Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,245

honest with you, Luke. Fontaine Warehousing and Shipping clears about a million a year. We ship merchandise all the way up to Duluth, Minnesota and as far south as the Gulf, even out into the Atlantic to eastern seaports. Right now we're setting up to ship merchandise all the way to Europe."

Luke struggled to find his voice, overwhelmed at the generous gesture. "I appreciate the offer, John," he said, finally able to talk. "Some men would be angry to have to share their fortune with someone else after having it to themselves for years. Just the offer tells me you never held anything against me." He turned to face his brother. "You're the one who has worked with the business all these years. I don't want or need any part of it. We're doing fine up at the Double L. We even have a couple of copper mines, own a hotel, a granary, stock in the Northern Pacific. Just this past year I bought some land around Butte and they've discovered more copper there. It's a real bonanza—not gold, but copper pays damn good right now. I didn't come back here to try to get a share of the business. I just wanted some answers. Now I've got them." He looked at Lettie. "My wife is the one who talked me into doing this. As usual, she was right in telling me to come." He turned his gaze back to John. "No matter what the past, we're still brothers, and we shouldn't go the rest of our lives never seeing each other. I'm not sure I can ever get over the hurt, but it helps to know my father—" He hesitated. Should he even call Jacques Fontaine father? "That Jacques at least regretted what he did."

Lettie smiled softly, looking at John. "It was rather a last-minute decision to come here. We were in Chicago for our youngest daughter's wedding." She glanced at Luke, aching for him for all his years of hurt. "Luke is anxious to get back to the Double L. He's happiest when he's on the ranch." She looked back at John. "I do wish you would come and visit us there, meet Tyler and Katie and Nathan, see the ranch."

John rose, walking closer to Luke. "I'd like that. With Dad gone, my wife dead, it gets a little lonely around here."

Their gaze held, and Luke nodded. "Then find people to run things for a while and come to Montana. You might like it so much you won't want to leave. It's beautiful country, John."

John smiled sadly. "So I've heard." He sighed. "I told Dad I could send for you so he could see you before he died, but he didn't want that. He was afraid you would think he was only doing it because he wanted quick forgiveness. He figured you probably couldn't forgive him, anyway, and I don't think he wanted to see what he was afraid he would see in your eyes."

Luke studied the man, wondering where all the years had gone. "I'd like to see his grave."

John nodded. "I'll take you there this afternoon. I hope you can both stay at least a couple of days. St. Louis has grown a lot. I'd like to show Lettie around, let her get a last taste of city life before you take her back to that wild, remote place you call Montana and bury her beauty on the Double L."

Luke smiled, walking over to where Lettie sat, putting his hands on her shoulders. "This woman gets around more than you think she does. Most people in the territory of Montana know who she is, and that's a lot of territory, just about the biggest out West except for Texas and maybe California."

John studied his brother's rugged appearance, his face and hands weathered from years of working outside under Montana skies. He wore a neat suit jacket, but he wore denim pants and leather boots. "Destiny sent you there, Luke, not Dad or anything that happened here. If you hadn't left when you did, you wouldn't have met the perfect woman to help you find your dream. Montana was calling you. I don't think you would have been happy staying here no matter what happened with Dad. Running Fontaine Warehousing would have been too boring for you." He put out his hand. "I would say welcome home, Luke, but you aren't home at all, are you?"

Luke thought about the Double L and how he missed it. He