Teaching the Cowboy (22 page)

Chapter Eighteen

L
andon pulled Peter’s door closed and ambled down the hall to Liss’s room. As usual, she was sprawled out on the end of the bed with the covers over her head. He let out a quiet laugh and padded into the room. He righted her, pulled the covers up to her chin, and shut off the bedside lamp.

“Ronnie?” she whispered without picking her head up.

Landon didn’t answer. She was already asleep again. He scraped his hair back from his eyes and forced himself to breathe. Poor kid. More than anything he wanted to tell her something, anything, to let her know it wasn’t her fault. But there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t turn Ronnie’s entire scheme upside down, especially since he wasn’t even supposed to know.

He ran into his father in the hall, and just like he had every day for the past couple of months, he looked like shit. Dad’s hair, which was probably a season overdue for a cut, was uncombed. Dark bags sat beneath his eyes. He’d even started growing out a beard, which had never been a good look for him. Landon carefully shut Liss’s door and headed in the opposite direction of where he really wanted to be going. It was getting late and he had an appointment.

Dad followed him into the living room and sat across from him on one of the armchairs. Landon picked up the day’s newspaper and turned to the weather forecast. They said nothing to each other, and that was just fine for Landon. He didn’t want to hear any more of his father’s bitching about the new tutor who, according to Dad, didn’t know his elbow from his asshole. He and Peter got along like oil and water. He made Liss cry, and Kitty had re-enrolled at the Storafalt school. The Erickson kids were back to their usual shenanigans.

Landon especially didn’t want to be asked the same question by his dad every night. Too bad.

“Have you heard from Ronnie?”

Landon shook his head. It was more or less the truth. He hadn’t heard from Ronnie. Not directly anyway.

“I figured she’d want to hear about your college acceptance.”

Landon refolded the table and tossed it onto the table. “I’m sure Phil will tell her.”

“I don’t understand why Phil can’t tell you where she lives.”

“Why do you need to know? Phone works just as good as showing up in person. Maybe even better, given who you’re dealing with. I don’t think Ronnie’s the kind of woman who’d want to be dropped in on.”

“Are you the expert on relationships now?”

Landon blew out a breath. “Not hardly. I just think you should never have let her leave in the first place.”

“If I had any idea she wasn’t coming back, I wouldn’t have bought her the ticket. I mean, who just goes off and leaves their car sixteen hundred miles away?”

“I don’t think she planned it this way, Dad.”

John crossed his arms over his chest and sank a bit lower in his chair. “Sid blames me too, you know. She told me today she had a feeling in her gut Ronnie was going to run. That’s before she even knew she didn’t plan on staying past May. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I came on too strong. I mean, look.” He held up his arms to indicate the greater room and the land beyond it. “It’s a lot of responsibility. Your mother didn’t want it. Your grandma thrived in it because it was just her personality to be in perpetual motion. Ronnie, I don’t know.”

“She needs to be still sometimes.”

Dad nodded. “Yeah.”

Landon assessed the dark shadows of his father’s face and watched him wring his hands. He’d never seen his father so despondent, not even after his mother took off. But Landon knew Ronnie was a special kind of woman. She was the kind of woman who might even be able to make John Lundstrom sit still for a while. Landon looked at John, who stared down at his boots, and wanted to tell him why she left and where precisely she was. Wanted to tell him that in matter of weeks he’d have a new daughter. Wanted to tell him how miserable Phil said she was with what she’d done, especially with all the guilt Phil and Brenda were plying her with, but how she would be so much more miserable if she came back. At least Ronnie could get away from Phil and her mother sometimes.

“I’m going to bed, Dad.”

His dad nodded and stood himself. “Yeah. I’m going into the office to cut paychecks. See you at breakfast.”

They went their separate ways at the hall.

Once in his bedroom with the door locked and television on for background noise, Landon climbed onto his bed and pulled his laptop onto his lap. He clicked on Phil’s name to videoconference. He caught him mid-yawn.

“You do remember we’re two hours ahead of you, right?”

Landon nodded. “Dad’s still up, skulking around. Pining away.”

Phil blew out a long exhale. “Damn. I feel more and more like the scum of the earth with each passing day. Ronnie’s father threatened to castrate me a couple of weeks ago, by the way.”

“Well, I’ve got my own front row seat to a meltdown. How’s Ronnie?”

“She fell asleep sitting up. I hated to wake her. She’s hardly sleeping between the sciatica and the baby kicking and the nightmares.”

