by Becky McGraw
"You shouldn't have done that," Wes chastised and felt bad when her face lost its excited glow. "Definitely not alone."
"Why not?" she asked confused. "You needed that money, you have it, or a payment plan they better damn well follow."
The determined look on her beautiful face was a little amusing, because it wouldn't scare anyone. But dammit, she could have gotten hurt.
"It's dangerous," he said hotly. "Don't do that again."
"Wes, you have too many irons in the fire. I just wanted to help you, and it worked, right?" Leigh Ann diverted her eyes from his and leaned forward to collect the other checks scattered on the floor.
Wes leaned forward at the same time to help her, their cheeks brushed, the scent of honeysuckle surrounded him, and her warm breaths teased his neck. Wes stilled, his senses and body on high alert. Hesitantly, Leigh Ann turned her face toward his, putting her mouth so close to his he could taste the sweetness of her breath. Like sunshine to a man starved of light, her lips drew him to her and he moaned as their lips melded.
Her taste warmed the coldness inside of him, and settled near his heart. Easing back, he tugged her across his lap, holding her tightly to him as he teased her mouth, coaxing her to open for him. She whispered his name against his lips, and he deepened the kiss he craved more than his next breath.
Leigh Ann Baker tasted like heaven and he soaked up her sweetness, reveled in it. Enticing her tongue into an erotic dance, she made little mewling sounds that filled his mouth, as her palm slid up his chest, burning a path upward until she cupped his neck to cover his crazily beating pulse there. Saturated in desire, his heart was doing a similar dance in his chest.
The front door of the office opened, the bell over the door chimed and echoed inside of Wes's passion-drugged skull. Jerking back from Leigh Ann, Wes scooted away from her and dragged in gulping breaths. He swallowed hard, as the blood that had collected south rushed to his face. "Trey..."
"Yes!" Trey shouted then fist-pumped, his face lighting up like a hundred watt bulb.
Wes didn't know what that was about, but he could guess. "Miss Leigh Ann had something in her eye, so I was trying to help her," he lied hoping his son didn't realize that he had been about to make love to her right here on the floor of his office. Wes didn't lose his head, but around the former beauty queen, he didn't have any control at all. Having his son witness that was not something he could let happen. Trey wouldn't understand.
"But her eyes were closed while you were kissing her," Trey said with a grin, blowing Wes's excuse out of the water. His son was evidently as perceptive as Wes's mother. Since she met Leigh Ann, she had been grilling him about her, and how she was doing.
"I...uh...well, uh," Wes fumbled.
"Your daddy was just thanking me for helping him today," Leigh Ann said calmly, but her voice shook as badly as his knees. She finger-combed her mussed hair to fluff it, ran her forearm over her swollen lips, before pushing up to her feet.
"How was school today?" she asked evenly, with a smile.
Her tack here was a good one, and Wes wished he'd have been steady enough to deflect his son's attention from what he'd seen, instead of lying to him. He stood too then shuffled from foot to foot, first because he had no idea what he was supposed to do in this situation, second he was trying to adjust his hard-on which was constricted by his tight jeans.
It was chickenshit, but he was going to let Leigh Ann handle it. Trey seemed to be buying into whatever the beautiful blonde was selling. Thank goodness.
"It was great, got an A on my spelling test," he announced proudly sticking out his chest. Leigh Ann squealed, Trey grinned, and she opened her arms. He ran into them to give her a big hug. Wes's heart did a crazy gallop around his chest, shot down to his toes, then bounced back into place.
Dragging his eyes away from them, Wes knelt back down and gathered the checks that were scattered around the floor. The name on one caught his eye and bile shot up to his throat to choke him. "Did you go to the Diamond Bar today?"
"Yeah, that ranch manager was a tough nut to crack, but once I finally told him you were going to sue him, he cut me a check," Leigh Ann told him proudly, setting Trey back from her.
Wes groaned and held his hand to his forehead. "You need to stay away from there," he told her firmly.
Because of Trace Rooks? Leigh Ann wondered. Was Wes jealous of the cowboy?
