Page 99 of Texas Splendor
Austin’s hand closed more tightly around hers, and she knew he had spoken the truth. She was glad that she came, glad that she’d given him the opportunity to hear a symphony. She eased up in the chair, tears stinging her eyes at the sight of awe and wonder revealed on his face.
“Look at all those violins,” he whispered. “They’re all moving the same, like a herd of cattle heading to pasture.”
“They’re following the same music.”
“Reading those little black bugs. How long do you think it took them to learn to play together like that?”
“Years.”
“It’s mighty fine sounding, ain’t it?” he asked.
She brushed her fingers through his hair and pressed her cheek to his shoulder. “Mighty fine.”
They arrived home with no mishaps. Loree wished she could believe that Austin was safe. It had been a year since his release, six months since someone had slammed him into a building. If only she knew for certain that no harm would come to him, she could keep her secret buried deep within her soul.
Grant released a tiny mewling sound. She sat on the bed, unbuttoned her bodice, and smiled as he rooted at her nipple, his mouth working feverishly. “Got hungry, did you?” she asked as she brushed her fingers over his black hair.
“When you get bigger, you can help your pa put the horses away after we go to town.” Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’m gonna get better, Grant. I’m gonna stop worrying. I can’t change the past, but I can be a good wife and make everything up to your pa that way. I realized that watching him tonight. Oh, you should have seen his face—”
She heard the front door close and shifted Grant within her arms. Austin walked into the room, dropped onto the bed, and tossed the sheets of music toward her hips.
“Teach me, Loree.”
She blinked her eyes. “What?”
“Teach me. I won’t complain. I’ll play the same song over and over and over—just like you wanted me to. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“It takes time—”
“Which is the one thing I haven’t got so just for tonight, teach me one song, one fancy song.”
She shifted Grant to her shoulder and began to rub his back. “You want me to teach you tonight?”
He rolled off the bed and began to pace. “All my life, Loree, I’ve been searching for something, wondering where I belonged. Dallas always knew that he belonged with cattle and Houston … hell, he practically becomes a horse when he’s working with them. But I never knew what I should do. Not until tonight.
“There was a time when I thought if I could make a violin I could find a way to live on forever. It never occurred to me that I could stand on a stage and fill people’s hearts with music.”
He dropped to his knees by the bed and wrapped his arm around her waist. “I want to go see Mr. Cowan—the conductor—tomorrow. I wanna play for him. I wanna ask him to take me with him, to let me be part of his orchestra.”
“What about us?”
“You and Grant will come with me. We might have to leave Two-bits with Rawley, but the boy loves him. He’ll give him a good home. And I’ll showyouthe world.”
The world. She would miss Two-bits, but she saw Austin’s dream reflected so clearly in his eyes of blue—burning brighter and hotter than any flame in the center of a fire, and she knew deep within her heart that every dream he had ever lost had been because of her.
This one last dream he had found was hers to give.
She laid Grant, asleep, on the bed beside her and combed her fingers through Austin’s dark, curling locks. “No,” she said quietly.
“No?” Confusion mired his eyes.
“No, I won’t teach you to play a song. If you’re going to impress Mr. Cowan, you’re going to have to play from your heart, and you’ll only be able to do that if you play the songs that are within you.”
She watched him swallow. “What if he doesn’t like what I play?”
“How can he not like it? You have a rare gift. Your heart isn’t in any of the songs I gave you for Christmas. You need to play one of your songs.”
“Which one?”
