Priceless Marriage

by Bonnie Gardner

  What if he couldn’t take the simple, boring life that she looked forward to on the farm? What if somebody came along and offered him more excitement? Would he want it more than he wanted her?

  Only time would tell.

  And Ruby felt as though she had no time. She wanted the answers today, this minute, not six months or six years in the future. Yes, she believed that Sam meant what he said when he told her he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Today.

  But what about tomorrow?

  She let out a long, deep sigh, reached into her purse for her keys and let herself into the store.

  She needed something normal, familiar, to ground her. And the store was there. Maybe if she could just get herself into some sort of routine she could start to think straight again.

  She shut the door and reached for the switch. As the room flooded with light, she knew one thing: coming to a conclusion about what to do with Sam was not going to be as simple as switching on a light.

  The old attraction was still there. Even if it had been more than a year since Sam had held her in his arms, she still felt as though she belonged there. She loved him. She wanted him. She longed to stay in his arms forever. She wanted him to take her to bed and love her.

  But she was still not certain he wouldn’t leave her again. She wouldn’t trade a few moments of pleasure for a lifetime of heartbreak. It had taken her this long to even begin to get over Sam. She would not go through it again.

  Chapter Seven

  Sam let himself into the apartment, closed the door behind him and dropped his parcels on the kitchen counter. Then he let loose with an exultant “Hooah!” He cheered again and grinned with satisfaction.

  He might not have managed to seduce Ruby back into his bed today, but he had learned something that was almost as good. Ruby’s feelings for him were still as strong as ever. The way she’d responded to his kiss proved that. And the way she’d pushed herself away so abruptly. She still loved him, wanted him, desired him, but she didn’t want to.

  That he could fix.

  Or so he hoped.

  He didn’t have to make her love him all over again. She still did. All he had to do was make her want to love him.

  And he was afraid that would be more of a challenge than actually getting back into her bed.

  But he was a combat controller—a special operations combat controller, at that. He might no longer wear the uniform, his leg might not work the same as it had, but he was still the same inside. And a combat controller never backed down from a challenge.

  Ruby might have tried to get him out of her life, but he’d seen plain as day that she really didn’t want to. Not deep inside where it mattered.

  His wife still loved him as much as he loved her.

  Now all he had to do was make her want him in her life again.

  “Hoo-ah!” he cheered again, drew in his stomach and pushed his chest out, big and wide. “I can do this,” he told himself, pounding on his chest with his fist. “Yes sir, I can do this.”

  He glanced at the pile of unpacked grocery sacks. He figured he had enough supplies to last about a week. He whistled confidently as he began to put the stuff away. “One week,” he said to himself. “That ought to do it. One more week and Ruby will be mine again.”

  He figured he could hold out that long.

  “Hoo-ah!”

  RUBY SAT at the scarred rolltop desk and stared off into space. What had just happened between her and Sam? Had it been a momentary lapse, or had it been a near surrender in a battle of wills? She had to harden her heart against Sam or she’d never be able to think clearly about him. She had to stop turning to melted marshmallows whenever he got close.

  Trouble was, she liked the way she felt when Sam touched her. She liked the way she felt in Sam’s arms. No, she didn’t just like it, she loved it. And she loved Sam.

  Whether she wanted to or not.

  “No. Stop this, Ruby Cade,” she told herself. “You’re not sitting in this office to think about Sam. You have a store to attend to, and thinking about what might be is no way to get the work done.”

  She logged on to the store’s computer and forced herself to get started.

  Ruby managed to go over the accounts, but it wasn’t easy. Every time she heard a board creak or the sound of Sam’s footsteps in the apartment above her, she was reminded of how close he was. Though he wasn’t in the small office, she felt his presence there as though he were.

  Finally, she gave up and turned off the computer. Honor had kept the books in perfect shape, so there wasn’t that much to do, and Ruby did have a long drive back to the farm. And tomorrow morning would come early as ever.

  Even if she had taken the day off.

  Especially since she’d taken the day off.

