Kisses on Her Christmas List by Susan Meier

the times he rode down the big hill with her and she giggled.
    Shannon basked in the ordinariness of it. A happy little girl and her father who clearly adored her. They bantered back and forth as Rory cut her burger in half and poured ketchup for her fries.
    Shannon took a bite of her own hamburger. Rory was a nice guy, with a big heart, trying to raise a daughter abandoned by her mother. She supposed that was why he’d pulled away rather than kiss her that afternoon. He was too busy to be looking for a romance. But as quickly as she thought that she reminded herself of her decision not to even ponder a romance with him anyway. She’d seen the expression on his face when he talked about having more kids. A son. No matter what he said or how busy he was, someday he’d want to remarry. He’d want that family. Those kids.
    And she couldn’t have any.
    The aching pain filled her as it always did when confronted by her barrenness. The loss. The unfairness.
    For the first time in months she wanted to flirt. Wanted to be pretty to somebody—and she had to pull back.
    For both of their sakes.

CHAPTER FOUR
    â€œW ELL , SHE’S ASLEEP .” Rory plopped down on the sofa beside Shannon, who was pulling strands of tinsel through her fingers to untangle them. Supper had gone well. But after the dishes had been cleared, Finley had begun to nod off, so Rory had taken her for a bath. “She went out like a light the second her head hit the pillow.” Rolling his head across the sofa back, he smiled at her. “You’re great with her.”
    Shannon laughed. “Not really. In case you didn’t notice my strategy, I simply kept her busy until she dropped from exhaustion.”
    He laughed.
    â€œI’m serious. She’s obviously a smart little girl. She bores easily. The trick to preventing tantrums might be simply keeping her busy.”
    â€œI can’t always do that. I have a company to run. So it’s her nanny, Mrs. Perkins, who gets the brunt of her moods. Though she spends a lot of time entertaining Finley, there are days when Finley only wants me. If she breaks down and calls me and I come home, we feel like we’re rewarding Finley for bad behavior.”
    â€œYou are.” She turned her attention to her tangled tinsel again. She didn’t like to pry, but he needed help and now that she’d spent a little time with Finley, she realized she’d learned a great deal watching her friends and their children in South Carolina. “There are lots of things you can do to discipline her. The first is to get her accustomed to hearing the word no . But you have to be smart about it. If she’s tired or hungry, she won’t take well to it. If you don’t watch her mood, and discipline her when she’s not open, it’ll make things worse.”
    He tweaked her hair. “How’d you get so smart?”
    She shrugged. “I pay attention?”
    He laughed. “Right.” He paused, obviously waiting for her to say more, and when she didn’t he said, “I’m serious. I’ve asked you this before, but you always blew me off. And I’m curious. Did you read a book or something? Because if you did, I’d like to get that book.”
    â€œNo book.” She ran some more tinsel through her fingers, once again debating how much to tell him. After a few seconds, she said, “When I lived in South Carolina with my ex, all of our friends had children. We’d be invited to picnics and outings and I’d see how they handled their kids. My husband really wanted children and I wanted to be a good mom. So I’d watch.” She laughed slightly at how stupid she probably sounded. “Technically, I spent my entire marriage watching other people raise kids.”
    The room grew silent. Every pop and snap of the logs in the fireplace echoed in the quiet room.
    Rory finally broke the silence. “So what