Teaching the Cowboy (14 page)

He knew John wouldn’t hire him. Professionally, he didn’t have the experience, even though he knew damn well he could do the job. Personally, he suspected John didn’t forgive him for screwing Charlene all those years ago. John hadn’t even hooked up with the woman yet, so how was he supposed to know she was off-limits? If he thought John would feel better, he’d apologize for it. It’d been a mistake, just like so many of the others. The interaction had left him feeling cold and spiritually bankrupt. He’d heard since that Charlene had that effect on a lot of people.

Now at the corner, he paused in front of the turquoise door with the tiny placard affixed to the glass reading,
By Appointment Only
.

That wasn’t Sid being snotty. That was the name of her quilting business. He imagined if he rang the bell, she’d graciously come downstairs, but hell, he didn’t have anything to say, other than a few things that would give John even more reasons to blacklist him from his ranch.

He blew out a breath. “One thing at a time.”

His priorities were clear: take care of Mom, new job, other stuff.

Sid fell into that last category for the moment, even if she didn’t know it, but fortunately she was in the category all by herself.

Ronnie closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the long, broad pine table that was her desk in the makeshift schoolroom on the Erickson ranch. The timer she’d set on her phone buzzed and she sat up, hit the alarm, and scanned the room. She cleared her throat. She was so damned phlegmy all of a sudden and had been drinking tea nonstop. Anna supposed it was just of her adjustment to a drier climate and Ronnie, for lack of evidence otherwise, took her word for it.

“Everyone done?”

Everyone but Peter raised a hand. She stood and shuffled over to his workstation where he sat behind a computer. He was supposed to be working on a math lesson and the kids were due to rotate stations. She squatted beside him and stared at his screen. “Just two?” she whispered.

“Sorry.”

She ruffled his hair. “Well, at least they’re correct. What happened? Did you get distracted or confused?”

“Distracted.”

“Okay.” She patted his knee and stood with some effort. She was damned tired. Between the sore throat at night and coyotes, not to mention John’s irregular nighttime visits, she was hardly sleeping. Then again, she wasn’t really
tired
at night either. She was only tired in the middle of the day, which seemed odd. Anna had suggested she get some sun.

“We have to change stations now. We’ll catch up tonight after dinner.”

Peter slumped. “Ronnie, how far behind am I this time?”

She gave the remaining kids the thumbs-up for them to start shifting to their next stations. “About three days.”

“Three whole days?” he whined.

“Pete, you’re having to make up a lot of ground, okay?” She lowered her voice again. “You’re not on grade level. I’m pushing you at your grade level, okay? Don’t worry about three little days. We’ll get there.”

“When are my pills supposed to start working?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, buddy, but I can tell you this. If you pretend they are working, you won’t know when they do start. Mind over matter.”

“I’ll try.”

She tipped her head toward the science station. “Go ahead. Rabbit’s your buddy. Can you help her get started and then I’ll come over and we can start that new project, okay? You’re actually ahead in science, so celebrate that.”

“Woo-hoo,” he said blandly and stood to give up his chair for one of the Erickson kids.

“That’s my boy.”

Ronnie shuffled in her fluffy slippers across the pine plank floor and wedged herself between Landon and Kitty where they sat near the windows. “How goes it, Lando?”

“Not bad, actually. I finished that history practice test, and I feel a little less sick about it.”

“I’ll grade it. Do you think you can go down to the school and get your transcripts?”

“Sure. Are we working on English today?”

Ronnie blew a raspberry. She wanted to beg off, but Landon’s essays were rough stuff. “Yeah. After I get back from my appointment.”

She turned her attention to Kitty, who she wasn’t even supposed to have, but then Landon talked Kitty into it and boom. Those two were thick as thieves. “How goes it, kiddo?”

“Do I really need to take both the S.A.T. and A.C.T.?”

“Depends on what school you’re going to. Some want one or the other. Some want both.”

“But I want to go to art school.” She pouted.

Ronnie grinned. “Sweetie, if you’re going to an accredited school, you’ve got to test. Colleges want their freshman classes to be somewhat literate and able to balance their own checkbooks, you know?”

Kitty sighed, and Ronnie rubbed her shoulder. “You’ll do fine. They’re long tests, but you’ve got another year to go, so you’ve got more than one chance, unlike Landon. You’re not going to be a twenty-year-old freshman.”

Landon looked away and whistled.

Ronnie made the rounds, getting all the kids settled in and spending some extra time with the youngest students before Becka tottered into the library in her blue snakeskin cowgirl boots, wiping flour from her hands onto the thighs of her jeans. Ronnie gathered up her purse.

“Well, I’m gonna feed ’em lunch, that’s easy.” Becka counted off on her fingers. “And then the older kids work on practice tests until you get back?”

Ronnie nodded.

“Middle kids work on their units and if they need some help, I’ll try to help them?”

Ronnie nodded again.

“And little kids?”

Ronnie put up her hands. “I front-loaded all their heavy stuff today. They can go play or paint or destroy things.”

Becka did a fist pump. “Sweet. I’m an awesome lunch lady, but I’m not as good at the teacher bit. All right kids, grub’s on. Got a big ol’ tray of sandwiches with homemade potato chips and got a pie in the oven for dessert.”

The kids found their stopping points and filed out of the library. All except Landon and Kitty. “Aren’t you kids hungry?”

“You going to Cheyenne? We can go with you. Keep you company.”

Ronnie crooked up a brow. “Nice try. Kitty, you’ve got work to do. Landon,
no
.”

