Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (O'Rourke Family 5) (13 page)

It opened abruptly and he scowled when she didn’t say anything right away.

“Explain that.” He pointed to the Realtor’s sign.

“Where is Jeremy?” she asked instead. He wanted to shake her.

“Jeremy is in the Jeep, keeping warm.” Alex looked at her hungrily, aching at the dark smudges beneath her eyes. “I don’t understand. I was a jerk the other night, but that’s hardly a reason to do something so drastic. Can’t you just blame it on faulty male chromosomes?”

“It isn’t that simple. I really can’t—”

“I just want an explanation,” he shouted, not caring who heard him, or what they’d think. That was what Shannon had done; she had finally made him as nuts as the insane people he’d grown up wanting to escape. “Please explain,” he said more quietly. “
Please
, Shannon.”

“I … I know that it’s hurting you, me being here.”

“It isn’t that bad,” he said, his throat tight from everything he wanted to say, but couldn’t.

“Yes, it is. We’re tearing each other apart. We can’t keep living next to each other, and since I don’t have a child to think about, it’s only right that I’m the one to leave.”

Alex stared. The stark unhappiness in Shannon’s eyes wasn’t about wounded feelings. She loved him, with more intensity and goodness than he could ever deserve.

Memories flitted through his head: raging battles between his parents, the big and small cruelties they’d handed out on a daily basis. They’d loved each other, too, before it turned to hatred. But he finally knew why they could hurt each other so badly…it was because they’d cared more about their own concerns and well-being than about each other.

But Shannon cared about him.

She cared so much, she was willing to put him and his son’s welfare ahead of her own. She would never intentionally use his heart against him. All he had to do was find the courage to risk losing everything again.

And to gain everything.

Because he already loved her. She’d become more important to him than breathing, though he had done his best to deny the truth and push her away because of fear and guilt.

“I love you,” he breathed, suddenly free in a way he’d never been. The decision was really very simple—life might be uncertain, but without Shannon, it wasn’t worth living. “I know I was a fool, but don’t leave us. Jeremy and I can’t make it without you.”

“You can’t…it’s too soon.”

Alex put her hand over his heart, pressing her fingers to its beating rhythm.

“You’re wrong, Shannon. You were just in time. All my
life I’ve been afraid of emotions because of my parents’ mistakes. I married a woman I loved, but I let my childhood keep us from the closeness we should have had.”

Shannon watched him doubtfully.

“I don’t want to make that same mistake twice,” he said urgently. “You showed me that hiding from what I feel isn’t really being alive, and I want to be alive. But can you trust me enough to share all the things you’ve kept hidden since your father died?”

Shannon trembled. She’d expected Alex to be relieved she was leaving: expected that he would allow a polite good-bye to Jeremy and be glad he didn’t have to deal with her any longer. Yet now he was offering her the world.

“I …are you sure?”

“More sure than I’ve ever been. Please marry me, Shannon. Love me forever. Trust me enough to be strong for you when things are bad.”

Shannon searched Alex’s face and saw unqualified adoration. Love and trust and a thousand other promises were vowed in his level gaze.

“I’ve never spoken about my father with anyone, not the way I talked to you about him,” she said softly. “Or of most of the things I’ve told you about, and it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t trust you already.” Alex’s heart pounded furiously beneath her fingers. “But as much as I trust you, I love you even more,” she finished.

He pulled her close and she laughed.

“Jeremy can see us. What if he gets ideas?”

“My son had the right idea all along. But come on, let’s tell him.”

She laughed again as she was rushed across the lawn to the Jeep Cherokee.

“Good news, Jeremy,” Alex said exultantly. “We have a late Christmas present for you.”

“What is it?” Jeremy asked, wriggling impatiently as his father released him from the car seat.

“Shannon is going to be your new mommy.”

Jeremy became very still. “For honest real, Daddy?”

“For honest real, son.”

Jeremy lunged into Shannon’s arms. “I was afraid, but on Christmas, my first mommy told me it would be okay,” he said, his voice muffled against her shoulder. “She sang me a song and said Daddy just needed to let go. I didn’t know what that meant, but she said Daddy knew.”

