The Bachelor's Christmas Bride

“Shhh,” Dag put in. “Don’t ruin a good thing.”

“Besides,” Meg added. “You’ve had a long day, Shannon. You drove the whole way in from Billings and had the closing, and all of us plying you with questions tonight. You have to be worn out. I know I would be.”

“How about if I walk you out to the apartment?” Dag offered before she could respond to what Meg had said.

“Oh. You don’t have to do that,” Shannon demurred, not because she didn’t want him to, but because the minute he suggested it she wanted him to too much….

“I think that’s a great idea—Dag should walk Shannon to the apartment so she doesn’t just have to trudge out there alone,” Meg agreed.

“Really—”

“Go on,” Hadley urged. “I’d walk with you but I have to get all of Cody’s gear ready to take with me to our place.”

The spacious, luxurious loft was what Hadley was referring to. It was in the building beside the apartment over the garage where Shannon was staying. The same building that housed the work space and showroom for Mackey and McKendrick Furniture Designs on the ground floor.

Hadley’s urging seemed to have ended the discussion because everyone got up from the table and Meg came to take Tia from Shannon’s lap.

“Give back Shannon’s bracelet and tell her thank you for letting you play with it,” Meg told the three-year-old.

“I could keep it….” Tia whispered to Shannon.

“No, you can’t keep it,” Meg said before Shannon had the chance to answer, taking the bracelet from Tia and the other one from where Cody had thrown it, and giving them both to Shannon just before she picked up Tia.

Shannon said her good-nights while Dag ran upstairs for a jacket. A brown leather motorcycle jacket that made him look every inch a bad boy when he returned with it on.

But Shannon told herself that wasn’t anything she should be noticing. Or appreciating. And she curbed it.

She had her own coat on by that time, too, and the next thing she knew, they were out the back door and into the cold, crisp night.

“It’s so quiet here,” she said softly when Dag had closed the door behind them.

“A nice change from inside?”

“It wasn’t that dinner wasn’t nice,” she was quick to say as they headed for the garage in the distance, not wanting him to think there was anything about the evening that she hadn’t enjoyed. “I guess it’s just that I’m not used to having so much family around.”

“Because there was always just your mother, father and grandmother?” Dag said as they fell easily into step with each other.

“Yes. And really, until the last few years, it was just my parents and me. But here I am now with a brother and a nephew and Hadley will be my sister-in-law, and there’s all of you McKendricks, too, who seem to be like family to Chase—”

“Not to mention two more brothers if and when you find them,” Dag reminded.

“It’s a lot for someone who’s always been part of a small group, a small life.”

“A small life?” Dag repeated with a laugh. “What exactly does that mean?”

“You know, just a small, simple, workaday life. Certainly no living in Italy and France the way Hadley did. Or even the kind of travel Chase and Logan did around the country for years. Teaching kindergarten isn’t a high-powered career. I’ve been to a few fancy parties with Wes, and there was a trip to Europe, but I haven’t done anything that would qualify as a big life.”

“So far,” Dag amended. “But marrying into a rich and powerful family and possibly becoming the First Lady of Montana? That ought to pump up the volume considerably.”

Shannon hoped that dropping her head when he said that only seemed to be because she was watching her first step up the outer wooden staircase alongside the garage to the apartment. But really she was hiding her expression so she didn’t give away that she wasn’t going to pump up the volume of her life by marrying Wes Rumson.

“Becoming the First Lady of Montana would be a bigger life all right,” she muttered noncommitally. “And a bigger life is always what I’ve wanted. But we were talking about what I’m used to and neither a bigger life nor a lot of large family gatherings like tonight are it.”

“So you’ll have some adjusting to do and tonight was good practice,” Dag said as he followed her up the stairs.

“Tonight was just nice,” she said quietly again.

They reached the landing and she unlocked the apartment door, reaching inside to turn on the light and wondering suddenly if she should invite Dag in. She couldn’t think of any reason why she should. And yet she felt some inclination to do it anyway.

“Want to hide out here until the dishes are done?” she asked with a nod in the direction of the main house where Chase and Logan were visible through the window over the sink.

Dag glanced in that direction, too, but then brought his gaze back to her, accompanied by a grin that was disarmingly handsome. And made her think that he was tempted to accept her invitation to stay.

But after a moment he seemed to fight the urge and said, “I might not have been able to hold my own with those two when I was eight and they were making me pick up their smelly socks, but now? They don’t get anything over on me.”

Still, he didn’t seem in any hurry to go and Shannon wasn’t sure what to do about that. Standing there facing him, staring up into features any movie star could have used to advantage, wasn’t giving her answers.

Then Dag said, “Those movers you hired to pack everything and clear out your grandmother’s house missed a few things. Nothing big—just some odds and ends I’ve come across working on the place—”

“Like?”

“Like some clothes and a blanket that were stuffed up high in a closet. Some kitchen things. A couple pictures that had fallen behind a drawer. An old jewelry box—I can’t even remember what all. I’ve been putting them in boxes when I come across them because I didn’t know if there was anything you might want—”

“Most of what the movers brought to Billings I sold in a yard sale at a friend’s house. There was so much of it that I can’t imagine that they missed anything.”

“Like I said, I don’t think there’s anything important. It’s stuff that was probably jammed somewhere because not even your grandmother needed or wanted it. But still, I don’t want to be the one to throw out anything that isn’t mine. There’s only two boxes and I can bring them home, but I thought you might want to see what I’m doing to the place. Maybe have one more walk through it for old time’s sake…”

Was that what was appealing to her about his suggestion?

Or was it the thought of going out to the ranch and seeing him?

It had to be the nostalgia—the house had been her grandmother’s after all. And she had spent some time there with her grandmother when she was a child.

Plus there was some curiosity to see what Dag was doing to the place, she told herself. That had to be what was behind her wanting to take him up on his offer.

“I think I might like to walk through the place one more time,” she said. “Just tell me when it’s convenient for you.”

His grin returned even bigger than it had been before, but Shannon refused to allow herself to read anything into it—like the fact that maybe he wanted the visit from her just to see her, too….

“Tomorrow? I’ll be working out there all day. You can swing by anytime.”

“Shall I take your cell phone number and call first?”

“Nah. Anytime. Sleep in in the morning, unpack, do whatever you had planned and when it works out for you, just drive over.”

“Okay.”

And why did they go on standing there, looking at each other as if there should be more to say?