The Lost Sheenan's Bride (Taming of the Sheenans Book 6) (23 page)

“But they’re at the house now, packing your things.” Her coffee sloshed as she set her cup down. She looked up at him and there were tears in her eyes. “They’re kicking you out.” The tears were falling now, one after the other. “It makes me so upset…makes me hate them.” She was dashing away the tears but she couldn’t catch them. “And it makes me so upset with you, too. You are so stubborn. You didn’t have to let it play out this way. You could have told them, Shane. You could have done something before it came to this. It didn’t have to be so ugly—” She broke off, and grabbed her purse and walked out.

He watched her go, his gut churning. He hated drama and intense emotion as it made him so uncomfortable, but Jet’s emotions were different. She wasn’t trying to make him feel bad. This wasn’t about shaming him or punishing him. She was upset for him, and upset with him because he hadn’t done enough to avoid the conflict.

He quickly dropped bills on the table to pay for their breakfast and then followed her out. She was pacing up and down in front of his car.

“I can’t do this,” she choked as he approached. “I want to be with you, Shane, but not like this. It’s suffocating. Overwhelming. It’s us against them but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can fix this. I just don’t think you want to.”

“You’re afraid you’re going to lose them,” he said.

She spun around and jabbed her finger in his chest. “I’m afraid I’m going to lose you.”

He grabbed her hand, held it over his heart. “Why? Because they’ll demand you make a choice?”

“Because I will demand you make a choice, and Shane, you’re this tough lone wolf. You don’t need anyone, and I’m so scared, so scared, you won’t choose me.”

“But I’m choosing you, Jet. I’ve chosen you.”

“No, you haven’t. Not if you don’t even try to set things right with the Sheenans.”

“What are you saying?”

He felt her fingers press against his skin, her palm warm through his sweater. “I want you, and I love you, but I can’t spend my life with someone who lives life on the peripheral…it’s not who I am. I love kids and families. I love traditions. I love being part of things, and having fun, but I’m not the woman for a lone wolf. I’m a woman that needs to be part of a pack.”

“You want the Sheenan pack?”

“I want our pack and, dammit, Shane, you are a Sheenan!”

Jet was silent
during the drive back to the cabin, trying not to panic, trying not to fume, trying to manage her very volatile emotions. She hadn’t slept well last night and Harley’s call had pushed her over the edge.

She knew Shane was watching her as he drove. She could feel him glancing at her now and then, trying to read her mood. But her mood wasn’t the issue. His inability to confront his family was the issue. Why wouldn’t he do that?

Why couldn’t he do that?

He parked in front of the cabin and she jumped out, heading towards the front door. He followed close on her heels, and caught her on the porch.

“Not so fast,” he said, taking her hand and turning her to face him.

She resisted going into his arms but he drew her against him anyway.

He ignored her stiffness, kissing her once, and then again. “You said something earlier.” His lips left her mouth to go to her chin. He placed light butterfly kisses along the line of her jaw. “I do believe back there at the café you threw the big ‘L’ word around.”

She tried to remain stiff and unresponsive but it was next to impossible when his lips trailed fire across her skin. “Would that happen to be the like word?” she asked somewhat frostily.

“Interesting,” he answered, “but I don’t remember like being a big word.”

Her eyes closed as he found the pulse below her ear. His lips were so very talented and she found herself wondering about his discipline in bed. “I suppose it depends on how you use it.”

His laugh was husky. “Is that so?”

She sighed with pleasure as his teeth tugged on her ear lobe. “Mmmm. If you say, I like ice cream, that’s very different from I
like
ice cream.”

His laugh was deeper, bigger. “That is a significant difference. Thank you for pointing it out. And for the record, I liked hearing you use the big ‘L’ word. It felt very, very nice.”

She opened her eyes and looked up into his. “I meant it, you know.”

He kissed her tenderly. “I know.”

Inside the cabin,
Jet settled down at the dining room table to work on her lesson plans for the week. Shane disappeared into the bathroom to shower and shave. He was in the bathroom for an awfully long time, and when he finally emerged, she looked up to tease him for needing as much time to shower and dress as a girl, but the words died on her tongue.

He’d cut his hair.

He’d cut it all off.

