Read Online Christmas Kisses (Romance on the Ranch Series #5) by Verna Clay - Free Book Online

wouldn't have his son's first
impression of him be that of a handicapped man. Just as he entered the room, Cecelia
walked in and held the door open for Sean.
    Time stopped as Mac froze, staring at his child.
Sean also froze. The two of them appraised each other for a long moment and Mac
felt his eyes grow moist. There was so much of Rose in the boy, but so much of
himself, too. He lifted his good hand and said, "Hello, Sean."
    The boy glanced around the small room and then
back at Mac. With a disdainful look, he said, "You're fifteen years too late."
    Mac blinked to keep the moisture in his eyes
from falling and glanced at Cecelia. "Why don't you show Sean to his
room?"
    Cecelia stepped in front of the boy. "Ah,
there are stairs at the end of the hallway leading to the only room upstairs, a
bedroom under the dormer. Come on. Let's get you settled."
    *
    Sean glanced around the dormer room that was
spacious enough and walked to drop his backpack on the bed. He had a lump the
size of the moon in his throat. He'd imagined meeting his birthfather at least
a thousand times since reading the correspondence that had obviously been going
on all of Sean's life. Sure, he'd known he was adopted, and early on, when he'd
asked about his birth parents, his mom and dad had spoken of them in the past
tense and mentioned a car accident, so he'd just assumed they were dead. It was
only while he was looking for his iPod that he'd come across the locked desk
drawer in his father's office. It was like a light went on in his head and when
an inner voice whispered, There are secrets in there, he'd pried the
drawer open regardless of the consequences—he had to know what was in that
drawer. The contents had stunned him. His father was living and his
parents had corresponded yearly with him, sending pictures and updates, but his
father had never once asked questions about his son. He'd only sent
short thank you notes. And what of his mother?
    After that, Sean's attitude had taken a dive
into the deep end of the ocean. When he'd approached his parents holding the
box of letters, he'd demanded, "Why didn't you tell me about him? And is
my mother alive?"
    The mother who had raised him rushed to his
side, while his father said, "Your mother is dead. Your father is alive.
But breaking into someone's personal items is not acceptable, Sean."
    Sean had replied, "Keeping the fact of a living birthfather from me is not acceptable, Dad." He'd tossed the box of
letters on the carpet and run from the house. He'd heard his father say,
"Let him go, Ruth"
    Since the discovery his life had been hell and
he knew his parents were paying the price for deceiving him. He was angry and
he became more so each day. Finally, his parents had confronted him and told
him that his birthfather had agreed to meet with him, but they would give no
history as to why he had been put up for adoption. Agreed to meet with me! He'd wanted to throw the words back in their faces. He'd wanted to shout, He
owes me, but he'd remained silent and sullen and merely asked,
"When?"
    A knock on the door brought his thoughts back to
the present. He opened the door to face the woman who had picked him up at the
airport. She seemed nice enough, but he hadn't been into nice for over a
week. She said, "I own a coffee shop in town and I need to check in. I'll
only be gone about an hour and then we can eat dinner. Do you like pizza? Your
father and I talked about ordering one. They make a great one at Pappy's Pizza
Palace. I can stop by on my way home and pick one up."
    Sean shrugged. "Whatever."
    She asked a little too cheerily, "Do you
like pepperoni or ham or combination or just cheese?"
    He glanced at her. She looked nervous. "I
like it all."
    "Oh, great. Then I'll order a combination.
    "Sure."
    She started to turn away, but paused and said,
"You should cut him some slack."
    Before Sean could respond, she closed the door.

Chapter 15: Cowboyanese
    As soon as Cecelia entered Dixie's Cuppa Joe,
Justin