Teaching the Cowboy (27 page)

She reached over and tapped John’s shoulder, being careful not to break Joey’s latch. She’d probably sleep another hour or so if Ronnie were careful.

He opened his eyes. “Hmm?”

“You should get home before Liss and Peter wake up, unless you want to miss breakfast.”

“Oh.” Carefully, he slipped his arm out from under Joey’s body and sat up. When he had one foot on the floor, he nodded at Ronnie and said, “Thanks.”

“Yeah.”

She listened to him shuffling down the hall, into the living room where he probably put on his boots and coat, and then the sound of him shutting the side door as he left.

Her emotions were in some jumbled state she couldn’t make sense of, so instead of trying to work it all out in her head, she just shook it and closed her eyes. One hour and she had to be up and about, eating breakfast and helping Liss, Peter, and Kitty with their lessons.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“O
h, she’s pretty, Ronnie.”

Doc clucked her tongue and moved her ink pen from left to right, testing if Joey would track it.

“Yeah, but I’m biased.”

“I appreciate you bringing her in. We were so worried when you didn’t come back. Didn’t know if something had happened to you and no one answered at the number we had for you.”

“Sorry. I went home for a while. I should have said something, but I guess it wasn’t a priority for me. I was in such a hurry to go that I left a lot of loose ends.”

“Mm-hmm.” She re-fastened Joey’s diaper and handed the baby to Ronnie to re-dress. “So, how about you, Mommy? What are you doing for birth control? You really don’t want to get pregnant so soon after this one. You don’t have the iron stores for it, and you were anemic to start with. Humans aren’t supposed to have babies so close together.”

Ronnie put up a hand. “It’s hardly a concern. For one thing, I’m practicing foolproof birth control right now. Abstinence.”

“How long do you think that’ll last?”

“I don’t like the tone of your voice, Doc.”

The older woman shrugged and peeled off her gloves. “You’re young, and I don’t know how many patients I’ve had who’ve nursed on demand and thought they were fine because they hadn’t gotten a period yet. It’s not really nursing on demand unless that kid is strapped to ya all day long.”

“Close, but the folks peel her off me. She’s getting less attached. Even sleeps in a crib part of the night.”

“There you go. Once you stop nursing all night long, your body says ‘hey, we can commit these resources to somethin’ else.’” She put her hands on her hips. “Be candid with me so we can treat it accordingly. What do you want?”

“I haven’t given this much thought, but I do know I don’t want to deal with the birth control pill side effects again.”

“I can give you something without hormones.”

“I’m listening.”

“Copper IUD. I can order one for you and we’ll make an appointment for you to come get it put in.” She opened a drawer and rooted around. “Maybe you can have it done at the same time you bring Joey in for her next exam.” She pulled out a pamphlet and then paused. “You’ll still be here, won’t ya?”

Ronnie rolled her eyes. “Yes. For better or worse.”

“Good.” Doc handed the paperwork over and pulled her prescription pad out of her coat pocket. “I’m gonna have you pick up another course of Vitamin D and some iron. I don’t even have to draw blood to know you’re off. You need to eat better for that baby.”

“I try.”

“Try harder. You look like shit. Official diagnosis.” She ripped the sheet off and stuffed it into Ronnie’s diaper bag along with some more pamphlets from the health department about healthful meals for nursing mothers. With a little finger wave to Joey and warning for Ronnie to make an appointment on the way out, Doc was gone.

Ronnie harrumphed.

John was out near the stream, freezing his buns off, and listening to the technician prattle on and on about the condition of the oil derrick whose productivity had started to slow. Apparently there was a crack somewhere. He’d started tuning the guy out when he saw Eddie in the distance making wild gestures to one of the ranch hands. John couldn’t tell what was going on, but whatever it was couldn’t be good.

“So, what do you say? I think given how old this is, and it’s, what, as old as you?”

John focused back in on the conversation. “Not quite.”

“I think you need to erect a new derrick. I suggest two, actually.”

“Two?”

“Yep.” He studied the paperwork on the clipboard he’d had tucked under his arm and then pointed toward east. “Found another pocket quarter mile that way during that last survey your dad ordered. Want to tap it?”