The beard was gone, too.

Jet just stared at him, unable to think of anything to say. He noticed, too. Shyly he ran a hand over his short hair, the black ends curling up, little wisps at his nape and over his ears where long loose curls had been. “Well?”

She couldn’t believe it. She immediately missed his gorgeous hair and yet what a shocking transformation. He was just as handsome as before, but handsome in a different way.

“You look like Brock,” she whispered.

And he did. A young, lean Brock. Except that he had a pale but discernible scar on his chin.

Shane grimaced as he reached for hair that was no longer there. “I feel naked.”

“You look good.”

“Better now?”

“Not better, just different.”

“I’ve been growing it since I was eighteen.”

“You’re still gorgeous. You’re just a different gorgeous.”

His lips curved grimly. “Okay, let’s go do this.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “What are we doing?”

“Meeting these brothers of mine.”

“And how is that going to happen?”

“Didn’t you say they usually meet up at Brock’s for Sunday dinner?”

She nodded.

“Then let’s pack up the cabin and make that Sunday night dinner, shall we?”

Jet was a
ball of nerves as they drove back to Paradise Valley. She tried to hide how nervous she was but she felt as if all hell was about to break loose. And maybe it was. She’d seen Trey and Shane go at it. God help them all if the rest of the Sheenans got involved.

As they passed Bozeman Shane reached out and covered her knee with his hand. “Don’t worry so much.”

She shot him a sardonic glance. “You’re not worried?”

“I’ve learned to minimize expectation.”

“Good for you.”

“You’re still angry with me.”

“I’m angry with the situation, and worried, and scared. I don’t want another fight. I can’t watch you and Trey go at it again.”

“It won’t happen.” His gaze met hers. “I promise.”

“So how do you see this playing out?”

“I’ll show them their mom’s Bible—”

“Your mom’s Bible.”

“I’ll show them the Bible and we’ll take it from there.”

Forty minutes later they were climbing the steep mountain road for the Copper Mountain Ranch. It had been a couple weeks since the last snow and the road was icy in a couple patches but otherwise clear. Lodgepole pine, junipers, and quaking aspen lined the narrow road.

Brock’s cabin was set back in a clearing with the only tree close to the house an oversized fir. Every December Brock covered the tree with Christmas lights for Harley. But Jet couldn’t think about Harley or Christmas or anything right now but the line of cars parked in front of the steeply pitched roof of the two-story log cabin.

Troy’s black SUV.

Trey’s red truck.

Cormac’s SUV.

The only one missing was Dillon, and Jet had a feeling after this—meeting—Dillon would be on a plane soon from Texas to Montana.

As Shane braked and drew next to the other cars, Jet’s stomach did a somersault.

“Let’s run away,” she whispered.

He shot her an amused look as he shifted into park and turned off the engine. “Does that work?”

She shrugged, fighting tears and she didn’t even know why she was about to cry but it had been an intense few days…an intense couple of weeks. Meeting Shane had turned her world inside out, and yet, even with all the stress and drama, she couldn’t remember life without Shane in it. And she didn’t want to picture a time when he wouldn’t be in it, either.

“Come on,” he said, opening his door. “Buck up. Can’t fall apart now.”

But before they’d even made it across the driveway to the path that led to the porch, the front door opened and the Sheenans started to file out.

Trey, Troy, Harley, carrying the baby, and Brock, Brock’s twins, Cormac with Whitney and Daisy, and then Taylor and McKenna, with McKenna leading TJ.

Shane had been holding Jet’s hand but he stopped short, let go of her, and returned to the car to get the Bible. But Jet wasn’t watching Shane. She was watching the Sheenans, studying their faces as they discovered Shane no longer looked like a hipster writer from New York, but a tough, rugged man that looked like one of them.

Jet saw it in Brock’s eyes first, but it was Troy who broke the silence as Shane and Jet joined them on the long front porch.

“Hope that’s Mom’s Bible,” he said nodding at the book in Shane’s hand. “We noticed it was gone when we were packed up your things.”

“It is,” Shane said quietly. “And you can have it back. I just need to show you something in it first.”