Shannon blinked away tears, though she didn’t know how Alex would react to his son’s declaration. She’d always accepted there was a larger world beyond human perception, but Alex had never been taught that love didn’t know any boundaries.

“Then it’s unanimous,” Alex said, smiling as if he’d never stop. “Trust me,” he whispered.

She nodded and he gathered them both into his arms. Their lips met in a kiss that drove away the last shadows and doubts, everything but the miracle of two people finding each other.

“D
id you convince her?” Alex demanded as his wife put down the phone.

“I talked to her, that’s all,” Shannon said. “You know Gail has to make up her own mind, and it won’t help if you pressure her one way or the other.”

“But her firm is opening a division in the Seattle area,” Alex fumed. He’d become much closer to his sister in the past year and wanted them to spend more time together. “And if she lived here, then she wouldn’t have to miss Christmas with us because of some idiotic project.”

Shannon laughed and rubbed the small of her back. She loved being pregnant, but the baby’s size was beginning to interfere with daily activities…like getting dressed and climbing the two staircases of their 1890 farmhouse.

She sighed with pleasure as she looked around the living room. It was the last sort of house she’d wanted to live in again, but she’d changed her mind the moment they’d
seen it and Alex had gotten a kid-in-a-candy-shop look on his face. The old place was great to decorate for Christmas…something she’d actually managed to do on her own.

Of course, she might have gone overboard. With the lighted pine garland on the staircases and fireplace mantels, dozens of poinsettias, and Christmas trees in every window, it was a holiday wonderland. Kane had insisted she take maternity leave early, so she had used the time to decorate to her heart’s content.

She had also come up with the idea of having several cookie-baking parties at the house, so Jeremy’s cookie cravings had been handled by his new aunts and his grandmother—no fire extinguishers needed.

“Are you all right?” Alex fussed as he pushed pillows behind her back. “You need to rest more.”

“I’m fine. If I didn’t know better, I would think you’d never gone through this before. But I do know better, because the proof is attending kindergarten this year.”

“It’s the first time I’ve gone through it with
you
,” he retorted. “And you’re so damned uncooperative about following the doctor’s orders, you’re making me crazy.”

Shannon grinned. “She said to put my feet up several times a day, not to become an invalid.”

“She also said not to get too tired.”

“You’re the one getting tired, running around and waiting on me. It’s your Christmas break. You have to quit—” Her scolding was smothered by Alex’s kiss, which started out teasing, and ended with them both out of breath.

“Have I told you today how much I love you?” he whispered.

“Yes, but I never get tired of hearing it,” she murmured.

The past year had seen them through a family wedding,
fierce disagreements, home-selling and buying, and the kind of passionate loving that made her current condition all the sweeter. Things hadn’t been easy, they’d both needed to make adjustments and compromises, but Shannon hadn’t expected easy. Anybody could have easy; she wanted something worth working to have and to keep.

“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,” sang Jeremy as he trotted into the room. He was a year bigger, and even dearer to Shannon’s heart, if that was possible. A few months before, he had given Mr. Tibbles to her for permanent safekeeping, and she’d carefully packed the tired rabbit away with the baby clothes that Kim McKenzie had saved. “Mommy, when are we gonna go singing?”

Alex raised an eyebrow at his wife and tried to look stern. “Singing? In your condition?”

“It’s Christmas Eve.” She smiled innocently. “I thought everyone could go caroling before we attend the candle-lighting service. Jeremy has never gone caroling before, so it’s an educational experience. Besides, he’ll have fun.”

By “everyone” Alex knew she meant the entire O’Rourke clan. Little by little, Shannon had given him her family, pulling Gail into their circle of love, as well. She’d been making noises about his brother lately, and Alex knew as soon as Sam emerged from his research assignment in the Arctic, he’d be overwhelmed by his sister-in-law.

Alex grinned.

Sam didn’t stand a chance against a determined redhead. None of the McKenzies did. To Alex’s never-ending amazement, he actually enjoyed the inevitable battle of wills between him and his wife, knowing that love hovered as an ever-present peacemaker.

“Am I gonna have a new brother or sister for Christmas?”
Jeremy asked, eyeing Shannon’s nonexistent lap. He had to be content with sitting next to her on the couch.

“Santa is working on that,” Shannon said, squirming in an attempt to get comfortable.

