Wrangled

by Natasha Stories

Al was much better by now, though the doctors wanted to keep him for another week to be sure there would be no permanent effects from the venom. They were still giving him IV antibiotics, too, which would be too difficult at home with our work situation. But it was getting difficult to keep him in bed. He was beginning to resemble the curious little boy who’d gotten too close to an interesting snake. Jason and Al got along famously, with Jason asking questions that had Al chattering about anything and everything, especially his opinion of snakes that bite. By the time Jason took me home, I was dazzled by his attention, and grateful beyond measure for his kindness to me and the kids.

  On Tuesday of the following week, Al’s neurologist pulled me aside and said, “We think it will be okay for Al to go home on Friday. Do you have support at home, so that he won’t be unsupervised for the next couple of weeks?”

  A little stung, I replied, “He’s never unsupervised. There’s an adult with him at all times.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound that way. I just meant that he’ll require careful monitoring. If he starts to spike a fever or exhibit signs of unusual behavior, he’ll need to come back right away.”

  “I’m sure we can handle it, Doctor,” I said, still upset that he would imply I’d leave a four-year-old unsupervised. Of course, I had taken my eyes off him for a moment at the ranch. Maybe that’s what made the doctor act that way. Shaken, I wondered if the next thing to upset our applecart would be DFS coming to check on our situation. Almost as much as I feared the moment when Jed got out of prison, I feared the Division of Family Services deciding I wasn’t a fit mother and taking my children. It was irrational, I know, but it stemmed from the raid that had turned our lives upside down almost two years ago.

  I was still more upset than the incident should have warranted the following morning when I got to work. Jason picked up on my mood instantly.

  “What’s up, Buttercup?” he said, in an ill-fated attempt to make me laugh.

  “Nothing,” I snapped.

  “Hey, Annalee, it’s me, Jason. Have I done something to upset you, or am I just in the line of fire?” he joked. I felt guilty right away. Of course he’d done nothing to upset me, so it wasn’t fair to take my black mood out on him.

  “Just in the line of fire,” I said, trying for the same light tone. “Sorry.”

  “No problem. Want to talk about it?” It was tempting. But, I’d never told Jason the whole truth about our background. I didn’t know if I’d still have a job if I unloaded that on him now.

  “No, I’ll get over it,” I sighed.

  To my surprise, Jason came to my desk and took my hands, twisting me around on my swivel chair and pulling me up. He put his arm around me and walked me over to a comfortable sofa that he kept in the lobby for clients, sitting down with his arm still around me so that I had to sit, too. “I’m not going to let my best girl fight a worry alone,” he said. “Come on, spill it.”

  I didn’t know what he meant by ‘best girl’, whether he was referring to me as a girl because he employed me, or what. If it was that, I was his only ‘girl’. But, his arm still around me, I began to wonder if he meant something else. I looked into his eyes, confused.

  “Come on, honey, what is it?” Now I was completely flummoxed. Had he just called me honey?

  Almost involuntarily, the story emerged reluctantly from my lips. The early marriage against my will. The Prophet, my husband, and his church, the sister-wives and our children, Russ’s rescue of us from a system that didn’t know what to do with mothers who were under eighteen. The only thing I didn’t tell him about was Cody. That was too fresh, too raw, to share. As my story arrived at current events, Jason gave a heavy sigh.

  “Wow. I didn’t expect that,” he said. I wondered what he had expected. I must have wondered out loud.

  “Divorcee, probably, or maybe someone that some jerk took advantage of and left,” he said.

  Shocked, I asked, “Why were you even thinking about it?”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything for a while. But you’ve gotten under my skin, honey. I was hoping we could date, you know, get to know each other.”

  “What? Is that even legal?” I’d never had a job, but something our tutor had said about sexual harassment came to mind. Not that I felt harassed, whatever that meant. I felt flattered, actually.

  “It’s legal as long as you don’t feel pressured because I’m your employer. You haven’t felt any pressure, have you?” he asked, a little anxiously.

  “Well, no! I didn’t realize we were dating. I mean, I thought you were just being nice because I was going through a rough patch,” I babbled, still trying to sort this out.

