Royal Trouble

by Becky McGraw

  "Have you heard from mama?" Leigh Ann asked fiddling with the corner of the paper place mat on the table.

  "Nope, don't want to hear from her," Rocky replied bluntly, taking a sip of the beer the waiter had delivered, along with her glass of wine. "I let her know about the wedding, but told her if she planned to come she better not show her ass."

  Even though Leigh Ann totally saw her sister's reason for hating their mother, she hated that her family wasn't close. "She really isn't that bad, Annie," Leigh Ann said. There had always been bad blood between her sister and mother. "I know she wanted to help you with the wedding."

  Trudy Baker had been mortally wounded when Roxanne told her she was invited to the wedding if she could behave, but she didn't need her help with anything. Leigh Ann had to listen to her complain for almost an hour on the phone.

  "I don't want her help." Rocky informed gruffly, as she toyed with the corner of the paper label. "I take it you've heard from her though."

  "I talked to her the other day, and saw a missed call on my phone from her earlier. I'll call her back later," Leigh Ann replied.

  "Don't tell her where you are, Leigh. She'll come out here and cause trouble," Roxanne warned, then met her eyes intently. "Wes doesn't need that drama."

  "I know." Taking a deep breath, she figured this was as good a time as any to forewarn her sister she might not be staying with Wes. "Annie, I need to tell you something..."

  Leigh Ann watched her sister stare at something, then her eyes widened, before a smile eased up on her lips. "Well, I'll be damned," she said, as she stood and pushed her chair back. When she waved, Leigh Ann looked over her shoulder to see who she was waving at, and her eyes slammed into Wes Jepson's hard body.

  His eyes were shaded by the black cowboy hat he wore to match the black western shirt, and tight dark wash jeans. The same outfit he had worn when they had gone out to dinner. It must be his dating outfit, the only one he had, Leigh Ann thought snidely as she took in the petite brunette hanging on his arm.

  Her heart floated up to her throat, before sinking to her toes like a stone. His arm was draped over the small brunette's shoulders. Leigh Ann had wondered what type of woman Wes liked, since evidently it wasn't her. Now she knew. The antithesis of her. Except for their height, she and the slightly mousy woman he was with bore no resemblance at all.

  Leigh Ann dragged her eyes from him and turned back around in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "Annie, I don't feel very well, I think I'm going to head out," she said and her stomach actually did roll.

  Her sister's smile dropped then her gray eyes filled with concern. "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing, I just need to go home," she said reaching down to grab her purse from under the table. With as much dignity as she could gather, Leigh Ann stood then walked around the table to hug Roxanne and tiptoe to kiss her cheek. "I'll call you tomorrow. I'm sorry about dinner."

  Leigh Ann was mortified at the choked quality in her voice, the tears stinging her eyes. She was not going to cry over Wes Jepson. The vet might be the sexiest man on the planet, but inside where it mattered, he was just like the rest of them.

  Nothing special. A dog looking for a juicy bone. Miss Right Now, not Miss Right. Well one thing was for sure, she wouldn't have to worry about wanting him if she was around him at the office anymore. Leigh Ann wouldn't touch the man now with a ten foot pole. He could have all the bones he wanted, but Leigh Ann wasn't going to be one of them. Even if he did decide he wanted her. But she couldn't sit here and watch him gnaw on the woman he was with.

  "I'll talk to you later," Leigh Ann said in a breathless whisper, before she turned and walked swiftly toward the front door of the restaurant. Wes was still standing next to the brunette near the hostess stand. She breezed past him, but didn't make eye contact. Leigh Ann focused on getting out of the door and to her car.

  When she was almost to her car, Wes's agitated voice yelled from behind her, "Leigh Ann!" She clutched the keys in her palm tighter, the metal dug in, but she didn't stop. Looking down she fumbled until she found the door release on her key fob and pressed it, then yanked open the door and slid inside.