The thought made her a little giddy, but she wasn't into game playing, so she told him, "I didn't see Trace while I was there, Wes." His face blanched even more, and she was afraid he might pass out. Walking over to him, she took his arm and led him to the chair behind her desk. "Sit down, before you fall down."
Wes jerked his arm from her grasp and took her shoulders. "Stay away from that ranch, Leigh Ann." Dark with worry, his eyes pinned hers and his fingers tightened on her shoulders. "Promise me."
"Why?" That ranch manager had only paid half of what they owed Wes, odds were he would need to go back out there again next month to collect the balance. It would definitely be him, because Friday was her last day here.
"Because there's something shady going on there, and I don't want you to get mixed up in it."
"Shady?" she repeated confused. It looked on the up and up to her, but what did she know? The Diamond Bar had been a huge operation, with a lot of horses, most of them expensive looking. It had taken her an hour just to locate the ranch manager, going from barn to barn, and outbuilding, until she cornered him.
After Leigh Ann saw the magnitude of what they had going on there, she was really angry that it had been necessary for her to go out there to collect a thousand dollars in the first place. They probably spent that meager amount on feed daily. Yet here they were in arrears to Wes, who needed the money badly.
Wes glanced at Trey, and Leigh Ann noticed the kid was paying rapt attention to their discussion. He obviously didn't want to continue his explanation in front of him. Tomorrow she would find out exactly what Wes's problem with that ranch was, because she was curious, tonight she would let it go.
"Well, it's late and I'm going home for now. I'll see you in the morning," she said breezily, as she reached around Wes to grab her purse then headed for the door.
Her foot had just landed on the bottom step of the porch, when Trey yelled out behind her, "Miss Leigh Ann!" She turned and he skidded to a stop beside her, to tug the hem of her shirt. "Daddy wants you to have supper with us!"
"He does?" she asked with a glance back through the glass front door. Wes stood there staring at her, his face unreadable.
"Yep, he's cooking barbecue, and it's really good," Trey told her, rubbing his stomach, as he smacked his lips.
Leigh Ann gnawed her lip, while she considered it. Wes asked her to stay away from his son, now he was asking her to stay for dinner. She figured it must just be that Trey had begged long enough that Wes had given in and let him ask her. Leigh Ann wasn't going to stay in a place where she wasn't wanted, even for the cute kid looking up at her with expectant eyes. It would just cause friction between her and Wes. She only had a few days left here, and she wanted those to be peaceful.
Ruffling Trey's hair, she bent down and hugged him to her. Her heart was aching to say yes, but she made herself say what she had to instead, "I have plans, baby. You and your daddy have a good dinner, and maybe I'll see you tomorrow." But only if your daddy allows it. Which wasn't likely. Because Wes didn't think she was a suitable woman to be in Trey's life. If he only knew how wrong he was.
If given the chance to be included in their little family, Leigh Ann would make him the happiest man on Earth. Because she loved Trey...and she loved Wes. Yes, she loved Wes Jepson, but he was hopeless. His ex-wife had hurt him, and Leigh Ann thought he would probably never get over it. Or Wes would marry someone he thought was good for his son, no matter if she was good for him or not. That was sad, because Wes was a good man and didn't deserve to live without love in his life. Leigh Ann didn't deserve that either.
&nbs
p; She and Wes were in the same boat, his by his own making. If she had let her mother have her way, Leigh Ann would be a trophy wife for some rich old man. She would have plenty of money, but not love. Wes chose to marry someone he didn't love, because it would be safe, he wouldn't get hurt again, but his son would have a mother.
Wes could live his life that way, but Leigh Ann was not going to do it.
"Tell your daddy to call me." Leigh Ann tried to push Trey away to stand, but he clung to her neck. Right then and there, Leigh Ann decided she would just tell Wes she wasn't coming back, because it would be too hard on Trey if she did. Too hard on them all.
"Please stay, Miss Leigh Ann." He whispered by her ear, his little voice trembling.
