Teaching the Cowboy (25 page)

She sped up to get in front of him and put her hands out to halt his further progress. “John, Joey isn’t some sort of circus side show. You don’t need to satisfy everyone’s curiosity about her.”

Side show? “Woman, what are you smoking? Why do you assume I’m spreading the news around to shame you?”

“Aren’t you? Aren’t you trying to make my life so fucking miserable that I’ll just leave and abandon Joey here to you? Like Charlene did?”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her close. “Don’t you dare invoke her name. I’m not forcing you to do anything, but I’m not going to let you take my daughter away. We’ve had this discussion.”

Damn, she smells good.
He let go of her. Her scent was so arousing, intoxicating even, and it wasn’t even the same one that had attracted him more than a year before. This one was sweet, but in a maternal sort of way. She smelled like soap and wood polish and milk. She smelled like home. He emitted a growl from low in his chest.

“Where is Joey, anyway?”

She straightened the wrinkles he’d created in her shirt and folded her arms. “Johan took her and shooed me out. Told me to go take a walk or something.”

“Long-ass walk.”

“Figured I’d kill two birds with one stone. Want to drive me back? I’m getting twitchy.”

John had his hand on the handle of his truck door but dropped it to his side. “Maybe you need to spend some time away from her.”

“Maybe you need to kiss my ass.”

“Whoa, there, pretty hellcat.” He chuckled and pulled open the door. He held out an arm, indicating she should climb up and slide over.

She eyed him warily and then complied.

He didn’t start the engine immediately but sat there squeezing the leather of the steering wheel and gathering his thoughts.

“Are we going to move?”

“We should probably get married.”

“Excuse me?”

When he looked over at her, her eyes were wide and brows high. “I mean, it makes sense for practical reasons. That way you could be on my insurance.”
And I still love you, despite everything
.

The tension in her face relaxed and she shook her head. “I don’t see the problem with me maintaining a separate policy.”

“What if one of us gets sick? Who’d make your medical decisions if you became unable?”

“You’re thinking too hard.”

He jammed the key into the ignition. “I just like being prepared.”

“Those aren’t good reasons to get married, John.”

“Maybe not.”

As he drove toward the residences, he occasionally looked over to find Ronnie staring down at the hands she was wringing. He would have asked her what she was thinking, but he kind of already knew.

She hated Wyoming and his ranch so much that she kept the ultimate secret from him. He wasn’t willing to compromise when it came to his daughter, but maybe he was willing to make concessions elsewhere.

He couldn’t give her what would make her happy, but maybe he could help her forget about what she was sad about.

“Hey, Ron?”

She looked up from her hands. “Hmm?”

“Why don’t you let me take you out?”

“Out? I can’t. I’m not ready.”

“I know. You don’t want to be away from Joey. I understand that. I respect it. I’m talking just a couple hours. We don’t have to go too far, just into town and back.”

“I…”

“If it’ll make you feel better, we can drop Joey off at Sid’s and pick her up on the way back home. That way if anything happens, you could get to her fast.”

“I probably seem a bit overreactive, huh?”

“Well, she’s your first. I like to call Landon my practice baby.”

“He turned out okay.”

“Other than being able to lie like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth? Yeah, he’s a good kid.” He parked the truck in front of the guesthouse.

“Do you forgive him? You do know he wasn’t in on the whole thing, right? He wasn’t supposed to know. I didn’t want him involved in the ruse.”

“I’m mad. I’m not gonna deny that, and I know it’s gonna be a long time until I’m not mad, but I guess he’s a grown man and he can make his own choices. He sided with
you
.” He shrugged.

“No, John, he didn’t side with me. He sided with Joey. You raised a good boy. A good man. He loves his siblings.”

“Yeah. It’s a wonder the kids are as close as they are being so spaced out. I guess I’m lucky. Four perfect kids.”

“Yeah. You definitely struck gold there.”

I’d rather have silver.

Chapter Twenty-One

“I
can’t believe you let that woman put you to work. Why didn’t you let me tell her no for you?” Anna stood beside the dishwasher, unloading plates and drying them on her apron as she scowled at Ronnie.

Ronnie, meanwhile, was busy at the main house’s kitchen table rolling plastic utensils inside paper napkins for the community picnic. Joey slept in her wrap, drooling onto Ronnie’s chest, and Liss sat across from them at the table, toiling away on her math problems. Ronnie had granted Peter a much-deserved break; he rode to the airport with John and Kitty to pick up Landon.

“It’s such a little thing. I figured if I could just help out in some small way, it’d keep her off my back.”

“You know, she didn’t do the Queen of Sheba thing so much when you weren’t here. I imagine she thought the lady of the house was gone, and so it wasn’t worth showing off.”

“Lady of the house? That’s crap.”

Anna shrugged and picked up another dish. “Imagine how it looks from the outside to folks who aren’t living on this ranch. They probably think it was all planned, you going home to have the baby. Stranger things have happened.”

“I don’t want to play one-upmanship games with her.”