Alex felt a familiar anxiety. The baby was already overdue. He wanted to suggest that they stay home where it was warm and dry and quiet, but knew his wife would laugh and say that he worried too much. It was hard to believe how much she’d changed his life, opening his mind and heart, refusing to back down on anything she thought was right and important.

As the afternoon and evening progressed, he tried to push the worry to the back of his mind. And, amid the peace of the candle-lighting service to celebrate the birth of another small baby, he breathed a prayer of thankfulness and hope for the future.

When Shannon opened her eyes on Christmas morning, she decided she must be in heaven. Magellan—now a magnificent adult-size cat—purred contentedly at the foot of the bed. Small flickers of flame still danced in the bedroom hearth. And her husband held her close, his warmth stretching from the back of her head to her heels, while his hand rested carefully on her rounded tummy.

Alex still didn’t like waking up, but that was okay. Shannon knew how to make him smile, even if it
was
morning.

She grimaced at the persistent ache in her back. Correction: she could make him smile when she
wasn’t
nine months pregnant and ready to pop at any moment. Seducing her sleeping husband wasn’t a problem when she could do more than just
think
about it.

“Mommy, Daddy, Santa came again,” Jeremy shouted,
bursting through the door. “An’ he ate all the cookies and drank the milk. He even lef’ me a card. See? I can read the words. It says Thank you.”

Jeremy dropped the card on the bed and went tearing down the stairs again.

Shannon smiled.

“Nice touch,” Alex murmured behind her.

One of her eyebrows lifted. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t leave a card—you’re the one who ate the cookies and milk.”

“I thought you ate them.”

Shannon squirmed awkwardly to face him. “Not a bite.”

They looked at each other, then they shook their heads. Some mysteries were better left unanswered, though Shannon privately thought Alex was pulling her leg. He loved teasing her about “Santa,” declaring she probably still believed in the jolly old fat guy.

Maybe.

She’d never received a greater gift than her family, both the one she’d been born into, and the one given to her only a year before. If Santa truly represented the spirit of love and generosity, then she believed in him wholeheartedly.

After their own celebration around the living-room Christmas tree, they drove to her mother’s house, with Jeremy singing his new favorite song, “Silent Night.”

“It’s an improvement on Jingle Bells, but he’s still off-key,” Alex murmured after they arrived and Jeremy went tearing across the yard to leap into his Uncle Kane’s arms.

Shannon patted Alex’s hand. “That’s okay, honey, he gets his singing ability from you.”

A mock glare was followed by a kiss as he lifted her from the high seat of the Jeep. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be home in bed?” he asked.

“Positive.” Shannon kissed his nose, but she was grateful for his strong arm as they climbed the porch steps. She hadn’t told him about the contractions she’d felt before leaving their house. They were barely noticeable, and she wanted them to enjoy Christmas before making a mad dash to the hospital. Of course, O’Rourke babies had a habit of appearing at the most inopportune moments, and she figured this one wouldn’t be any different.

“Surprise,” Pegeen said as she pulled Gail out from behind the Christmas tree. “Look who flew into Seattle this morning.”

“You said you couldn’t come,” Alex exclaimed as he embraced his sister.

“I didn’t want to disappoint you if I had to cancel.” Gail hugged her nephew as he launched himself at her. She smiled at Shannon and gave her a kiss over Jeremy’s head. “Pegeen helped to arrange it.”

“Now, none of that. I said you’re to call me Mom, like all my other children,” Pegeen scolded.

Alex saw the pleased blush on Gail’s cheeks and felt regret for everything his own parents had missed over the years. But as Shannon snuggled next to him on the couch, he decided that Christmas wasn’t a time for regret; it was a time for counting blessings.

Like the Christmas before, there was food and laughter, eggnog and hot cider to drink. Jeremy played with his cousins, and babies were passed from one welcoming arm to another.

Before dinner, Shannon went into the kitchen and sat in a chair, watching the bustle. She no longer felt left out because she didn’t cook or do things like the other women in the family; she was truly Jeremy’s mother and a passionately
loved wife, and those were the only things that counted.

But Pegeen’s sharp gaze wasn’t to be discounted, and after a few minutes she leaned over her pregnant daughter. “How far apart, darlin’?”

