His Promise (Married in Montana Book 1) by Lorhainne Eckhart Page B

fridge, and a microwave. Two doctors across the room were drinking coffee, and they glanced their way.
    “How’d the surgery go?” one of them asked.
    Kim was watching Bruce, in awe of who he was. All this time away had made him into someone truly special. She listened as he rattled off the procedure, something she’d never heard of. She felt completely uneducated, listening to him, and she realized then that all his time away, his education and what he’d accomplished, had taken him from the farm community where they grew up and made him godlike. And here she was with a high school diploma, divorced, her only experience working off and on at the feed store.
    The doctors left.
    “So where are these muffins? I’m starving,” he said.
    She put the cloth bag on the table and lifted out the container. The coffee thermos rattled and was lying in the bottom, but when she looked at the full coffee pot on the counter, where Bruce was filling a mug, she decided to leave it in the bag.
    “I made peach blueberry muffins.”
    Bruce sniffed and scooped one from the container, eating it in two bites. He actually groaned. “This is so good. What else do you have in there?” He actually slid the bag open to look and pulled out the thermos.
    “I made you coffee, but I didn’t think you’d have some here already.”
    He looked at her as he shoved another muffin into his mouth, his eyes bloodshot, and even though he looked exhausted, he picked up on her uncertainty. He walked over to the sink and dumped out his coffee, then unscrewed her thermos, took a sniff, and poured. “Yours smells way better.” He took a swallow and groaned again. “I was right: It is way better.”
    Did he have any idea how that made her feel? She couldn’t help smiling up at him, and he reached out and ran his thumb over her lips.
    “I love to see you smile,” he said. “After seeing so much upset today, you really are a breath of fresh air.”
    She must have appeared shocked. “Really? I just, uh…I’m not a doctor.” She clutched the strap of her purse as she watched him chew, and she knew the moment he understood what she was saying.
    “I see. So you think you’re not good enough for me, is that it? That I’m so shallow I need you to be a doctor or some other professional?”
    She was shaking her head. “No, it’s just I’m not educated like you, and I didn’t even realize it until I walked in here with you and listened to you rattle off what sounded like an amazing procedure you just did to save a baby’s life. You create miracles, and I never really understood it until just now. I have a high school diploma. I haven’t been anywhere, done anything. I work at a feed store for minimum wage off and on.”
    “I’m not understanding the problem, Kim.” He sighed, sounding frustrated.
    “I’m not in your league.”
    Now he appeared downright furious as he yanked off his scrub cap and stuffed it in his shirt pocket. His hair was such a mess. She wanted to run her fingers through it and straighten it out or play with it or something. She loved lying beside him for hours, talking and running her fingers through those silky locks. Or so she had all those years ago.
    “What the hell is that supposed to mean? League? Are you kidding me, Kim?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer as he put his cup down and set both hands on her shoulders, holding her still. “You listen to me. Do you remember our plan? Do you remember my promise, our promise to each other?”
    Of course she did. It was a promise that had haunted her for years. She slowly nodded.
    “You were waiting for me to be a doctor and come back. We were getting married and having a family. I was going to take care of you. You were going to raise our children.”
    “But it didn’t happen, and I feel so cheated. All I wanted was to be your wife, mother to your children. I didn’t get that, and now it’s…” She rested her hand on his arm. “You’re so much more than you