do change,” she admitted. “But it’s subtle and not nearly as big of a change as here. It’s beautiful here in the fall.” She grinned. “And I do love Aspen in the winter. There’s nothing like flying down the mountain on a pair of skis after a new snow.”
“You like the fresh powder?”
“Absolutely.” She tilted her head. “What about you? Do you like to ski?”
He gave her a mischievous grin. “I have been known to tear it up on a few of the slopes around here. I’ve also done a little cross-country skiing.”
Yawning, she leaned her head back against the couch. “I’ve missed being able to participate in the winter activities we have in the mountains.”
“They have some nice skiing in California,” he reminded her.
“Yes, but I would have to drive several hours to get there.” She smiled. “I like having a ski slope practically in my backyard.”
“Then why did you go to college in California in the first place?” he asked before he could stop himself.
Shane had a feeling it had something to do with her getting away from home and the control of Donald Jarrod. But she’d shied away from discussing her relationship with her father, and from her expression, she wasn’t interested in discussing it now.
She hesitated as if choosing a suitable answer. “I was young and wanted to spread my wings a bit.” Hiding another yawn behind her hand, she gave him a sheepish grin. “I think I need to go up to bed before I fall asleep right here.”
He knew she was making an excuse to escape before he had the opportunity to ask any more questions. “You’re probably right.” Turning off the television, he rose to his feet, then helped her to hers. “What do you say we go upstairs and see just how good I am at giving a massage?”
“But I don’t have a problem with tightness in my shoulders or neck,” she said as he led her toward the stairs.
“Angel, I wasn’t talking about massaging your back.” He couldn’t stop his wicked grin. “The areas I had in mind are on the front side of your body and a whole lot more interesting.”
Shane lay staring at the ceiling long after the woman in his arms drifted off to sleep. The evening had been perfect and given him a glimpse of what life could be like once he and Lissa were married.
Married. The word alone should have had him running for the hills, and he still couldn’t quite believe that he was actually going to take the plunge.
Two days ago, the idea of marriage and having a child never crossed his mind. It was simply something he had never allowed himself to contemplate. He had witnessed the hell his father went through when his mother left and that was more than enough to convince Shane he wanted no part of the institution.
He could remember the nights he had lain in bed as a small boy listening to his mother and father argue about how unhappy she was living out in the middle of nowhere. Eventually her pleading for his father to sell the ranch and move them all to a metropolitan area had turned to threats of her leaving.
Then, one day when he was nine, Shane came home from school to find his mother gone and his father passed out with an empty whiskey bottle at his feet. Cactus had stepped in to watch over him and when his father finally sobered up after a two-month bender, Shane asked several times where his mother was. “Gone” was all he could get out of his father each time he asked. Shane finally gave up and stopped asking.
But Hank McDermott was never the same after that. Other than being there to raise his son and instill a strong set of values in him, it was as if his dad had quit caring about everything else and reminded Shane of a horse that had its spirit broken. Once full of life, his father rarely left the ranch and removed everything in the house that hinted a woman had ever inhabited the place.
Shane had never wanted to give that kind of power over him to any woman. Never wanted a child of his to lie awake at night wondering where his mother was and why he never heard from her again. But with Lissa’s announcement that she was pregnant, he suddenly found himself determined to do the very thing he had vowed never to do—get married.
Glancing at her head resting on his shoulder, he took a deep breath and tried to relax. As long as he kept everything in perspective and his feelings for her under control, everything should be fine.
He would be a good provider, a faithful husband to her and a loving father to their child. That’s all any woman could ask of a man and all Shane was ready or willing to give.
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