Shannon laughed and shook her head. “I should have known you’d guess. The contractions are over thirty minutes apart, and my water hasn’t broken yet, so there’s plenty of time.”

“Hmmm. ’Tis a good thing your cousin, Liam, is here.”

Liam O’Rourke was a doctor, but Shannon had every intention of having her baby at the hospital, or her husband would never let her hear the end of it.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “You had nine babies. You should find this stuff old hat. Positively boring.”

“Never. And to think we’ll have a Christmas babe…” Pegeen gave a happy sigh. “’Tis even better than I’d hoped.”

“Bet you never thought I’d be next,” Shannon said, smiling as she patted her drum-tight tummy.

“You’re wrong.” Pegeen kissed her daughter’s forehead. “I knew when I met Alex and saw the way he looked at you. A fine man denyin’ his own heart, but lovin’ you with all of it, just the same.”

Much later, as Shannon sat with Alex’s fingers intertwined with her own, she knew they couldn’t wait any longer. She’d managed to slip out of the room whenever a contraction was coming so he wouldn’t guess, but something told her it was time.

“Um… Alex?” she murmured.

“Yes, darling?”

“I think it’s time to get the Jeep warmed up.”

“Are you…” He took one look at her face and leapt to his feet.
“Oh, my God, the baby’s coming!
”

She laughed through the pain gripping her abdomen. “Well, it’s not coming this minute, but let’s not wait too long.”

Liam was at her side in an instant, asking questions and taking her pulse. When Alex raced back into the room, her cousin calmly assured him they had plenty of time.

While everyone talked, assuring them Jeremy would be taken care of, Shannon donned her coat. She wanted to walk out under her own steam, but her husband would hear none of it. He carried her outside and in the glittering illumination of Christmas lights she saw excitement and worry on his handsome face.

“We’ll be fine,” she said as he put her in the passenger’s seat. “Babies have been getting born since the beginning of time.” But Shannon knew he would worry just the same.

They were met at the hospital by an efficient contingent of medical personnel, including her own obstetrician. Liam had come, as well, and the two doctors consulted as she was prepped.

An hour passed, then another, with Alex holding her hand and counting the way they’d practiced in childbirthing class. Her water broke late, and then everything happened in a rush. Twenty minutes later, she delivered a healthy, six-pound-nine-ounce daughter.

The nurse went out to the waiting room, where Gail McKenzie and the O’Rourkes had crowded together in anticipation. A happy roar burst out at the announcement, discernable even from the delivery room. Jeremy’s excited cries rose above the rest; he’d gotten a sister for Christmas and it seemed to be exactly what he’d wished.

Later in her room, Shannon drowsily watched as Alex sat by the bed and gazed at their little girl, awe and adoration in his face. They had counted fingers and toes together, marveling at her dark red hair and angelic face, but this was her daddy’s time; a time for silent promises and hopes for the future.

Tears pricked her eyes and Shannon knew that tonight, of all the nights in her life, she missed her own father the most. Yet even as the thought formed, she heard echoes of Keenan O’Rourke’s voice in her mind and heart, and knew that he was watching and rejoicing.

Alex tore his gaze from the sleeping baby. “What is it?” he asked, knowing instantly that the darkness in his wife’s eyes didn’t come from discomfort or exhaustion.

“I was just thinking about my father…wishing he could be here.”

“He
is
here, Shannon. Nothing could keep him away.”

“I know.” She smiled and held out her hand. “I’ve been thinking…we’ve talked about so many names, but maybe we should consider using Kimberly.”

Alex swallowed, trying to control the lump in his throat. Shannon accepted the life he’d once shared with Kim; she even celebrated that life because of her love for Jeremy. Few women could have been so generous.

“I think you’re wonderful,” he said when he could talk. He looked down at the precious bundle he held, the tiny infant who already possessed his heart and soul as completely as her mother did. “But I can’t think of a better name than Holly Noel for a little girl born on Christmas.”

“Oh…all right.”

Shannon’s radiant smile filled Alex and he leaned forward.

“I love you, Shannon McKenzie,” he whispered against her lips, and heard it returned with sweet promise.

Sometimes the greatest miracles of all were the ones you never knew you needed.