A Texan's Honor Read Free

would be much better to sell the ranch. With your looks and money, you’d have your pick of eligible bachelors.”
    â€œI’m not interested in eligible bachelors.”
    Her father chuckled. “Well, you’re going to meet one. Silas Abbott is sending out one of his nephews with orders to escort you back to Boston.”
    â€œDid you send for him?”
    â€œAll I did was tell your Uncle Ezra I was worried about you and wanted you to go back to Boston. I doubt I would have heard from him if my father hadn’t left me a quarter interest in Abbott and Abercrombie.”
    â€œYou didn’t tell me.”
    â€œI was going to sell the shares, but I changed my mind when Silas Abbott started putting pressure on me to sell to him. I think he’s afraid I’ll use my interest to try to get rid of him.”
    â€œIf they want me to go back, why didn’t he send Joseph? At least I liked him.”
    â€œSilas would never trust his precious son to the dangers of a land peopled with wild savages, thieves, and murderers. The man who’s coming is Bret Nolan. Silas turned his back on the boy’s mother when she married a man he didn’t like. He’s probably hoping Nolan will get lost and never find his way back to Boston, but that’s not important. I want you to payclose attention to what he has to say. He knows the Abbotts better than I do.”
    â€œI don’t care what he or anyone else says. I don’t want to go to Boston, so you can tell him not to come.”
    â€œI can’t. He’s on his way to Fort Worth right now.”
    Bret didn’t want to admit it, but the tight bands that had constricted his chest for the last six years had started to loosen as soon as he crossed the border into Texas. As the pine forests of East Texas gave way to the grasslands, he felt his lungs expand to take in deeper and deeper breaths of air. Despite the smoke and cinders from the steam engine, the air smelled cleaner, sweeter. The grass was greener, the sky more blue, the horizon limitless. He’d worked so hard to identify himself with Boston, he’d almost forgotten what Texas was like.
    Seeing cows grazing in the billowing grass made him nostalgic for the days when he had chased the ornery beasts, slept under the stars, and cussed when the wind blew grit into the cook pot over the fire. But he’d been his own man back then, trusted by Jake to handle his work without anyone looking over his shoulder.
    And when he did head back to the ranch, Isabelle’s smile was ample proof he was home and he was wanted there. He would inevitably scrap with Pete and have to fight off Sean afterwards, Zeke would scowl at him and Hawk would virtually ignore him, but nobody hesitated to make a place for him at the table or move over so he could join the circle around the fire. Luke and Chet would place their bedrolls next to his, and Will would bring him steaming coffee as soon as Matt got it ready. Buck treated him like an annoying younger brother, and Drew constantly told him how to behave. But no matter the strains thatfractured the orphans along ever-changing lines, he was as much a part of the family as anyone else.
    Still, Bret had never been able to forget that his
real
family in Boston had turned its back on his mother, then on him. For as long as he could remember, he’d been filled with an unrelenting need to prove they’d been wrong. At twenty-one, he’d finally packed his bags and left for Boston. Now, six years later, he was back in Texas and was beginning to wonder if he should ever have left. He’d never have guessed he’d feel like he was coming home after a long absence. He had convinced himself he was happy in Boston. Had he been a fool? He’d been shaken badly when his uncle had said not to come back if he couldn’t bring Emily Abercrombie with him. Surely he didn’t mean he’d turn his back on him, not after he had worked