Free Be My Texas Valentine by Jodi Thomas, DeWanna Pace, Linda Broday, Phyliss Miranda Page B

sent Valerie off to eat breakfast while he checked Brody’s leg.
    “Looks like the bleeding has finally stopped.” Doc Hollis was a plain man who never wasted words.
    As he wrapped the wound and tied Brody’s leg to a splint to prevent any movement while they got him home, the doc said, “You know, there’s a rumor that your wife has a curse on her. Seems every man she marries dies. You almost had it come true.”
    “I don’t believe in curses.” Brody wanted to add that he was tired of hearing about the widow’s curse, but he didn’t figure it would be wise to argue with the man trying to fix him up.
    The doc nodded and asked, “Tell me, Yank, what would you do if you knew the curse was true? What if you knew that you only had a day to live if you don’t get away from her?”
    Brody smiled. “Well, then I’d go home and spend one last wonderful day with my wife.”
    The doctor laughed. “Spoken like a man who loves his wife.”
    Brody saw no use in denying it. “I do love her and you can tell all in town to stop worrying about me because I’d come back from hell itself to be with that woman.”
    He heard a tiny scream and turned to see Valerie in the doorway. Her eyes were huge, and she looked like she might bolt at any moment.
    He couldn’t chase her but he couldn’t turn away either. Sometime in the hell of being trapped between the rocks, he’d made up his mind and he wasn’t a man who changed it easily.
    The doc bumped his way past them, suddenly in a hurry to leave the two of them alone.
    She walked slowly into the room carrying a bowl of warm water in front of her. Without a word she knelt beside the bed and began cleaning the dried blood off his hand.
    He watched her, wishing she’d look up at him. She was so beautiful. He had no idea if his statement to the doctor had frightened her or pleased her. He didn’t care. The truth needed to be said between them.
    “I’m all right,” Brody finally said in a far more angry tone than he’d meant to use. “I’m not going to die on you.”
    She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “I know. You promised you wouldn’t leave me and I’m trying to believe you, but you never promised to love me. That wasn’t part of the partnership between us.”
    “I hadn’t planned on it,” he admitted. “But you seemed in need of loving and I couldn’t stop myself. Damned if you’re not the most lovable woman I’ve ever met.”
    She frowned and stopped cleaning his hand.
    “I didn’t mean to say it like that. I don’t have the words to say how I feel about you, and saying I’m not leaving doesn’t seem enough.”
    “It’s enough,” she answered so low he barely heard.
    He’d expected her to kiss him, but his wife was very proper. They were in someone else’s home. She bandaged his hands and had the men carefully load him into the buggy. All the way home, she didn’t touch him or say a word. Brody didn’t feel like talking. He’d downed half a bottle of the doctor’s pain medicine, which tasted a lot like whiskey, and sleeping seemed the only thing worth doing.
    She helped him into bed and he passed out.
    It was dark outside when he finally woke. She was sitting beside him in the little rocker he’d noticed in the parlor. He didn’t miss the dark circles beneath her eyes.
    “You were mumbling in your sleep.” She set her knitting aside. “I think you were dreaming about being back in the war.”
    “I often do.” He realized that since he’d been here with her, the dreams hadn’t made their nightly visits. “Sleep with me,” he whispered. “There have been no nightmares when you were by my side.”
    “No. I might hurt your leg.”
    “If we both remain very still, it’ll work.” He didn’t like the idea of her spending another night in a chair. “Valerie, sleep with me.”
    “All right,” she gave in, “but all we do is sleep.”
    That worked the first night, but the second he insisted on holding her hand. All he could think