“What kind of nightmares?”

Phil shrugged. “She won’t tell me.

“Baby okay?”

“Yeah, still facing front, though.”

They stared at each other through their screens for a while before Landon leaned back against his pillows and cradled the crown of his head in the cradle his hands made. “Now, do we have anything to say to each other that doesn’t have to do with Ronnie or my father?”

Phil’s lips gave way to a grin, and the memory of how soft they were, and how skillful his tongue was made his core temperature rise precipitously in an impossibly short period of time. “Oh, we always come around to that, don’t we?”

“Seem to. I guess we always get the heavy stuff out of the way first.”

“Guess so. Well, I found some apartments for you to take a look at when you fly out. They’re near campus. Probably a bit more classy than the typical undergrad could afford, but perfect for a rich brat like you.”

Now it was Landon’s turn to yawn. Early mornings with the steer and late night videoconferencing were catching up to him. “Don’t feel rich.”

“That’s because John is smarter than you give him credit for. Not feeling rich makes you work harder, doesn’t it?”

“Guess so.”

Phil looked off toward the source of a light behind him.

“What is it?”

“Thought I heard Ronnie moving around. Hey, I got something for you.”

Now it was Landon’s turn to smile. “What?”

“Show you when you fly out.”

“Is it rated NC-17?”

Phil’s innocent expression was a phony as a wooden nickel. “You wish, cowboy.”

“Maybe I do.” Phil had been a perfect gentleman during Landon’s visit back in the fall. So much so that Landon thought perhaps the man wasn’t attracted to him. But when he’d grabbed him by his tie and pulled him in for a kiss, he’d responded. Oh, boy, did he respond. Unfortunately for Landon, before things got too hot there in his hotel room, Phil had wagged a finger at him.

“No. No way, jailbait,” he’d said.

“I’m nineteen, Phil.”

“Nope. Not touching you. I’ll still go to jail because when me and your father get into it, there’s probably going to be bloodshed.”

Landon had stood there, leaning against the dresser, giving Phil a
you’re so stupid
look. Then Phil had left, but not before telling him, “Pick you up for breakfast. Wear those jeans you had on yesterday.”

Phil’s voice knocked Landon back to the present. “I’m not telling you, but I think you’ll like it.”

“Take your word for it. I’m going to bed. Let me know if Ronnie goes into labor, even if it’s false, okay? I’ll fly out then. Don’t tell her.”

“She’ll kill both of us.”

“Probably. ’Night.”

“Sweet dreams.”

“Only if I dream of you.”

That smile again. Phil could probably melt peanut butter with that smile. Landon beamed as he shut down his computer.

Ronnie gripped her mother’s wrist a little tighter and whimpered as yet another contraction rolled through her.

“There, there,” Momma said, giving her hand a little pat.

“Is she going to be okay?” Ronnie’s voice was nearing the pitch that couldn’t be heard by human ears.

“It’s just three weeks early, Ronnie. She’ll be okay. Maybe a little breathless, but…”

Ronnie whimpered again.

“Aww, there, there.” Her mother patted her hand again.

“I don’t even know what I’m going to name her.”

“Have you given this no thought? What about all those books I gave you? The family trees?”

Ronnie sniffled and adjusted her bun as the nurse sidled beside the bed and studied the printout from her fetal monitor. Oh, she’d given it thought. Every time she sat down and started to brainstorm, to jot down names, she felt an emptiness at the pit of her stomach. She knew what she was doing was wrong. There was someone she was supposed to be consulting. The baby was someone else’s daughter, too.

She didn’t answer her mother. Instead, she changed the subject. “Where’d Daddy go? He disappeared after he heard my water break.”

“Exactly. Blood and guts he can do. Bit of amniotic fluid?” Momma made a raspberry sound.

“Where’d…”

She ground her teeth as the next contraction jolted her from neck to toes.

“Can I get that fucking epidural now?”

“Language, Veronica.”

“Oh, go pray about it or something.”

“I’m going to excuse your nasty attitude because you’re currently busy being the vessel of a miracle. Halleluiah.” Her mother genuflected.

Ronnie squeezed the bed railings and blew out a breath. “Where’d Phil go? He’s supposed to be my coach.”

“Don’t know. Said he’d be back in an hour.”

“He’s been gone for ninety minutes.”

“Maybe he got held up down at sign-in. I’ll go check.” No sooner had Momma spun around and nudged the curtain aside did she say, “Oh, never mind. Phil, who’s that? Doctors don’t wear cowboy boots.”