  There would be twice as much to do, and she was expecting Melinda Hartman to come out to check on the piglets. Ruby had to smile. The piglets were so cute. And one of them had even started following her around like a puppy. How could anyone send anything so adorable off to slaughter?

  Ruby let out a long, low sigh, then started to tidy up the office. With the lottery win, both she and Honor had been distracted from operations of the business. But fortunately, their well-trained employees practically ran the place. Still, she really would have to spend more time on the business, even if it meant less time at the farm.

  At least she had Sam there to give her a hand, especially now that Nick seemed so close to getting his loan and going back to Rapid City to start his construction firm. He wouldn’t be around much longer to help her out.

  She stepped out onto the back stoop and shook her head. Why couldn’t she just keep Sam out of the picture?

  THE NEXT DAY, Ruby turned down the gas under the skillet full of sausage and glanced at the clock on the wall above the stove. It was almost eight o’clock and Sam had not yet arrived. It wasn’t like him to be late, nor was it like him to back out on a promise, and he had promised to be here to help out while Nick was gone.

  Had he taken her rejection of him yesterday as a reason to give up on her?

  No. She shook her head. There had to be a good reason. And Sam would explain.

  As soon as he got here.

  If he was really coming.

  Ruby scooped the sausage up with a spatula and laid the patties on a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Why did she have so many doubts about Sam?

  After so many months of trying to get him out of her system, why was she upset that he might actually be going?

  She cracked an egg against the side of a mixing bowl with so much force that the shell broke and yolk went everywhere.

  “Doggone it. This is all I need,” she muttered as she grabbed paper towels to clean up the mess. “I hope I don’t have to mop the floor.”

  Ruby managed to get the sticky yellow stuff off the worn linoleum with a sponge. As she rinsed it for the second time, she muttered, “Where the heck is that man when I need him?”

  “Well, darlin’. I didn’t know you still cared.”

  Ruby spun around, slipping on the wet spot and all but falling into Sam’s arms. He dropped a newspaper tucked under his arm and adroitly caught her and held her upper arms, caressing them, running his fingers lightly up and down her sleeves.

  “I didn’t hear you drive up, what with the water running,” Ruby said lamely as Sam’s arms tightened around her. Little tingles of excitement and desire skittered up and down her arms, but she forced herself to step back.

  “Aw, come on, sugar. I thought you missed me,” Sam said cheerfully. He grinned and let her go.

  “Just your body,” Ruby said, and instantly regretted it.

  “Hoo-ah! Sounding better and better,” Sam cheered.

  Ruby rolled her eyes. “Give me a break, Sam,” she said. “I need your body to work. Nothing more. I took yesterday off, so we’re already behind. You’re late, and Dr. Hartman’s coming to check on Petunia and the piglets this afternoon. We have to go r
ound them up. What kept you, anyway?”

  “Picked up a newspaper.” Sam stood unnervingly close to Ruby, and her breath caught in her throat as he reached behind her into the cupboard for plates and a mug. “Oh, and while I’m thinking about it…What do you know about the pavilion falling down?”

  “Not much,” Ruby said as she cracked another egg, more gently this time, into the mixing bowl. “It was during the Founders’ Day Celebration. Melinda Woods—Hartman now—got beaned on the head when it collapsed. I thought it was because of snow buildup on the roof, but Luke had an engineer come out and look at it, and he confirmed that it had been tampered with.” She cracked two more eggs in quick succession and started whipping them with a fork. “Why are you asking?”

  Sam shrugged. “The sheriff asked me to do some nosing around to see if I could find out anything.”

  “You? Why you?”

  He stepped back and scooped up the newspaper. “He thought I might be able to use some of my covert operative skills to learn something.”

  Ruby arched an eyebrow. “Makes sense. You don’t know that many people in town.” She put down the fork and looked up. “Oh, and Melinda’s coming over this afternoon to show me how to deworm the piglets. Maybe you can ask her about it then.”