A knot of emotion shot up to her throat, and she swallowed it down. "I can't, Trey...I have to go."
He squeezed tighter, and she attempted to peel his arms from around her neck. Something wet landed on her collarbone and Trey sobbed, "I love you, Miss Leigh Ann...don't leave."
"Oh God, baby don't do this to me...please," she begged as the emotion in her throat surged up to her eyes. She was not going to cry, not going to cry, she had to get the hell out of here and fast. "Let me go, Trey...I need to leave."
Blindly, through the cloud of tears she couldn't stop from tracking down her face, Leigh Ann ran for the truck.
Wes watched Leigh Ann running across the yard and he resisted the urge to run after her and beg. She wasn't going to stay, and he hadn't thought he would care one way or the other, it was only dinner. Then why did it feel like his heart was being put through a meat grinder then? Like the woman running across the yard was carrying his heart in her pocket?
The dinner invitation had been a spur of the moment decision, something Trey instigated, but damn if he hadn't wanted her to stay too. Asking Leigh Ann to stay for dinner was a big leap for him. He hadn't voluntarily invited another woman into their life since Laura left. After she walked out the office door, it suddenly hit him that she was going to be gone permanently after Friday, and he freaked out. When Trey suggested she stay for dinner, Wes jumped at the opportunity.
But she had said no.
It had to mean she was glad to be leaving on Friday. Even though she had kissed him like...she loved him...just a few minutes ago. Maybe he had pushed her away too much, insulted her too much, even though he hadn't meant to do it. There was no maybe about it, that is exactly what he had done. Wes couldn't really blame her for wanting to leave. He'd all but shoved her kicking and screaming out of their lives. Because even though he promised Rocky he would give Leigh Ann a chance, he hadn't really.
Not personally and not professionally.
Today, the woman had single handedly saved his business. He had no faith in her, because he was faithless. The problem was all his own. And he needed to fix it, because he didn't want his son growing up seeing him that way, viewing life that way. He wasn't like that before Laura, he needed to go back to that place and start over again. Trust someone, trust Leigh Ann, and try to explain himself to her. Get her to forgive him, if she would. A tall order, and something he didn't expect her to do.
Wes may have fucked up the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Laura had drilled him so far into the ground before she left, made him think he wasn't worthy of a beautiful woman's love, that he was a loser, he actually started believing her. So much so that now he was trying to find a woman he thought was in his league to avoid being hurt again. Whether he loved her or not, she would be safe.
Now that he thought about marrying a woman like that though, he admitted it didn't mean she wouldn't ever leave them. In all likelihood, that would be a prime reason she would leave him. Women wanted intimacy, a connection, and love. That was something you couldn't fake, even with respect in the equation. He'd given Laura all that freely, but had still failed miserably, so he thought finding someone her polar opposite was the answer.
He realized now, even as much as he hated Laura now, he had loved her once for a reason. Leigh Ann was similar in looks, she had the good qualities that Laura had possessed, but she also had the thing Laura had been missing. She cared about other people more than herself, and that is what he needed in a woman.
Didn't it suck to finally realize that too late? To decide to try again, after running off the one woman he could let himself try again with?
Leigh Ann was gone for good this time. In his mind he knew it, and his heart did too. The way she ran to the truck told him that. He doubted she was coming back to finish out her two-weeks notice. Unless Wes did something, he wouldn't ever see her again.
As he watched his son scrub his eyes with his forearms, Wes lost a little more of his heart. Trey loved Leigh Ann too, and that was the worst of it. Trey would blame him for her leaving them too. Wes flinched as Trey opened the door and walked inside, then ran over to him and threw his arms around his waist.
"She wouldn't say yes," he said in a broken whisper that caused a fist of misery to punch Wes in the gut.
"It's okay, sport. It was just dinner," Wes comforted him, but he knew better.
"Said she had plans," he told Wes with a sniffle.
"Did she say she'd see us in the morning?" Please say yes, please say yes, his mind begged as he waited for his son to respond.
"Did at first, then she said wanted you call her," Trey replied.
