Page 118 of Texas Splendor
“You and your cows.” She looked at Austin’s sons. “Are you boys gonna help Rawley take care of his cattle?”
All his sons bobbed their heads excitedly.
“Good God, don’t you know how to make girls?” Houston asked.
Austin smiled at his brother. “You don’t look like you’ve changed at all.”
“It’s just not as noticeable when a face is as unattractive as mine.”
Austin saw tears spill from the eyes of the woman standing beside Houston. Her hair wasn’t as blond as it had once been, but he thought it still looked as though it had been woven from moonbeams. He held out his arms. “Amelia.”
She hugged him closely.
“You started all this you know,” he whispered. “You were the first, the one who taught us that we didn’t have to be so strong.”
She patted his back. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
“I need a hug.”
Austin looked over Amelia’s head and smiled at Dee. “Who would have thought you’d turn out to be
so bossy?”
Her arms came around him in a fierce hug. “You haven’t seen me be bossy yet. I have you scheduled for three performances at my theater.”
“Dee—”
She wagged her finger at him. “I am not going to have a world-famous violinist in our town and not have him play in my theater.”
“I don’t know how world famous I am—”
“Loree sent us all your newspaper clippings—”
He glanced at his wife, who simply smiled at him.
“Of course, we can’t read most of them what with their being written in a foreign language and all—”
“I can read the ones from France now,” Maggie said.
Rawley rolled his eyes. “See, I told you she thinks she’s smarter than us—”
“Not smarter, just more educated,” she said.
“Experience is the best educator,” Rawley said. “Dallas taught me that.”
“And here I didn’t think you were paying attention.”
Austin turned at his oldest brother’s booming voice. The years had turned Dallas’s hair silver and shadowed his mustache with varying shades of gray. The creases had deepened around his eyes and mouth. Dallas’s gaze slowly roamed over Austin, and he hoped with all his heart that his brother didn’t find him wanting.
A slow smile eased onto Dallas’s face. “I always knew your dreams would take you away from us. Just didn’t expect them to keep you away so long.”
“Well, we’re home now.” He hadn’t known the words were true until he embraced his brother. He had given Loree the world … and now he wanted to give her and their boys a home.
Rawley stepped out of the ballroom onto the veranda. “Faith, Uncle Austin and Aunt Loree are here. Aren’t you gonna come in and welcome them home?”
She spun around, tears brimming in her eyes. “Oh, Rawley, I don’t want him to see me like this, not after all these years.”
He looked her up and down. He didn’t understand ladies’ fashions, but he thought she looked beautiful in the red gown. “Nothing wrong with the way you look.” “I’ve got no bosom.”
