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

tummy.
    She glanced up at Alex and tingles of electricity gave her a different kind of warmth. Barefoot despite the cold, clad in faded jeans and a University of Washington sweatshirt, he had just the right blend of unconscious confidence and sex appeal to make a woman weak in the knees.
    “You—” Her voice cracked and she cleared it.
    Alex might be yummier than a chocolate sundae, but she wasn’t interested.
    Liar, screamed her conscience.
    Why else would she keep from confessing that she couldn’t boil water and didn’t have a clue about kids?
    Not for the first time she reminded herself that a relationship between them was doomed. He was a family man who loved primitive countries, and she was a city woman. Her idea of survival skills was knowing how to get rid of the containers that came with take-out food.
    Straightening, she plastered a polite smile on her face. “Go ahead and get ready for work. Jeremy is fine here.”
    “Thanks.” Alex’s blue eyes darkened and a spasm of emotion crossed his face as he looked down at his son. He still hadn’t shaved, but his shadow of a beard and rumpled appearance made him look even sexier. “I shouldn’t be too late.”
    He turned and crossed their side-by-side driveways, then disappeared inside his condo.
    Shannon breathed a sigh of relief and directed Jeremy into her house. The less time she spent with his daddy, the better for all of them.
    After lunchtime had come and gone, Shannon was exhausted. But it wasn’t a bad exhausted. A local store had agreed to deliver groceries—including their “homemade chicken noodle soup,” guaranteed to cure colds “just like Mom’s did.” She’d only boiled a little over in the microwave while reheating it, so nothing disastrous had happened.
    Afterward, Jeremy had talked her through making instant cocoa, before delightedly playing with the train again.
    The doorbell rang, breaking into her thoughts, and she hurried into the other room, smiling at Jeremy who was curled up on the couch with a blanket.
    He blinked sleepily at her. “S’Daddy,” he predicted.
    Sure enough, Alex McKenzie waited on the step with an anxious expression in his eyes. “Is Jeremy all right?”
    “He’s fine. I would have called if there was a problem.”
    Part of Alex’s mind registered the annoyed tone in Shannon’s voice, but the other part appreciated the dark green dress she wore. It was made of a soft fabric that clung like a second skin, and he itched to see how it might peel away. Was she wearing underwear? There weren’t any obvious lines that—
    Damn.
    His thoughts were going in directions he’d sworn he wouldn’t allow them to go. Shannon was a neighbor—nothing more. It was natural that after a year of being celibate certain feelings would return. And if he felt as if he was being unfaithful to Kim, then that was something he’d have to resolve within himself.
    “How did it go?” he asked as Shannon invited him inside.
    “Great. We got a few of his toys and books from nextdoor, and we read together, stuff like that. I think he’s feeling a little better.”
    “Uh-uh,” Jeremy declared immediately. “Not better. I wanna come back tomorrow.”
    He let out an unconvincing cough and Alex covered a smile. Mr. Tibbles lay on the floor, over ten feet away from Jeremy, sending a surge of joy through him. After the disaster at the day-care center, he’d worried that Jeremy would be more bonded than ever to the stuffed rabbit, but everything seemed to be all right.
    “Maybe Shannon can tell us how to decorate our own Christmas tree,” he said, trying to distract his determined son. “How about it, Shannon?”
    Alex looked at Shannon in time to see another strange, altogether unreadable expression on her face. Honestly, how could a man have a prayer of figuring her out?
    “I’ll give you mine. That’ll be easier,” she said. “And the train set, of course. That way you can have a tree right away.”
    He’d expected