by Becky McGraw
Leigh Ann released his collar and met the dog's eyes to give him a glare. Pointing, she told him firmly, "Stay!"
The dog dropped on his rear to sit there staring at her. Keeping her eyes on him, she walked across the deck and picked up the shampoo, then brought it back, before leading Silas down the steps and around the side of the deck.
Bending, she picked up the nozzle of the hose, and turned it on. Water shot from the nozzle in every direction, the stinging spray hitting her in the eyes, and drenching her clothes at the same time. Sputtering, Leigh Ann dropped the hose. Like an angry snake, it swung wildly across the grass, soaking her from head to toe. Swiping at her eyes, she heard Silas bay loudly, then watched him make a dash for freedom toward the woods.
"Damn!" she cursed, pulling her wet tank top away from her breasts.
Stomping across the yard, Leigh Ann scanned the yard for the grossly odoriferous dog. At the edge of the unfenced back yard, she spotted him near the tree line. Stiffening her shoulders with purpose, she headed over there as she yelled, "Silas, come here you bad dog!"
He dropped to the ground, and rolled onto his back in feigned submission. She got nearer and Leigh Ann got suspicious when Silas rocked back and forth on his back, his face a picture of ecstasy. The closer she got, the stronger the smell became, until it was beyond overwhelming. Ten feet back from the dog, she stopped and gagged, covering her nose and mouth with her hand when she realized he'd found the coon again.
With a muffled curse, she shouted, "Get your ass over here, Silas, I'm not coming to get you!" The dog stopped rocking and looked at her. She would almost swear he was grinning and taunting her with his big brown eyes. Dogs didn't grin did they?
"Come here, Silas!" she shouted again.
With a sound that resembled a human harrumph, the dog rocked once more then rolled to his short stumpy legs and ambled over to her. She grabbed his collar then bent to duck-walk him back toward the porch. That turned out to be entirely too up close and personal with the stinky animal, and she gagged again.
Leigh Ann's toe snagged on a hole, then she felt herself falling. The collar twisted in her fingers, Silas yelped, and Leigh Ann hit the hard packed ground losing her breath. A gentle breeze teased the back of her legs and Leigh Ann suddenly realized her skirt was up around her waist. The no underwear thing had been funny at the time, when she decided to tease Wes with it. Now? Not so funny, she thought, as she quickly pulled the skirt down to cover herself.
She rolled onto her back and covered her eyes with her forearm while she caught her breath. A cold wet tongue licked her cheek, narrowly missing her mouth. Leigh Ann sputtered, swinging her arm wildly. "Ugh, back off, Silas."
Something heavy landed on her chest, Leigh Ann opened her eyes. The dog's nose was almost flush to hers, his doggie breath smelling almost as bad as the raccoon funk. He got this goofy look in his eyes, and Leigh Ann thought he was about to try and kiss her again. She shot up and the dog rolled off to sit there staring at her.
"Disgusting!" she wailed, brushing herself off, as if that was going to help. Now she had dog saliva all over her face and smelled like the decomposing raccoon too, wonderful.
Huffing out a breath, she grabbed his collar, holding it tight as she dragged him back over to the hose. Yanking the nozzle up again, she ignored the stinging spray on her own body, figuring she needed a bath too right now. She went to work on the filthy animal, while he bayed and tried to get away from her.
By the time she finished bathing him, Leigh Ann was soaked to the skin, but knew she didn't smell any better. But Silas did, so she was making progress. It might take a fumigation process like she had gone through with Ethan at the R & R to make her smell better. She sure hoped not though. Leigh Ann never wanted to see a can of tomato juice again. It was just a little raccoon funk, right? Not skunk spray.
Where was Ethan when she needed him? He would know what to do. He was probably making love to her sister. Why the hell couldn't she be so lucky?
Roxanne had found a good man to love, Leigh Ann was starting to have serious doubts about that ever happening for her. Wes is a good man, her subconscious whispered, but her conscious mind rejected that. Wes Jepson was a damaged, callous man who thought she was a throwaway woman.