  Sam poured his coffee and took a swig. He watched her over the rim of his mug, and Ruby felt a shiver of—what? Excitement? Annoyance? “I just might do that,” he said, leaning casually against the counter and watching as she tried to concentrate on cooking. “Did you know that someone tried to burn it?”

  “What? The pavilion? Why?”

  “Beats me.” Sam shrugged. “Why does anybody do stupid things like that?”

  Ruby poured the beaten eggs into the skillet and listened to the satisfying sizzle as the eggs hit the hot pan. “Well, our illustrious mayor, Bobby Larson, has been talking about putting up a big hotel on the parkland to lure more business into town. I’m not sure he can do that, though, since the property belongs to the community.”

  “But if the pavilion were out of the way, it would be easier to convince his constituents to replace it with a hotel,” Sam said thoughtfully.

  “I don’t think so, Sam,” Ruby said, grabbing a potholder and scooping the eggs out of the frying pan and onto plates. “Bobby’s ambitious, but he’s not stupid. Surely he wouldn’t take such drastic measures. There’s no sense in speculating until you have some evidence. Besides, I think maybe Bobby’s abandoned that idea, since so many people were against it.”

  “Why?” Sam took the plate of sausage and his coffee to the table and sat down. “I would think that a big new hotel would bring lots of new business to Jester. It isn’t exactly thriving, you know.”

  Ruby nodded. “Too many people were afraid it would ruin it. You know, take away the friendly, small-town atmosphere.” She set one of the plates of eggs in front of Sam and joined him at the table, removing the cloth covering a bowl of biscuits as she sat. “Eat up. We have to get to work. We need to finish repairing the pigpen before Melinda comes.”

  “Still, it’s something to think about,” Sam said, opening the paper and glancing inside. He muttered a curse.

  “What?”

  “Oh, hell,” Sam said grimly. “There’s something about us in the ‘Neighborly Nuggets from Jester’ gossip column. I wonder if we can sue?”

  “What? Are you sure it’s about us?” she asked, reaching for the paper.

  Sam jerked it away. “Listen to this. ‘A certain separated millionaire was seen having a cozy lunch with her hired hand in Pine Run the other day. Two days later, that same millionaire was seen out and about with her estranged hubby. What’s up? Could she be having her cake and eating it, too?”’ Sam slammed the pages together and crumpled the paper into a tight ball.

  Ruby sat there, too shocked for a moment to speak. Finally, she said, “Why would anybody say such an awful thing?”

  “Jealousy,” Sam muttered. “Nothing but spite and jealousy.” He tossed the balled paper toward the trash can. “But that’s okay, because I’ll find out who did this and I’ll make them regret it. Hell, I’ll make ’em regret they were ever born.”

  SAM TURNED UP HIS COLLAR against the damp, northerly breeze brought in by a late-season cold front during the night, and strode across the farmyard toward the shed where they’d penned up Petunia and the piglets. Dr. Hartman was due to arrive any minute, and he was glad he wouldn’t have to round up the pigs when she did.

  Odd that he hadn’t even noticed the pigs until Ruby mentioned the tale of Petunia and Roscoe the other day. But now Sam understood why. Petunia and the piglets had pretty much free run of the land between the house and the creek, and since they hadn’t been fed regularly, Petunia apparently saw no reason to venture close to the house. In the balmy weather of the past few days, she’d enjoyed resting in the shade of the trees near the creek. But now, with a storm front moving through and drastically lower temperatures, it was warmer in the hog shed. Petunia was content to shelter her family from the elements, lying in fresh, clean straw.

  He had a couple more rails to nail into place and the hog pen would be secure. Although the piglets could easily slip under the rails, he supposed they would stay close to their mother until they were too big to escape. A guy could hope, anyway.

  Nick had left the boards lying on the ground near the fence, and all Sam had to do was knock them into place. He pulled a nail out of his pocket with his left hand and hefted the hammer in his right. This ought to be a snap.

  He lifted a board—it was heavier than he’d expected—and positioned it against the support post, bracing it with his leg. Then he placed the nail and whammed it.

