The Kidnapped Christmas Bride (Taming of the Sheenans Book 3) by Jane Porter Page A

after that.”
    “Two months I think, which was ridiculous because we’d been dating two years at that point. Did they honestly think you and I weren’t going to try anything? That we weren’t going to eventually mess around?”
    The corner of his mouth quirked and they slipped back into silence, traveling another five miles with memories hanging over them.
    She and Trey had grown up together. Hard to remember a time when they weren’t together…
    “I didn’t think you wanted a big wedding,” he said, a few minutes later, his attention on the road. “You’d always said that when we got married you just wanted immediate family, something small and intimate.”
    McKenna didn’t immediately reply. She would have preferred a small wedding but Lawrence had wanted to invite all his clients and friends so the wedding grew from fifty to one hundred and then one hundred and fifty, and that was where she put her foot down. One hundred and fifty was plenty for a candle light wedding the last Saturday before Christmas.
    “I think the wedding was for Lawrence and the community,” she said after a moment. “There are many in Marietta who want closure for me…they want that happy ending.”
    “And a fancy wedding would give them closure?”
    “I think people want me to be happy, and they hoped that by marrying Lawrence, TJ and I would have stability.”
    “Or maybe they were just glad that Lawrence would keep you away from me.”
    She started to protest but closed her mouth, swallowing the protest. He was right. He was not Marietta’s favorite son.
    “I never cared what people thought,” she said softly, glancing at him, and taking in his profile with the jutting jaw and firm press of lips. He was leaner than she remembered, and yet bigger, harder. He was carrying a lot of muscle still, but he seemed to have virtually no body fat.
    In the light of the truck dash, he glowed, rugged and Hollywood handsome. Black hair, long black lashes, piercing blue eyes, chiseled bone structure.
    He’d always been good looking, but in his mid thirties he had a maturity that suited him.
    The last vestiges of boy were gone. He was all man. A gorgeous, darkly beautiful man.
    When he’d been sentenced to prison she’d thought her heart was permanently broken and so it’d been a surprise when she finally accepted Lawrence’s invitation to dinner.
    Maybe she was comfortable with Lawrence because he was nothing like Trey.
    Lawrence wasn’t sexy or sexual. He wasn’t hard taut muscle. He wasn’t a rancher or a cowboy. He couldn’t rope a fence post, much less a steer. And no, he couldn’t fix the engine of a car or deliver a calf. He couldn’t drive in snow. He couldn’t shoot, hunt, fish or build a proper fire.
    But he was sweet, and thoughtful, gentle and kind. If he said he’d be there at seven, he always showed up…five minutes early. If she needed anything, he was there. He treated her like she was the best thing since sliced bread and it felt good to be important and valued.
    It felt good to know he’d be there the next day, and the day after, and the day after that.
    It felt good not to worry that he’d be out too late, drinking too much, getting heated, instigating fights.
    It felt good to be with someone that folks didn’t criticize.
    “People really thought Lawrence would be a better husband and father than me?” Trey sounded incredulous. “A man who has so little backbone that he allows a five year old to walk all over him?”
    “Well, TJ’s not just any five year old. He is your five year old.”
    “My point exactly.”
    She chewed on her lip, thinking, remembering the fight, the trial, the sentence and then those two years she drove twice a month to see him, carting the baby, who was quickly growing into a spirited toddler.
    TJ always cried during the drives to the prison, but he cried the most when they left Trey behind. He cried because he didn’t know why he had to leave his daddy behind, again, and