John rubbed the scruff of his chin and shook his head. “Not up to me. That’s Sidney’s property, and she’s planning on building on it. Doubt she’s gonna want to see a derrick out her kitchen window. I’ll talk to her, though, and if she wants to pump it, we’ll work something out.”

“What about this one?”

John blew out a breath. He’d always felt like he was exploiting the land by having the damned thing there. Maybe some of Sid’s hippy tendencies were rubbing off on him or something. It was a good source of income and padded the accounts in the lean years. When steer and horses had the ranch near the red, crude made up the difference. But what would happen when the oil was gone? What would he pass on to his kids? A ranch in debt or something else that thrived in modern times?

“Shit. Let’s go ahead and get a new one. Any idea of how much oil is left in there?”

“Maybe half a million barrels?”

“You’re fucking with me.”

The engineer shook his head. “Not at all. What do you expect with just the one derrick? You’ll be pumping out of that cache indefinitely.”

“Well, just leave it at that, then.”

He walked toward his truck. They might as well have been pumping blood for the way he felt. That ranch was his home, not some moneymaking enterprise. Although his livelihood depended on what they reaped from the earth, sucking it dry just to burn off the harvest as carbon monoxide seemed folly.

He pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and dialed his father’s beach house in Florida as he steered the truck toward where he last saw Eddie.

“Yep?”

“Did the surveyor tell you how much oil we’re sitting on?” John asked. “Engineer who just left obviously knew more than I did about the report.”

“I haven’t read it either. I think they faxed it over yesterday. Save me from digging out my glasses. How much?”

“He said half a million barrels, and that’s just the one cache where the derrick is. There’s some more on Sid’s parcel, but I don’t know how much.”

“Well, that’s pretty much money in the bank. You don’t sound too hot about it.”

“I don’t know, I guess I feel like if I’m gonna make money, I need to do some work to get it.”

“I hear ya. Well, you run the ranch. It’s up to you to drill it or not.”

“Well, I live here, yeah, but the ranch is yours.”

“Not really.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Shit, John, it stopped being mine the moment I threw my hands up and said ‘fuck it all, I’m moving to Florida.’ Remember that?”

“All too well.”
Where the hell did Eddie go?
John scanned the range, but it seemed both Eddie and the cluster of cowhands who’d been nearby disappeared. John drove on.

“You know I can’t live in that house where your mother is everywhere. It’s too damn hard. The whole damn ranch reminds me of her, her grace and her warmth. That’s the kind of thing that’ll render a man insane.”

“What are you saying, Dad?” John saw Ronnie pulling into the carport at the guesthouse and turned off the main path.

“I’m saying the ranch is yours to do with as you see fit. You don’t need my go-ahead to do anything.”

“You make it sound like you’re going to curl up and die any day now.”

Dad laughed a deep, throaty chuckle. “No, I don’t have any plans for that. I’ve actually got a cruise booked for January, and I don’t think it’s refundable. I’m just sayin’ take it and make it yours. Make it the John Lundstrom project and not the continuation of whatever legacy you think I would have you carry on.”

He parked behind Ronnie’s little car and pulled up the parking brake. Her car still had North Carolina plates. Now that she was technically a resident, they’d need to register her car in Wyoming. Maybe he’d have Sid be the one to broach the subject. The thought of one of those withering looks Ronnie would give him at the suggestion made his blood run cold.

He tuned back into the conversation at hand when Dad cleared his throat. “Dad, I don’t even know what to do with that edict.”

“Well, damn it, me neither. Anyway, paperwork’s coming to you. Write me a check for tax value, will ya? Gotta keep everything aboveboard.”

“Yeah. Okay.” John jumped down from the truck and slammed the door.

“Landon going home for Thanksgiving?”

“I don’t know. We’re not speaking.”

“Fix it.”

“Dad.”

“Don’t want to hear it. That’s your son, just like you’re mine. You’ve had your fair share of fuck-ups, haven’t ya? And haven’t I forgiven you for them?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right. Okay, then. Play dumb. You’re down on the kid for a matter of biology? That doesn’t make good sense to me, and you know where my philosophies lie.”

