Worth the Trouble

by Becky McGraw

  She had been too busy keeping up with chores, and teaching greenhorns to ride. The ranch was so booked up, it was a rare thing for her to have a minute to herself. This was one of those rare times, the other guys had the guests out on the range doing a mock cattle drive for a couple of days. She was going to take full advantage of it to get caught up on things.

  Clipping the chains to the cheeks of Reed's halter, Rocky stepped away to get the hose to wet him down, and accidentally bumped into someone.

  Looking over her shoulder, she saw it was Terri. "Oh, hey, you busted me, I was just having a little Reed therapy," she told her friend with a laugh.

  "I need some Diamond therapy, but I can't ride anymore for a while."

  "Really?" Rocky asked turning on the nozzle. Water sprayed her in the face and she laughed then wiped it off with her sleeve. "I need to get a new nozzle, or I'm going to have a shower, while I bathe Reed."

  "I'll put it on our next shopping list," Terri told her, then repeated, "I can't ride Diamond for about nine months," as if she were hinting at some hidden meaning that Rocky was supposed to get.

  When the meaning hit her, Rocky dropped the hose and squealed, "Oh. My. God!" Then danced over to Terri and yanked her into her arms. Both women danced around in a circle, then Rocky shoved her back. "I'm happy for you, Terri. I know Joel must be driving you nuts," she told her, knowing how overprotective Terri's husband could be.

  "He's not the one driving me nuts," Terri said with a huff.

  "Oh, yeah? Curly?" Rocky guessed knowing Joel's mama had about driven Jenny, Joel's brother's wife crazy when she was pregnant with Caleb their son.

  "Not even Curly...we haven't told her yet."

  "Who then?" Rocky asked and shut off the water, so they could talk.

  "Ethan is driving me bat shit crazy."

  Terri's brother was the last person that Rocky wanted to talk about, ever.

  When Terri had brought him out to the ranch for rehab from his accident over a month ago, Rocky had tried to go up there and see him, but he had told Terri firmly that he didn't want to see anyone, especially Rocky.

  Rocky got the message loud and clear.

  Their night in the hayloft was a one-night-stand, a wedding hookup, and he didn't want to see her again. It had stung, badly, and she hadn't been up to the house again. Not even for meals when the other cowhands were out on cattle drives with guests.

  She ate by herself at the bunkhouse, she was safer that way.

  You can't trust a smooth talking man. The way Ethan had treated her gave credence to her daddy's warning, and she was listening now. Twice now she had been burned by ignoring it, and it wasn't happening again.

  She had just fooled herself into thinking Ethan was different, because he was a hero and so damned good looking. He was no better than the rest though, and certainly not better than Ashton Pence. They were just alike, smooth talking city boys who had talked her out of her pants.

  "Kick him out," Rocky suggested hardening her heart.

  "I can't, but I've got to get some help," she said.

  "Hire somebody," Rocky suggested.

  "I found a trainer to work with him in the gym, because I can't spot him on the weights anymore, and I don't think the workout routine the therapist gave us is challenging enough, but I don't know enough to change it."

  "That's a start," Rocky replied, not really giving a shit about Ethan's progress or his workout. But she did care about Terri. "Hire a nurse to wipe his ass," Rocky threw in with a snide laugh that had Terri smiling too.

  "He's not that bad, but just about. His effort in the gym is piss poor at best, and he's never going to get better if he doesn't try."

  "You can't make someone want to get better, honey," Rocky told her with sympathy.

  "I know...I had an idea, but I need your help."

  "Oh, hell no," Rocky replied holding up her hands. "That man doesn't want to see me, and I certainly have no use for him."

  "Please?" Terri begged. "I read about equine therapy, and how it helps the handicapped build up their core muscles, if you could just teach him to ride, I think it would help."

  "No way," Rocky told her firmly. "They have camps and places that do that. I don't know crap about equine therapy. I'm a horse trainer, not a people trainer."

  "C'mon, Rocky, help me here. I'm desperate," Terri told her with a frustrated sigh. "I don't trust anyone else to do it."

