Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (O'Rourke Family 5) by Julianna Morris Page B

fairness won. Alex had to be careful. He had Jeremy to think about, and she was never going to be nominated mother of the year.
    The faint scent of smoke lingered in the house, and she wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry about the cookies,” she said to Jeremy. “I’m not very good at cooking.”
    He twisted and put his arms around her neck. “That’s okay, Shannon. I don’t care.”
    She blinked, still fighting those annoying tears. “I know a great bakery. They’d probably let us come and watch them bake a gingerbread house. We’ll ask your daddy if it’s all right.”
    “Can we go, Daddy?” Jeremy asked eagerly. “You can come, too.”
    It sounded like a careless afterthought and Shannon smothered a laugh. Yet she sobered quickly, rememberingthe pain Alex had expressed about Jeremy wanting to spend time with her rather than him. He worried about his son, like any good father. But while Jeremy was looking for a way out of the sadness, his daddy seemed determined to look backward, instead of reaching for the future.
    Like the kitten, Alex probably wanted to be loved…he just didn’t trust that it wouldn’t end up hurting him.
    She looked again at Alex’s handsome features and the shadows that lingered in his eyes. He needed laughter. He needed to learn how to play and enjoy life.
    He needed to stop being stuck in the past.
    And so did she.

Chapter Eight
    “D own you go, son,” Alex said as Shannon opened the door of the bakery on Saturday. He lifted Jeremy from his shoulders and then held his hand as they stepped into the crisp outside air.
    The scents of spice and vanilla and chocolate clung to their clothing and Shannon smiled.
    It wasn’t the New Year yet, but she’d made a resolution to look to the future, instead of being afraid of what it might not hold. Of course, that didn’t mean she shouldn’t be careful about Alex. He’d made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want a permanent relationship with any woman, so falling for him wouldn’t be smart.
    In the meantime, it was almost like having a family of her own, the three of them walking down the holly- and pine-decorated street. She carried a box filled with perfect gingerbread people; they would add some to the Christmas tree when they got home, and others would be eaten with milk.
    Naturally Alex hadn’t let her pay for them. His stubborn pride was sweetly annoying, but she could forgive him. He hadn’t teased her once about the burned cookies, or complained about the odor of smoke in his house.
    “Ho, ho, ho,” cried a sidewalk Santa, ringing his bell. “Merry Christmas.”
    Shannon reached into her purse and withdrew several bills and a handful of change to throw into his kettle.
    “Why’d you do that, Shannon?” Jeremy asked
    “Santa is trying to help people,” she explained.
    “Daddy doesn’t believe in Santa.”
    She gave Alex a stern look. The man needed a kick in his scrumptious rear end.
    He cleared his throat. “Actually, I said that Santa is more like a state of mind than someone real.”
    “Pop psychology rears its head again.”
    They stopped and Jeremy pressed his nose against a store window where mechanical figures simulated Santa’s workshop. Santa wore striped stockings and glasses and peered intently at a half-finished fire engine.
    “A little fantasy can’t hurt,” she said softly. “What’s wrong with letting him believe?”
    Alex pulled her farther from Jeremy’s ears. “I can’t do that, not after telling him everything would be all right when his mother got sick. It wasn’t all right, and I knew it wouldn’t be, but I still said it.”
    Shannon’s heart skipped a beat. “Mom said it would be all right the day we buried my father.”
    “Then you know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen the way you miss your dad. What’s all right about that?”
    “You never stop missing the people you love,” Shannon said, understanding better than ever before what her motherhad tried to tell her. Life