His Marriage to Remember - By Kathie DeNosky Page 0,50
rather have you for breakfast.”
“You’re insatiable,” she said, putting her arms around his neck.
“I can’t help it.” He gave her a quick kiss. “You just have that effect on me.”
“What time will Nate be here to take you to see the neurologist?” she asked, snuggling against him.
“Midmorning.” Stroking her blue-jeans-clad thigh, he asked, “What do you have planned while Nate and I are gone?”
“I thought I’d drive up to Dallas to, um, do a little shopping and check on some things.” She kissed the pulse at the base of his throat. “But I’m sure I’ll be home in plenty of time to make supper.”
Sam knew she was probably going to Dallas to check on the apartment she had rented right after she left Sugar Creek Ranch. He hoped that while she was up there she would give notice to the complex manager that she would no longer be in need of the place. But she wasn’t aware that he had recovered his memory and therefore he couldn’t ask if that’s what she intended to do.
Nor could he tell her about it right away. If he did, he knew for certain she would be upset and insist that he had manipulated the situation, instead of seeing the sincerity in his actions.
“You know we didn’t use protection last night or this morning,” he said instead. “As many times as we made love, we might have been successful in making you pregnant again.” As soon as the word was out of his mouth, Sam knew he had made a grievous error and tipped his hand by the way she went completely still in his arms.
“Again?” She leaned back to look at him. “You remember that I was pregnant six months ago?”
He stared at her for several seconds before he finally nodded. There was no sense in trying to deny it. With the exception of not telling her that his memory had returned, he had never been anything but honest with her and there was no sense in lying to her now—no matter how much trouble he was about to be in.
“How much do you recall?” she asked, standing up to walk over to the kitchen island.
“Pretty much everything,” he admitted.
“So you remember that I lost our baby while you were out on the road somewhere, as well as my leaving the ranch and filing for divorce?” she asked, her tone oddly devoid of emotion.
“Yes.”
He watched her take a deep breath, then ask him point-blank, “When did you regain your memory, Sam?”
Standing up, he walked over to where she stood. When he reached out to cup her cheek, she sidestepped his touch. He dropped his hand to his side.
“I started having flashbacks a day or so before Jaron’s birthday dinner.” He took a deep breath and decided he might as well admit when the rest of his memory came back. “Then that night after everyone left—when I had the dizzy spell and you had to help me to bed—everything else came back.”
“Oh, my God, Sam,” she gasped. “That was four days ago. Why didn’t you…” He watched her shocked expression turn to suspicion, then disillusionment. “How could you do that to me? How could you manipulate me like that?”
“Bria, sweetheart, I didn’t—”
“Don’t, Sam,” she said, cutting him off. “Don’t try to justify what you’ve done.” Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “You were spending time with me, bringing me flowers, dancing with me, being the kind of husband you thought I wanted you to be just to get me to stay, weren’t you? Then you thought once the doctor released you to work, you would go back on the road with your livestock company and everything would return to the way it was before I left. You would be home a few days out of the month and the rest of the time, I would be here at home alone.”
“I have to work, Bria.” He rubbed at the tension building in the back of his neck. “I need to make sure I can provide you with everything you could ever want or need.”
“No, you don’t. For one thing, I could care less about what you can buy me. All I’ve ever wanted was you.” Her green eyes sparkled with anger and he didn’t think he had ever seen her as furious as she was at that very moment. “We both know that you’ve already amassed enough money that you never have to work another day in your life if