Harley looked at Jet and then at Shane and the Sheenan men. “Dinner isn’t for another half hour. Why don’t you go into your den, Brock, so you guys can talk in private? I think it’ll be easier than where the kids are playing.”

Jet’s heart was hammering as they entered the house. Shane wrapped an arm around her just inside the entrance. “Don’t worry,” he said, kissing her. “Everything will be fine.”

If only she could believe him. Her head tipped and she looked up into his eyes. “Will it?”

“Yes. Regardless of the outcome, it will be fine.”

“That’s not really what I wanted to hear.”

His mouth quirked. “I know. But I learned early that you don’t always get what you want.”

His mocking tone made her feel a little pang. “But you might just find you get what you need?”

He kissed her again, ignoring the Sheenans surrounding them. “I love a little Rolling Stones,” he replied before letting her go.

With an easy smile, he turned away and followed Brock down the hall.

Shane wasn’t nervous
as he headed down the hall to Brock’s study, but he wasn’t quite as calm as he appeared, either.

He’d waited years for this moment and now that it’d come, he wasn’t sure he was ready for it. But then, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for it. Perhaps it was a good thing Jet had forced the issue.

Once they were all in the study, the door closed behind Trey. For a moment no one said anything, they just took positions, conscious of the space around them.

Shane had now met them all, except for Brock, and it was Brock who was staring at him, his hard features shuttered even as his narrowed gaze studied Shane intently.

Shane would have known Brock was a Sheenan anywhere. He was big like the others, and solid. In his early forties now, he exuded strength and a quiet, no-nonsense confidence.

“You were at the cabin at Cherry Lake.” Cormac broke the silence, his tone more challenging then aggressive. “Why?”

“I wasn’t sure if it was the place I remembered. I hoped it was.”

“And?” It was Brock who asked the question.

Brock was definitely the big brother here, and had become the head of the Sheenan clan in the absence of their father.

“It was,” Shane answered, meeting Brock’s dark intense gaze. “And then I went to the cemetery and found her grave and Grandmother’s, too.”

The silence was deafening. No one said anything for an endless span of time. They all just looked at him.

Shane opened the Bible and flipped to the page he’d shown Jet last night. “This.” He put his finger on the blank space. “This is me.” And then he handed the book to Brock.

Brock didn’t even look down. He just gave the Bible to Troy who was standing on his right and then the Bible was passed to the other two.

Shane just waited. This was no longer his big revelation. This was theirs. He would let them control the conversation, and the questions.

“I don’t understand why you’d rent the cabin. Why the Cray cabin?” Trey asked.

“Because it’s the only memory I had. Or thought I had. The only time I could see her was when she was at Cherry Lake, with you all.”

Cormac frowned. “According to this, we were born less than a year apart. So where have you been?”

“At Flathead Lake with Grandmother until I was four, and then she died and I went into foster care.” Shane was careful to keep his tone neutral. He wasn’t here to be accusatory. They were in no way to blame and they deserved to know the facts.

It crossed Shane’s mind that they either didn’t believe him, or didn’t want to believe him.

“We didn’t even see Grandmother,” Cormac said eventually.

“That’s not true,” Troy answered. “We’d go to the cabin at least once a year and I’m sure she came to see us.”

Brock’s deep voice added, “We went to see you.”

Every head turned towards him.

“Mom called you a cousin. She’d say, ‘your cousin Sean Cray is here to play,’ and Gram would sometimes bring other Cray cousins, or Finley cousins, and we’d swim in the lake and Mom would sit in a chair near the water’s edge and just drink you in.”

“I don’t remember that,” Cormac said.

Trey’s forehead furrowed. “I remember swimming in the lake with other kids. There were girls and a boy. Two or three years old, but he could swim better than the girls.”

Brock nodded. “That was Shane.” He looked to Shane. “You have two names because Mom and Gram wanted to protect you. They couldn’t use your birth name because Dad didn’t know that it was Gram who adopted you. He was told you were with a family in Sheriden, Wyoming. But Gram took you and raised you, and then she had a heart attack and there was no way Mom could bring you home. And she was never the same after that.”

Cormac crossed his arms over his chest. “We haven’t run a DNA test. We haven’t seen the results. This could be just another one of his stories. We don’t know that he really is related to us—”