His Marriage to Remember - By Kathie DeNosky Page 0,43
as much as Bria loved her, the older woman was also a chatterbox and would no doubt end up telling Sam things he needed to remember on his own.
Sam gave her a smile that caused her knees to wobble. “Good idea. I don’t have to watch where I touch you or how much I kiss you with no one else around.”
“You’re hopeless,” she said, feeling a little breathless.
“I can’t help it if you make me hotter than a two-dollar pistol on a Saturday night,” he said, grinning.
As they worked side by side to make the stew, Bria spent the majority of her time waging a battle within herself as she tried to decide what to do. Sam was unaware of how things between them had deteriorated after she had the miscarriage. Until he remembered all that had taken place leading up to her filing for divorce, she really couldn’t discuss the problems in their marriage with him to see if they could work things out.
The sound of the knife Sam had been using to peel potatoes dropping to the countertop and his graphic curse drew Bria out of her disturbing introspection. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, it’s just a little cut,” he said, turning on the faucet to run water over the laceration. The sight of blood dripping steadily from his thumb told her it was more serious than he was letting on.
“Let me see,” she said, reaching for a towel to blot away some of the blood.
He hesitated a moment, then to her surprise held out his hand for her to assess the wound. Normally he would take care of a cut on the hand himself by wrapping it with something to stop the bleeding, then go on with whatever he had been doing.
“I think you’re going to need a couple of stitches,” she said, examining his thumb.
At first he shook his head, then pausing for a moment, he shocked her when he nodded. “It probably wouldn’t hurt for you to drive me over to the walk-in clinic in Beaver Dam.”
Quickly shutting off the stove and grabbing her purse, Bria drove Sam to the clinic. She still had a hard time believing that he willingly took her advice about going to the doctor. It was something that he never would have done before his accident. Normally, he was the type of man who resisted medical attention of any kind unless he was unconscious or so ill that he couldn’t function. She had only seen him that way once before—when he suffered the concussion almost two weeks ago.
Two hours later as they walked out of the clinic with Sam sporting four stitches in the fleshy part of his right thumb, she pointed toward the roadhouse down the street. “It’s getting late. Would you like to get something to eat at the Broken Spoke before we start home?”
He shook his head. “I think I’d just like to go home.” Grinning, he took her hand in his as they walked across the clinic parking lot toward her SUV. “I’d rather be alone with you than spend the evening in a roomful of hot-to-trot cowboys watching you like they want to make you their next meal.”
Bria’s pulse sped up at the heated look in his dark blue eyes. “Don’t you think that’s a bit of an exaggeration?”
“Not at all, sweetheart.” He opened the driver’s door for her, then helped her into the Explorer. “I’ve seen the way those guys look at you and I don’t feel like sharing the view.” He gave her a kiss that curled her toes inside her cross trainers. “Tonight, that’s for my eyes only.”
When he walked back around the SUV and got into the passenger seat, neither had a lot to say as she drove the twenty miles back to the ranch. All Bria could think about was what would happen once they got home. She had seen that look in Sam’s eyes too many times not to know that he wanted her. And heaven help her, she wanted him just as much.
But she wasn’t sure she was ready to commit herself to giving them another chance. It would be so easy to give in to the overwhelming temptation of forgetting about the divorce and make love with Sam. But nothing had been resolved between them. Could she live with the heartache and regret if things didn’t work out? Was she prepared to go back to being the wife who only saw her husband a few times a month when he