  “Well, just so you know, I would never fire you just because you say no to me, but I sure would like to take you out, get to know you and your kids. If you’re going to be my girl, I’ve got to take the whole package, I know.”

  That statement struck me like another bolt of lightning. Did that mean he was only being nice to my kids because he wanted me? Did he even like kids? At the moment, I was too overwhelmed to ask. First, I had to understand what he was offering, and what it would mean for my employment.

  “It won’t have any effect on your employment, like I said. You don’t have to go out with me, and if you won’t, why we’ll just stay friends and you’ll still be my assistant. But, if you do, it’ll make me very happy. Say, why don’t we plan to go out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate you getting your license?”

  I’d forgotten that I would receive the test results tomorrow. He seemed confident that they’d be good. I couldn’t see any harm in going to dinner with him, so I said yes.

  Chapter 9

  I didn’t know where I’d gone wrong, but from the way Annalee acted when I come back from my first rodeo, it was plain as day that somethin’ was wrong. I asked her to wait in the house for me so she wouldn’t have to hear Uncle Hank tellin’ me I’d better give up on the rodeo, no better’n I’d done. Then Bill came runnin’ up with the news about Abo, and I plumb forgot Annalee was waitin’ for me. After that, seemed like she was gone before I knew it.

  As the weeks went on, I sorta got used to not seein’ Annalee, though I’d still get horny right often. I got to thinkin’ maybe I didn’t deserve her, maybe it was just a physical thing after all. Made me kinda miserable, to tell the truth. I wasn’t at the ranch when her little boy got bit. Damn, that was a hard thing to come home to. I thought about goin’ to the hospital, but Hank convinced me she didn’t want to see me no more.

  That come home to roost when she come to visit Tali. You’d have thought she was a porkypine, way she acted, all prickly and ‘don’t touch me’. Made me hot under the collar, and when I kissed her anyway, that got me hot all over. I didn’t know which way was up. There was only one thing to do, and that was gather my courage and go talk to Miss Charity about it.

  Next day after dinner, I asked if she’d speak to me, and she took me into the library.

  “Miss Charity, I’m powerful confused about Annalee. Way she took care of me, I thought she cared about me. But the way she’s actin’ now, it’s like she don’t even know me. Do you know what’s goin’ on?”

  “Cody, I don’t know how she feels about you, and I don’t think she does, either. She was hurt when you seemed to forget about her while you were out on the circuit. And you weren’t here when she needed someone, when Al got hurt. But she cared very much for you before. Maybe you can rekindle that, I don’t know.” Miss Charity wasn’t gonna give me anything I could hold onto, looked like.

  “It wasn’t my fault I wasn’t here,” I complained.

  “No one said it was. But, it was your decision to leave the ranch, and by extension, leave Annalee and the kids alone. I think she’s worried it’ll always be that way.”

  “Don’t look like it,” I said glumly. “If I cain’t place higher in the money, I ain’t got a prayer of makin’ a livin’ off rodeoin’.”

  “I’m sorry, Cody,” she said quietl
y. “I know you had big dreams.”

  “Still do. Just got to find a different way of makin’ ‘em come true. My biggest dream is to marry Annalee and adopt her kids as mine.”

  Miss Charity’s eyes was all shiny when she answered me. “Then I hope you find a way to make that come true. Annalee deserves to be loved and to have a chance at a happy life.”

  “Yes’m,” was all I had to say to that.

  I thought about what to do all week, but couldn’t get away to make the trip into town ‘cause I was fixin’ to enter a new event. That weekend there was another rodeo to get to. I made up my mind that if I didn’t make some over what I’d need for the next fee, I’d think about stoppin’. No use beatin’ my head up-agin the wall, if Mr. Russ was right all along. Maybe I just started too darn late to do any good.

  Hank didn’t want me to enter a bulldoggin’ event, because it was too dangerous and might make my leg worse. But, I wasn’t doin’ much good in calf-ropin’, so I thought maybe havin’ a second event would be a good thing. Hank refused to have anything to do with the trainin’, even come right out and said that I’d probly ruin Abo for calf-ropin’ by trying to train him for another event. But bull-ridin’ and bronc-ridin’ was even more dangerous, so I dug my heels in and asked the boss if I could wrassle some of his steers.