It's not like that, mama. She's not the type of woman I want, or need. She's just my assistant, nothing more. Those words were burned into her brain, because they were brutally honest. But the man sure hadn't had a problem making love to her. She was good enough to sleep with, but he wanted another kind of woman for a relationship. And he didn't even have the balls to tell her that to her face.
Like his mother, Leigh Ann wondered what kind of woman that would be. Whoever the unlucky woman was, Leigh Ann wished her luck breaking through that hard shell he used to protect himself. She was starting to think maybe his ex-wife had removed his heart, and taken it with her when she left him.
Leigh Ann just needed to forget about the man and move on.
Her eyes burned again, but this time it wasn't from the dead raccoon smell, it was from the scent of her decomposing heart and self-confidence.
Focusing on the problem at hand, Leigh Ann dragged Silas up the steps to the back door, grabbed the leash from the small table beside the door then clipped it on. She couldn't take the dog into the house soaking wet, he would ruin the carpet, so she put the loop of the leash under the leg of the table.
She was still bending over when Silas shook his body violently. His ears spun like a fan and directed the water from his coat directly into her face. With a curse, she swiped her face with her arm, then pushed open the heavy sliding door. The cool air inside the house mixed with the water to chill her to the bone. She shivered, wrapped her arms around herself then heard Trey's feet as he scrambled down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs he skidded to a stop and stared. "Wow," he said in awe.
"Yeah, wow," she repeated sullenly. "I think Silas is the one who gave me a bath."
"I'll get you a towel," Trey offered as he spun to run back up the stairs. A minute later he reappeared carrying a stack of fluffy towels.
"Here you go," he said shoving them to her.
Leigh Ann dried herself off first, then went back outside to dry off the dog. Trey stood at the door and watched. Silas might not have liked the bath, but he sure seemed to enjoy her rubbing his skin with the soft towel. His tongue took a swipe at her every time she got close to his face.
"Yeah, you love me now, huh?" she asked him grumpily, as she patted his ears dry.
"You're pretty, so he probably does. He is a hound dog you know," Trey told her with a giggle. "He likes the drying part, doesn't much care for the bath though. Sort of like me."
Leigh Ann glanced back at Trey and his humor-filled eyes were so much like his daddy's hazel gaze, her heart squeezed in her chest. Trey would be a lady slayer when he grew up. Handsome just like his daddy. Trey had the bonus of charm and personality though, something Wes was missing.
"You wanna watch a movie?" Leigh Ann asked, forcing happiness into her tone when she stood back up with the leash in her hand.
"Oh, yeah!" Trey squealed. "How about the movie TED? My daddy has the DVD!"
"Have you watched it before?" she asked and squeezed past the child into the dining room. "Isn't that one Rated R?"
She had seen the trailer and it did look funny. If she remembered correctly, it was about a child's attachment to a teddy bear that he carried into adulthood, a comedy. It couldn't be that bad considering the horror and action films that were Rated PG these days.
"Yeah, daddy wouldn't let me watch it," Trey told her sullenly. "Said it was too mature," he informed her with a frown.
"What makes you think I'll let you watch it then?" she asked him, while she unclipped the leash and closed the sliding door.
"Cause you're nicer than my daddy?" Trey ventured with a sly smile that told her he knew the effect his words and that smile would have on her. Yeah, he was definitely going to be a
ladies man when he grew up. He was honing his skills on her right now.
Her heart wiggled in her chest, but she knew she shouldn't go against Wes's wishes where Trey was concerned. Leigh Ann gnawed on her bottom lip considering it. "If he said you couldn't watch it..."
"Please, Miss Leigh Ann?" Trey begged, tenting his hands in front of his chest in a prayer pose.
"Okay, but you have to sit with me, so I can cover your eyes during the bad parts."
"It's a deal!" he squealed and ran forward to hug her waist. Leigh Ann put her hand at his nape and bent to kiss the top of his head, her heart doing that funny wiggle again.
Leigh Ann could love this kid. Getting attached to him though would mean more heartache. When she left, it would devastate both of them. And she was leaving, because his daddy certainly wasn't getting attached to her.