John stepped into the kitchen and tossed his hat onto the counter. He paused at the pile of pamphlets at the corner, and, seeing no one watching, shuffled through them. Looked like Joey got caught up on a couple of immunizations and that Ronnie was having a hard time with meal planning. He made a mental note to talk to Anna about that. The last pamphlet gave him pause. “So, what, Dad? You’re telling me you’re pro-gay?”

“No, I’m saying his lifestyle choice isn’t any of my danged business. Just like your weird little situation with Veronica isn’t. I mean, hell, what the fuck are you doing, kid?”

“What?” He was shocked by his father’s choice of words. The man had sat on the deacon bench at the church for a number of years. Where had this passion come from?

“Fix it.”

“Dad.”

“John, fix it. Whatever it is, figure it out and make it work. Whatever you’re doing wrong? Stop doing it. You need to do right by that woman. Fix it.”

“What are you talking about?” He realized how loud he was getting and lowered his voice just in case Ronnie was trying to get the baby down. “I’m doing the best I can. What else can I do? I can’t make her move into my house. I can’t make her be in love with me.”

“No, you can’t. Why don’t you think outside the corral a little bit? She’s not the kind of woman who’s gonna let you drag her down the aisle unless she feels like that’s going to improve her situation somehow. Trust me on this, John. I had a lot of long talks with her last month. You need to figure out what you can do for her that she can’t do for herself.”

“What the fuck would that be?”

“Did you hear me? Clean out your ears. I said
you
need to figure it out. It’s your woman, your problem. Now, I gotta go. Kiss the kids for me. Pin Peter down if you have to.”

“Right.” John ended the call and stuffed the phone into his pocket. He immediately pulled it back out, remembering he needed to check in with Eddie, but before he could pull up the speed dial menu, Ronnie came into the kitchen.

Her eyes widened at him standing there next to her papers.

Well, he wasn’t going to pretend he hadn’t seen them. He put the phone in his coat pocket and pulled out a kitchen chair to sit in. “Hey. Wish you’d told me Joey had an appointment. I would have tagged along.”

She shrugged and moved to the cabinets where she took down a can of coffee. She stared at it in her hand and then put it back and grabbed a container of lactose-free milk out of the refrigerator instead. “It was just routine.”

“Did you go to the doctor in town?”

“No, the doctor I saw for my pregnancy. She’s a family doctor, so she could see us both.”

“Oh.” He didn’t much like the idea of Joey having her own doctor separate from the one Liss and Peter saw. Wasn’t worth arguing about then.

She squeezed an inch of chocolate syrup into a glass and poured milk on top of it. “Did you need something? The kids are at the house. I’m going to go get them to finish their lessons after Joey wakes up.”

“Don’t worry about them. Why don’t you let them have the afternoon off?”

The hand she reached toward the utensil drawer stilled. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

He shrugged. “You do so much for them. I think Liss is probably a grade level ahead right now…”

“Grade level and a half,” she said, stirring her milk.

“There you go. And Peter? I never expected he’d be as focused as he is. I don’t know if it’s the right combination of drugs or if he’s just more disciplined now.”

“Little of both, I’m betting.”

“It’s your patience that got him there, though. He’s a much more confident kid now. Even when he’s uncertain about his studies, he doesn’t melt down the way he used to. Gotta say I don’t miss the histrionics.”

That made her chuckle. When she sipped her milk, it left a little chocolate moustache on her upper lip. His compulsion was to go to her and drag his tongue across her lips, but instead he stood and fetched his hat from the counter.Before he pressed it onto his head, he stood there, turning it in his hands for a moment and studying the brim. “I need to check the seals on the windows tomorrow and make sure the fireplaces are clean. Looks like we’re going to get some early snow this week.”

“Okay.”

He’d checked the house weeks ago. Nothing was wrong with it, but he seemed like he should have an excuse for popping in the way he did. He didn’t even knock. He just walked right in and helped himself to her company. He prayed she wouldn’t call him on it.