The Kidnapped Christmas Bride (Taming of the Sheenans Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

shifted. “I tried to find you last night. I didn’t want to do this today.”
    “When did you get out?”
    “Yesterday.”
    For a moment there was just silence, and the cold air whistling through the valley. McKenna was so chilled now she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel warm again. “Who told you?”
    “Troy. Just before we reached Marietta.” He exhaled. “I wished you’d told me. A letter…just a few lines…”
    She said nothing. He was right. It would have been the right thing to tell him. The decent thing. But her relationship with Trey wasn’t easy. Her feelings weren’t simple, nor easily managed, at least, not when it came to him. The only way she’d been able to move on was to do it full stop. Cold turkey.
    It’d hurt like hell. She’d suffered, especially as each of his frantic letters arrived, but she’d reached the end of her rope. She had nothing left. Not for him, or them. She barely could keep it together for TJ, and that was the only thing that kept her from falling apart completely.
    TJ needed one whole, healthy, available parent.
    He needed her to be the whole, healthy, available parent. He depended on her for everything.
    And so she stopped reading Trey’s letters. She took down Trey’s photos. She boxed up his extra jackets and boots and things he’d left at the apartment and dropped them off at the Graff Hotel, leaving them for Troy to deal with.
    And gradually TJ stopped asked about his dad. They stopped discussing Trey. There was no mention of a dad, or a dad in prison. It was almost as if Trey had never been in the picture.
    But seeing TJ and Trey together in the courtyard, McKenna knew she’d gotten it all wrong. TJ hadn’t forgotten his father. It might have been two years since he last saw his dad, but TJ knew exactly who he was, and where he’d been, and from the wondrous look in his blue eyes, it wasn’t going to be easy peeling TJ out of Trey’s arms.”
    “TJ, honey,” she said. “We need to go back inside. We still have the wedding and the party after—”
    “Is Dad coming?” TJ asked hopefully.
    “No, honey.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because he’s not…invited.” Her stomach felt heavy, as if she’d swallowed a rock.
    TJ wrapped his arm around Trey’s neck. “Can I invite him?”
    “No, babe. But you’ll see him again…” Her voice faded. She struggled to smile, her eyes hot and gritty. It hurt to look at TJ and Trey together. “Soon.”
    “When?”
    She blinked, clearing her vision. “After Christmas, after we get back from Disney World.”
    “Can Daddy come?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s…a honeymoon.”
    “But—”
    “TJ, no.” Her voice cracked. “Now say goodbye and don’t be sad, because you’ll see your dad in early January.”
    “Your mom’s right,” Trey said gruffly, putting TJ down. “No need to be sad. I’ll be here when you get back.”
    TJ clung to Trey’s fingers. “How long will you be here?”
    “Forever,” Trey answered.
    TJ frowned. “You’re not going back to jail?”
    “No.”
    “What about the dogs? Will they get you?”
    Trey crouched down and stared TJ in the eyes. “That was a joke. Your great aunt Karen was being funny. There are no dogs. No one is coming to get me.” He clapped his hand on TJ’s shoulder. “I’m home, son. For good.”
    “You’re going to live with us?”
    “With you and Mom and Lawrence? No, bud. I’ll be at the ranch. Grandpa’s ranch. You know, where Uncle Dillon lives.”
    “TJ doesn’t go out there much,” McKenna said quietly, uncomfortably.
    Trey glanced at her for a split second, expression inscrutable, before returning his attention to TJ. “You’ll live with your mom and Lawrence, but you’ll see me. Evenings and weekends…whenever we can work it out.”
    TJ frowned. “But why do we have to live with Lawrence if you’re not in jail anymore?”
    “Because your mom loves Lawrence.”
    “But you’re my dad.”
    “Yes, and I’ll still be your dad,