Page 101 of Texas Splendor
“I sure could use some.”
He put his hands on her waist and lifted her off the bench seat. “Could use a little sugar, too,” he said, his gaze holding hers.
She raised up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him as she hadn’t in weeks.
“Mmm, I’ve missed that.” Reaching around her, he grabbed the picnic basket while she picked up Grant.
She sat on the quilt Austin had spread over the ground and laid Grant near her hip. Austin stretched out beside her.
“You caught me daydreaming,” he said, his voice low.
“What were you dreaming?”
“Different things. I ran into Houston on my way back from town this morning, and we got to talking.”
“About what?” she asked, handing him a hunk of cheese. She’d thrown the picnic together as hastily as they’d thrown their marriage together.
He set the cheese aside as though it really held no interest for him. “He’s gaining a wides-pread reputation for having the best horse flesh this side of the Rio Grande. He’s needing some help so I offered to start working for him on my off-day. I thought we could set the money aside until we have enough to go somewhere on a little trip.”
“Where would we go?”
“Wherever you want.” He leaned toward her and cupped her chin. “I’m gonna give you a good life, Loree. You’ll see. It might never be filled with any of the things you dreamed of, but it’ll be good.”
“If they found the person who killed Boyd McQueen—everything would change for you, wouldn’t it?”
“Damn sure would. But that’s not gonna happen, Loree. It’s been six years. The fact of the matter is that man got lucky, and I didn’t.”
Chapter 18
Austin sat on the porch, staring at the moonless sky, knowing sleep would be as elusive as his dreams.
He heard the door open, but he didn’t bother to turn around. Dallas had once told him that a man had to learn from the mistakes he made. Austin had never expected the lessons to be so damn hard.
He caught a glimpse of bare toes as Loree sat beside him. He felt a ghost of a smile touch his lips. He turned slightly and brought her feet to his lap, rubbing his thumb over her sole.
“Daydreaming again?” she asked.
“You can’t daydream at night,” he said quietly. “But I was thinking—there’s no reason I couldn’t play in Dee’s theater.” He leaned toward her and smiled. “A special performance.”
“Would that make you happy?”
He moved his thumb in an ever widening circle. “You make me happy.”
She jerked her feet off his lap. Even in the shadows, he could make out tears glistening within her eyes. “I told you that I’ll make everything all right.”
“It’ll never be all right. Oh, God, Austin. I didn’t know, and now I’m so afraid, more afraid than I was then because I have so much more to lose.”
“Loree, you’re not making any sense.”
She scooted across the porch until their thighs touched and took his hand in hers, holding his open, rubbing her fingers over it again and again, as though she wanted to memorize every line and callus.
“My mother hated West Texas.”
His gut clenched, and he wished he’d kept his dream of playing for the orchestra to himself. He’d given her hope of leaving only to disappoint her with mistakes from his past. “We’ll travel, Loree.”
She shook her head. “Let me say everything before you say anything.”
“All right.”
