The Bachelor’s Christmas Bride (5 page)

There were still a number of good-nights that had to be said on the way out but they eventually made it to Dag's truck. It was already running and warm when he opened the passenger door to let her in.

“You never left—when did you start this to warm it up?” Shannon marveled.

Dag held up his key ring. “Remote,” he said simply. “I did it before we ever stepped foot outside.”

“Fancy,” Shannon said as she got in, luxuriating in the warmth.

When Dag rounded the rear of the truck and slipped in behind the wheel, she said, “You don't worry about somebody stealing your car when they walk by and see it running with no one in it?”

“First of all, the doors have to be locked for the remote to work, and I have to have another key to open them. But even if that wasn't true, we're in Northbridge—everybody knows everybody, everybody knows everybody's car or truck—no one could drive off in something they didn't own and get away with it.”

“There
is
a lot of everybody-knows-everybody, isn't there?” Shannon said as Dag headed for home. “I couldn't keep all the Perrys and Pratts and Walkers and Grants and Graysons straight.”

“The Graysons are actually new to Northbridge, but since they married the Perrys and a Pratt, I can see where it would still get confusing. It's good, though, like being one big—for the most part happy—family.”

“And you know them all?”

“Eventually you get to know them all, even the ones who move in. It's just that kind of community.”

“Did you like growing up here?” she asked because she could tell that he honestly was happy in his old hometown.

“I know—you grew up in Billings and still felt like your life was small, so you figure growing up in a small town must have been
ree-eally
claustrophobic. But it wasn't. I loved it. I mean, my mom was kind of a pain, but other than that? I had more freedom than you probably did growing up in the city. I pretty much came and went as I pleased as long as I checked in every couple of hours.”

Shannon glanced over at his profile, finding it impossible not to admire despite a slight bump on the bridge of his nose that she'd never noticed before. “What did you do with that freedom?” she asked.

“Anything I could think of,” he said with a nostalgic shake of his head, as if the mere memory transported him to the heart of the fun he'd had. “Summers I'd hop on my bike—even after dark—find my friends and we'd just hang out or walk Main Street or play baseball or go to whatever event was happening at the town square, or have ice cream or swim or get into mischief—”

“Innocent mischief?”

He shot her a sideways glance that went with a grin full of devilry. “Sure,” he said as if there was no chance that he would admit to anything else.

Then he went on with his answer about what he'd done with his freedom as a kid. “In the fall there was Halloween, and Northbridge loves its holidays. The whole town gets into the act, so that was great. Trick or treating was an endurance sport because the only boundaries
were the city limits. It's beautiful around here when the leaves fall—we'd rake them up and jump in them or have bonfires. Sometimes we'd go hunting—”

“Mischief-makers with guns?” Shannon said in mock horror.

He just smiled at her again and went on. “Winter was ice skating and sledding and skiing and snowball fights and snow forts. And spring—well, not only is school gonna end and summer is coming, but before that there's mud-month. For a kid, sliding through it, sloshing around in it, wrestling in it, having tugs-of-war over the worst puddles of it? Heaven…”

Shannon laughed at his rapture. “It does sound like you had a good time.”

“The best,” he confirmed as he pulled off the main road and drove past Logan and Meg's house to come to a stop at the garage below the apartment where Shannon was staying.

Shannon didn't wait for him to come around and open her door, and they both got out of the truck at the same time. But while she was reminding herself that this was merely one person giving another person a ride home, that it was
not
a date, still when she headed for the stairs on the side of the garage, Dag tagged along to walk her to her door as if it were.

“Am I wrong or for you is tomorrow an all-day-getting-ready-for-this-thing thing?” Dag asked along the way.

“A group hair appointment will go from early in the morning until early in the afternoon. Then there's makeup and dressing, and getting to the church for the seven o'clock ceremony. So you're right, for those of us on the female side of the wedding, tomorrow is an all-
day-getting-ready-for-this-thing thing. It takes a lot to do a big wedding.”

“For the guys, not so much. My day looks like the way today was—I'm working at the house, I'll come home, shower, shave and dress. The only difference will be the tux. And I think tomorrow night we're all meeting for a better pre-festivities drink—tonight we had a beer. I understand Chase has some premium scotch we're breaking out tomorrow night to kick things off.”

“Oh, yeah, much easier to be a guy,” Shannon said as she opened the apartment door.

She didn't go in, however; she stayed on the landing as Dag said, “So I guess the next time I see you it will be at the church.”

“I will not be the one in the white dress,” Shannon joked because there was an odd tone to Dag's voice that almost made it seem as if he thought not seeing her again until the next evening was too long a time to wait. And even though she told herself she must be mistaken, she wasn't quite sure how to respond.

