Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,253

told him so, but I appreciate the fact that he offered. In the same way, Nathan has a right to a part of this ranch, whether you like it or not. He doesn't want it any more than I want to take anything from my own brother now. What matters is that my brother understood, just as I expect you to understand it's the same situation for Nathan. He needs our love and acceptance, Ty, even though he pretends it doesn't matter to him, and I need you to help me in this, not work against me. Nathan has given you Ramona, and to this day he has never asked for one thing but a place to live. He has become a damn good ranch hand, and you know how good he is with horses. He has given a hundred percent on his part, and he and your mother have grown closer. That means the world to Lettie. I want us to be a close family, Ty. We always have been until these hard feelings between you and Nathan. I want it to end."

Tyler rose, walking close to his father. "I guess... I guess I was afraid I'd somehow lose you, lose that kind of special thing we have."

Yes, Luke thought. It was nameless, but special, this feeling for his firstborn son, so special that poor Robbie had felt it, yet he loved Robbie and the rest of his children just as fiercely. Perhaps none of them would understand these feelings until they had children of their own. "That can never change, Ty. Never. Deep in your heart you have to know that."

Tyler smiled, and Luke felt as though he were looking into a mirror, except that the lines of age were not there. "I do, Pa," he answered.

Luke nodded. "What I've told you about my own father is just between you and me, Ty. I want the rest of the children to think only good things about him and my mother." Luke had not told Tyler the truth about Nathan's own real father. He had made a vow not to. It was enough that the children knew the young man was a half brother. It was important that he be accepted fully. Why taint the children's view of him or their mother, and why hurt Nathan, by telling any of them the truth? They had been told over the years that there were no pictures of Nathan's father because they had been burned in the raid. Only Katie knew the truth, and she was a wise woman, had always been very mature for her years. She knew firsthand how her mother felt and why it was important to keep the secret.

"I'd like to meet my uncle someday," Tyler said, interrupting Luke's thoughts.

"You may get the chance. He's going to visit. I don't know how soon, but I believe he'll come, maybe next summer."

Ty took a deep breath, smiling. "Maybe Ramona and I will have a child of our own by then."

Luke prayed the marriage would be as happy as Ty thought it could be. "Maybe. I just wish you had waited for a real wedding, Ty."

"Pa, I've been watching her and loving her for a year now. One day I followed her to the pond up at the northeast corner, and she..." He reddened. "She was swimming." He turned away. "I don't know. It just... happened. There she was, inviting me to come and swim with her. We both knew what we felt right then and there." He turned to meet Luke's eyes boldly. "She's not a loose woman, Pa. She was... I was her first. She said no matter what happened afterward, that's how she wanted it. I love her, and I want her to be my wife. We'll be okay."

Luke put a hand on his shoulder. "I think maybe you will at that. God bless you both, Ty. You know Lettie will love her as she does her own daughters."

Ty nodded. "Mother is a hell of a woman."

Luke held up his wineglass. "I'll drink to that." He finished the wine. "Why don't we go talk to Nathan? We need to straighten out a few things."

Tyler forced back the old resentments. "Sure. Why not?"

They left the house, and from the window of Katie's old room upstairs, Ramona watched Ty and his father walk out of the house and toward the barn. She worried over some of the things that had been said, but she kept her thoughts to