  In a fluid motion, she started the engine, threw the stick into first, the popped her foot off of the clutch. The little skeert her wheels made when she pulled out of the parking space sent a thrill through her. That little sound let everyone know Leigh Ann wasn't calm, she was pissed, and she liked the freedom that expressing it gave her.

  Leigh Ann didn't show her anger, she always maintained a calm front, even when she didn't feel calm. Repressed is the last thing she was feeling as she lifted her middle finger in the window when she zoomed past Wes in the parking lot.

  Glancing in her rearview, she saw Wes stagger, stop then put his hands on his hips to stare at her. Leigh Ann smiled and shoved her foot down on the accelerator. That gesture was something else she had never done before, because according to her mother it was vulgar, but she'd always wondered what it would feel like. It felt liberating, and she vowed to do it more often. Screw her mother.

  After spending the weekend stewing in that travel trailer and sleeping on the hard foam mattress that doubled as the table benches, Leigh Ann was in a foul mood when she pulled her convertible up in front of Wes's office on Monday morning. But she would sleep on a bed of nails, before she would spend another night in his house. That was one decision she had arrived at over the weekend.

  When she took a lunch break, she would go up to the house and gather her stuff and load it into her car. Roxanne was coming in today to help her, train her on assisting Wes while he treated the animals, so she would have to do it tactfully.

  She didn't want to piss off Roxanne, or clue her in what the real reason was behind her decision to move back to the trailer. After what happened, she didn't need her sister's advice about Wes anymore. Telling her now would just make things worse.

  She would just move back into the travel trailer, and tell Roxanne she thought she was cramping Wes's lifestyle. Which wasn't far from the truth. She wondered if he would have brought the brunette back to his house if she had been there. She wasn't anything more to him than an unwelcome roommate, that's how he viewed her, so she wouldn't put it past him to bring the woman home with Leigh Ann there.

  She was sure that's what had happened, since she wasn't there.

  They had probably spent the whole weekend together. Images of him tangled up with that woman in his bed, on the sofa, everywhere in the house, tormented her all weekend. If she had to witness it firsthand, hear them, Leigh Ann wasn't sure she could restrain herself from hitting him with a frying pan.

  The other option she had tossed around this weekend was moving back to Dallas.

  A few weeks in a gym and on rabbit food should put her back in fighting form to model. Even with a wrinkle or two, and a few extra pounds, she could get jobs. The jobs might not pay as much as she used to make, because all she was going to be able to get was sporadic petite catalog work, but anything would be preferable to staying here with him.

  Even putting up with her mother.

  Leigh Ann wasn't going to tell her sister she was considering that option though. Roxanne would argue, and short of explaining her situation with Wes, there was no explanation. Huffing out a breath, Leigh Ann shut off her motor, gathered her purse, then noticed Rocky wasn't there yet, as she got out of the car.

  Because she hadn't taken any of her work clothes with her to the trailer, this morning after she washed up in the public shower at the campground, she had to dress in the only thing she had there, a short flirty floral print skirt with a tank top. The rest of her clothes were in Wes's house.

  Leigh Ann lifted her chin and stalked to the front porch of the office. When she twisted the knob, the door didn't open. She twisted again, then noticed the light wasn't on inside, so she glanced toward the house, wondering why Wes wasn't in the office yet. It was almost nine o'clock, and he was always in by seven thirty.

  He must have
overslept.

  Their first appointment was in thirty minutes, and she needed to set up the examining rooms. There was no way she was going up to the house now though. Instead, she walked to the top step, and sat there to wait. If the rooms weren't set up for his appointments, it was his own fault. She didn't care. About the man or his appointments.

  Fifteen minutes later, she heard Silas yapping from the front porch of the house, right before Wes appeared at the top of the steps. He walked toward the office with the dog hot on his heels, and from the stubborn set of his shoulders, Leigh Ann figured he wasn't in a good mood either, which didn't bode well for the tone of their day.

  When he got closer, she saw he hadn't shaved, and his clothes were rumpled. The lines in his face were deep grooves, and he looked like he hadn't slept all weekend. He had probably spent it in bed with the brunette he'd been with on Friday night, she thought and her stomach rolled. Shoving up to her feet, she smoothed her skirt and tried to paste on a smile.