“Oh, I think I'll be able to pick you out of the crowd anyway,” he said in a completely different tone of voice—that one somehow intimate and tantalizing.

They were facing each other and Dag was peering intently down at her, but Shannon took a more concentrated look at him to try to tell if she was imagining things. What she found was a small smile curling the corners of his mouth. And she felt her own gaze inexplicably drawn to that mouth, to those sexy roller-coaster lips that she suddenly couldn't help yearning to feel pressed to hers…

Would they be as soft and warm as they looked? As supple? What kind of kisser was he? Not pinch-lipped the way Wes sometimes was, she thought. Relaxed,
confident, natural—that was Dag and probably how Dag kissed….

But that wasn't anything she should be thinking about! she reprimanded herself.

She jerked her eyes away from their study of his mouth just about the time Dag said more to himself than to her, “Engaged…to a Rumson…”

Would he have kissed her otherwise? Shannon wondered. Was that what he'd been thinking about, too?

Her strongest sense was that it was.

But that still didn't make it okay, she told herself. She was moving on with her life after this holiday and that could well mean Beverly Hills. She couldn't start anything with Dag that would only end when Christmas was over.

Which meant that maybe Dag believing that she was engaged was sort of a safety net for her.

“Okay, then,” he said suddenly, firmly, taking the top step backward. “I guess I'll see you tomorrow night.”

“Thanks for the ride home,” Shannon answered as if nothing else at all had passed between them. Because it actually hadn't, regardless of the fact that it felt as if something had.

“No problem,” he assured, turning to descend the rest of the steps with his back to her. “Night.”

“Night,” Shannon called as she went into the apartment and closed the door between them.

But as she deflated against it, she couldn't help feeling a tiny bit more perturbed with Wes than she had been.

Because if Wes had publicly set her free before tonight, Dag might have kissed her.

And while she knew it was better that that hadn't happened, she was still dying to know what it might have been like if he had.

S
hannon ended up enjoying Saturday's wedding preparations more than she'd anticipated. Although she was a stranger among the other women who made up the bridal party and had the lifelong connection of Northbridge, there was nothing in the way they treated her that would indicate otherwise. They made her feel like one of the group—one of the family, actually—and it turned out to be a lot of fun to be included in the hair and makeup sessions, and in the general preparations for the wedding.

The seven o'clock ceremony was held at the local church that served all denominations. Hadley had kept with a Christmas theme. White candles and tiny white lights illuminated the church, which was adorned with red roses, sprigs of holly and holly berries intermingled with baby's breath flowers.

Because Hadley was a seamstress with a background
in dress design, and had worked in haute couture in both Italy and France for many years, she'd designed her own gown and those of her bridesmaids and flower girl. With the help of a local seamstress, she had also made the dresses. Hadley's wedding gown was simple white satin with a fitted, strapless bodice and a full floor-length skirt in front that gracefully elongated in back to a five-foot train. A red sash marked her waist and tied in a large bow at the base of her spine, then fell in two long streamers that matched the length of the train.

Tia was the flower girl and her dress was similar to the bride's—it was also white, though white organza rather than satin. It had short puffy sleeves like two clouds billowing from each shoulder, and an empire waist wrapped with a red-and-white polka-dot sash and a bow that tied in front.

Each of the seven bridesmaids' dresses were fashioned in styles to make the women who would wear them feel comfortable and to best accentuate their own personal body sizes and shapes. But all were made of red organza and dropped to just below knee-length.

Shannon's dress was a formfitting halter with a deceptively high collar that wrapped her neck but completely exposed her back. For the ceremony she wore a matching shrug that made the ensemble seem more conservative. But for the reception she had the option of removing the short jacket and exposing a dress that looked classic from the front and sexy from behind.

The wedding ceremony itself was traditional and touching, especially when Chase and Hadley had their turn at saying a few words about what they meant to the other and how happy they were to have come full circle from their childhood acquaintance to find each other now.
And when their vows had been exchanged and they were pronounced man and wife, the church bells were rung.

Then the reception was held in the showroom portion of Mackey and McKendrick Furniture Designs. The furniture showcases had been emptied for the occasion, allowing room for the buffet table, the eight-man band, a dance floor and dozens of red-and-white-linen covered dining tables and chairs along the perimeter.

In the center of each dining table was a pyramid of small, festively wrapped boxes that each held a piece of Belgian chocolate in the shape of a wedding cake as special treats for all the guests.

