Worth the Trouble (12 page)

Surprise flickered over her face, but she told him. "I have some in the first aid shack.  I ordered them and a cane when I ordered the walker.  I just didn't think you were ready for that yet."

"
Oh, I'm ready.  That damned walker makes me feel like an old man, and if I have to sit in that chair one more day I'll go nuts.  Can you get the crutches for me?"

"Damn right, I can," she said and let out a squeal that hurt his ears.  Ethan flinched when she ran over to him and flung her arms around his waist.  "Welcome back to the land of the living, baby brother." 

He hugged her to him.  "I'm not there yet, sis, but I'm halfway there because of you.  Thank you for pushing me."

"You're welcome," she mumbled against his chest then pushed back and pointed her finger at him.  "Don't go out there and hurt yourself!"

"I won't, I promise.  You said equine therapy is supposed to be good for the handicapped," he reminded her with a grin.  This was different he knew, but it was also more in line with what Ethan was used to doing.  Excitement bubbled inside his chest and he would have danced around the room if he could.

"The only thing handicapping you is your
lack of a sense of self preservation."

"
Rocky will take care of me," he assured her.

"Oh, Rocky is gonna take care of you al
l right," Terri told him then shook her head and warned.  "I'm telling you she's like a rattlesnake when she's mad, be careful, Ethan."

"Her bite can't be any worse than yours.  If you
didn't like her, you wouldn't have worked so hard to throw her at me."

Terri's eyebrows lifted over her green eyes and her face flushed.  "I didn't do that, I needed her help with your therapy," she told him sounding far from convincing.

"Bullshit, sis.  You thought you'd play cupid and that was your way to hook us up.  I can handle my own love life, so butt out," he told her gruffly then added.  "I already think she's pretty special though and I've got this...trust me, okay?"

"Okay...but don't go out there to that barn for a little while
, unless you have a death wish."

"Just get me the crutches," he said
then slid off the massage bed to his feet, holding onto the table for support.  It felt damned good to be vertical again, even if it wasn't under full power.  "Hand me that back brace, so I can put it on."

That piece of hardware he would probably be stuck with for a
while longer.  Being jostled around on a horse, he was going to need it, and probably a bottle of painkillers.  For the last two days, he hadn't taken any.  He was done with being hazy and the damned things made him sluggish. 

"I need some ibuprofen too, please
," he said to Terri on her way out the door.

"You're gonna need a lot more than that.  I'll
bring you some Epson Salts and the special horse liniment that Jarvis cooks up in the chuck wagon for the trail drives.  Your ass is gonna be on fire."

CHAPTER SIX

"Leigh Ann!" Rocky yelled when she stomped through the front door and slammed it behind her.  What happened just now at the spa was all her sister's fault.  If she
wasn't here, then Rocky wouldn't have been up at the spa looking for Terri in the first place.  And she wouldn't have made a fool of herself by ogling Ethan...or getting caught doing it.

She wasn't going to ask Terri to let her
sister stay at the big house, she was telling Leigh Ann she needed to leave, now.  This would only be the beginning of the drama that always followed her sister, and Rocky didn't want any part of it.

Cupping her hands around her mouth, she yelled her name again.
 

The door opened behind her
, she spun around and Terri stood there.  "You wanted to talk to me about something?" Terri asked with a half smile.

"Um, yeah, but I don't think I need to ask now," Rocky replied fe
eling her face heat.

Terri walked farther inside then went over to the sofa
to sit down nonchalantly as if she hadn't just caught Rocky spying on her brother.

"You sure seemed hot on finding me a few minutes ago,
so I thought it must be important," Terri said smugly with a laugh in her voice, then she sniffed a couple times and added, "Wow, it sure smells rank in this place, you might want to check around for dead mice."

"Skunk," Rocky clarified
walking over to the bank of windows at the front of the room.  "My sister got sprayed last night and the smell hasn't cleared out.  I'll open the windows."

"Your sister is here? 
That might explain this then," she said with a snort then held up a hot pink thong.

Rocky glanced that way and her face heated.  Her sister wasn't one to pick up after herself either. 
"Uh, yeah...I think she stripped on the way to the bathroom last night."

"Don't blame her, if she smelled as bad as this room does
," Terri said and wrinkled her nose.

"Worse
--she smelled much worse, but Ethan got her some tomato juice and I think it helped."

"Ethan met her?" Terri asked
casually, but Rocky saw her eyebrows lift in surprise.

"Um, yeah.
  Leigh Ann got here while I was out last night," Rocky told her opening the last window in the row, before tying back the curtains so the air would flow.

"Is she what you needed to talk to me about?"