"I'm going to take a quick shower and change, then we can put it on after I make some popcorn," she told him and headed to the stairs.
"Yes!" he said enthusiastically then went to the DVD stand to find the movie.
Leigh Ann smiled as she headed up the stairs. After she got out of the shower, she wrapped a towel around her hair, and put on warm yoga pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt, then headed back downstairs. Trey was curled up in the recliner with the remote in his hand waiting for her.
"Want me to start it now?" he asked with excitement.
"Let me make the popcorn first."
His impatient aw shucks had her smiling as she walked to the kitchen. A few minutes later, her arms loaded with a huge bowl of buttery popcorn, she stood beside the recliner and waited for him to move over to give her room beside him. Instead he stood and waved for her to sit down.
After she settled, Trey climbed up in her lap and she put her arms around him so they could share the popcorn. It was cozy, domestic and...motherly. Longing coursed through her carrying with it a sense of peace like none she had ever felt before. Trey clicked the remote to start the movie, and rested his head back against her shoulder. Leigh Ann pulled the handle on the chair to bring out the foot rest, so they would be more comfortable. Together, they sat and watched the movie, until she realized he was staring at her, not the movie.
"What?" she asked looking down into his eyes. Was that longing she saw there?
His reached up to grab an end of her damp hair and rubbed the strand between his fingers. "You're pretty like my mama, 'cept she had red hair like mine." He released her hair and patted the top of his head.
Sympathy for the motherless child squeezed her heart painfully. The woman who left this darling child needed to have her head examined. She must have been exactly like Wes had described her. A selfish bitch.
"You remember her?" Leigh Ann asked, remembering from Wes's conversation with his mother that Trey's mother left then when Trey was only three. Leigh Ann's mother aggravated the crap out of her sometimes, but she couldn't imagine growing up without her.
"I remember some." He looked down at his hands that were now twisting in his lap.
"What do you remember?" Leigh Ann asked, hoping to help him remember something good about the woman who had abandoned him.
"Her and my daddy fought a lot. I think that might be why she left. Either that or she didn't like me," he replied and Leigh Ann wished she hadn't asked. Her heart not only jerked in her chest, it ripped in two for him.
"You were pretty young, you sure you're not mistaken?" she offered, hoping that would end the conversation.
"No, I remember...she didn't like me much," he said in a choked voice. "She didn't like my daddy either, I really think that's why she left."
"If that's the case, then she's a fool, because both of you are spectacular men," Leigh Ann told Trey with a tight hug.
A lot of women would kill for a kid like Trey, and a good man to love her. She was mad at Wes, but he was a good man, and he loved his son. Leigh Ann could only hope that one day she would be so lucky. One thing was for sure, if she ever found that for herself, Leigh Ann wasn't going to take it for granted like Trey's mother had done.
"I like you being here, Miss Leigh Ann." Trey rubbed his cheek against her shoulder, and his voice wobbled when he told her, "I wish you could be my mama."
She wished that too. He was smart and sweet, a good kid, and she would love to call him her own. But that wasn't happening. She couldn't tell him though, that beyond a good roll in the sack, his daddy wasn't interested in her. She also couldn't tell him, because of how he felt about her, she was leaving. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt this vulnerable child, or make him blame Wes. Even though it was his fault.
"Aww, honey...you'll have a mama some day, but I'll always be your friend. Would you be my forever friend?" Leigh Ann asked through the emotion clogging her throat.
He sat up straighter in her lap to throw his arms around her neck. "I don't want a friend, I need a mama, so the kids won't tease me anymore. Please, Miss Leigh Ann," he begged and she felt his shoulders shake under her hands.
A fist squeezed her heart and stopped it from beating, as tears rushed to her eyes. Dragging in a ragged breath, she hugged him closer as a blinding need to protect him washed over her. What Leigh Ann wanted to do was dress in her best suit and head to that school on Monday to confront his teacher, or jerk a knot in those kid's butts for their meanness.
But she didn't have that right to do that.
