His Marriage to Remember - By Kathie DeNosky Page 0,35

to make her forget the reasons why she felt she had no alternative but to divorce him.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to will away the impulse to give their relationship one more try. It would be easy to tear up the divorce papers and when he regained his memory tell him that she wanted to see if they could work things out. Did she have the courage to risk getting her heart broken again if they couldn’t?

In the past, no matter how many times she had tried to explain how she felt to him and what she needed from their marriage—from him—Sam had insisted that everything he did was for her and their future family and hadn’t been willing to compromise. He had promised to stop traveling one day, but that day never seemed to come. Could she survive having to go through a painful breakup a second time if things didn’t work out for them?

As she lay there staring at the man she had loved from the moment they met, Bria bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. She wasn’t sure about anything anymore. But one thing that was certain and remained a complete mystery to her was the fact that no matter how disillusioned she had become with the state of their marriage, she still wanted him with a fierceness that stole her breath.

Six

Sitting at the desk in his office, Sam stared off into space as he tried to think of ways to turn things around with Bria before he had to tell her that the majority of his memory had returned. There were still some areas that remained a little foggy, but for the most part the dizzy spell he had experienced the night before had restored the events of the past six months—enough so for him to realize that if he didn’t do something, and damn quick, he was going to lose her.

There were some things she thought were problems in their marriage that he didn’t think were problems at all. But the only way to get her to see his side of things would be for them to work together to find a happy medium. He had already conceded that letting her do a few things for him, letting her fuss over him a little, wouldn’t be as degrading to his pride as he had once thought. And although he would love to spend more time with her, he needed to get her to see that he had to work, that making a good living for her was his purpose in life. He had tried to tell her before, but this time he had to make her see where he was coming from, had to get her to understand his side of the issue.

But working things out with her wasn’t going to happen if she divorced him and moved two hours away to live in Dallas. And it seemed that’s what she was hell-bent on doing.

Unfortunately, time wasn’t on his side. If he didn’t find some way to prove to her that she belonged with him within the next week or two, Bria would leave again, the divorce would be final and this time there wouldn’t be a second chance. This time it would be for good.

“Sam, it’s such a nice day, would you like to walk down to the creek with me?” Bria asked from the doorway.

When he looked up, his heart stalled. He didn’t even want to contemplate what his life would be like without her in it. That’s why he had to win her back as soon as possible. The way he saw it, now was as good a time as any to get started.

“Sure,” he said, smiling. He wasn’t surprised she was going back down to the creek. Sitting under that old cottonwood tree while she read a book had always been one of her favorite things to do on a lazy summer afternoon. “Are you wanting fish for supper?”

“Have you decided to disturb the catfish and his lady friend?” she asked, laughing.

“Maybe we’d better plan on having something else tonight,” he said as he turned off his computer and rose to his feet. “I’d hate to ruin their day.”

When they walked out of the house and headed down the path behind the barn to Sugar Creek, Sam reached over and took Bria’s hand in his. He loved touching her, and the thought of having that privilege taken away from him was more than he wanted to deal