Rocky hesitated, because she really just wanted to ask Leigh Ann to leave.  That would solve this problem before there was a problem.  But Leigh Ann was her sister, and they still hadn't had a chance to talk, so Rocky could find out what kind of trouble she'd gotten herself into this time. 

Leigh Ann wasn't a bad person, she was a really sweet person, she just didn't know how to
take care of herself, and let their mother run roughshod over her.  Rocky didn't know how to deal with someone like that.  She'd tried to talk to her sister about it, give her sisterly advice on how to take control of her life, but so far it hadn't helped. 

Regardless of her sister's weaknesses though, she had strengths too.  Everyone loved Leigh Ann, because she was just...loveable.  Rocky loved her baby sister
too, she just wanted better for her, and was frustrated that she didn't want better for herself.  She was worth more than a damned crown and a title, but until Leigh Ann stopped listening to their mother and believed that herself, she would float through life like stray wood in a stream.

Not able to help herself, Rocky finally said,
"I wanted to ask if you had room at the big house for Leigh Ann to stay a couple of days if she needed to.  I think she has a job interview in Amarillo tomorrow.  I'll pay you--"

"Nonsense, she's your family, and we'll make room up there for her," Terri said and stood up.  "You just bring her stuff up to the house after while and we'll get her settled in."

"After she leaves tomorrow, I'll get Ethan's riding lessons started," Rocky told her hoping like hell her sister would actually stay gone when she left for her interview.

"About that..." Terri said then hesitated and told her, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea.  He hasn't ever ridden before, and when I suggested the equine therapy I pictured him riding around in the arena slowly on a sedate horse.  I didn't think he would be trotting through the woods playing Lone Ranger.
  I'm worried he's going to hurt himself."

"He won't be alone, I'll be with him, but he's a long way from trotting anywhere.  We
are going to start with the slow rides in the arena."

"Whew," Terri said and her shoulders slumped.  "Take it easy on him, please.  I know he can be an arrogant ass sometimes, but he has a good heart."

"Oh, I can handle him," Rocky told her with a grin.  "I'll go easy with him, but he's going to work hard and do things safely, or he won't be riding in anything other than in that golf cart."

"He has a tendency to take risks..." Terri informed her
with a frown.

"
No shit?  I would never have known that," Rocky replied with a snort. "I mean who doesn't hang out of a helicopter over a flooded creek to save their sister?"

"You wouldn't do that," Leigh Ann said as she walked through the door.  "You'd probably hold my head under the water until I quit kicking
," she added with a feminine giggle.

Leigh Ann
glided over to them and Rocky noticed that her face was bare and her skin appeared to be glowing.  The woman didn't walk, she flowed from one place to the next.  Her pageant walk was as ingrained in her psyche as her politeness.  It's why everyone who met her, especially men, loved her.

She also looked more relaxed than Rocky could remember seeing her in forever.  "No makeup?  This is a first," Rocky t
old her with a snort.  It was a rare occasion to see her sister without it.

"I had a facial, and feel like a million bucks.  Your facial lady is spectacular," she told Terri with a toothy smile.

"So, I hear.  I haven't had time to get one yet, but it's on my bucket list," Terri replied with a chuckle.  "You must be Leigh Ann..." she said and stuck out her hand.

"That would be me," Leigh Ann told her with a wide smile and a plea in her eyes for Rocky to bail her out and introduce Terri to her.

"This is Terri Rhodes, my boss," Rocky told her with a tight smile.

"So, I hear you're going to be a guest
at the ranch?" Terri asked.

"I haven't seen Annie in a coon's age, and I was in the area
for a job interview, so I thought I'd drop by to see her for a few days.  I hope I'm not imposing?" Leigh Ann asked blushing prettily.

Terri looked
Rocky's way and mouthed, "Annie?"

Rocky flushed and o
f course wasn't surprised at her sister's pretty southern manners, or the nickname their mother insisted she used for her.  She had been trained from birth by their mother to be that way.  The pageant judges loved that shit.  The canned response irritated Rocky nonetheless.  Her sister needed to be able to separate her stage persona from being a real person meeting real people.

"Not at all, we look forward to getting to know you better, Leigh Ann.  We didn't even know that Rocky had a sister," Terri said and shot accusing eyes at Rocky.

Rocky groaned and rolled her eyes.  "A mother too...and since they come as a package deal usually, I'm sure you'll be meeting her before Leigh Ann leaves."

"Mama isn't coming," Leigh Ann
informed.  "She has a new client she's working with and the pageant is in two months.  She says her walk is atrocious."

"Mama is coaching now?" Rocky
asked with a snort.

