A Texas-Made Match by Noelle Marchand

Author:Noelle Marchand
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2012-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Lawson leaned back on the cushioned wicker bench on his parents’ porch with a discontented sigh at his cousin’s stubbornness. “So you really won’t try to convince your uncle to cancel that clause of the contract?”

Ethan shrugged from his perch on the matching wicker chair. “I told you, the main reason he bought those horses was to make sure you’d come to the ranch. He isn’t going to cancel any clause.”

“Surely, if you reason with him—”

“Not a chance, cousin.”

Lawson’s lips edged upward in amusement. Ethan had a habit of reiterating their relationship to each other. He’d managed to sneak that word in multiple times over dinner. Lawson wanted to find it annoying but he actually almost liked the sense of belonging it gave him. “Fine. There are some things a man has to do for himself and this might be one of them.”

Ethan’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Are you coming to the ranch, then?”

He pressed his lips together to keep from speaking an answer he didn’t want to give one way or another. He had no problem traveling to a ranch for business purposes. He could even stomach going to a ranch his father owned. The problem was that once there, another reckoning with his father seemed inevitable. He’d won the first round but he wasn’t sure he’d come out on top in the next one.

“I don’t want to,” he said as the door opened and Doc joined them with a tray of after-dinner coffee, obviously prepared by Lettie. Lawson felt relief unwind his tense shoulders. “You’re joining us, aren’t you?”

The distinguished-looking gentleman smiled as he put the tray on the table next to the chair. “I was hoping for an invitation, hence the coffee, but I don’t want to intrude.”

“You’re no intrusion, Pa.” Lawson used the term purposefully with a quick glance at Ethan to see how his cousin processed that. His parents had been as stunned as she was at the news of Clive’s visit, but their support and encouragement had left no doubt in Lawson’s mind about who truly deserved the titles “Ma” and “Pa.”

Ethan shifted uneasily but didn’t protest when the older man settled onto the other end of the bench. “Lawson was just saying he didn’t want to go to Uncle Clive’s ranch.”

Doc nodded. “It isn’t a decision to be made lightly.”

“I’d be more willing to go if I knew that Clive wouldn’t try to—”

Ethan’s blue eyes snapped. “Get to know his only son?”

Just like that, anger began to simmer in his chest. “He had a chance to do that and he lost it. That was his choice. I don’t feel the need to make things easier on him by walking into his lair.”

“He isn’t a villain.”

“To you.”

“Villain or not,” Doc said, calmly easing the tension, “ignoring his existence, his wishes or the past won’t make any of this go away. Maybe you need this, Lawson.”

“I don’t want to go,” he repeated, then shook his head. “I just have this awful feeling that seeing him again is inevitable, and you’re right.

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