Ronnie bolted upright, which was a hard feat indeed given the fact that her upper body felt like an anchor.

Phil didn’t answer. “Is she decent?”

“The Lord would probably say no.”

Tan fingers nudged the curtain aside. One dark eye, then another appeared at the edge. “Yeah, no bits hanging out. Come on in.” He pulled aside the curtain, and much to her befuddlement, there was Landon with a big pink teddy bear.

“Hi, Ronnie.”

She was about to ask him an obvious question, but another contraction came. She gripped the bedrails and let out a growl between clenched teeth.

“Wow, there are a lot of people in this tiny little room,” Phil said.

The nurse returned to the bedside and studied the printout from the fetal heart rate monitor. Ronnie. “I agree. Mommy, pick two, or I will.”

When the nurse left, Momma, in the armchair, crossed her arms over her chest and said, “I’m not going nowhere.” She wasn’t going anywhere without a fight, and Ronnie doubted anyone in the room beyond the departed Nurse Ratched was up for it, anyway.

Phil and Landon shared a look. Finally, Phil said, “I’ll be in the lounge,” and left.

Landon approached the bedside with all the reverence of a person stepping up to an altar to make an offering.

“How long have you known?” Ronnie asked with a sigh.

“About as long as you have.”

“I’m gonna kill Phil. I knew he couldn’t keep a secret after all. Does John know you’re here?”

“Yes and no.”

Ronnie was going to ask for clarification but couldn’t get the words out.

“Who are you?” Momma interrupted with her head cocked to the side and black eyes narrowed.

“Sorry, ma’am.” Landon walked around the bed and extended his hand to shake. “Landon Lundstrom.”

Her eyes went wide. “So…you’re…”

Ronnie cleared her throat. “What do you mean ‘yes and no’? And could someone please go drag that goddamned nurse back? I want my epidural.”

“Yes, he knows I’m here, but he thinks I’m here checking out off-campus housing. He wanted to come along to help me pick something, but I knocked him off the trail by telling him Liss needed him at home.” He shrugged. “Wasn’t a lie. She’s upset, Ron.”

“I’m sorry.” She whimpered through her teeth at the start of her next contraction. He held out a hand, and she squeezed it as if she were trying to force blood out. When she finally let go, she wiped tears from her eyes and pushed herself more upright. “Thanks for keeping the secret.”

He shrugged. He took the seat on the other side of the room and passed the teddy bear from one hand to the other repeatedly. “I can’t say I understand why it’s a secret, but I respect your choice to make it one. I just figured, since I’d be around, I could see her.”

Ronnie sniffled. It was sweet, even if it was all a hot mess that would probably bite her in the ass.

“This is gonna be a big mess. Mark my words,” Momma mumbled.

Ronnie grimaced. She had been thinking it, after all. “Do you want me to get the nurse to boot you? ’Cause Phil knows how to shut up every now and then.”

Momma clucked her tongue. “If you weren’t about to birth my only grandchild, I’d be less forgiving of your mouth.” She turned to Landon. “I hope the baby gets your father’s traits. Is he nice and respectful like you?”

Landon laughed. “Depends on who he’s talking to. He sure sasses granddad a lot.”

She threw up her hands and looked at Ronnie. “You’re doomed, girl. Karma.”

“You buzzed, sweetheart?” The nurse entered the room and poked her head around the curtain.

“Yes. About that epidural?”

She walked over to Ronnie and gave her hand a squeeze.

Ronnie thought perhaps she was checking the site of her IV or something, but no, the nurse just squeezed it and grinned. “Not gonna happen. You were at eight a half hour ago. Ambitious little baby trying to get out and see the world. No use drugging her now. Just breathe. Be back in fifteen minutes to see how you’re feeling. No epidural means you get to walk to the toilet on your own sooner.”

Ronnie screamed.

John struggled to hear Landon through all the crackling and breaks in the connection. “Why is your phone so staticky?”

“I’m inside a big building, a shopping mall. Lots of metal.”

A shopping mall? Landon?
“What was that intercom in the background saying?”

“It was someone at the courtesy desk saying they found a set of car keys.”

“Must be a big mall.”

“Oh, yeah. Huge. It’s like a wonderland.”

John waved the man in the pickup over to the door. “I’m about to interview someone who might be able to replace Rufus, but I just wanted to see what your thoughts about the apartments were. I don’t feel right that I’m not there to help you.”