"Yeah, she has turned out some pretty big winners
lately, and her name is getting out there," Leigh Ann told her rather proudly.

Rocky would just bet her
mother's name was way out there.  She took credit for Leigh Ann's winning the Miss Texas, USA pageant eight years ago, and in a way Rocky guessed she deserved it.  Her daddy did too, because his life insurance money footed the bill for all the gowns, and other things required to compete in that high dollar ordeal.  If her mother was working, Rocky imagined all that money was gone now, and her mother had to find some way to support herself.

"What does your mother do?" Terri asked with a raised brow.

Leigh Ann's smile widened.  "Oh, she's a beauty pageant coach...um, she coached me when I competed as a child, then when I won Miss Texas, USA."

Terri's eyes shot to Rocky's and she made an O with her mouth.

"Oh, Rocky did you compete too?" Terri asked with wide eyes.

"Hell--um, no, I didn't
," she replied with a frown. 

As is if that wasn't patently obvious to Terri from looking at her sister and looking at her.  Leigh Ann was the beauty queen, Rocky was the tomboy, and never the twain shall meet.
 

After a few more minutes of inane conversation,
Rocky couldn't take anymore.  She had to get the heck out of the bunkhouse, and away from her sister.  With a glance up at the clock above the mantle, she gasped.  "Wow, look at the time.  The trail drive will be in here shortly, I need to get stalls ready and help the guys untack the horses.  Thanks for letting Leigh Ann stay, Terri.  I'll talk to ya'll later." 

Before either woman could stop her, Rocky headed out the front door and scurried off o
f the front porch to the barn. 

By the time the guys pulled in a couple of hours later, the barn was sparkling clean, there was new bedding in all the stalls, and Rocky was wound for sound.

"Hey, you," Matt Walker said with a wink then slid out of his saddle tiredly.

"Hey, ya'll have a good drive?" Rocky asked and took his horse's reins from him.

"We made it back, so I guess I'd have to say yes," he told her with a laugh.

"Trouble?" she asked then unhooked the saddle straps and pulled the saddle and blanket off
his horse's back.

"Wouldn't say that
exactly," he said then leaned close to her ear.  "This group was just a little greener than most.  I think some of them thought they were going to the Ritz.  I also think Jarvis is at the end of his rope."

Just then one of the guests said loudly.  "I need someone to unsaddle my horse."

Rocky handed the sweat scraper to Matt, so he could groom his horse, then with a tolerant smile she walked over to the man.  "I can help you," she said and grabbed for his reins, but he pulled them back.

"I don't think so, I need a
ranch hand to help me," he said with an indignant snort.

"You're looking at one,
" she told him reaching for the reins.  "Now if you give me those reins, I'll take care of your horse."

The short grumpy man
pulled the reins away from her, causing the horse to move to the side.  She recognized him from a quick glimpse before the cattle drive pulled out.  This was the guy who showed up at the ranch a few days late, just in time for the trail drive, because he knew how to ride and didn't need lessons, according to him.

"Don't pull on the reins, you're hurting his mouth," Rocky chastised.

"Look little lady, you go on about your business, I don't need your help," he said snidely, then yanked on the reins again, before telling her, "I know how to handle a horse."

"Let me put a bit in your mouth and yank a few times, I'm sure you'd change your mind," she replied trying like hell to hold back her
temper.  She was not going to stand here and watch someone abuse a horse.

Joel
came into the barn and walked over to them.  "Something wrong here?" he asked smoothly.

"This woman is trying to tell me how to handle my horse, and I can assure you I have been riding longer than she's been alive, most likely," h
e said and puffed out his chest giving her a once over with his eyes.

"Well, that might be, but she is our horse trainer
and riding instructor.  She knows what she's doing," Joel informed then told the fat bastard, "Big Mike, I think we need to go to the house for a whiskey and let the hands handle their jobs.  That sound okay to you?" 

Rocky was impressed, and thankful.  She had been about to unload on the pompous ass.
  The way her day had gone so far didn't put her in a mood to deal with him.

He harrumphed then shoved the reins at Rocky.  "
After that fiasco of a trail ride, I could use a whiskey," he agreed.

C
asting Rocky an apologetic glance, Joel put his hand on the man's shoulders and led him away.  Rocky scratched Rambler between the ears and patted his jaw, then removed the bridle, replacing it with a halter from the hook on the wall.  She clipped on a lead rope, then led him toward his stall.  Dylan was standing beside the stall next door and looked up and smiled. 

"Hey, sugar.  You hold down the
fort while we were gone?" he asked. "Anything exciting happen?" he asked, running a soft brush over his horse's rump.