by Becky McGraw
With a drunken chuckle, she said, "I wear underwear every day."
"But it's usually covered up with something!" Dylan argued. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you sitting in a hot, dark trailer, drinking beer in your underwear?"
"Don't be dramatic, Dylan." Leigh Ann laughed, because that is usually what people told her, not the other way around.
"I'm calling your sister." Dylan shoved his hand in his pocket to pull out his phone.
"Annie can't help me. Nobody can. I'm a lost cause...my mama is right, I should just marry Lester Fallon and be done with it." The more she drank, the better the idea seemed.
"Wow, you really are wasted." Dylan shook his head and walked to the table to pull the bottle from her hand. Taking one step to the trash can, he stomped on the pedal then dropped it inside. His handsome face scrunched up in disgust as he told her, "You need some coffee, darlin'." Opening the tiny cabinet above the propane stove, he dug around inside.
"Can't afford it, besides it's too damn hot for coffee," she slurred.
Sweat dripped down between her breasts and Leigh Ann reached for the front clasp of her bra. The beer wasn't cooling her off, the only thing that would was getting naked, and maybe a dip in the lake at the back of the campground. It was green and slimy, but she could handle that right now, as long as the water was cool.
Leigh Ann stood, and Dylan's tall form wavered in her vision. His back was turned to her, as he used the phone. Popping the front clasp on her bra she let it slide down her shoulders and drop to the floor. She staggered, banged her hip against the corner of the table and cursed.
Dylan's eyebrows hit his hairline when he spun to face her. "Holy, shit!" he hissed, then put his hand over the phone to tell her, "Put some damned clothes on, Leigh Ann!"
"Too hot, I'm going for a swim," she slurred reaching to hook her thumbs in the elastic of her underwear. She lost her balance when her head swam as she staggered into Dylan with a giggle. The beer had definitely kicked in now, she thought, as her hands hit his solid chest and he fell back with his arms around her.
The trailer door flung back against the outside wall with a clatter, then Rocky stepped inside. "Dylan Reed, I am going to blow your balls off," she said as she stomped inside to grab him by the back of the collar. With a yank on his collar, she maneuvered him to the door then shoved him outside.
Off balance, Leigh Ann stumbled backward, tripped over her feet and fell flat on her ass in the narrow aisle. Sailor-worthy cursing sounded from outside the trailer, echoing in the small space. Her sister stalked to the door and stood there with her hands on her hips. "I hope you broke your fucking neck, because if you didn't, I'm gonna do it for you!"
"I didn't touch her, Rocky--she's drunk!" Dylan yelled back. "I came here to fix the air conditioner like you asked me to!"
"Well, it sure looked like you were touching! And Leigh Ann doesn't drink, much less get drunk!" Rocky replied indignantly.
Guilt poured through Leigh Ann, as she admitted, "I am drunk..." With a hiccup, she gulped air then finished, "And Dylan didn't tou--touch me."
With a frustrated sigh, Rocky grabbed Leigh Ann's arm and pulled her up to stand, then ordered, "Put some clothes on...then you can tell me what the hell is going on with you."
"It's too hot for clothes," Leigh Ann complained, sticking out her lip. "I was going to the lake for a swim."
"You're not going anywhere, now put some clothes on!" Rocky threw up her hands, then strode back to the door. Leaning outside, she yelled, "I'm sorry, Dylan, you're right, she is drunk. You go on home and I'll deal with her."
Rifling through the drawer containing her underwear, Leigh Ann found a silk camisole, and pulled it over her head. The material stuck to her damp body, and she had to fight to pull it down. She shut the drawer, then folded her arms over her chest. That was the most clothing she was going to put on, whether her sister liked it or not.
A truck door slammed, a powerful engine revved then tires screeched letting her know that she hadn't only pissed off her sister, Dylan was mad at her too. When she was in a better frame of mind and wearing more clothing, she owed her quasi-landlord an apology.
Why couldn't they all mind their own business and just leave her the hell alone?
Roxanne left the door open and walked over to slide onto the bench seat behind the table. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. "Sit down and tell me what the hell is wrong with you."
Leigh Ann sat, because she always did what she was told. That was her problem.
