More Than He Expected (15 page)

“It’s getting late and besides, it’s a two-hour drive from here
to the ranch. Why don’t you stay here tonight, then we’ll see if they’ll let you
go home tomorrow morning.” Nate glanced at her again, then finished, “In the
meantime, Bria and I will see what we can do about finding your clothes.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Sam,” she agreed. His obvious
lack of memory b
othered her and they needed to speak to the
doctor about it right away. “Try to get some rest now. I’m sure we’ll be able to
deal with everything in the morning.”

Sam didn’t look happy, but apparently deciding he wasn’t going
to get his way, he finally nodded. “Nate, could you give me a minute with my
wife?”

“Sure thing, bro.” Nate nodded toward the hall. “I’ll be down
in the waiting room with the rest of the guys, Bria.”

When Nate left the room, Sam pinned her with his piercing blue
gaze. “Are you doing all right? You didn’t get too upset, did you?”

Confused, she had no idea why he was asking about her welfare.
He was the one who had the accident. “I’m doing okay. But why do you ask?”

“We’ve been trying to have a baby and when I called you from
the bull riding up in Oklahoma the other night you told me you were going to get
one of those early home-pregnancy tests at the drugstore,” Sam said, looking
hopeful as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Were we successful, sweetheart?
Are you pregnant?”

A cold sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach at his
mention of their trying to start a family. He didn’t remember that she had not
only become pregnant, she had miscarried in her seventh week. That had been
almost six months ago and had ended up being the last straw in making her
decision to file for divorce. Something was definitely wrong if he had no
recollection of the past several months’ tumultuous events.

“No, I’m not pregnant,” she said, determined to talk to the
neurologist as soon as possible. “Now, get some rest and I’ll be in a little
later to check on you.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Sam said, smiling. “We haven’t been
trying that long. I’m sure you’ll be pregnant within another month or so.”

Unsure if she could respond without bursting into tears or
reminding him that he would have had to be home more for her to become pregnant
again, she simply nodded and turned to leave.

“Aren’t you going to give me a good-night kiss, sweetheart?” he
asked, still holding her hand.

“I…uh… They won’t let me take down the bed rail,” she said,
thinking fast. Kissing the tip of her index finger, she pressed it to his lips.
“You need to get some rest so they’ll let you out of here soon. Try to get some
sleep, Sam.”

He gave her a grin that never failed to cause her heart to skip
a beat. “It’s going to be damn hard to do without you here beside me.”

She once again had to bite her tongue to keep from pointing out
that sleeping without her hadn’t seemed to be a problem for him when he was
traveling from one rodeo to another with his livestock-contracting company. But
as she stared down at his handsome face, she decided that now wasn’t the time to
get into how lonely she had been without him, how many times she had asked him
to cut back on the travel or to remind him that some time ago, he had reached
his goal of being independently wealthy and didn’t need to work if he didn’t
want to. His smile was playing havoc with her resolve and she needed to put
distance between them in order to regain her perspective.

“Good night, Sam.”

Some things never changed, she thought as she walked down the
hall to the waiting area. The sun rose in the east each morning. The ocean
rushed to shore. And Sam Rafferty could make her knees wobble with nothing more
than his sexy-as-sin smile.

* * *

“I really don’t see any other way around it, Bria,” Nate
insisted, shaking his head. “You’re going to have to move back into the ranch
house with Sam until he regains his memory.”

After finally getting a chance to talk to the doctor the day
after the accident, Sam’s brothers and Bria had decided to get a good night’s
sleep, then meet in the hospital cafeteria this morning for coffee as they
discussed how best to handle Sam’s recovery.

Dr. Bailey had informed them that after staying in the hospital
for observation the past forty-eight hours, Sam had been cleared to go home, but
that he was suffering from post-concussion syndrome. That was the reason he had
forgotten everything that had happened during the past six months. The doctor
had assured them that the condition was most likely temporary and would clear up
on its own in a few weeks with Sam recovering most, if not all, of his memory.
But until then he might suffer with headaches and spells of dizziness and
shouldn’t become overly stressed or worried. And that was what brought them
together to discuss the current dilemma. It was imperative that someone be with
him at all times until he was fully recovered.

“Can’t one of you stay with him?” she asked, looking at each
man in turn. “Or maybe hire someone to oversee his care?”

“Hiring a nurse would be out of the question,” T.J. said,
adamantly shaking his head. “That would just piss him off and traumatize some
poor nurse after she figured out he’s like a grizzly with a sore paw when he
can’t do things for himself.”

“Any one of us could arrange to stay with him, but that
wouldn’t solve the problem of Sam not getting overly stressed,” Lane said as if
weighing his words carefully. “He doesn’t remember that the two of you were in
the process of getting a divorce, let alone that you moved out. And right now
that’s information he doesn’t need to hear.” Being a professional poker player,
the man was a master at strategy and logic. At the moment, he was doing a fine
job of using both to wear her down.