  The hammer slipped and Sam dropped the rail, narrowly missing his foot. He positioned the board again, this time giving the nail a gentle tap the first time, to hold it in place. It slipped again, and he pounded his thumb.

  Sam muttered a pungent curse, dropped the hammer, then stuck his thumb in his mouth to ease the pain. Nick had made it look so simple. Apparently, this wasn’t as easy as it appeared. Sam took his thumb out of his mouth, shook it to ease the throbbing, and let out a long sigh. If he kept this up, all his fingers were going to be black and blue.

  He had to hand it to Nick. The man did know what he was doing.

  And Sam was well out of his element here. What the hell was he doing, trying to make a go of a farm? He knew more about nuclear physics than he did farming. And he knew damn little about nuclear physics.

  “Need some help?”

  Grateful that his back was to Ruby, Sam jerked his aching thumb out of his mouth. “Yeah,” he said. “Can you hold this rail in place so I can nail? The wood’s wet and it keeps slipping.”

  “Sure,” Ruby said, stepping up behind him. “I helped Nick do this the other day.”

  “Good to know that Nick can’t do everything by himself,” Sam muttered sourly.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing,” he lied. “Just do whatever you did with Nick and let’s get this done before the vet gets here.” He didn’t even want to think what she might have been doing with Nick.

  Ruby picked up the board with gloved hands and held it in place, bracing herself against it with one leg. Sam quickly set the nail. “Thanks,” he said. “With your help we’ll have this done in no time.”

  Even with the distraction of Ruby being close by, Sam got the fence rails nailed on in short order. He stepped back and surveyed his work. “Not bad, for an amateur,” he said.

  Ruby cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

  “Feel free to heap praise on me any time now, sugar,” he prodded.

  “It looks fine, Sam,” Ruby said. “It’s a fence, not the Taj Mahal.”

  Sam started to take exception to Ruby’s remark, but he was stopped by the sound of a car horn. He looked up to see a white, four-wheel-drive truck pull up. Emblazoned on the doors were the words…Jester Veterinary Clinic.

  “That’s Melinda,” Ruby said, waving and
starting toward her. “Looks like we got done just in time.”

  A small woman with dark blond hair stepped out of the truck. She waved and reached inside for something.

  “That’s the vet? She doesn’t look like she could lift a toy poodle, much less Petunia.”

  Ruby made a face. “She doesn’t need to bench-press three hundred pounds to do this job. She uses her brain, not brawn.”

  Sam shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Whatever.” At least he’d be there to offer assistance. But only if asked.

  “How are the little darlings?” Melinda called, carrying what looked like an old-fashioned doctor’s bag.

  “Fat and happy and growing like weeds,” Ruby answered. “And they’re, conveniently for us, waiting in the hog shed.”

  “Good,” the vet said. “Then this’ll only take a few minutes.” She turned to Sam and offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Melinda Woods Hartman.”

  “Sam Cade,” he said, accepting it. Her grip was strong and firm. Maybe she could do this job. “Anything I can do to help, I’m here.”

  Ruby pulled open the shed door and, as they stepped inside, Melinda drew an apple from her pocket. As soon as Petunia saw it, she lumbered to her feet with a friendly grunt and ambled over to the vet.

  “That’s a good girl,” Melinda said, putting her bag down on the floor and giving the pig the apple. She gave her a quick examination, then turned to Ruby. “She looks good. Augmenting what she can root up on her own really makes a difference, doesn’t it, sweetie?” she said to the pig, rubbing her under the chin and murmuring baby talk to the animal. “You’re such a good girl. Now, let’s look at your babies.”

  The piglets, which had been huddled close to Petunia when they came in, were now on their feet and watching their mother and Melinda curiously. Sam had to admit they were cute.

  “This shouldn’t be too hard,” Melinda said, picking up her bag. She undid the clasp and pulled out a large, clear, hollow syringe. “The medicine is sweet. Once they taste it, they gobble it right down.”