"I got fired today," Leigh Ann said petulantly.
"Again?" Her sister sounded frustrated, but she couldn't be any more frustrated than Leigh Ann. Five jobs in five weeks had to be a record or something.
"Yeah. This time it was because I was pretty and his wife didn't like that."
Just saying it out loud made Leigh Ann angrier, if that was possible. Leigh Ann never got angry, never let herself get angry. Expressing anger wasn't ladylike, a cardinal sin in her mother's book of etiquette. So Leigh Ann always kept it bottled inside, accepted things and went with the flow. Right now though, she felt like the cap was about to pop off and the bottle was going to shatter in a million pieces.
"Well that sucks," Rocky told her.
"No shit," Leigh Ann replied with a shake of her head.
"Watch your mouth," Rocky reprimanded, evidently taking on their mother's role, because she wasn't here. "We'll figure this out."
There wasn't much to figure out. She had to find a job, or knock off a bank. The paltry check she had gotten from Templeton before she left would feed her next week, but it wasn't going to catch up her bills.
"I need a job quickly. My car payment is due again, that will make three behind. If I don't pay it, they'll repo it," she informed her sister sullenly. With mock brightness, she added, "Hey, the good news is I'm one repo away from being debt free!" Another hiccup followed her statement, along with a frown.
"Not funny, Leigh Ann." Rocky's eyes narrowed in disapproval, making her look a lot like their mother when she was in a snit, only more threatening.
"No, it's not funny, it's sad, pathetic, I'm pathetic." Leigh Ann was at the end of her rope, is what she was. "I'm probably blackballed from all the law firms in town now. Mrs. Templeton is well connected, according to her husband. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I can't think of another kind of job I'd be good at. I wasn't good at that one."
Rocky leaned her elbows on the table to stare at Leigh Ann. She could tell her sister was about at the end of her rope too. "Didn't you get a check from Templeton?"
"Yeah, but it's pathetic too. Not nearly enough to catch up my car payments. Hey, the bright spot is I can walk wherever I need to go. I'll lose the extra ten pounds I've put on lately in no time."
"Hock some of the rings you have," Rocky suggested then wiggled the ring on her finger, until it came off. She slid it across the table to Leigh Ann. "Ethan is going to buy me another one anyway."
"No!" Leigh Ann shouted, putting her hand over her sister's. "You are going to keep that ring! It's the one you proposed to him with, I don't want it back."
Rocky stared into her eyes for a second. Leigh Ann wished she could tell what her sister was thinking. It looked like she was trying to make a decision. Rocky finally groaned then shut her eyes. "I know of a job...I'd have to train you, but you have to promise not to cause trouble there. Wes is a friend of mine and I don't want that to change."
Interest peaked, Leigh Ann asked with excitement, "What kind of job?"
"Our vet, Wes Jepson, needs an assistant."
Leigh Ann's heart dropped to her toes. Leigh Ann and animals didn't mix well on a good day. Working with them every day? Definitely not a good idea.
Her recent incident with the skunk family at the R & R Ranch was a prime example. Although Leigh Ann liked animals, loved them, they didn't love her. Her fingers went to the base of her skull where she massaged the momento left from her first and only riding lesson from
her sister when she was eight, a three-inch scar.
Why her sister would recommend a job like that to her was mindboggling. Leigh Ann was even less qualified to be a vet assistant than she was a legal assistant. Yeah, she had used responsible pet ownership as a platform during her pageant days. Because people cared about animals, and because her mother insisted. Leigh Ann had won a lot of pageants because of it, but that did not make her an animal expert. She had gotten a lot of publicity from the promo spots she did for the SPCA and animal rights organizations, but even that had turned into a fiasco.
The cat she held while she filmed one spot climbed over her shoulder, and up her back to nest its claws in her hair. By the time the crew and handlers corralled the animal thirty minutes later, her shirt was almost ripped to shreds, and patches of her hair had been torn out by the roots. Then during a live shot on a morning show, a dog she was trying to spotlight for adoption decided her leg was the perfect place to lift his leg. All Leigh Ann could do was try to laugh it off, and finish her spiel. The dog was adopted, but at the expense of her favorite crepe trousers and dignity.