“You know we would do it for Sam in a heartbeat, but we aren’t
who he’s going to expect—or want—to be with him,” Ryder pointed out.

“But all my things are in Dallas,” she said, feeling trapped.
“Don’t you think he’ll notice there are none of my personal effects in the ranch
house? No clothes. No pictures of my family.”

She knew it was a weak argument, but how was she supposed to
get on with rebuilding her life if she had to go back to Sugar Creek Ranch and
all the problems that had caused her to leave in the first place? And especially
when the man she would be living with didn’t remember that those problems had
become insurmountable.

“We all have trucks and strong backs,” T.J. said,
shrugging.

Jaron nodded. “We can have you moved back into the house in
nothing flat.”

Sighing, Bria knew what they said made perfect sense, but it
still didn’t make it any easier to accept defeat. She had just started to get
used to the idea that she wouldn’t be living the life she had planned when she
married Sam. For three years, she had envisioned herself as a stay-at-home wife
and mother to the big family they had planned to have. Then after making the
painful decision to leave him, she had to start thinking about re-entering the
workforce and building a career.

“If I do this, it’s only temporary.” She felt as if she was
taking a huge step back from the course she had set for herself three months
ago.

“Got it,” Nate said.

“I’m starting a new job as a marketing consultant for one of
the department stores in Dallas in a few weeks when they start to expand their
women’s clothing line, and I can’t afford to miss out on this opportunity,” she
stressed. “I’m lucky they allowed me the time to get the divorce finalized and
my feet back under me before I start the job. I’m not going to ask for
more.”

“I’m certain Sam will have his memory back by then,” Lane
assured her.

“And I wouldn’t want everything moved back to the ranch,” she
warned them.

“Just tell us what you want out of your apartment and we’ll
make sure that it’s in the house by the time you and Sam get home,” Ryder said,
smiling.

Nate checked his watch. “We’d better get moving. They’re going
to discharge Sam in a couple hours. That doesn’t give us a lot time to get to
Dallas and then out to the ranch before you two get there.”

“Just get my clothes and shoes out of the closet,” she said,
resigned. “I’ll go into town and buy whatever else I need.”

“Are you sure that’s it?” Ryder asked, frowning. “Won’t you
need your under—”

“Positive,” she interrupted. She wasn’t about to have them
bring anything else from her apartment. The thought of five men going through
her underwear drawer to pack a box of panties, bras and nightgowns to bring to
the ranch just wasn’t the least bit appealing.

Giving Nate the address of her apartment in Dallas, she handed
him her key. “After you get my clothes, go to the manager’s office and tell her
to hold my mail until I can get back up that way in a week or so to pick it
up.”

“How are you going to manage getting away from Sam for the
hour-and-a-half drive to get up there?” Jaron asked, frowning.

“I’m sure Sam will have a follow-up appointment with the
neurologist sometime within the next couple of weeks.” She gave them all a
warning look as she started to get up. “If I’m going to stay with him until he’s
recovered, one of you will be taking him to the doctor here in Waco while I
drive to Dallas to see about my apartment and get my mail.” Before they could
come up with an excuse to get out of it, she added, “You owe me that much.”

She wasn’t at all surprised when all five of them rose to their
feet as she stood up. She had known them almost as long as she had known Sam,
and from the moment they met her, they had all treated her as if she was the
sister they never had. Hank Calvert had not only helped them straighten out
their youthful problems and set them on a course to become highly successful,
extremely wealthy men, he had taught them manners and respect, as well as
instilled in them a strong sense of family.

“Thanks for doing this for Sam,” Nate said, giving her a
brotherly kiss on the cheek. “We really appreciate it, Bria.”

When they walked her to the elevator, each man hugged her and
assured her they would see her at the ranch. As Bria watched them walk toward
the hospital’s main exit, she couldn’t help dreading the upcoming weeks. How on
earth was she going to act as if everything was all right?

Sam was the same man who worked constantly, couldn’t take the
time for them as a couple and was never there for her when she needed him most.
She had tried to tell him time after time what was wrong with their marriage—the
reasons she was so unhappy and why she wanted them to return to the way things
had been between them before they married. But all he would say was that
everything he did was for her and their future. She finally came to the
conclusion that no matter how successful and wealthy he became, it was never
going to be enough. When he waited an entire day before he came home to check on
her after she lost their baby, she knew she couldn’t go on with the way things
were. Even when she needed him, he put his business first. Now, she was going
back to the same situation.

Stepping onto the elevator, she pushed the button for the third
floor. No, nothing had changed. Sam was still an incurable workaholic and
without a doubt her biggest weakness. He always had been and unfortunately for
her, she suspected that would never change.

ISBN: 9781459233522

Copyright © 2012 by Andrea Laurence

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