Shannon had volunteered to care for her nephew during the reception and to babysit overnight, as well, when Chase and Hadley would take their one-night honeymoon in a countryside cabin far on the outskirts of Northbridge. Also, since she hadn't thought there would be much mingling to do, she'd offered to watch Logan and Meg's three-year-old daughter, Tia, in thanks for their hospitality. When Tia had learned that Shannon was spending the night with Cody, Tia hadn't wanted to be left out, so as a result, the three-year-old was sleeping over at Chase and Hadley's loft tonight, too.

All of which Shannon had felt just fine about. But what she hadn't considered was that although she was a virtual stranger to Northbridge, her grandmother had lived all of her adult life there, and that everyone who had known Carol Duffy might choose the wedding as an opportunity to say hello, to give their condolences to Shannon, to talk a little about her grandmother. So Shannon found herself juggling a fifteen-month-old who had only recently discovered his own mobility and wanted to exercise it rather than be contained and a precocious
three-year-old, while doing far more socializing than she'd bargained for.

Had Dag not taken it upon himself to stay by her side the entire time, it might have been far worse. But as it was, not only had he apparently assigned himself to be her groomsman when it came to walking her down the aisle, but he stayed with her and the kids for the reception, as well. Which also helped tremendously when other guests approached her about her grandmother because Dag knew them all, introduced them and filled any gaps.

“I am sooo going to owe you,” Shannon told him after he'd provided that service for about the dozenth time.

“Yeah, you are,” he agreed before he said, “For what?”

“I thought I'd be sitting alone in a corner so I might as well take Cody and Tia just for company. But tonight hasn't been anything like that. I don't think I could have done it without you.”

And to prove her point, Cody chose that moment to climb from Shannon's lap onto the table and very nearly knock over a full glass of water. But Dag caught the glass just in time. “
I
thought I might get at least one dance with you,” Dag countered. “But it doesn't look like that's gonna happen, so I was thinking that now that the cake is cut, maybe we ought to snag a few pieces, take these two upstairs to the loft to eat it—so we don't end up with cake on the floor, too—and then put them to bed.”

A dish of appetizers and Tia's chicken had been knocked off the table by the kids and, like Dag, Shannon wasn't looking forward to cake being the next course to hit the floor. And it was more than an hour after Tia's bedtime and more than two hours later than Cody
usually went down for the night. Plus Shannon had not thought she would have any help getting the duo to bed, but if Dag was volunteering…

Still, she felt obligated to give him an out. “I'm the one who signed on for babysitting duty. Are you sure you don't want to stay down here and enjoy the rest of the night the way everyone else is?”

He smiled. “Who says I won't enjoy the rest of the night if I go upstairs?”

There was a lascivious sound to that that Dag must have realized only after he'd said it because his smile stretched into a grin and he added, “I've had about enough of the wedding stuff anyway. Getting out of this noise, away from all these people to eat cake in some peace and quiet, and then listen to you read Tia
Good-night Moon
—what could be better than that? Besides, if I stay down here I'll just end up dancing with my sisters.”

“Okay, then, I'm not dumb enough to turn down an offer of help with these two,” Shannon said, knowing she probably should just because she liked the idea of Dag's continued help and company more than she had any business liking it.

But that was all the encouragement he needed to stand and say, “I'll get the cake and we can go.”

Chase and Hadley were occupied, but while Dag was gone Shannon caught Meg's attention and motioned her to the table to tell Meg the plan.

Meg agreed that it was long past the bedtimes of both kids. She asked Shannon if Shannon was sure she didn't mind leaving, and when Shannon insisted she didn't, Meg kissed both children good-night, said she'd let Logan, Chase and Hadley know what was going on,
and turned to leave just as Dag came back to the table with the slices of cake.

“Thanks for lending Shannon a hand,” Meg said as they crossed paths.

“Glad to do it,” Dag assured, and something about that made Meg smile knowingly as she moved off to rejoin the festivities.

“All set?” Dag asked then.

“All set,” Shannon answered.

Tia was tired and beginning to be cranky and uncooperative so she let it be known she didn't want to leave. Shannon used the promise of cake to lure her into compliance, and with Cody slung on one of Shannon's hips, the three-year-old finally accepted Shannon's free hand and allowed herself to be led through the celebration to the workroom and up the stairs that led from there to Chase and Hadley's loft.

“Let's do pajamas first and then have cake—cake always tastes better in pajamas,” Shannon said when they were upstairs.

“Are you and Uncle Dag gonna put on your 'jamas, too?” Tia asked.

“Good question,” Dag said under his breath, laughing at what Shannon had unwittingly walked into.

