Lorraine Heath by Parting Gifts Read Free Book Online Page A

hairs peeking through the opened collar of a chambray shirt came to her mind. She had, of course, seen other men without their shirts. Yet, she’d never had a urge to reach up and touch the curling hairs as she had this afternoon when she’d stepped down from the stagecoach.
    “I see similarities between you and Jesse … and yet, you seem so different.”
    “Probably because we were raised differently. We were traveling from Tennessee, part of a wagon train, when our parents took the fever and died. We were farmed out to different families. When we hit Texas, the family that took Jesse kept heading west. The family that took me settled in Carthage.”
    “How old were you?”
    “I was eight. Jesse was twelve.”
    “That must have been hard for you.”
    Charles stopped rubbing her arm. “It was damn hard. When I was nineteen, I decided to try and find him. Just started walking with no earthly idea where I was bound, where to look for him. Whenever I could, I traveled by stagecoach. One day, the stagecoach stopped here. I stepped out of the coach and tilted my hat to the owner’s daughter. She smiled. The next morning when the stagecoach moved on, I didn’t. Three months later, we got married.”
    “She must have been beautiful.”
    “She was beautiful to me.”
    She remembered his saying he never expected to love again and wondered at the type of woman who could so captivate a man. She felt more than heard him chuckling. “What is it?”
    He cleared his throat. “I was just thinking. I asked both my wives to marry me an hour after I met them.”
    “Did you really?”
    “Yep. Course, it took Alice a little longer to appreciate me and say yes.”
    “But eventually she came around,” she stated softly. “Yeah, eventually.”
    A comfortable silence eased in around them. “Charles, I really am sorry my presence has caused hard feelings between you and Jesse.”
    “Don’t worry about it. Jesse’s temper blazes, then dies quickly. He’s just aggravated because he thinks I do things without thinking them through. He, on the other hand, doesn’t do anything without thinking it to death. It’s damn irritating sometimes.”
    “He doesn’t seem to think it to death before he clears his throat.”
    He chuckled. “I guess I should have warned you about that.”
    Warned her about that? She just wished he’d warned her that he had a brother. A brother with eyes as black as sin. A brother who no longer wore the outer trappings of a Texas Ranger, but still carried the oath within his heart.

4
    Leaning against the oak tree, Maddie watched the girls gather eggs from the hens. She wasn’t certain a game had been created that could so captivate a child. The girls fearlessly searched every nook and cranny for the hidden wonders.
    Earlier, Maddie had suggested that Charles spend some time alone with Aaron. He’d welcomed the idea. Since school was not in session, he’d decided to take Aaron fishing. She smiled at the memory of them ambling off with poles dangling over their shoulders, father and son, so alike in appearance. She hoped that some additional attention from Charles might lessen Aaron’s animosity, but regardless, she thought the boy needed his father’s guidance. She wasn’t at all certain it was wise of Charles to allow his brother to have so much influence over his son.
    “Never before knew a woman worth a thousand dollars.”
    Maddie jerked back and banged her head against the rough bark of the tree as Jesse stepped in front of her, effectively blocking off the early morning sun. The shadows falling across his face failed to cover the harshness of his features, or the cold disdain swimming in the murky depths of his eyes. She felt an icy shiver race up her spine. “I’m hardly worth a thousand dollars.”
    He braced his arms on either side of her. “Apparently, my brother feels differently. Did Charles happen to mention that six hundred dollars of that money he spent on you was mine?”
    She