  “Cody, do you really think that’s wise?” Russ asked.

  “I don’t see no way of gettin’ ahead otherwise,” I told him. “I wouldn’t ask, but it’s the only way I’d be able to enter that event and not make a big fool of myself.”

  “Well, don’t count on not making a big fool of yourself anyhow, but tell Hank I said you could use a few to practice.”

  “Uh, Boss, I don’t think Hank’s keen to talk to me right now. He don’t want me to do this.”

  “You should probably listen to him, then. But, okay, talk to Frank Russell, then. He’s the top cowhand under Hank. And Cody?”

  “Yessir?”

  “Try not to break your other leg,” he grinned.

  That evenin’, instead of practicin’ my ropin’, I rounded up some of the guys to help me get a handle on this steer-wrasslin’. I needed a hazer, and I needed to set up a chute and a barrier rope and all. Probly wouldn’t be much time to get to practice until the next night, but it all had to be set up anyway. The last time I seen Uncle Hank as mad at me as he was that night was when I stood up to him about Annalee. I guess he just couldn’t see I was a grown man that could make my own decisions. I hated bein’ crosswise with him, though.

  Sure enough, all we could do that night was set up the corral like an arena, and the breakaway rope had to be pretty short, ‘cause that steer wouldn’t have far to run before he run into the fence. I did practice kneein’ Abo into a fast start, but that wasn’t much different from calf-ropin’. How he was gonna take it when I jumped off him headfirst, I’d find out later.

  The next evenin’ we was all set. After dinner, a bunch of the hands was crowded round the fence. I think most of ‘em was hopin’ I’d miss the steer and land on my head or somethin’ else they could joke about, but I did even better’n I expected. The first steer come out and Abo started just right when the rope broke away, we caught up to the steer before he hit the fence, and I jumped and got him around the neck. Then I had to hang on for my life while he went nuts. I didn’t want to drop off, ‘cause I was afraid he’d trample me, but I didn’t have hold of the horns, so I couldn’t twist his neck and make him flop over.

  It musta been pretty comical, ‘cause all of the hands around the fence was laughin’ and slappin’ their knees. Miguel, who was actin’ as the hazer, had to come to my rescue by ropin’ that steer and stoppin’ him from runnin’. I dropped off him, then stood up and dusted myself off. I knew I’d make it worse if I let ‘em know I took offense, so I just said, “Okay, that weren’t so bad. Let’s see if I can catch the horns this time.” That made ‘em quiet down, so I got back up on Abo and went back to the startin’ gate.

  Abo looked around at me as if to say, ‘What the hell are you up to?’ But, he didn’t argue with me when I asked him to chase down another steer. I’d jumped off four or five times before I got the timin’ right and finally caught that steer by the horns. Now I know what that phrase means. When you got a steer, or a bull, by the horns, by God you need to show ‘im who’s boss in a hurry, or he’ll drag your ass all over the ring. This was gonna take more practice than I counted on.