“Who has time for it anyway? I don’t know how she manages it with all those damned kids. She must have a sickness.”

The sound of gravel crunching beneath tires made them all pause and turn their faces toward the side door. Anna walked over and looked out. “Yep. Lemme see. One, two, three, four,
five
. They have an extra body in the truck.”

Ronnie finished the tube she was rolling and put a bracing arm beneath Joey’s bottom before standing. She heard the voice of passenger number five before she made it to the door.

“Phil!”

He filed in first, followed by Landon carrying their bags, then Kitty and Peter, and John bringing up the rear.

“Hey, honey.” Phil gave her a careful hug and pulled back the stretchy fabric of the wrap to stroke Joey’s cheek.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I didn’t know I’d be approved for the time off until last minute. Surprise!”

“Indeed.”

“Gotta pee. Be back.” He made a beeline for the powder room.

“And look at
you
. What’s this?” Ronnie said, as she assessed Landon from head to feet. His hair was a bit shorter and out of his eyes. He’d updated his glasses to sleeker, nearly invisible frames. Instead of his usual T-shirt or plaid button-up, he wore a green oxford with slight pin striping loose over khaki shorts, and…

Flip-flops?

“Is the East Coast getting into your blood, Landon?”

He chuckled and held out his arms for Johanna. “I guess it is. Does it suit me?”

“I don’t know, let me think about it.”

“I didn’t know you had a head for fashion, son,” John said.

Landon snorted. “I don’t, but I’m trying to fit in. Phil tells me what to buy and I take his word for it.”

“Hmm.” John shrugged and backed out of the door. “Need to go check on Eddie. I’ll be back for lunch.”

Ronnie bobbed her head toward the living room entryway. Landon followed with Joey.

Once alone in the quiet room, they sank onto the sofa. Landon cuddled Joey for a while, and Ronnie sat with her arms crossed over her chest until Landon looked up.

“Been spending much time with Phil?” She expected him to obfuscate, for his body language to shift. It didn’t.

He looked her straight in the eyes and answered without pause. “Yes.”

She tapped her fingers on the chair arm. “Got something you want to tell me?”

“Other than the obvious?”

“Maybe it’s not obvious, and we’re having two completely disparate conversations here.”

“Oh, there you are.” Phil entered the room with his usual phony ray of sunshine grin. That’s how he sold so many drugs to clueless physicians. After studying Ronnie’s face, he stopped on his heels and cringed. “What did I just step in?”

“You tell me. I’m waiting for Landon here to tell me my gut feeling is wrong.”

“What’s your gut saying?” Phil sat in the armchair on the other side of the coffee table and crossed his legs.

Ronnie cracked her knuckles.

“Told you, Landon.” Phil blew out a breath and studied the ceiling.

“Is he your first boyfriend?”
Oh, my god. Of all the men on the planet, why that one?

Landon shrugged. “Boyfriend? Guess so. But, first man I’ve—”

“Don’t want to hear it,” she interrupted before slumping in her seat. “Oh, my God.”

“Are you angry?”

“At what? You being gay? No. Although I do feel like I’ve had the rug pulled out from under me. How long have you known?”

Landon clucked his tongue and appeared to be thinking about it. “I don’t think there was ever a point I didn’t know, or at least I can’t remember feeling otherwise.”

“And you’re sure?”

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely.”

She hooked a thumb toward her BFF. “Why him?”

“Hey.” Phil sounded seriously affronted.

“Phil, no offense, but I know you too well. I know your history.”

“That’s the thing. You don’t. Who’s the last person you remember me dating. Fast, off the top of your head.”

Ronnie snapped her fingers. “That banker with the brown hair, right?”

“And that was before you came out here the first time.”

“So what are you saying?”

Landon answered for him. “Ronnie, we’ve been, well,
together,
I guess, since spring. Talked pretty much every night since November before that.”

“And now that I’m gone, you’re probably living together?”

“Most nights.”

“You really are good at keeping a secret. You should make that a career.”

Landon grinned. “You mad at me?”

“No. I could never be mad at you.” She pointed a finger at Phil and narrowed her eyes. “Now you? You’re on my list.”

“Quit being such a mom, Ronnie, I’m pushing thirty.”

“Exactly. And he’s twenty. If you break his heart, I’ll break you.”

“Ouch.”

“I’m serious, Phil. If you think you can be true, fine. Don’t yank him around. Ten years from now, I want to have to put my foot in my mouth for even saying this to you.”

He nodded, expression solemn. “I understand, but Ronnie? The age gap between me and Landon is the same one between you and John.”

“That’s different.”

“Bullshit,” Landon and Phil said in sync.

“Fuck.” She drummed her fingers against the tops of her thighs and looked from one to the other. “Phil, best you sleep in the guesthouse with me.”

Landon and Phil shared a look.

“What’s that look for?”

“Nothing, honey,” Phil said, expression a blank.

