The Kid Who Stole Christmas by Linda Stevens Read Free Book Online

audience with Saint Nicholas, or something.”
    “Ho ho ho! And have you been a good little girl?”
    Shannon winked coquettishly. “I always am, Santa.”
    “Hmm. That’s not what Santa wanted to hear.”
    She noticed that Santa had a very wicked twinkle in his eyes as he looked at her. “Rick!”
    He immediately sobered and looked away.
    Shannon wasn’t sure what to do. Obviously, Rick felt he’d taken their banter a step too far. She didn’t feel that way. There was a definite attraction between them, and it wasn’t going to just disappear. Shannon didn’t want it to.
    She didn’t want to come on too strong, either. It had been nearly five years since her divorce from Greg, but she was still in a cautious mode, and perhaps always would be.
    “It’s difficult, isn’t it?” Shannon began. “You get into such a pattern when you’re married. And afterward, it just doesn’t fit with anyone else. You have to start fresh.”
    Rick nodded. “As I said earlier, you’re very astute.”
    “Well, I’ve just been there, that’s all.”
    “Divorced?” he asked.
    “Going on five years this March,” Shannon replied. “Not that I keep track, necessarily. Heaven knows it was time for that particular union to end.”
    “Mine, too,” he agreed, laughing. That surprised him. Rick hadn’t thought he would ever be able to laugh about it. Perhaps it was because he would soon have the last laugh. “We just didn’t have the same life in mind. Now I can’t see how we ever thought we would make it.”
    “Ditto. Strange, isn’t it?”
    He shrugged. “In our case, it was lust, I suppose.”
    They both smiled. Shannon liked him, and could tell by the way Rick was looking at her that he liked her, too. It was a start. Where it would lead was anyone’s guess, but it couldn’t happen at a better time.
    “Would you mind?” Shannon said, pointing to his beard. “I’ll help you put it back on later.”
    “Gladly. It’s getting itchy, anyway.” Rick pulled on the fake beard gently to loosen it. He slowly peeled it off. “That’s better,” he said with a sigh of relief.
    “Much,” Shannon agreed. She stroked the downy soft whiskers that now lay on the table between them. “Christmas is my favorite time of year. But it can be...” She trailed off uncertainly.
    “Lonely?” Rick offered.
    She smiled. They were on the same wavelength. “That, too. But I was thinking of how it can be a rather melancholy reminder of the way things used to be. Not just of married days, either. Childhood days.”
    “Or days with your child,” Rick said, his mood taking a sudden downswing. “Do you have any children?”
    Shannon studied a tiny chip in her coffee mug. “No,” she said quietly. “I don’t.”
    “I have one. A girl. She’s with her mother.”
    “That must be hard.” Shannon reached out to touch his hand. In fact, she needed the contact right now, herself. “But at least you know that she’s...that she’s safe.”
    Rick wasn’t the least bit comforted. “For all the good it does me,” he said, a bitter edge to his voice. “I can’t see her. Her mother forbids it.”
    “She can’t do that!” Shannon exclaimed incredulously.
    “Oh, but she did. All it took was money. She had lots of it, while I used up what little I had trying to stop her. I lost everything, including my little girl.”
    “Well, she can’t take that from you,” Shannon objected. “Not really. You’ll always be her father.”
    Rick looked at her, his face bleak. “No, I’m not. Not anymore. I gave that up, too. I didn’t have any choice.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Neither do I,” Rick muttered. He stood up, grabbing his beard from the table. “I’d better get back.”
    Shannon left a tip for the busboy, and then hurried to catch up with Rick. She barely managed to slip into the elevator with him. It was crowded.
    “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
    “For what? It’s not your fault.”
    “I was prying,”