  Two weeks after Annalee had pretty much told me to get lost, I loaded up Abo to get to the Evanston rodeo. I wanted to talk to Annalee in the worst way, but it would have to wait until I got back tomorrow. At least this one wouldn’t take my whole weekend, and I had some hope of comin’ back with some money. Maybe I could take Annalee out to dinner, sort things out some.

  ~~~

  Comin’ home that Sunday mornin’, I was lower’n a snake’s belly. Not only had I failed to place in the money in the bulldoggin’, but I didn’t do as good in the calf-ropin’, either. Abo didn’t remember to stop quick, so the calf didn’t get jerked off its feet. Looked like Uncle Hank was right about not usin’ the same horse. At least not usin’ Abo. He was still prone to argue.

  After I unloaded Abo at the ranch and unhitched the trailer, I cleaned up and then went to ask the boss if I could borrow the truck to ride into town to speak to Annalee. He give me an errand to do while I was at it, and that was fine. He was always good to let me borrow the rig for the rodeos, and the least I could do was an errand now and then. By the time I had the load of stuff he’d ordered from the ranch supply store, it was gettin’ kinda late for dinner, but I hoped Annalee would go out for a coke or somethin’ anyway.

  I rode around lookin’ for the address the boss had give me, and finally found it around seven o’clock. The sun would be goin’ down in just an hour or so, and I was unhappy that it took me so long to find her house. But, then again, maybe she’d come out and set with me on the porch and we could use the darkness to catch up on some kissin’. I was feelin’ pretty frisky when I knocked on the door.

  First thing went wrong was, it was Celeste who opened the door. “What are you doing here?” she asked. Not even so much as a howdy.

  “I come to see Annalee, if I could,” I said, my Stetson in my hands. “Is she home?”

  “Wait there.”

  Okay, I guessed I could wait outside, though it woulda been more polite if she’d asked me to step in. I was coolin’ my heels there for quite some time before Annalee come to the door, kinda out of breath it seemed like.

  “Oh, hi, Cody. Would you like to come in?”

  Well, at least she was gonna treat me civil, it looked like. Celeste was over by the hallway, glarin’ at me like I’d done something to her.

  “Thanks for seein’ me, Annalee. How’s it goin’?” I asked.

  “It’s going,” she said. “I brought Tali home last week, and Al came home day before yesterday. I got my real estate license.”

  “Well, good, good,” I said. Then I got kinda tongue-tied. There was a lot I wanted to say, like I was glad Al was gonna be okay, and I was proud of Annalee for gettin’ her real estate license. But it just wouldn’t come out.

  “Where are the kids, anyway?” I finally managed.

  “They’re playin’ in their room. I mean, Tali and Daniel are playin’, and Al’s watchin’ ‘em. He’s still not completely recovered,” she answered.

  “Aw, I’m sorry to hear that. What does the doctor say?”

  “That it could take up to six months, but that he’ll make a full recovery. He just has to stay quiet more than he wants to. He’s climbing the walls,” she said, smilin’ a little for the first time.

  “I can understand that,” I said, seein’ an openin’. “I like to have clumb the walls myself when I was laid up. Would have, if it hadn’t been for you takin’ care of me. And all,” I added.

  Her eyes dropped. “I was glad to do it, Cody,” she said. I couldn’t tell whether she meant glad to take care of me, o
r the other. That was what I’d come to find out. I couldn’t walk away now without knowin’.

  “Can you come outside with me for a minute, Annalee?” I asked. “Please?” I could smell her hair, that strawberry scent that always give me a boner since I met her, and if Celeste hadn’t been still hangin’ around, I would have grabbed her and kissed her silly right then. But, I wanted some privacy.

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Cody,” she said, givin’ Celeste a glance. There it was, the answer to my question, but it wasn’t the right answer. If I couldn’t get her outside, in private, I couldn’t tell her what I needed to, that I loved her. That I’d give up rodeoin’ if she wanted me to. That I wished I could see the kids, ‘cause I missed ‘em almost as much as I missed her.

  “Please,” I said, borin’ my eyes into hers so she’d see everything I couldn’t say with Celeste standin’ there. But she just hung her head down and shook it.

  “Cody, I’m sorry, but I think you should go,” she said.

  There weren’t nothing more to say to that, so I stood up and said ‘bye to Celeste, then walked to the door. “Not even a goodbye kiss for old time’s sake?” I said to Annalee.

  I thought I saw a pain pass over her face when she stood up on tiptoe to kiss my cheek, but she wouldn’t let me catch her for a real kiss.

  “Bye, Cody. Call next time,” she said. I wasn’t all that sure there’d be a next time. A man can only get his heart stomped on just so often, before he’s not willing to put it out there anymore. I wasn’t sure I hadn’t reached my limit.

  Chapter 10

  Cody showed up unannounced the Sunday a week after Al came home. I couldn’t believe it when Celeste came to tell me he was at the door, speaking in a low voice so that Alma and Naphtali wouldn’t hear. I’d told her I didn’t think I could let them see him anymore, because they were already attached to him. After hearing how he’d behaved when I went to visit Tali two weeks ago, she agreed I was doing the right thing by avoiding him. Thank goodness the kids were making enough noise that they didn’t hear his voice.