“Let me get this straight,” Dallas said, his voice seething. “Five years ago, you bedded Becky Oliver and to protect her reputation, you kept your mouth shut and ended up in prison. Now, you’ve been gone less than four months and show up at my door with a wife—a pregnant wife at that. Do you have a problem keeping your trousers buttoned or do you just have a tendency to get involved with women who have no morals—”
Dallas’s tirade ended the instant Austin’s fist made contact with his jaw and sent him staggering backward. He landed hard in the dirt. It took every ounce of control Austin could muster not to pound his brother into a bloody pulp. “You don’t know a goddamn thing about any of it, and until you do, keep your goddamn mouth shut!”
Austin stormed up the steps and threw open the door. “Loree, we’re leaving!”
He stalked down the steps, taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself before Loree got outside. Dallas worked his way to his feet, backhanding the blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. “Where in the hell do you think you’re going, boy?” Dallas demanded.
“I’m not a boy. If prison does nothing else, it beats the boy right out of you. Where I’m going is none of your damn business,” Austin snarled. He spun around at the sound of footsteps and held his hand toward Loree. “Come on, Sugar.”
Worry etched creases into her brow. “Is something wrong?” she asked, her gaze darting between him and Dallas.
“No, I just decided we’d be better off staying at the hotel in town.” The anxiety didn’t ease from her face. He squeezed her hand. “Honest.”
He helped her into the wagon, then climbed up, released the brake, and slapped the reins. He’d expected coming home with a wife to be difficult. He just hadn’t expected it to rip away the last bonds he had with his family.
Staring at the night sky through the window of his office, Dallas felt a need to ride across the plains, climb to the top of one of his windmills, and listen to the clatter created by the constant breeze. Instead, he quietly sipped on his whiskey and wondered where he had gone wrong.
He heard the quiet footsteps, downed the remaining whiskey, and set his glass aside.
“Are you ready to tell me why Austin hit you?” Dee asked softly.
“I questioned his wife’s morals.”
“Then, I’m glad he hit you. It says a lot about his feelings for the woman.”
“And I questioned his ability to keep his trousers buttoned.”
“Oh, Dallas, you didn’t.”
He spun around and faced his wife. “Dammit, Dee, by my reckoning, he must have bedded her two minutes after he met her. He’s given himself a life sentence with a woman he barely knows—”
She angled her head and lifted a dark brow.
“Dammit! Our situation was different.”
“I realize that. You didn’t know meat allwhen we married.”
He twisted around, gazing back into the night, into the past. “I raised him, Dee. From the time he was five, I was more of a father than a brother. I hate seeing him waste his life, making decisions that lead him nowhere.”
She placed her hand on his shoulder, a habit she’d acquired once she realized his back had little feeling in it after the beating he’d received five years before as a result of her oldest brother’s greed. “You gave him a good foundation. Now you have to give him the freedom to build on it.”
He snapped his head around. “And if I don’t like the life he’s building on it?”
“As hard as it is, you have to learn to accept it. Someday Rawley and Faith will leave us. All we can do is hope that the foundation we give them is strong enough to sustain their dreams … and their failures.”
He drew her into his embrace and pressed his cheek against the top of her head. “I remember coming home from the war and finding him living like an animal. I don’t know how long our ma had been dead before we got there or how Austin managed to survive. It took me and Houston weeks to earn his trust. Then he looked at everything we gave him as though he were afraid we’d snatch it away. I always expected him to dream bigger dreams, go farther than I ever dared. I feel as though I’ve failed him.”
She leaned back and cradled his face between her hands. “Do you know what Cameron’s biggest fear was?”
Dallas blinked at the abrupt change of subject. “I’ve got no idea.”
“Once Austin realized that Cameron and Becky were married, he’d post a public announcement telling the town that he had been with Becky the night Boyd was killed. Neither he nor Becky would have blamed him had he done so, but he didn’t. Becky trusted him that night and he won’t betray that trust. How can you have failed him when you raised him to be such a fine young man, to accept responsibility for his actions?
“Loree and I didn’t have much of an opportunity to talk, but I know he met her on his way to Austin. She didn’t even know where he lived until today. He could have ridden out of her life and never looked back. Instead he convinced her to marry him. You didn’t fail him, Dallas. You raised him to be the kind of man you can be proud to call ‘brother.’ ”
Dallas heaved a weary sigh. “If I didn’t fail him in the twenty years I raised him, I’m afraid I may have failed him today.”
“Only if you let what happened this afternoon fester between you. He needs us more now than he ever has before, and I’m sure tomorrow he’ll wake up with a few regrets of his own. Go talk to him first thing in the morning.”