  "Feeling better?" he asked sarcastically, without stopping on his way up onto the porch.

  "Much better, thank you," she replied sweetly, as she followed him into the office. Leigh Ann forced nonchalance into her tone, but gritted her teeth. "You have a good weekend?"

  "Perfect." That one word cut through her like a knife. Perfect weekend with a perfect brunette, how perfect. "Good," she grated, as she went to the reception desk and dropped her purse on top with a thud.

  "Good," he repeated gruffly striding toward his office.

  It definitely wasn't going to be a good day at the office of Dr. Wes Jepson.

  Even though she had no idea what she was doing, Leigh Ann went to the supply cabinet and took out an armload of various supplies. Going to exam room one, she fumbled with the knob then went inside, closing it behind her loudly. She deposited the supplies on the stainless steel examining table, then sat down on the stool beside it, holding her head in her hands. How the hell had her life come to this?

  Because you let your mother control you, you have no idea how to take care of yourself, Leigh Ann. Her sister had told her that repeatedly, but she hadn't ever believed it, until she tried to take care of herself now, and messed it up so badly.

  Leigh Ann could blame it on her mother, but she wouldn't. This was entirely her fault, for letting her mother do everything for her for so long, instead of being an adult and standing on her own two feet to learn to do things for herself.

  Letting her mother control her life had been easy. It would be easy to fall back into that routine now. Learning to take care of yourself at twenty-six years old was not easy, especially when you'd never done it before. She felt like a bird who had been kept in a cage and hand fed all its life trying to survive in the wild. Easy sounded good right about now.

  Going back to Dallas would be easy. But it would only give her mother the opportunity to sink her claws in deeper, it would also give Trudy Baker satisfaction, because she had failed miserably on her own. That would put her mother back on the scent of finding her a husband to take care of her again. Justify the need for her to do that.

  A shudder moved through her.

  It would be so easy to admit defeat and do that. Leigh Ann would have a job that wasn't out of her element, she would have a place to live, and her mother would make sure she had what she needed. Like that bird in the cage, the only thing she wouldn't have was freedom to make her own choices, to fly wherever the wind took her.

  The door knob jiggled and Leigh Ann held her breath hoping it wasn't Wes coming into the room, she couldn't deal with him again right now. She needed some space to gather herself to face the day. Roxanne walked into the room and she let out the breath and stood, smoothing down her skirt.

  Her sister's eyes ran over her outfit then she frowned. "You run out of jeans? Do we need to go to the store again?"

  "No, I stayed at Dylan's trailer this weekend, and I didn't bring a change of clothes for today," Leigh Ann explained, then looked over her sister's shoulder to see Wes standing there. His face turned a purplish shade, and his lips tightened into a white line standing in stark contrast. Without a word, he spun on his heel and walked off.

  Rocky turned and shouted, "Hey, Wes...I thought we were going to go over protocol with Leigh Ann?" she said with a huffed sigh and confused look.

  "You do it," he grumbled then Leigh Ann heard his office door slam.

  "Good God, what the hell is going on with him?" Rocky asked with a shake of her head. Leigh Ann shrugged, because she didn't know either.

  She was the one who had the right to be angry, not the prickly vet. But it definitely looked like he was mad, which didn't bode well for her continued employment here. That didn't make her inclined to spin her wheels learning something that would be of no use to her in the very near future.

  "You assist him, Annie," she told her sister then walked to the door. "I'm going out front and manage the crowd and answer the phone. We'll worry about training me when it's not so busy." Or not at all, because I won't be here.

  At noon, Wes and Roxanne had seen two dogs for vaccinations and examined a cat with a hairball problem. The fainting goat who had ingested something that constipated him was up next. As soon as he was in the examining room, Leigh Ann would have about an hour break before the next patient arrived. That was enough time for her to go up to the house and get her things.