  The problem was Rocky didn't trust Ethan Cassidy as far as she could throw him, and she sure didn't trust herself around him. So why she said, "Okay, you'll have to tell me what to do," Rocky had no idea.

  But subconsciously she knew. A masochistic desire to see him again, see what the accident had done to him, and figure out where the charming man who had made love to her so tenderly in the hayloft had gone. That was the driving force behind her decision.

  ***

  "Push it, Ethan!" Terri shouted, glaring at him when his sweaty hands slipped on the parallel bars, and he almost went to his knees. His limbs were shaking violently, but somehow he managed to push himself back up to standing.

  Terri had been torturing him for six weeks now. This huge room she called a gym was his personal hell. The worst of it was the lack of results. He still wasn't able to stay vertical easily.

  Working his ass off in here six hours a day, two hours at a time after every meal had produced exactly nothing. The muscles in his arms burned, his legs weren't fucking cooperating, and his back hurt like a bitch.

  Ethan was done.

  Hell, his sister had missed her calling. Instead of a nurse, she should have been a dominatrix. All that was missing was a leather bustier and whip.

  The more feeling he got back in his legs the more they hurt, the more he hurt the grumpier he got with the woman causing him that pain. Huffing out a frustrated breath, he shouted, "Look, Broonhilda, My legs don't fucking work, and my arms are about done too!"

  "Oh, stop whining and start working," she replied unsympathetically.

  Every time he complained or wanted to stop that was her mantra. Ethan heard it in his sleep now, when she let him sleep, which wasn't often.

  "You're almost done--one more rotation, then another set on the weight machines," Terri told him and put a hand on her hip.

  Ethan groaned, "Give me a break, will you? I'm toast, this is my third time in here today and I'm exhausted."

  "No breaks...now push it! Swing your damned hips!" Terri yelled, then pointed a finger at him. "The therapist gave me this workout routine and you're gonna do it."

  "Remind me to pay him a visit when my legs do start working again," Ethan grumped, then balanced himself again and worked his way to the end of the bars where he pivoted and started back the other direction.

  He was sweating like a hog in summer.

  Salty rivulets ran down his face stinging his eyes and his palms were slipping on the bar again. Halfway to the other end of the bar, his arms began shaking again and he couldn't get them locked quick enough to catch himself from falling. The floor came up to meet him and Ethan landed with a loud thump face down on the mat. A sharp agonizing pain shot through his back and he moaned, gritting his teeth to fight the nausea seesawing in his stomach.

  "Ethan!" Terri shouted then ran over to him to kneel beside him. "Are you okay?" she asked with concern in her voice.

  "No. I. Am. Not. Okay," he grated. Rolling over onto his back, he threw his forearm over his eyes. "I'm exhausted, I'm frustrated, my back is broken, my legs don't work, and this isn't doing a damn thing to make that better."

  A loud snort was followed by a sarcastic female voice that asked, "Are you always this much of a cry baby?"

  Ethan lifted his arm from his eyes and his gaze traveled up very long blue jean clad legs, across perky breasts in a tight white tank top before skidding to a stop at the laughter-filled gray eyes of the last woman in the world he wanted to see.

  "Are you laughing at me?" Ethan asked incredulously.

  "Hell, yeah," Roxann
e told him with a short laugh then looked at Terri. "Sorry I'm late, Terri. One of the horses is lame and I had to call the vet."

  "No problem, Rocky. Thanks for coming," Terri replied then stood over him frowning. "Can you grab his other arm so we can get him up?"

  Rocky nodded then walked to the other side of the bars. The women leaned down and grabbed him under the armpits. There was no way he was going to sit there and let two women lift his ass, especially these two. A man had to draw the line somewhere to maintain any scrap of dignity he had left.

  "Back off!" he ground out then jerked his arms out of their grasp. "I can do this," he mumbled as he sat up.

  Ethan reached up and grabbed the bars then gritted his teeth and tried to pulled himself up. His first try was unsuccessful, and he plopped back to the mat jarring his back. Determination filled him, and he changed the position of his hands then tried again.

