Marrying Her: The Keeping Her Christmas Wedding (The Keeping Her Series Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

on your shoulders, Sara.  I really did want to help.”
    “I know that, and I would
talk to them.” Sara hesitated again.  “It’s just not an appropriate time to
bring up bad memories.”
    Clytie pressed her lips
together over the words she wanted to say and instead said what she had to.  “Give
the kids a kiss for me.  And call me if you need anything.”
    “I will.  Bye, Clytie.”
    Clytie carefully hung up
and placed her phone on the table beside her plate.  She purposefully did not
look at Demon who was close enough to her that she could feel the muscles in
his thighs tense to steal.  “I guess we get to head home today.”
    Seeing that Cassie had
stopped cutting Roxanne’s pancakes, she grabbed the knife from her frozen hands
and started to finish the job.
    “Clytie,” Cassandra
started, her voice choked.
    “Don’t,” Clytie
interrupted, her eyes going to her cousin and then the rest of the pack that
had come so far because they wanted to be there for her.  She shook her head
and gave them a sad smile.  “I just want to have breakfast and then get
everyone back on the plane before I deal with anything else.”  She knew they
could all see the tears she was holding back, but they let her have that play. 
    Cassie nodded her head,
her voice low, her eyes meeting Clytie’s were sympathetic.  “That’s what we’ll
do then.”
    Clytie nodded her head
and, finished with Roxanne’s food, she went back to her fork and her French
toast that no longer seemed remotely edible.  She was going to eat them
anyway.  The conversation started up around the table again.  Everyone was
carefully talking about anything but what had just happened.  Then she felt
Demon’s big hand cross in front of her, wrap around the side of her face, and gently
but firmly turn her to meet his searching chocolate eyes.
    “My dad’s a dick,” she
said quietly into that questioning stare.
    “Yeah, he is,” was his to
the point answer.  “Your mom and sister are no prize packages either,” he added
grimly.
    Clytie sputtered out a
short and not funny laugh.  “Sara’s caught in the middle.  I think she feels
like she has to make up for the rest of us since she is the only one they have
left.”
    “She should have fought
for you.”
    Clytie shook her head
sadly.  “She wanted to, I think . . .”
    “But it wasn’t appropriate ,”
he finished for her.  “Heard that shit the first time.”
    Clytie pulled in a deep
breath and blew it out.  “It doesn’t do anyone any good to get mad about it.”
    “It might make you feel
better.”
    “If you think saying out
loud that my family doesn’t care about me will make me feel better you haven’t
been paying attention.”  She said it, out loud, and still managed to hold back
the tears that wanted to fall.
    “I resent that,” Ben said
unexpectedly, drawing Clytie’s surprised eyes his way, another rare look of
dead serious on his face.
    “So do I,” Mac added in
his always serious voice, his eyes on Clytie.  She was surprised enough at
their reaction that it took her a moment to shift gears and answer.
    “I’m sorry?”  She wasn’t
apologizing but they chose to take her question that way.
    “And so you should be.  We ,”
Ben pointed a finger around the table, “are your family, and we ,”again
the finger went around, “most definitely do care about you.”
    “He’s right,” Cassandra
agreed, her chin jutting up.  “And I was your family before we both mated into
this pack, so I definitely resent that statement.”
    Clytie looked at her and
would have spoken, but Cleo jumped in first, her voice no less firm beneath the
gentle tone.  “Having a good idea of what it feels like to have a mother who is
no prize, I know better than most what family is and isn’t.  So, I resent it,
too.  If we are not family, what are we?”
    The question had Clytie
flinching, feeling the words like a slap.  Not because they hurt, but because
they were so