slowly turned his head toward the wall where the family pictures hung. Bria had told him that she had taken them down to put them elsewhere. But if she had hung them up in another room, he hadn’t found them.
As he continued to the kitchen, he thought about her missing wedding and engagement rings and her reaction when he had asked about them. She had mentioned forgetting to put them on, but she hadn’t been able to look him in the eye and quickly changed the subject.
A knot began to form in his gut and by the time he sat down at the big round oak table in the kitchen, his appetite was nonexistent. He needed to check out the house to see what else was missing. Unless he was mistaken, Bria didn’t live at Sugar Creek Ranch anymore. Was she only there to see him through the recovery from his accident?
“Good morning, Sam,” Bria said, turning from the stove to face him. “I’ve got bacon and hash browns ready. Would you like pancakes or eggs for breakfast?”
“Whatever is easiest,” he said, distracted by his disturbing thoughts. How was he going to search the house to see what else had changed or was missing without her realizing what he was up to?
“One is about as easy as the other,” she said, smiling.
“A couple of fried eggs would be fine.” He waited until she had turned back to the stove to tend to the eggs before asking, “What do you have planned for the day?”
“I thought if you’re feeling up to it, we could drive up to Stephenville to pick up what I’ll need for Jaron’s birthday dinner.” She placed the eggs, bacon and hash browns on a plate, then walked over to the table to set it in front of him. “But if you’d rather just take it easy, Mariah and your brothers will be here tomorrow. She and I can go shopping for what I need while you visit with the guys.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I was thinking about going over the ranch books to see if I can figure out what’s been going on the past several months,” he said, looking down at the food on his plate. With his appetite gone, the food looked about as appealing as a piece of wagon harness.
“You hate doing paperwork,” she said, frowning as she sank into one of the straight-backed chairs.
“Who knows? It might help me remember something.” He shrugged one shoulder. “But don’t think you have to wait to go shopping on my account. I’ll be in the office most of the day going over the books.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” she said, shaking her head. “Mariah and I can go tomorrow.”
“I won’t be alone.” He forced a smile he wasn’t feeling. “T.J. called yesterday to tell me he’s driving up a day early and should be here by midmorning.”
Bria frowned. “I don’t remember anyone calling yesterday.”
“You were in the shower getting ready to go to the Broken Spoke.” He picked up his fork to push the hash browns around his plate. “I guess I just forgot to tell you.”
“How can he possibly be here by midmorning?” she asked, looking doubtful. “It’s an eight-hour drive from Tranquility to get here.”
“He’s just north of Round Rock buying a new quarter horse stallion he wants to improve his herd.” He reached over to cover her hand resting on the table with his and noticed her rings were still missing. It made him more determined than ever to see what else had changed around the house. “You go ahead and make plans to get your shopping out of the way today. That will give you and Mariah more time to catch up when she gets here.”
“Actually, that does sound like a good plan,” she finally said, nodding. “It would be nice to get some of the cooking done tomorrow instead of having it all to do on Sunday.”
“And you don’t have to wait until T.J. gets here,” he added. “I give you my word that I won’t be doing anything more strenuous than pushing a pencil and using a calculator. And if I do get tired, I’ll take a nap.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think leaving you alone just yet would be wise. I’ll wait until T.J. gets here before I leave.”
“I promise I’ll be fine, sweetheart,” he assured her, then patted the device clipped to his belt. “And if I need something, I always have