  With a grunt, he heaved himself up and leveraged one elbow on the bar, then the other. After a brief struggle, he managed to get vertical. Huffing and puffing both from exertion and pain, he fought to get stable, then spun around and pinned his sister with his eyes.

  "What the hell is going on here, Terri?" he demanded lifting his chin toward Rocky. All Ethan needed was an audience to witness his disgrace, especially Roxanne Baker. "Why the hell is she here?"

  "I've been doing some research. Equine therapy helps strengthen your core muscles, and Rocky has agreed to help. Besides, I have things to do around here I haven't been able to do since you've been here. I could use a break."

  "Well, I don't want her help," Ethan said darkly, then ground out, "Get someone else."

  "There isn't anyone else, it's her or nobody," Terri informed him definitively. "Rocky is our horse trainer, I imagine she can handle a horse's ass just fine too."

  Roxanne laughed and he shot her a glare, before swinging his gaze back to his sister.

  "I choose nobody then, I'll stick to the weights," he said belligerently.

  Ethan didn't want to spend time with Roxanne, things had changed, he wasn't the man who was here two months ago, the man who made love to her all night long in that hayloft. He didn't want her to think there would be a repeat performance. He wasn't even sure he could perform. But he didn't want her to know that, seeing him like he was now, she probably already thought he was pathetic enough as it was.

  Exactly why he wanted his sister to keep her away from him.

  "No, you'll stop acting like an ass and let Rocky help you," Terri told him with a frustrated huff.

  "I'm ready for the hot tub," Ethan said gruffly then started down the bars toward his wheelchair.

  "Not yet, you still have a set on the weights to do," Terri reminded him as she walked to stand behind the chair.

  "I said I'm done." Ethan hissed, pinning his sister with his eyes. Rotating his hips, Ethan plopped down in the wheelchair then picked up one leg at a time and set his feet on the pedals.

  Terri huffed out a frustrated breath. "Fine, I'm outta here, I've got things to do for people who want to help themselves. Don't drown yourself, or better yet, do," she grumbled then spun on her heel and stomped off across the gym.

  Ethan felt Roxanne's hot gaze on him as he spun the wheelchair and headed as fast as he could toward the spa room door.

  She kept pace alongside him, and asked with a chuckle, "You know what we do to horses when they go lame?"

  "Shoot them?" Ethan asked hopefully. He wished someone would do that to him and put him out of this misery.

  Shoving the wheels of the chair faster, he tried to get away from her, but the long-legged woman easily kept pace beside him. A rhythmic jangle caught his attention and his eyes fell to the spurs attached to the heels of her dusty worn boots.

  "You wear those to bed too?" he asked snidely, the thought sending his blood pressure shooting up as tingles started south of the border.

  "You should know the answer to that question," she told him snidely, folding her arms under her breasts, pushing the delicious mounds upward.

  "I don't remember anything except the hay rash I had the next day," he told her with a rude bark of laughter, as if their time together meant nothing to him. If it took insulting the confounding woman to get her to leave him the hell alone, that's what he would do. Her smile faded and guilt floated through him.

  "Well, I hear head injuries can cause memory loss," she told him evenly, but her gray eyes glittered with hurt and anger.

  "My memory is just fine," he huffed then shoved the wheels of his chair harder.

  "Obviously not...I seem to recall you yelling my name pretty loudly when I rode you to the finish line."

  Blood rushed to his groin and even though both the timing and the cause sucked, Ethan felt the beginnings of a full fledged hard on coming on as memories of that particular time floated through his mind. He couldn't be upset about it. His equipment evidently still worked just fine, which was damned good to find out.

  "You were wrenching my dick off that's why I was yelling," he replied meanly, then added, "Just leave me the hell alone, Roxanne. That night was a one off."

  He thought he heard her mumble, "There's nothing smooth talking about him now, you can handle this."

  "So, what are you doing here, Roxanne?"

  "I don't know why, but I want to help you, Ethan," she told him.

  She wanted to help Terri, that's why she was putting up with him, and she realized that Ethan was probably hurting and that was partly why he was being an asshole. For a man like him, it also had to be embarrassing for him to have her see him this way, so she could understand to some degree.