Leigh Ann loved animals, but they definitely didn't love her.
If she took that job, it would be a disaster waiting to happen.
"I don't know, Annie..." Leigh Ann started, but stopped to gnaw her lip. She needed this job. She didn't have time to look on her own, and probably wouldn't be successful anyway. Selfish or not, she was going to have to figure out some way to make it work. Stiffening her shoulders, Leigh Ann told her, "I'll take it."
"Not so fast..." Rocky replied holding up a hand.
Had her sister sensed her fear? Was she taking it back? "What?"
"There is no damned way Wes is going to take you seriously if you show up in your prissy suits and heels with your hair all put up and makeup perfect. If you want this job, you'll be getting dirty, so you need to dress appropriately. Wes doesn't need to know you are former Miss Texas USA, either. His ex-wife was a wannabe actress who left him high and dry to go to California. It's a sore subject," Rocky informed.
"But I am former Miss Texas, Annie. I might not look like it right now, but that's who I am." Leigh Ann wasn't an actress. Pretending to be something she wasn't was going to make the job even harder to manage. If the man didn't like her just like she was, maybe he did need to hire someone else.
"No that is not who you are, Leigh, you are a helluva lot more than that. You just need to realize it, and be that woman, instead of the beauty queen. The real Leigh Ann Baker is in there somewhere and it's time you find her."
Her sister might be right, but at this moment, Leigh Ann didn't feel like anything more than a washed up beauty queen. Leigh Ann wasn't going to argue with her though, she needed her help, and she needed this job. "Tell me what I need to do."
"We need to go shopping." Rocky groaned and slapped her hand to her forehead. "I can't believe I just said that."
Leigh Ann perked up, because there was nothing she liked better than shopping. Before this, her sister would never agree to go with her, and she had always wanted to go shopping with her. When Roxanne came to her for help to dress up to impress Ethan when she proposed to him at his daddy's retirement party, that was as close as she had ever come to shopping with her. They didn't go anywhere though, they shopped in Leigh Ann's closet instead. It had been fun, and this was going to be fun too.
Leigh Ann shoved up to her feet, and picked her bra up off of the floor to put it back on. Before Roxanne could change her mind, she chirped, "Let me get dressed!"
CHAPTER THREE
A Starbucks double skinny latte did the trick to sober Leigh Ann up, as Rocky drove them across town. Her sister pulled her dusty pickup truck into a gravel parking lot, stopping in front of a large wooden building. On the wide front porch above the door was a rope-edged sign. Leigh Ann's excitement about their shopping trip fled.
Shopping at Penny's Paddock and Western Wear could only mean one thing. They were here to buy blue jeans, boots and hats, things she'd never been allowed to wear before, not pretty new dresses. Leigh Ann had never even been inside a western store before.
Jeans are as coarse as the women who wear them. Her mother's voice in her head sent a little dart of rebelliousness shooting through her. Leigh Ann opened the truck door, and wind rushed into the cab, lifting the hem of her sundress. Holding it to her legs, she slid to the ground, then told her sister with a chuckle, "Mama is going to have a fit."
"Who gives a shit, Leigh Ann. You are a grown woman, and you need the right clothes for your new job."
"Can I at least get a pink shirt?" Leigh Ann asked hopefully.
"We'll see," Rocky replied as she stomped up the steps of the store.
They stepped inside and Leigh Ann's senses went on high alert as she was assaulted by all kinds of new smells. Leather, mixed with some rich oil teased her. It was dark, earthy and delicious. Leigh Ann inhaled deeply, and savored it.
A sparkly, rhinestone-studded belt caught her attention. With a squeal she ran over to the rack and found her size, then looked at the price tag and frowned. "Um, I don't have any money." Something she had forgotten in her excitement. Leigh Ann hung the belt back on the peg, but ran her fingers over the pattern.
"You have money, because I'm paying you for this ring," Rocky told her, holding up her hands when Leigh Ann started to protest. "We're getting you what you need. I want you to be successful at this job, Leigh Ann. And I'm getting your car notes caught up."
