, and she would stay here. Distance alone would keep them from dating. And if they didn’t date, she wouldn’t have to tell him.

      So why not enjoy the evening?

      Or use it as a chance to bring Finley along? No child should hate a holiday filled with wonder and magic. Her mom should be ashamed for ruining one of the best times of the year for her daughter. But in the past three days, Finley gone from being horrified about anything even related to the holiday, to actually laughing at the Christmas songs piped into the cafeteria. Maybe it was time to nudge her a little more?

      Catching a piece of chicken in her chopsticks, she said, “You know, I like Christmas music when I decorate.