SUSAN MEIER - A Diamond For Christmas - Kisses on Her Christmas List / Her Christmas Eve Diamond / Single Dad's Holiday Wedding

He waved.

Finley waved. “Hi, Daddy!” Then she glanced around when her voice echoed around her. “That is so cool.”

“It’s a cool place.” She turned Finley toward the top of the hill again. “I’ll bet we can sled down twice before your dad gets to the ledge.”

Finley grabbed her sled. “Okay!”

They raced down another two times before Rory finally joined them on the ledge. “That was some ride.”

Shannon peered over the edge. A reasonably wide strip wound between the rows of trees, but the hill itself was steep and long. “I’ll bet it was.”

He offered the runner sled to her. “Wanna try?”

She laughed. “Not a chance.”

“Hey, sledding was your idea. I thought you were a pro.”

“I haven’t really gone sledding in years—”

Before she could finish her sentence Rory tossed the sled to the ground and punched into her like a line-backer. She fell on the sled. He fell on top of her and they took off down the hill. For several seconds she had no breath. When she finally caught a gulp of air, she screamed. Really screamed. But soon her screams of fear became screams of delight. The thrill of the speed whooshed through her. The wind whipping across her face felt glorious.

They hit the bottom with a thump.

Obviously paying attention to the grove of trees ahead of them, Rory banked left, toppling the sled to a stop. She rolled on the ground. He rolled beside her.

She turned her head to face him; he turned to face her and they burst out laughing.

Finley’s little voice echoed down the hill. “Me next, Daddy!”

He bounced up and held his hand out to Shannon, helping her up.

“That was amazing.”

He picked up the sled. “I know. It was like being a kid again. Fun. Free.” Holding the sled with one hand, he looped his other arm across her shoulders. “Now we have to trudge about fifty feet up a hill.”

She laughed, but her insides tickled. Even working at the store, she’d been nothing but lonely in the past year. Not because she didn’t have friends. She did. Lots of them. Not because she missed her husband. Any man who’d desert a woman the day she had a hysterectomy was an ass. But because she’d missed belonging. With Rory and Finley she felt as if she belonged.

She sucked in a breath, erasing that thought. These two would be with her for one more day—well, one evening and one night. Maybe breakfast in the morning. She couldn’t get attached to them.

Still, when they reached the top and found Finley bouncing with delight, happiness filled her again. Finley was a sweet little girl who deserved some fun. Maybe even a break from the reality of her life—that her mom didn’t want her.

Rory scooped her off the ground and fell with her onto the sled. The weight of their bodies set the sled in motion and it slid down the little slope. Shannon fell to her own sled and careened behind them so she could jump off when she reached the ledge and watch them as they whipped down the bigger hill.

Finley’s squeals of pleasure echoed through the forest. Shannon’s chest puffed out with pride. She’d thought of the idea that had turned a potentially dismal afternoon into an afternoon of joy.

She watched Finley and Rory plod back up the hill. When they reached the ledge, she stooped down and hugged Finley. “That was fun, wasn’t it?”

Her eyes rounded with joy. “It was great!” She turned to her dad. “Let’s go again.”

“Hey, I just slogged up that hill three times. I need a break.” He headed up the slope again. “But you can ride your saucer down the little hill as much as you want.”

Surprisingly, Finley said, “Okay,” and followed him up the slope. At the top, she set her butt on the saucer and sent herself lobbing down the hill.

Rory dropped to the snow. “I am seriously tired.”

Shannon plopped beside him. “After three little rides?”

He tweaked a curl that had escaped from her knit cap. “Three little rides? You try walking up that hill three times in a row with no break.”

Finley’s final whoop of laughter as she slid to a stop on the ledge reached them. Shannon’s heart swelled again, filled with warmth and joy. This was what it would feel like to have a real family. A loving husband. An adorable child.

Watching Finley trudge up the slope with her saucer, Rory said, “This is why I love having a kid. The fun. When Finley’s not in a mood, she can be incredibly fun.” He peeked at Shannon. “And spontaneous. The things she says sometimes crack me up.”

She glanced down the hill at Finley, saw the joy on her face, the snow on her tummy, and she laughed. “Yeah. She’s cute.”

Shannon’s laughter filled Rory with peace. The whole afternoon had been fun, even though he’d told her about his ex-wife. Or maybe because he’d told her about his ex-wife. She seemed to feel enough sympathy for Finley that she’d gone out of her way to make his little girl happy.

“You really love Finley, don’t you?”

Her question surprised him so much that he glanced over at her again. The sun sparkled off the snow that clung to her. Her full lips bowed up in a smile of pure pleasure as she watched his child—his pride and joy—pick herself up and head up the hill.

“I adore her. I love being a dad.”

Her smile trembled a bit. “I bet you do.”

He snorted a laugh. “You’ve seen the bad side of parenting in the past twenty-four hours. Most of the time Finley makes me laugh, fills in my world.” He shrugged. “Actually, she makes my world make sense, gives all the work I do a purpose.”

“You’re a great dad.”

“Yeah, too bad I won’t have any more kids.”

Her face registered such a weird expression that he felt he needed to explain. “When a spouse leaves the way mine did, no explanation, no trying to work things out, just a plain old ‘I don’t love you anymore and I certainly don’t want to be a mom…’” He shrugged again, forced his gaze away from her, over to the blue, blue sky. “Well, you’re left with a little bit more than a bad taste in your mouth for marriage.”

“Marriage doesn’t have anything to do with having kids.”

He laughed. “You’re right. Not in this day and age, with adoption and surrogate mothers.” He caught her gaze again. “But it’s difficult enough to handle Finley—one child—without a mom. I couldn’t imagine adding another. So it’s just me and Finley for the rest of our lives.”

“Even though you love kids, you wouldn’t try any of the other options?”

“Nope. But if I had a wife I would. Of course, if I had a wife I could have kids the old-fashioned way.” He waggled his eyebrows, but the truth of that settled over him and he stopped being silly. “If I could commit again, I’d love to have more kids. My kids. A little boy who’d look like me. Another little girl who might look like her mom.”

When he caught her gaze again, her eyes were soft and sad. He could have been confused by her reaction, except he knew his voice had gotten every bit as soft and sad. He’d revealed some personal tidbits that she probably wasn’t expecting. Hell, even he hadn’t realized he felt all those things about kids until the conversation had turned that way.

Of course, she’d sort of turned it that way.

Now that he thought about it, she owed him some equally personal tidbits. “So what about you? No husband? No kids? Married to your store?”

She brushed her hand along the top of the snow. “This time last year I was married.”

“Oh?” Something oddly territorial rattled through him, surprising him. Sure, he was attracted to her…but jealous? Of a guy from her past? That was just stupid.

She batted a hand. “I got dumped pretty much the same way you did.” Avoiding his gaze, she ran her mittened hand along the surface of the snow again. “One day he loved me. The next day he didn’t.”