Read Online Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (O'Rourke Family 5) by Julianna Morris - Free Book Online Page A

enough to infuriate most women. But why would she go to all this trouble if she was so mad at him?
    They worked in silence, carrying boxes into the house and setting up the artificial tree.
    “I prefer real evergreen, but artificial trees are safer,” Shannon said as she tugged light strings around the branches. “Especially for children,” she added. “They want the lights on all the time, which dries out a cut tree and creates a fire hazard.” She sounded as if she was repeating something from a book, or something she’d heard.
    It took awhile, but gradually the tree was decorated so it resembled a child’s toyland dream. Yet several boxes still remained, and when she unpacked the first two, he saw that they contained a toy train set that was far more elaborate than the one running around the base of Shannon’s own tree.
    “No,” he said quietly. “I either pay for this, or you return it to the store.”
    “My brother is a generous employer. I can afford it.”
    “So can I.”
    “I told you before, it’s a gift.”
    “Why? You hardly know us.” Alex caught Shannon’s arm and pulled her around to face him. He was stunned to see unshed tears in her deep green eyes. “What’s going on?”
    “You don’t want Jeremy wanting to come see me, so obviously you have to have a better tree and train set. Then he won’t want to come over and you can pretend we never met.”
    Shocked, he stared into her hurt eyes, realizing how it must have sounded to Shannon the night before when he was trying to get Jeremy to leave without fussing. He hadn’t meant to suggest his son only wanted to visit her because of her tree and train. And he never would have imagined that Shannon O’Rourke, with her carefree smile and sophistication, would take his tactless words so hard.
    But he should have guessed.
    She’d told him that as a child she’d locked her hurt away, keeping it hidden from the world. It was obvious that she was still hiding the wounds and hurts from view.
    “I didn’t mean it, not like that,” he said helplessly. “You’ve been great to Jeremy, and he really responds to you. It’s just that we’ve been through so much and he’s so little. He doesn’t understand some things. I worry about him getting attached and hoping that something will happen between us.”
    “And that would be awful, wouldn’t it? Getting involved with me?” Shannon asked, the words dripping with injured sarcasm. She busied herself lifting out the train and assembling pieces of track.
    Damnation .
    It was his own fault for saying something so easily misinterpreted. Still, maybe he did want Shannon’s Christmas tree to be the reason Jeremy wanted to go to her home so badly. He’d spent so much of his son’s childhood in other parts of the world, then Kim had gotten sick, going so quickly, and he’d realized he had wasted three years. Three years when he could have been getting to know his own child. And now Jeremy would rather spend time with Shannon than with his own father.
    “I’m not interested in getting married again, that’s all,” he murmured. “It has nothing to do with you.”
    “Of course not.”
    But her hurt look hadn’t faded and he groaned silently. He didn’t deal well with mixed signals and sensitive feelings. Even with his wife he’d struggled, and Kim had been exceptionally calm and good-natured. They’d rarely argued, and then only about Jeremy.
    With Shannon it seemed as if all his nerve endings were exposed. He didn’t know why, except she was alive and vibrant, and so obviously off-limits.
    “You’re beautiful, Shannon, you have to know that,” Alex whispered.
    “Beautiful.” She tested the word as if she’d never heard it before. “What has that got to do with anything?”
    “Nothing. Everything. I was just trying to be clear.”
    Shannon thought Alex was as clear as mud. She didn’t even know why she was so stirred up over such an unreasonable man. At her request, Miranda had spent