  "Mr. Charles, you can take Baby into exam room three to wait for Doctor Jepson, he'll be in there shortly," she told the goat owner fifteen minutes later.

  The elderly man stood and yanked on the leash attached to the rhinestone studded collar around the small white goat's throat. The goat whimpered and put on the brakes with all four feet, pulling against the tether.

  Mr. Charles gave a frustrated grunt, then pulled the leash again. "C'mon, Baby," he said brusquely, but the goat just pulled back harder. "Damned wife should have brought the stubborn goat today," he grumped and yanked the leash again.

  All of a sudden, the leash went slack as Baby stepped forward. The small animal pinned her ears back to her skull and Leigh Ann figured that couldn't mean anything good. She was right. The goat tensed, bleated loudly, then shot forward jerking the leash from the man's hand to dart across the office toward her desk.

  Leigh Ann shoved back her chair and rounded the desk to chase the ornery animal. He led her a merry chase around the desk, along the row of chairs. Every time her fingers almost grasped the end of the pink leash, the goat seemed to know and dodged her. The goat circled her desk again, then shot across the office toward Wes's office. The open door was an invitation to the goat to go inside. Leigh Ann's throat closed imagining the havoc the animal could cause in there.

  Running full out, the heels of her boots slid on the urine trail the scared goat left on the tile floor. Her feet flew out from under her and she landed on her butt hard, the breath coming out of her on a whoosh. The goat bleated again then ran into Wes's office.

  Once Leigh Ann got her breath back, she scrambled to her feet and went after him. She stepped into the office to find the goat in Wes's chair, his cheeks puffed out, jaws working furiously, as he chewed on whatever he had eaten off of the desk.

  When she rounded Wes's desk, Leigh Ann noticed the goat wasn't constipated anymore. In the middle of his chair was a wet spot dotted with small pellets. Her eyes moved to the desk to see the scraps of paper Wes called field notes scattered there. Panic shot through her when she realized that must be what the goat was chewing. There was no way she was rescuing them from where they were now, the garbage barrel had been bad enough.

  The hilarity of the situation punched her in the gut and laughter bubbled up like lava inside of Leigh Ann, coming out in intermittent gasps. Putting one hand on the desk and the other across her stomach, her laugher erupted. She looked back at Baby the goat and his image wavered in her tear filled eyes. Baby's eyes widened, her mouth puckered then she sank to her knees in Wes's chair in a dead faint, and Leigh Ann laughed harder. Her fricking sides
hurt she was laughing so hard now. Knees weak and head light, Leigh Ann sank down to the floor holding her sides.

  "What the hell is going on?" Wes roared across the office, then his heels beat angrily on the tiles as he stormed to his office.

  Leigh Ann glanced up at his thunderous expression and found it funny too. Grabbing her knees she put her head down and laughed harder. Baby bleated from the chair, evidently regaining consciousness. Wes walked into the office, stepped over her then jerked the goat out of his chair, before stepping back over her to drag Baby toward the reception area.

  "Leigh? What happened," Roxanne asked from the door.

  Leigh Ann sucked in a gulping breath. In a high pitched tone, she tried to explain, "The goat isn't constipa--" but uncontrollable laughter seized her again, so she pointed at Wes's chair and laughed harder.

  Roxanne stepped over her. "Oh, my god!" she shrieked hastily gathering the notes on Wes's desk to drop them in the box on the floor beside his chair. Running out into the reception area, she came back with a whisk broom, dust pan and towel to clean up the mess in the chair. Weakly, Leigh Ann got to her feet and took a deep breath, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt.

  Unlike her, evidently her sister didn't see the humor in the situation. Roxanne frowned and said, "Leigh Ann you're supposed to keep the animals in the front office."

  "The office door was left open," Leigh Ann replied defensively.

  "Doesn't matter, you're supposed to be in control up there."

  It was obvious her sister was very irritated with her, and that sobered Leigh Ann quickly. She was supposed to be in control? That was the joke of the century. This was her sister's kind of job, not Leigh Ann's. She would never be in control here, because she had no idea what she was doing here in the first place.