Not a good sign. "Okay, we need to get dinner and you have school tomorrow, so you need to get a bath before you go to bed." Normal things, things he needed to do to distract himself. Otherwise, Wes would get in his truck and drive hell bent for leather to the R & R and beg Leigh Ann to come back. But he had seen how upset she was when she left, so he would give her tonight to get herself together.
Tomorrow would be soon enough to start his mission to convince Leigh Ann Baker he wasn't the asshole she thought he was.
CHAPTER TWENTY
After she left Wes's office, Leigh Ann had pulled over on the side of the road and had a mini-breakdown. The sun had set by the time she got control of herself, and got back on the road. Now, not only was her vision clouded by bucketsful of tears, it was dark and had started raining. The fine mist turned the dust and oil on the windshield to sludge, making it almost impossible to see through the windshield.
Only halfway to the ranch, nose almost pressed to the windshield, she leaned even closer and in between swipes of the wiper blades, she watched for the yellow line dividing the dark country road. At the rate she was going, it would take hours for her to get back to the ranch. Suddenly the slow, sad country song playing on the radio, one about love and loss, penetrated her concentration and tears welled in her eyes again.
Turning loose of the wheel with her right hand, she flicked it off. She did not need to hear that right now, it was bad enough to be living it, without hearing it too. And she didn't need to be distracted from the road either. Thunder rumbled overhead, before lightning struck somewhere in the woods at the side of the road. The cab of the truck shook, and Leigh Ann's fists tightened on the steering wheel. Another clap sounded and she flinched waiting for the lightning.
Bright headlights hit her rearview mirror and blinded her. When she crested a slight hill, she was able to see it was a truck, a big truck, and it was traveling entirely too fast for the road conditions. Hazarding another glance in the mirror again, she realized the guy was tailgating her now, he wasn't letting up, or trying to pass her. The front of his truck had to almost be touching her bumper. Leigh Ann was scared if she had to brake, he was going to smash her truck up to the hood. Pressing down on the accelerator to put space between them, the truck fishtailed a little and her heart ricocheted in her chest, until it straightened.
Tapping her brakes, she blew the horn and threw up her hand, hoping to send the moron a message. Instead of backing off though, the guy sped up again and hit her!
At impact, she jerked forward over the wheel, then hit her head on the side window, and pain shot through her skull. Dazed but conscious, she re
alized her truck was spinning in the road. Gripping the wheel in a white-knuckled hold, Leigh Ann tried to correct the spin, but knew it was useless. The trees at the side of the road flashed in her headlights twice, before the truck careened across the centerline.
In slow motion, her headlights pointed directly at a big oak tree. Slamming her foot on the brakes, knowing that was the worst thing she could do in this situation, she fought to regain control, then realized it was useless. No matter what she did she was going to hit that tree and probably die. Leigh Ann took her foot off the brake, braced for impact, then covered her face with her arms to protect herself.
Wes's phone rang on the night stand beside his bed and he opened his eyes, but still only saw blackness. Glancing at the table, he rolled over and patted around on the table until he found his phone. All the while praying it wasn't a middle-of-the-night farm call, he blinked three times to clear his vision and kick his brain into gear, before pressing the button to talk. "Yeah," he said, his voice gravelly with sleep.
"Wes, is Leigh Ann over there?" Rocky asked, her voice edgy.
"No, she left around six-thirty," he told her, but worry shot through him. "She's not there?"
"No, she didn't come back to the ranch, and didn't call, so I figured she stayed there, but then at three a.m., I don't know why but I sat up in the bed and knew something was wrong."
Wes glanced at his phone and saw it was three-fifteen. "I'll get dressed and head that way, see if I can find her." He would have to wake up Trey, get him dressed for school, then drop him off at his mother's place first. That was going to take too long. Trey would just have to come with him.
"Did you try calling her phone?" Wes asked throwing back the cover and rolling to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah, but it goes straight to voice mail."
Wes's stomach turned, as adrenaline and worry consumed him. "Keep trying, and head this way...we'll meet in the middle."