“No, cake just tastes better for kids when the kids are in their pajamas,” Shannon improvised.

Tia frowned as if that didn't make sense but before she could pursue anything more along those lines, Dag again saved the day and said, “So, shall we split up boys and girls? I'll get Cody ready for bed and Shannon, you can get Tia out of that dress she looked so pretty in tonight.”

As if on cue, Tia swirled around to make the skirt bil
low out—something she'd done numerous times during the evening.

“Cody will need a diaper change, you know…” Shannon reminded Dag.

“Yeah, no big deal. I've done it before.”

“Then its boys with boys, girls with girls,” Shannon agreed. “Tia's things are in Chase and Hadley's room with mine so you and Cody can have the nursery to yourselves, and we'll meet back here for cake when we're finished.”

“Deal,” Dag decreed, setting the plates full of cake on the island counter and taking Cody from Shannon's arms. “Come on, little man, you don't look like you're gonna last too much longer.”

In the end, Cody didn't stay awake long enough for the cake—when Dag joined Shannon and the pajama-clad Tia in the kitchen portion of the loft again, he announced that Cody had fallen asleep on the changing table. “So I just put him in his crib.”

“Tha's cuz Cody's a big baby—he can't stay awake and he gots to sleep in a crib, and he calls his moose
oose,
” Tia said as if she were far above that.

“You call your gorilla
grilla
. And before you know it, Cody will be keeping up with you just fine, Miss Tia. He's no better or worse than you, and you're no better or worse than he is,” Dag said as Shannon poured the little girl a glass of milk.

Shannon studied the frown that went with the gentle reprimand from Dag as she returned to the island counter where Tia was sitting with her cake in front of her.

“A lecture on equality?” Shannon said quietly to him.

“Sore point with me.”

Shannon didn't push it with Tia there and Tia didn't
seem to notice anything because she was more interested in why Shannon and Dag had opted to have their cake later.

When Tia was finished with her piece—and indulged by her uncle with a few bites of Cody's piece—Shannon washed Tia's face, helped Tia brush her teeth and together she and Dag read the bedtime story Tia required before she slipped off to sleep in Chase and Hadley's big bed.

But when Shannon and Dag returned to the island counter to stand on opposite sides of it and eat their cake, Shannon said, “Tia's pseudo-sibling-rivalry with Cody bothers you?”

“It isn't that. It's that hint of superiority that came with it tonight. After years of my mother thinking she was better than everybody and putting on airs, it sort of pushes my buttons when anyone does it.”

“The putting-on-airs thing—you really didn't like that about her….”

“I really didn't. Don't get me wrong, I loved my mother, she was a decent enough mom…well, not to Logan and Hadley, she resented having stepkids and let them know it—”

“Chase told me a little about that—Hadley found comfort in food and ended up being very overweight until she got away from your mother, is the way I understood it.”

“That's true—poor Hadley took the brunt of my mother's mean streak.”

“But to you, Tucker, Issa, Zeli and Tessa—”

“She was okay. She kind of left us alone while she put all her energy into trying to dress fancier than everyone else, trying to talk more formally, trying to make sure our house, our car, everything about us put other people
to shame. Not that any of it made her happy, because it didn't—”

“It seems like it would have made her isolated.”

“Exactly! She alienated everyone with her I'm-better-than-you-are attitude. She wouldn't
lower herself to the level of the peons
—as she said—but that meant she didn't have any friends, any outlets, she never enjoyed anything because it didn't meet her high standards. It made her difficult to like and there was no living with it without being affected by it.”

“Did she just not want to be in Northbridge?”

“She said that it was too dull and ordinary for her. But there wasn't anywhere else she wanted to be, either—my father killed himself trying to find any way to please her and there were half a dozen times when he said he'd pack us all up and move anywhere she wanted to go—”

“
That
must have been scary—moves are so unsettling for kids.”

“Oh, yeah, it worried me every time that she was going to take him up on it and we'd all have to leave our friends, our school, our home—”

“But she didn't.”

“To tell you the truth, I think Northbridge was tailor-made for her. Finding fault in the simplicity of the town, in the fact that the people who live here are so down-to-earth, was how she elevated herself. So no, she didn't ever take my dad up on his offer to leave. I think here she could think of herself as the big fish in the little pond, and she definitely didn't want to be the little fish in the big pond.”

“So you don't think she just wanted more out of life?”

“Like you do?”

“Do I
put on airs?
” Shannon asked, alarmed that he might think that of her.

He smiled as if her concern entertained him. “Not that I've noticed. But you did say you've always wanted a bigger life than your parents had.”