Susan Meier - A Diamond For Christmas

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. You laughed about the Christmas songs today at lunch. So I’m just going to pop in a CD right now.”

Finley glanced at Rory. He shrugged. “Just think of them like cartoons. The way Shannon told you this afternoon.”

Finley sighed. Shannon found the Christmas music but kept the volume low. A soft mellow song drifted into the room. Finley turned her attention to her dinner. Wanting to get as much done as she could while Finley was cooprerative, Shannon grabbed the spools of tinsel she’d created the night before.

“I’m going to hang these from the ceiling.”

Rory glanced over at her. “Is that code for I need a tall person to help me?”

She laughed. “Yes.”

He took the tinsel from her hand. She pointed at a corner. “What my dad used to do at our old house was string the tinsel from one corner to the center, and from the center to the opposite corner, making two loops. Then we’d do that again from the other corners.”

He frowned. “Why don’t you just direct me?”

“Okay. Walk to the corner, attach the tinsel with a tack, then loop it to the center of the ceiling.”

He did as she said. When they met in the center, she tacked the tinsel in place. “Now walk to the opposite corner and tack the tinsel up there.”

When the line of tinsel was in place, he smiled. “Not bad. Sort of festive.”

“Glad you like it.” She handed him another strand of tinsel. “Because now we’ve got to do the other two corners.”

He happily took the strand of tinsel and repeated the looping process.

When he was done, she offered him the ball of mistletoe her dad always put in the center. “Just hang this where the strands meet.”

He looked at the mistletoe, looked at her.

Then it hit her. The mistletoe was pretty, but it was plastic. They’d hung the silly thing in their living room for years and, basically, no one paid any attention to the fact that it was mistletoe or the traditions that surrounded it.

Obviously, Rory wasn’t so casual about it.

Embarrassment should have shot through her. Instead, when their gazes met, the warmth of connection flooded her. She really liked this guy.

But she’d already figured out that they weren’t right for each other. Plus, once he made a decision about her store, they’d never see each other again. They had no time to form a deep emotional attachment. There’d be no time for a real commitment. They’d spend so little time together there wouldn’t even be a brush with one. Was it so wrong to want another kiss?

It might not be wrong, per se, but it did lead them down a slippery slope. A slope she might not recover from if she actually fell for him in this little span of time they had together. If they fell, and he asked her to stay or asked her to come to Virginia with him, or ask for any kind of commitment at all, she’d have to tell him.

And she couldn’t do that. Not again.

She caught his gaze. “We don’t have to bow to the whims of superstition or tradition.”

He bounced the ball of mistletoe on his palm. “But what if we want to?”

Frissions of delight raced through her bloodstream. She couldn’t stop the pleasure that blossomed in her chest. But that only made her realize how easily she could fall and how careful she’d have to be spending the next few days with him at the store.

Still, she didn’t want to make a big deal out of this. She tapped his arm playfully. “Just hang the darn thing.”