John wrapped his arm a little more snugly around Ronnie’s waist and continued plowing through the gauntlet formed near the buffet lines at the community picnic. She seized up a bit at his touch, but he realized her reaction was probably more due the size of the crowd ogling them and not his proximity specifically.

Yeah, people were staring, but that could have been due to any number of reasons. One, Ronnie was gorgeous, as always, in a hunter green dress that cinched her maternal curves just right and brought out the russet undertones of her skin. Two, he was carrying a baby most people in town hadn’t yet seen, though had certainly heard about due to his own inflation of the grapevine. Three, according to some of the ranch hands whose children attended the community school, the administration there was thinking about headhunting her. She didn’t know it yet. Four, he was out in public. A rare thing indeed. Five, there was likely a good deal of curiosity about the nature of his and Ronnie’s relationship. He couldn’t blame people for wondering, because he wasn’t sure what it was himself.

They couldn’t just pick up where they’d left off before she ran home to North Carolina, because he hadn’t even known where they’d been then. He’d laid all his cards out and suggested they get married. Sure, he’d used that bullshit insurance excuse, but really, them being married just made good sense. They carried on like an old married couple anyway, and he would give her half of what he had, if not more, if it made her happy.

That was what he couldn’t figure out. What would make her happy?

Joey grabbed the rim of his hat and dropped it on the ground, thereby jostling him from his reverie.

A pudgy hand reached down to pick it up before he could manage it himself. The man grunted as he thrust it out and John found Davey staring up at him, expression serious as death, holding out John’s Stetson. Ronnie took it from him.

“Thanks, Davey. I’ll hold it,” she said as she signed.

“Hi.” He gave a little wave.

“Hi, yourself.”

Davey pointed to a corner of the park toward a cluster of people and signed something to Ronnie.

She worked herself free of John’s grasp and took Davey’s hand. “I’ll be right back,” she said to John. “He wants me to say hi to his folks.”

“Okay.”

She propped his hat onto her head, probably not realizing she’d done it, and followed Davey into the crowd.

“Now what?” John asked Joey. She didn’t answer. Whose idea was it to come to this damned picnic, anyway? He could have been back at the ranch doing paperwork while Joey rolled around by his desk. Oh, yes. It’d been Sid’s idea.

“Now where the hell is she?”

He shifted Joey to his other arm and scanned over the heads of the crowd to find his sister seated in the cluster of tables women had set up to sell their crafts. She had one quilt left, but it was hard to pay attention to that, when she was having her face eaten by his ranch manager. He hurried his pace and cleared his throat upon approach.

Eddie stood, expression guilty, and started backing away.

Sid yanked him back by his belt buckle. “What’s up, John?” she asked, face calm.

He ground his teeth and cut his gaze from one to the other. Had that been Eddie’s plan all along? To get right up under his nose to gain the trust of his sister? “I just wanted to thank you for encouraging me to come out to this thing. It’s been educational.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t deserve that tone.”

“Don’t you? How about a little propriety, Sid? You’re in public. Show some decorum.” He turned his gaze to Eddie. “And you, well, I don’t even know where to start.”

Sid shot him down. “Don’t go there, John. This has nothing to do with Eddie’s job. Are you really so worried about appearances, or only when it comes to mine?”

“I’m just looking out for you, like I always have.”

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself. Maybe if you were a little more decorous in public, you’d have a woman who wasn’t so damned bored.”

“Stay out of it,” he said through clenched teeth.

She laughed and shook her head. “Pot and kettle, John. Pot and kettle.”

“I’m gonna go play horseshoes or something,” Eddie said before walking off like a coward.

John opened his mouth to berate the man, but before he could get the words out, Sid said, “Don’t. Don’t even start, John. I’m giving you advice so my best friend doesn’t run away again. You need to stop treating her like the ranch wife you think you’re supposed to have, ’cause she’s never going to be that, just like I’m not.”

“I never said I was looking for that.”

“You don’t have to. I know you, John. In a lot of ways, you’re just like Daddy. You’re trying to create your own little world right on the ranch, and if one part of it collapses, you’re useless. You’ve been going at it alone for all these years now, and that shouldn’t change. You want a wife? Fine. But you need to let her do her own thing, ’cause she’s not a cowgirl.”

“I don’t even know what you’re getting at.”

“Exactly, but you’d better figure it out.”

The sound of raucous laughter exploded up by the bandstand and both looked over to find a cluster of people gathered around Peter. Must have been telling bawdy jokes again.

“By the way, John, I’m moving back to the ranch. Gonna build on my parcel. I wanna be closer to the kids. Not right keeping Kitty so far from Liss, especially now that Landon’s gone.”

“Good for you. No one’s stopping you.”

That raucous laughter again. This time he turned and spotted Peter bowing to the applause of the crowd and Landon nearby, shaking his head as he rubbed his eyes. Phil, beside him, leaned in to whisper something in Landon’s ear that made him nod and smile. Landon wrapped an arm around Phil’s back and chafed his arm—a gesture indicative of a familiarity they shouldn’t have.

“No.”

“No,
what,
John?”

“No fucking way.”