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 Decembe
r 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.”