Her getting involved would only make Wes hate her more. All she could do was tamp down her anger and try to defuse the situation, pass it off to Wes to deal with. Maybe talk to him about it, if she had the opportunity. But that would probably piss him off too. She would be getting into his business, and didn't have a right to do that either.
The best thing she could do was stay out of it, and get the hell out of here. That didn't sit well with her, went totally against the grain of her nature, but that is what she had to do. "It doesn't work that way, baby...you need to talk to your daddy about those kids, he'll go to your teacher and straighten things out."
"I told Nana..." Trey muttered pitifully nuzzling his face into her neck.
She dropped a kiss on his hair then pushed him back to look into his sad eyes. "Your daddy will handle it, I promise. But you have to tell him about it."
Trey's chin dropped and he nodded, then leaned back against her chest to sigh. Leigh Ann rubbed his tense shoulders, then glanced at the television. "Hey, Ted is talking, because that boy made a wish. That must be magic, huh?"
"I don't believe it, because I wished for a mama and it didn't work," Trey said softly, almost too soft for her to hear, but she heard and what was left of her heart shot up to her throat. A moment later, he giggled at something the teddy bear said on the screen, and relief poured through her. He giggled a few more times, exclaimed at something that happened in the movie, and Leigh Ann was able to relax a little. She stayed on alert though to make sure she could shield him when inappropriate parts were coming up. It took a lot of effort, because her mind wasn't on the movie. She was too busy worrying about the trouble Trey was having at school, and how she might be able to help him.
Toward the end of the movie, Trey yawned several times, which made her yawn too. She sat the now empty bowl down beside the chair, and snuggled him into her arms. A glance at the clock over the mantle told her it was almost ten o'clock and she needed to put him to bed, but that was her last thought, before her eyes drifted shut.
At midnight, Wes stumbled into the house and sat his medical kit down by the hall table. Covered in blood, tired to the bone and frustrated as hell, he wanted to head right upstairs and shower then pass out. The flicker of the television in the living room caught his attention, so he walked that way. They must have left it on, and the last thing he needed was a higher electric bill, or to have to buy a new set.
He scanned the room and stopped at the recliner, where the soft glow of the TV illuminated Trey, who was in Leigh Ann's lap, both of them fast asleep. Held tightly in his arms, she hugged him to her chest protectively. Like
a mother would.
Yearning and regret hit Wes square in the chest, almost bringing him to his knees. Seeing his son's hand resting over Leigh Ann's heart, his face tucked into the curve of her neck told Wes his son probably had the same ache. Especially after what Wes's mother told him today. Trey needed a mother.
Wes needed a wife for that to happen. Unfortunately, that woman was not going to be Leigh Ann Baker. And she was getting too damned close to his son. Because Wes had allowed her into their lives, knowing she wasn't the right woman for them. He should have known Trey would cling to her. She was the first woman, other than his mother, that had ever been in their lives. By allowing her to live with them, Wes had put his son at risk for being hurt. Guilt floated through him, and Wes vowed to talk to her first thing tomorrow.
Leigh Ann Baker needed to find her own place soon. Within two weeks. Maybe if he gave her a deadline it would help. Until then, he needed to make sure she stayed away from Trey. Taking a hesitant step toward them, Wes hesitated, then stopped.
As filthy as he was, he couldn't touch either one of them. It was no wonder, after treating two severely injured animals. The cows had escaped the pasture, crashed through a fence, only to be attacked by wild hogs in the woods. Even Wes's best effort hadn't been enough to save them. Before he left he had to euthanize them.
Wes hated to fail, and tonight he had failed on two fronts.
First he failed the farmer, then he failed his son. Failing the farmer was an everyday thing, something he just dealt with. He couldn't deal with failing his son. Leaving Trey with Leigh Ann had been a mistake. Inviting her to stay here with them was a bigger mistake.
He knew Trey was missing his mother, so naturally he would latch onto any available woman who showed him attention. Just like Wes himself had done with the beautiful woman, because he was lonely. Considering those facts, he should have known better.
It was nobody's fault but his own that this had happened.
Wes just had to fix things fast to keep his son from getting hurt.
