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“O h my goodness!”

As the wagon rolled along, Loree shifted Two-bits on her lap and stared at the massive adobe structure. Turrets in the corners. A crenellated roof. She’d never seen anything like it. “Is that an inn?”

Beside her on the wagon seat, Austin chuckled. “Nope. That’s my brother’s house.”

Loree pressed her hand against her stomach as though to protect the child. “It’s so big.”

“I think it’s god-awful ugly.”

“Well, it’s not exactly what I would want in a house—”

“What do you want, Loree?”

She turned at the serious tone of his voice. They had been married in Austin, with only Dewayne and his family in attendance. She had worn a white dress and new soft leather shoes that Austin had purchased for her. She’d carried a bouquet of wildflowers that he had picked for her.

As nervous as she’d been, she’d also felt a spark of happiness because he treated her with reverence and respect, and he constantly worried over her. Too many years had passed since anyone other than Dewayne had worried over her.

He had packed up her belongings, loaded them on the wagon, and traveled slower than a snail’s pace for fear the jarring wagon would cause her to lose the baby. At night, they slept within each other arms, beneath the stars, but he never attempted to exercise his husbandly rights.

“Something smaller,” she assured him. Then she smiled brightly. “Something much smaller.”

He returned her smile. “I ought to be able to give you that.”

She slipped Two-bits into his box on the floorboards. He no longer looked like a puppy and was rapidly outgrowing the box. Austin had promised to build a shelter for the dog as soon as they arrived.

“Are we going to stay with your brother?”

“For a while. Till we get settled. Decide what we want, where we want to live. I have a little money saved up, but it won’t get us far.”

The wagon rolled past a huge barn that bore no resemblance to the one that had sat on her property.

She heard the clanging of iron from the blacksmith who worked near the barn.

Horses trotted around a large corral. In the distance, she saw a long narrow clapboard house and a brick building.

She felt as though she were traveling through a miniature town.

Men wearing chaps and dusty hats sauntered between the buildings.

Only a couple acknowledged Austin as he drove the wagon by them.

She might have thought he didn’t know the others if it weren’t for the tightening in his jaw.

He brought the wagon to a halt in front of the veranda.

A man and woman sitting on a bench swing slowly came to their feet.

The man stood as tall as Austin did, and she knew from the facial features that he was Austin’s brother.

The woman was nearly as tall. Slender, she moved gracefully across the porch.

“You should have sent word that you were on your way home,” she said as she floated down the steps.

Austin leapt from the wagon, walked briskly to her, and hugged her fiercely. “Didn’t know how long we’d be. Didn’t want you worrying about us.”

“Did you find out anything?” his brother asked, and Loree sensed in the tone of his voice that he was a man who gave no quarter.

“Not a damn thing,” Austin said as he stepped toward the wagon and held his arms up to her.

Loree wiped her sweating palms on her skirt before she placed her hands on his shoulders. He grabbed her waist, and she felt his trembling through her clothes. She met his gaze and saw the worry in his eyes. She tried to give him a smile of reassurance, but feared that she had failed miserably.

He brought her to the ground and slipped his arm around her. “This is my brother Dallas and his wife, Dee.”

Dee smiled prettily and Dallas looked as though he were waiting for a clap of thunder to sound.

“Did your parents name all their sons after towns?” Loree asked.

“Yeah, they did.” Austin met his brother’s darkening gaze. “This is Loree. My wife.”

Dallas narrowed his eyes. “Your wife?”

Shock rippled across Dee’s face, before her eyes warmed, and she gave Loree a sincere smile. Stepping forward, she wrapped her arms around Loree’s shoulders. “How wonderful! Welcome to the family.”

As Dee released her hold, a wave of nausea hit Loree, and the world suddenly spun around her. She staggered backward. Austin reached out, steadying her. Her cheeks burned as concern swept over Dee’s face.

“Are you all right?” Dee asked.

Loree nodded. “It’s just the baby. I get light-headed when I go too long without eating.”

“The baby?” Dallas ground out in a clipped voice. “And when is this blessed event to take place?”

From the tone of his voice, Loree wasn’t certain he truly considered it to be a blessed event, but she wasn’t going to let him think she was ashamed of carrying his brother’s child. She angled her chin. “End of January.”

“Dee, why don’t you take Loree inside and get her something cool to drink?” Austin suggested. “I’m afraid I might have pushed us a little too hard trying to get here before nightfall.”

Dee wrapped her arm around Loree’s waist. “I’d love to get her out of this heat. Come on inside.”

Loree glanced over her shoulder at Austin.

“Go on,” he urged.

Austin watched Dee guide his wife into the house. Then he met Dallas’s blazing glare.

“She’s your wife and she didn’t know your brother’s name?” he asked.

“I told her I had brothers. I mentioned Houston to her. Guess I just never got around to mentioning your name. Don’t take it personal.” Austin stepped onto the porch. Dallas grabbed his arm and jerked him back down.

“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 me at all when 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.”