Page 94 of Texas Glory
“Fine. Just Fine.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Except that I want to cry all the time, but Dr. Freeman said that was normal.”
With his thumb, he captured a tear before it fell from the corner of her eye. “I’ve wanted this for so long, Dee, I don’t hardly know what to say. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough.”
“For God’s sake, don’t thank me.” She shoved hard on his shoulders, and he tumbled over, his backside slamming against the stone floor. She rose to her feet and glared at him. “This is why you married me, isn’t it? Why my family gave me to you? I’m just doing what I was brought here to do!”
Ignoring his stricken expression, she hurried from the room before he could see the tears streaming down her face. She wanted to give him a son, a chance to realize his dreams, but she didn’t want his gratitude. She wanted his love.
A son.
He was going to have a son.
Standing at the corral, Dallas grinned like an idiot while the winds of change circled him, bringing the cooler weather that heralded the arrival of autumn. When the warmer winds arrived in the late spring, he’d be holding his son in his arms.
And until then … he’d be sleeping alone.
Dee had made that painfully clear.
The smile eased off his face. She’d been letting him into her bed because she’d felt an obligation. He’d begun to think he slept there because she wanted him there.
He shivered as the wind howled and drove all the warmth from his flesh. He’d been looking forward to winter for the first time in years. He’d imagined waking up with Dee nestled beside him, the warmth they shared beneath the blankets growing.
He’d miss so many things. The way she burrowed her nose into his shoulder. The way she rubbed the sole of her foot over the top of his. The way she smelled before he made love to her, the way she smelled afterward.
He groaned deep within his throat.
At one time, he’d thought he had only one dream left: to have a son. A sad thing indeed when a man his age realized he’d settled for a small dream when he might have possessed a larger dream: to have a woman who loved him give him a son.
He pounded his fist against the corral railing. He didn’t need love, but damn, he suddenly wanted it desperately. How in the hell could he make her love him, a man who knew nothing of tenderness or soft words or any of the gentle things women needed?
He didn’t know how to ask. He only knew how to command. His father had taught him that.
He turned from the corral and walked slowly back to the house. He had no desire to sleep in his cold bed alone. He’d work on his books for a while. Then he’d ride out to look at his herd, to check his windmills, to search for something he might never find.
He opened the door that led into the kitchen and stumbled to a stop. Dee was holding a log in one arm, bending over to retrieve another one.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he roared.
“The fire in my room is almost gone, and I could hear the wind. I thought it would be colder in the morning.”
“Give me that,” he said, taking the log from her arm. He crouched and stacked more logs into the crook of his arm. “You don’t need to be hauling stuff.”
“I’m not helpless,” she said, hands on her narrow hips.
He wondered if he’d ever noticed how slim she was. He knew he had, he just hadn’t considered how that might affect her when it came time to deliver his son.
“I didn’t say you were,” he said gruffly as he stood. “But I don’t want you carting wood or anything else that’s heavy. If you need something, you let me know.”
“You weren’t here.”
“Then get Austin.”
She looked like she wanted to argue more, but she simply stalked past him. When did she get so darn ornery? He’d have to go see Houston tomorrow and find out what other little surprises were waiting for him in the next few months.
He followed her to her room. She sat on the edge of the bed while he rekindled the fire in her hearth. He stood and brushed his hands over his trousers. “There. I’ll come in every couple of hours or so and check on the fire. No need for you to get out of bed.”
“Fine.”
He glanced at her. Her hands were balled in her lap, her bare feet crossed one on top of the other.
