Page 91 of Texas Destiny
Houston Leigh buried his face in his hands and did what he’d been too afraid to do thirteen years before.
He wept.
The frigid winds whipped through near dawn. At Dallas’s insistence, the men left the herd unattended on the range while they crowded inside the parlor, shoving and elbowing each other like children anxious to get outside.
A fire blazed within the hearth, but its warmth could not penetrate the chill seeping through Houston’s bones. He stood beside Reverend Tucker, waiting for the hell to end, for decisions and choices to be taken out of his hands.
The men fell into silence as Amelia walked into the room, Dallas at her side. She again wore the green silk dress. He’d never asked Dallas for payment, wouldn’t have accepted it if it had been offered. Everything he’d ever given her was his way of apologizing for intruding in her life.
If the value of a gift was based upon what it meant to the giver, he was about to give her the finest gift of all: his brother as her husband.
Dallas stood on one side of Amelia, Houston on the other. Austin fidgeted beside Houston in a brown jacket he’d outgrow before he had the need to wear it again.
Outside, the wind howled and the sky turned gray.
Inside, the fire crackled, and Reverend Tucker asked one and all to bow their heads in prayer. As his voice rang out, Houston studied the woman standing beside him. She hadn’t looked at him as she had walked into the room, and he couldn’t blame her.
They’d traveled through hell together and survived. She’d clambered out of it. How could he drag her back into it?
Reverend Tucker ended the prayer and spoke about marriage, commitment, and duty. Houston stopped listening to the words. They weren’t for him. They were for Amelia and the man standing on the other side of her.
Then Reverend Tucker’s voice was pounding through his head, reverberating around his heart. “If anyone knows why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Amelia turned her head slightly, caught, and held Houston’s gaze. He wanted to tell her. God help him, he’d rather have the disappointment in her eyes than the hurt.
She turned away, and he knew that she’d said farewell at that moment, that there would be no turning back the hands of the clock. For her, he’d held his silence, would forever hold his peace.
As Dallas took Amelia in his arms and kissed her, Houston plunged into the darkest depths of hell.
The winds were cold as Houston stood on the back porch, his duster flapping around his calves. He should head out before it got much darker, taking Austin with him so the newly married couple could have some privacy.
He heard the door open and glanced over his shoulder to see Amelia. “It’s cold out here. You’d best stay inside.”
“Don’t I have a say in where I stand?”
He smiled at her comment, but he had no desire to tease her back. She’d do what she wanted, just as he’d done what he had to do. He turned his attention back to the horizon.
She walked to the edge of the porch, briskly rubbing her hands up and down her arms. He wanted to take her into his embrace and warm her. Instead, he shrugged out of his duster and wrapped it around her. She closed it tightly around her.
“Marcus,” she said softly.
He glanced at her. “Marcus?”
She nodded. “That’s what we’re going to name our first son. We’ll call him Mark because Dallas expects him to make his mark on the world.”
“With Dallas as his father, I imagine he will.”
Her knuckles turned white as she clutched his coat. “I’m nervous about tonight. I don’t have any women to talk to … and I … I always considered you … a dear friend. I was hoping maybe you might have some words of wisdom to share so I won’t be afraid or disappoint him.”
“You could never disappoint him.”
“Unless I give him a daughter.”
“Not even then.”
Her cheeks reddened, but he didn’t think it had anything to do with the cold chafing her skin.
“Will it hurt?” she asked quietly.