“Come on, Ronnie.” He smiled a smile she was pretty sure she’d seen on John’s face recently. It was a grown man smile, but not one she was susceptible to. “I don’t have to go to school during school hours. That’s the beauty of homeschooling.”

“Yeah.” Kitty agreed. “It’s beautiful.”

“Little girl, you owe me a math assignment,” Ronnie scolded.

Kitty sighed and skulked off toward the kitchen, mumbling all the way.

Landon raised those blond brows over the top rims of his glasses and smirked. “You can’t send me away, Ronnie. You know I’m just a bonus student, anyway.”

She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. “Am I allowed no privacy whatsoever? Did John send you to babysit me like he sends Liss?”

Landon blinked.

She swore an oath as she jammed her feet into her real shoes. “How much did he pay you?”

“Hundred bucks cash and the promise of a new laptop.”

“Well, we’ll just keep it between us. You don’t say anything. I won’t say anything. We’ll just pretend you tagged along.”

“Nope.” Landon shook his head. “Do you want me to die? Dad can smell a lie on me from twenty paces.” That grin again as he stood. “You’re stuck with me. I promise I won’t put my nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“Too late.”

To his credit, Landon read his test prep book quietly all the way to Cheyenne and didn’t look up again until Ronnie killed the ignition. He pulled out his earplugs and read the sign on the office door. “You’re kidding me, right?”

She shrugged and pushed open the driver’s door. “Tried to get you to stay. Wasn’t because I’m a recluse, Lan.”

“I might need another c-note for this.” Landon entered the small clinic wide-eyed and took the farthest seat away from the reception desk, giving the waiting women a wide berth while Ronnie checked in.

She had just accepted the clipboard and a ballpoint pen when a nurse stepped to the door and called out her name.

“Sheesh.” She gave Landon a
you stay right there
look and followed the woman in scrubs into a corridor where she deposited her purse and the clipboard onto a chair and stepped onto the scale.

“Shit.”

“Not what you expected?” the nurse asked as she jotted the number down on the pad. “Surely you’re not dieting as little as you are.”

“No, but ten pounds in a month is a shock to the system.”

“Well, congratulations, honey.”

“Oh, I’m not pregnant.”

“You’re not?”

“No. The fat ass is because my bosses insist on stuffing me like a Thanksgiving turkey.”

“Nice.”

The nurse led her to an exam room and handed her one of those humiliating smocks to put on and pulled the curtain back. “You here just for an exam?”

“My birth control prescription ran out. I need to re-up.”

“Got it. Doctor will be right in.” The nurse left.

Ronnie dumped all her junk into the other chair and kicked off her loafers. She’d just gotten her pants unbuttoned when someone knocked and let themselves in without waiting.

“How are you, Miss Silver?” the female voice said from behind the curtain as the owner closed the door.

“Uh. Great?”

“Good. Don’t mind me.” The small, hunched woman with a long silver braid and matching eyes pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the exam room. She sat in one of the chairs and picked up the clipboard and pen. “You go on and change and I’ll fill out what you missed.”

“Okay.” Ronnie slipped off her pants. Why be embarrassed? She figured the woman had seen it all before.

“Lookin’ for birth control?”

“Yes.”

“Pills?”

“Yes.”

“What kind were you on?”

“It was a low-estrogen formula I took continuously. Actually, I’d like to try something else. I felt completely sexually dysfunctional while I was on it.” Might as well be honest, Ronnie figured. “Low sensation, never really felt aroused.”

“Okie dokie. That might limit us. Just out of curiosity, when’d you run out?”

Ronnie squeezed her eyelids shut and clucked her tongue while she thought. “Five weeks ago, maybe.”

“When’d your period come back?”

“Oh, it hasn’t yet.”

The doctor tapped the end of her pen against the clipboard top and stared at Ronnie over the tops of her horn-rimmed glasses. “And that doesn’t concern you at all?”

Ronnie shrugged and pulled her knit shirt over her head. “I had forty-five day cycles before I went on the pill. I figured it’d take a while for my body to reboot. It did the last time I went off.”

“
Oh
-kay.” The doc scribbled something on the form and stood. She opened one of the wide, low drawers and rooted through the contents. She pulled out a transparent plastic cup with a white lid and handed it over. She opened a door to an adjoining unlit room and pointed inside. “Go pee.”

Ronnie huffed, but wrapped the gown around herself and padded into the bathroom. The doctor closed the door and Ronnie heard her open the outer door and shout “Kinsey!” Ronnie didn’t hear what came next. She was too busy trying to target her stream of urine into the mouth of the little cup. She lidded the cup, washed her hands, and when she stepped out of the little powder room, Kinsey, the nurse who’d weighed her, was standing by wearing a pair of nitrile gloves and holding out a hand for the sample. Ronnie passed it over.

The doctor patted the seat of the exam table. “Right here, hon.”

As Ronnie climbed up, the doctor opened the outer door and called out, “Well?”

“Yeah,” Kinsey called back.

Doc closed the door.

Ronnie slumped.

Doc picked up the clipboard again and marked something out. She winked at Ronnie. “Billing code’ll change now.”

“I can’t be pregnant.”

“You been celibate the past month?”

Ronnie snorted. “Not even a little bit, but there was a condom in play every time.”

“Right.”

Ronnie didn’t like the sound of that
Right.
It was the same tone Momma used whenever Daddy said he’d be back from the golf course by lunchtime.

Doc lowered her voice and leaned in close. “Don’t take offense to this, ’cause I ask all you young’uns. Do you know who the father is?”

“Unequivocally.”