  The other part was he was evidently just an asshole, and she had been a fool to think otherwise. She could handle this Ethan.

  "I don't want your help," he told her gruffly. "I don't ride, hell I can't even walk right now."

  "You can ride if I teach you."

  "Like you taught my sister?" he asked with a sarcastic smirk.

  "That was a joke and Terri wasn't handi--um," Rocky stuttered with heat crawling up her neck. Rocky had put Terri on Cason, the biggest and roughest ride on the ranch, when she was learning to ride. It was just for fun, a rite of passage, an initiation into the fold of ranch employees. His sister had passed with flying colors, and had paid her back in kind, which is how they wound up such good friends.

  He stopped the wheelchair and pinned her with his eyes.

  "Handicapped?" he finished for her gruffly with a raised brow and tight jaw.

  Even though he had been doing his damndest to insult her, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt or insult him. He needed confidence, not insults, which would lead to even more reason for him to feel sorry himself.

  Sympathy washed through her and Rocky stuck her thumbs in the back pocket of her jeans then rocked back on her heels searching her mind for the right words.

  "Get the hell out of here, Roxanne, I don't want your fucking pity, and I don't want your equine therapy. Not doing it." Ethan grated then spun the wheelchair toward the door.

  "I don't need to pity you, Ethan, you're doing enough of that yourself!" Rocky said behind him, then held the door open for him when he couldn't manage.

  With a growl and a hot glare, he wheeled himself inside and went straight over to the hot tub. Rocky walked in behind him and the strong scent of chlorine hit her in the face, then warm moist air wrapped itself around her like a wet blanket, as she let the door close behind her. Across the room, the hot tub sat in a corner looking like a boiling pot with steam rising out if it in ghostly fingers. Soft, intimate lighting made the room peaceful and calming.

  She had worked here since the ranch opened last year, but had never ventured into the spa before. It wasn't her cup of tea, although her sister and mother took advantage of them often. She thought she could definitely use some unwinding time in this place, though.

  Maybe when nobody was around, she would check it out closer.

  Ethan stopped at the steps of the hot tub, shoved t
he brakes of the chair forward angrily, then grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it over his head. When he dropped it to the floor, Rocky sucked in a breath as her eyes drank in his smooth muscled flesh.

  She saw the black tribal flame tattoos which circled both of his biceps and her eyes traced them as hungrily as her tongue had the night they made love in the hayloft.

  Looking at Ethan Cassidy was something she couldn't help doing, even though she was never going to let herself have him again. Like a thoroughbred horse she couldn't afford, she appreciated perfection, coveted him from a distance, but she knew looking was all she would ever do again...all she would let herself do.

  When Ethan grabbed the metal bar on the side of the hot tub and pulled himself up, his muscles flexed deliciously. Leaning on the edge of the tub, he unlaced then removed a rigid white back brace she had no idea he had been wearing. It dropped to the floor, and her jaw went with it when she noticed the long thick red scar along his spine. Her fingers itched to run over it to smooth away the pain he must be having.

  Evidently unconcerned that she was still in the room, his hands went to the waistband of his shorts and he shoved them down to his hips. All the moisture in her mouth dried up and headed south as the shorts slid down his long muscular legs to pool at his ankles, leaving his firm backside in plain view.

  It took a minute for Rocky to gain control of her facial muscles and tongue, but when she did, she said, "Um, I think I'll head out now."

  "Come over here and help me get in," he ordered, grabbing a towel to wrap it around his waist. When he turned around and sat on the top step, his smile made her feel like Little Red Riding Hood must've felt facing the wolf in that children's book.

  "I'll go get Terri," Rocky balked, taking a step back toward the door.

  "Terri won't come back, she's pissed at me," he told her folding his arms over his chest, which put his pectoral muscles on prime display.

  They were alone, and Terri wasn't coming back is what he was really saying.

  When she hesitated and swayed back toward the door, his grin widened. Rocky had no doubt he knew exactly what that smile did to women, what it was doing to her. He was messing with her, trying to make her want to leave.