Leigh Ann studied her sister for a second, considered arguing with her, but arguing with Rocky was an exercise in frustration, just like with her mother, so she capitulated. "Okay, show me what I need then."
A broad smile crossed her sister's pretty face, as she led her over to a rack of blue jeans. "Size four right?"
"Six, I've um...gained weight," Leigh Ann told her with a wobble in her voice.
"It's about damned time, you were too skinny," Rocky grumbled as she pulled three pairs off the rack and shoved them at her. "The dressing room is back there, go try those on, and I'll find you some shirts and boots."
"Boots?" Leigh Ann squeaked.
"Yes, Leigh Ann...you are wearing boots, not heels to work in the office, now go try the jeans on!"
Leigh Ann nodded, running her fingers over the surprisingly soft material of the jeans in her arms. They were a light washed color, and had sparkly rhinestones on the back pockets. That was the closest she was going to be to rhinestones for a long, long time. From now on her life would be filled with horses and manure most likely.
It will all be fine, Leigh Ann, she told herself trying to remain positive as she pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the small stall with the wooden bench.
Undressing, Leigh Ann slipped off her heels, then pushed her legs into the jeans and shimmied them up until they were at her waist. Looking down, Leigh Ann noticed that at least three inches separated the button from the hole. She was never going to get them zipped. Maybe she had gained more weight than she thought. Depression settled in her chest, as she flung back the curtain and walked out into the store to look for her sister.
Over by a rack of shirts, her sister's head was bent as she flipped through them. Leigh Ann called her name loudly, and Roxanne looked up, but so did the three cowboys on the other side of the rack from her sister. Their eyes opened wide, and with matching grins, they all said, "Holy shit!" in unison.
Roxanne shot the men a look, draped the shirts across her arm then stormed over to Leigh Ann. Shoving her back toward the dressing room, she yanked the curtain closed then faced her. "Jesus, Leigh, are you trying to cause a riot?" Roxanne asked with her face as red as her shirt.
"What? I just needed to tell you I think I need a bigger size, these don't fit," she said and tried again to pull the button to the hole.
"Try putting on a shirt first next time," she fussed then stepped closer. "Suck in your gut and start with the zipper. They're supposed to be tight."
"I can't wear them this tig
ht. I won't be able to breathe!"
Leigh Ann fought to get the button through the hole, then managed to get the zipper done, but when she finished she couldn't breathe, and she was sure the circulation to her legs was gone.
Rocky backed up then told her, "Do a couple of deep knee bends. You'll get used to it, and they stretch out after a while. If you get them too big, they'll fall off of you later."
Leigh Ann did as she suggested, because her sister would know. Jeans were the only thing her sister ever wore. Except for the one time she had talked her into that dress for the retirement party, she had never seen her in one. This makeunder was her sister's area of expertise. The jeans did loosen up enough for her to breathe at least.
Standing back up she grabbed one of the stretchy tank tops Roxanne had hung on the peg and removed the hanger, then slipped it over her head. She pulled it down then fought to tuck the equally tight nondescript white top into the jeans.
"How do I look?" Leigh Ann asked doing a pirouette in front of the mirror.
"Like Country Barbie come to town," Rocky told her with a snort. "You'll have to lose the big hair and makeup...or at least half of it."
God this was going to be hard, Leigh Ann thought. She had worn a full face of makeup and done her hair every morning since she was thirteen years old. "Okay, I'll wash my face when we get back to the trailer," she said.
"We're not going back to the trailer, I'm going to take you out to meet Wes, and start training you. He has a spare bedroom in his house, I'm sure he'll let you stay there until you can get your own place."
"I don't even know him," Leigh Ann protested.
Starting a new job, and staying with her boss at his home, a man she didn't even know, was pretty darned terrifying. Leigh Ann hadn't had much luck in the boss department so far, she just hoped this Wes was as nice as Rocky thought he was.
"You say he's divorced?" Leigh Ann asked warily. She wanted to make damned sure he didn't have a wife around, because if he did most likely she wouldn't get inside the front door. She had learned her lesson about that at the last ranch Rocky had worked at, and with Mr. Templeton. Wives did not like her at all for some reason.