page32 (1/2)
They ended up checking into a Marriott hotel at the Missoula airport Their roo door Jet phoned Harley but got her voice e, Jet headed downstairs to meet Shane for dinner They sat at the counter in the hotel bar and ordered off the bar ement over flatbread pizza and beer
“Youto haveoff so it in her mouth
“I don’t have woo further between us is if it’s right, and we’ve agreed it’s right, e’re one, sober, two, have protection sorted out, and three, not in the heat of the moment”
“You’ve certainly thought this out”
“When systems are turned on, it’s hard to think clearly, but sex is serious, we both need to be sure it’s the right thing for the right reasons, and I don’t think we’re there yet Are we?”
She thought of Ben and the pregnancy scare and how alone she felt when he gave her the ulti her an ultiuy, but at the sauarantees She’d had her heart broken before It could easily happen again
“No”
“I’ertips grazing her cheek “Just after the whole foster care thing, and not having a place of ed, I’e, and the risks understood—”
“I get it” And she did “Nors Not sure why I can’t—or don’t—with you You’re pretty dang hot”
He s hot,” he corrected, raising his beer glass to her
She grinned He’d said we From a man like Shane Swan that was al
Well, okay, that was going overboard but still, as good We had to
The nexthe dropped her off at the school where they were holding the workshop, and gave her a kiss goodbye, telling her to be a good girl and not get in trouble
She laughed as she climbed from the car
“I’ll be back at four,” he said, “or sooner if you call me”
Shane watched her walk away fro her, or maybe part of him
Until he’d met Jet, he’d lived with an icy hardness in his chest The ice warred with the anger in his veins He’d grown up angry and disillusioned He’d worked hard to prove hi resentment towards those who’d abandoned their children, but he’d becoiven him a polish and a distance He learned to detach He learned to pretend he didn’t care
It wasn’t until Jet entered his life that he realized how much he still cared And how much he still wanted all that he’d never had
With her, he felt good He felt accepted She didn’t care about him because he was the wealthy, faht in the marrow of his bones
But seeing her walk away, even though she turned and gave a jaunty wave, ile his security was
Could she love his?
Could she accept hiroith him, as they faced an uncertain future?
He wanted to believe it, but it was too soon They both kneas too soon And so as she headed to her workshop in a Missoula high school cafeteria, he drove away, feeling loss, and worry, and a hint of shame
His brothers—he couldn’t help calling them that now, if only to himself—he sa they loved each other and protected the others They’d even banded together to protect McKenna and their mother They weren’t bad people The only reason he hated them was because they’d rejected him
And truly, he didn’t hate the He just wished he’d had what they’d had He wished he’d had a childhood in one home with one set of parents, his parents He wished he’d had the memories they shared, even the bad ones, because those memories of a harsh father and a lonely mother had bonded them Those memories hat made them the Sheenan brothers
Shanefor Polson He drove with the satellite radio station on, turned to his favorite station, which was playing Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” He cranked the volurateful for , and lost hiuitar riff
But after a bit, he didn’t hear the guitar, or the lyrics He kept seeing hiain, with just an old, blue suitcase that he took from place to place There were no photo albuifts that ith him There was no one in his life today who knew hient had been encouraging him to write a book about his life, a ent knew, he believed he could get Shane an impressive deal, but there was a reason Shane used a pen name He wanted to keep the lives separate, and the past buried
Or at least that hat he’d told himself
But now after spending nine ical parents, dating the sister-in-law of his eldest brother, he realized he’d failed at keeping the lives separate At the led