Kisses on Her Christmas List Read online

  “Due in no small part to your daughter,” Rory said, desperately trying to make points with this guy, who still wasn’t over the fact that Rory had left Christmas Eve the year before. Never mind that he’d come back and proposed marriage to his daughter even though they’d only known each other a week. Nope. Dave still held a grudge. “She’s a wonderful mother. I couldn’t raise Finley without her.”

  Stacy looked around. “Speaking of Shannon, where is she?”

  He didn’t know. She’d been missing in action all morning and he wasn’t sure it was wise to tell her parents that. He hadn’t lost her. She was a grown woman, allowed to go Christmas shopping on her own if she chose, but somehow he didn’t think her dad would like that answer.

  Still, he sucked in a breath, ready to say, “I’m not sure where she is,” when he saw Shannon get off the elevator and stride toward him.

  The happy expression on her face hit him right in the heart. He couldn’t believe he’d almost walked away from her the year before.

  She strode over, directly into his open arms. “Can I talk to you?”

  He turned her to see that her parents were already there.

  “Mom? Dad? You’re early.”

  Her dad scowled. “Why, is that bad?”

  “It’s not bad, Dad. It’s just that I have something to tell Rory.”

  Her dad harrumphed. “You can tell him in front of us…unless there’s something wrong.”

  “Nothing wrong,” Rory assured him, then prayed there wasn’t.

  Shannon cleared her throat. “Okay, then—” She slid her arm around Rory again. “I’ve spent the morning with the adoption agency.” She turned in Rory’s arms. “Melissa Graham had her baby. She chose us as the parents.”

  Rory’s heart stopped. As he grabbed Shannon and hugged her, he noticed Shannon’s parents’ faces fall in disbelief. “We get a baby?”

  Her eyes glowed. “A boy.”

  His breath stuttered out. “A boy.”

  She hugged him again. “A baby. Our baby boy.”

  The speakers above them began to play the hallelujah chorus. Shannon laughed. Rory bit back tears, not wanting Shannon’s dad to see him cry.

  Pulling out of his embrace, Shannon said, “Who gets to tell Finley that she’s about to be a big sister?”

  Rory turned her toward Santa’s throne. He put his arm around Stacy’s shoulders and tugged on Shannon’s dad’s arm. “Let’s tell her together.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-8203-2

  KISSES ON HER CHRISTMAS LIST

  First North American Publication 2011

  Copyright © 2011 by Linda Susan Meier

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  *Babies in the Boardroom trilogy