Secret Pressure (Rhinestone Cowgirls Book 4) (20 page)

EPILOGUE

Ruby handed Em the gift she’d been saving until her cousin came home from the hospital. After a week, here she was. Her leg was in a cast and she would be in a wheelchair for a few more months, but she was alive. There were no words to describe how lucky she and Jack were.

“You didn’t have to get me a gift,” Em said, smiling.

“No, I didn’t have to. I wanted to. I love you.” Ruby squeezed her shoulders.

“I’m so glad you’re here. This better be a permanent situation.” Em’s eyes twinkled.

Ruby shrugged. Hearing laughter, she watched as her sisters, Sapphire and Violet, played with Jack. Crystal had visited too, but had gone back home on business just a few days ago. It was nice having them close and they’d been the best support. “I don’t know.”

“How are things between you and Jobe?” Em asked.

“Wonderful. I’ve never been happier. He hasn’t left my side, or Jack’s since the accident.”

“I couldn’t pry Nash away if I tried. I’m loving his attention and he’s going to spoil me.”

Warmth spread over Ruby’s skin and she jerked her chin up, meeting Jobe’s pensive gaze as he slipped an arm around her waist. “Hi,” she said.

“Hello.”

“Isn’t it nice to have all of our family, at least most of them, here under one roof?” She scanned all of the faces of her loved ones.

“Will you step outside with me a moment? I need to speak to you,” he asked her.

“Sure.” He had seemed distant most of the day and she wondered what he needed to discuss. Was it about Jack? Would he ask that she leave him for visits now that he’d grown close to Jobe?

Once they were outside, Jobe led her to the swing in the backyard, next to the flower garden. They sat together and she looked at his profile. “If this is about Jack, I know you probably think it’s time we got to some normalcy—”

He turned his cheek, their gazes meeting. “This is about Jack, he’s included, but not what you’re thinking.”

“Oh, okay.” Relief spread through her. Things had been very good between them. During the day they spent family time with Jack, and at night Jobe shared her bed. They made sweet, passionate love, spoke of daily things, but never about their future.

Until now…

“I love you, Ruby. More than I could ever possibly explain. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to ask you, but—” He dipped his hand into his shirt pocket and withdrew a small box. “It’s high time we made this official. Will you be my wife?” He lifted the lid and nested in the velvet was a sparkling diamond ring.

Tears misted her eyes. “I-I didn’t think you’d ever ask. I had hoped you would.”

He smiled, took the ring out, and slipped it on her finger. “I promise to love and cherish you, and Jack, all the days of my life.”

“And I you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. This was her home. She couldn’t be happier.

Whistles blew, hands clapped, and hollers of congratulations broke the silence. She pulled back and scanned the yard. All of the family stood around, giving them a thumbs up and support. “I thought this was a welcome home for Em?”

Jobe shrugged. “It is, but I told the family what I’d planned and they figured they should all join together and make this a special occasion for everyone.”

Jack crossed the yard to Jobe and Ruby, crawling between them. “Family,” he yelled.

Phones were out and pictures were snapped. This moment forever frozen in time.

The End

From the author:

Thank you for reading. Please leave a review and let others know your thoughts.

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Hugs,

Rhonda Lee Carver  “Writing Men Who Love to Get Their Hands Dirty…”

At an early age, Rhonda fell in love with romance novels, knowing one day she’d write her own love story. Life took a short detour, but when the story ideas were no longer contained, she decided to dive in and write. Her first plot was on a dirty napkin she found buried in her car. Eventually, she ran out of napkins. With baby on one hip and laptop on the other, she made a dream into reality—one word at a time.

Her specialty is men who love to get their hands dirty and women who are smart, strong and flawed. She loves writing about the everyday hero.

When Rhonda isn't crafting sizzling manuscripts, you will find her busy editing novels, blogging, juggling kids and animals (too many to name), dreaming of a beach house and keeping romance alive. Oh, and drinking lots of coffee to keep up with her hero and heroine.

I hope you’ve enjoyed
Secret Pressure

For other titles by Rhonda Lee Carver, please visit:

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Other books by Rhonda Lee Carver

Diamond in a Rose

Double Dare

Delaney’s Sunrise

Second Chance Cowboy (Book 1, Second Chance Series)

Second Ride Cowboy (Book 2, Second Chance Series)

Second Round Cowboy (Book 3, Second Chance Series)

Second Dance Cowboy (Book 4, Second Chance Series)

Second Song Cowboy (Book 5, Second Chance Series)

Second Burn Cowboy (Book 6, Second Chance Series)

Second Hope Cowboy (Book 7, Second Chance Series)

Second Sunrise Cowboy (Book 8, Second Chance Cowboy Series)

Castle’s Fortress

Dreaming Ivy

Friends With Benefits

Sin With Cuffs

With Honor

Wicked Pleasures (Book 1, Wicked Wolves Series)

Wicked Lust (Book 2, Wicked Wolves Series)

Fighting Flames

UNDER PRESSURE (Book 1, Rhinestone Cowgirls)

PRESSURE RISING (Book 2, Rhinestone Cowgirls)

PRESSURE POINT (Book 3, Rhinestone Cowgirls)

Under the Mistletoe

Cowboy Paradise (Cowboys of Nirvana)

Leather for Two, Wings of Steel MC

Have you read Cowboy Paradise (Book 1, Cowboys of Nirvana)? Here’s a gift to you…Chapter One.

