Page 75 of Wyoming True

He placed it at Ida’s lips. “I know you don’t like liquor. But you need it. Come on. Open up.”

She put her hand over his on the little glass and sipped it and made a terrible face. “It tastes like gasoline,” she complained.

“Mostly liquor does, to me, too,” he confided. “But drink it anyway.” He hesitated, smiling. “All at once is best.”

She drew in a resigned breath and tossed it down. “Oooh!” she groaned. “It’s horrible going down!”

“Give it a minute.” He handed the jigger back to Maude, who was hiding a grin.

“None of us would ever qualify for rehab,” he pointed out.

“Why do you keep a liquor cabinet if you don’t drink?” Ida asked when she could get her breath.

“Because I have business dinners, and a lot of businessmen do drink.” He shrugged. “When in Rome.”

“Business dinners?” she asked, worried.

“You’ll be the perfect hostess,” he promised. “You’re beautiful and cultured and you don’t slurp your coffee.”

Maude lost it. “I’ll just wash this out,” she choked and made for the door.

Ida burst out laughing, too. “I don’t slurp my coffee?”

“Well, it’s an admirable trait to me,” he pointed out as Maude closed the door behind her.

She just smiled up at him, the bad dream forgotten, soft and pliable in his strong arms. Her fingers smoothed over the center of his chest and onto where his heart would be and stopped, dead.

There was a thick, wide ridge of tissue. Her eyes lifted to his and saw the unrest there. But she didn’t lift her fingers. They smoothed over the scar tissue. “Does it still hurt you?” she asked.

It was the last question he expected. “No.”

“Are there more?” she asked softly.

His face was taut, hard as stone. He moved her fingers down to his rib cage. There was another scar, almost as bad as the one higher up. He moved her fingers to the other side of his stomach, where there was a smaller scar.

“Oh, Jake,” she said gently, frowning. “You must have been in agony when it happened!”

The discomfort in his expression eased a little. “They aren’t repulsive?”

“Don’t be silly,” she replied, her hand lifting back to the thick one. “Can I see?” she asked, her blue eyes searching his silver ones.

He was hesitating when Maude came to the doorway. “I’m out of eggs and I want to make a wedding cake. I’ll run to the store. Do you need anything while I’m out?”

“Nothing at all, Maude. Thank you,” Ida said.

Maude smiled at her. “No problem. Oh, and I fed Butler and Wolf. They’re in the kitchen. I’ll make sure I close the back door before I go out.” She hesitated. “Feeling better now?”

Ida nodded and smiled back.

“Okay, then. Won’t be long.”

Her footsteps died as they went down the hall. A minute later the back door opened and closed.

Ida was still looking up at Jake, the question in her eyes.

He’d been self-conscious about the scars for a long time. Even with Mina, whom he loved, he was reticent about speaking of them, much less displaying them. But Ida wasn’t repulsed.

He shrugged and unsnapped the chambray shirt.