Chapter One

Three years later…

The creaking and popping of the old Victorian house brought Cara to a sitting position in bed. She listened closer, but only heard silence. She was alone.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose and wiping the beads of sweat from her brow, she forced her breath in and out of her lungs, calming the fast beating of her heart. The last panic attack had been months ago and she wasn’t about to have another one. Not tonight.

She’d had a nightmare about James—a nightly event that she had no control over. Three years had passed since the accident, the one that had brought her freedom, yet the damage had already been done.

After James had accused her of sleeping with Tommy Baker, and slapped her around, Cara had blacked out. When she awoke a few minutes later, she’d heard the whirling of sirens. Then what happened was a blur. He was arrested and Cara was taken by ambulance to the hospital where she was met by a concerned Cleo.  She’d admitted that she’d called the sheriff because she worried about Cara’s safety.  Once released from the hospital a few hours later, Cara went to the sheriff’s department where picture after picture was taken, and statement after statement was given.

Cara went home, packed up all of James’s things and took them to his sister’s house. Early the next morning, Cara went out of town and hired a divorce attorney.

Pulling strings, James was let go from jail. Celebrating his release, he’d gotten drunk at his local hangout and called her threatening that if she didn’t stop divorce proceedings, he’d have to take matters into his own hands. She didn’t need the finer details to understand what he was suggesting. But, she’d decided she would rather die than live another day with him.

When the bar closed and he left, he ran his truck into a tree. A passerby found him dead a mile from Cara’s house. She often wondered if he’d gotten what he’d deserved. Maybe karma had played a hand in his demise.

When she’d opened the door and the deputy told her the news of the accident, she knew she was free at last. Never having to live in fear again was priceless. But she’d felt an unexplainable guilt that stuck with her. Although the love she’d had for James had died years before, a part of her questioned if she could have saved and changed him if she’d divorced him much sooner.

Yet, in her heart, she realized he never would have changed.

A second shock had come when she learned James had bought himself and Cara a life insurance policy, merely two months before his death. There was a certain amount of suspicion why he’d taken one out on her too, but she’d been awarded enough money upon his death that she could do all of the things that he’d kept her from doing during their marriage.

First thing she did was sell his law practice, then sunk the money into her shop, Time is of Essence. She loved working with vintage clothing and jewelry, a challenge she needed to help her get through the healing. The business had grown, especially after she’d opened an online store, and she didn’t have to worry about anything except…

Her future.

It seemed bleak.

There weren’t many prospects for her in Coal Springs, Texas, and she’d thought about packing up and moving to a place where no one knew her past. She hadn’t gotten that far yet. The few single men in town, known as bad boys, who’d asked her on a date, she’d turned down flat. Not only were they not her type, but that jerk of a dead husband of hers messed up her mind—and her heart. He’d told her enough times that she was ugly and worthless and she’d finally believed him.  He’d hypnotized her with his degrading insults and his physical abuse. Certain parts of her brain were malfunctioned—and vital parts of her body.

She’d spent enough money on a therapist that she could have traveled the world three times over, but nothing had really changed in all of the years. She was still alone. She was still damaged.

And yet, she still had dreams.

Cara wanted a family—wanted a child more than her next breath. She’d always hoped by now she would have found someone else, had a supportive partner, but maybe James had been right, she would never find a man that wanted a washed up woman. Enough people in town knew of her situation with James. They steered clear of her. His sister, Tammy, had spread rumor after rumor, mainly how Cara was at fault for James dying and how she’d caused him to drink heavily and turn abusive.  Cara shrugged off the statements.

She had bigger fish to fry.

The problem was, she was broken inside. She didn’t know if it was possible to trust another man, to love again. To feel secure in the arms of another. But she had to try to rebuild. Try to move ahead. She was too young to lie down and give up. She couldn’t let James win—couldn’t let him control her from his grave.

Clicking on the bedside lamp, she hit the book on the nightstand and it dropped to the floor. As she reached to grab it, something caught her eye. She stared at the brochure she’d thrown into the trash can a few weeks before after a tense and depressing visit with her therapist, Deidre. She told Cara things had come to a standstill in her therapy. Deidre slipped Cara the brochure, telling her to read it and to consider it as an option for healing. Deidre had said, “It would do you some good to get away.”