Wrangled (7 page)

Annalee come back with my lunch some later,
and stayed to talk while I ate it since the kids was takin’ their naps. Then it
was time for my bath, and I squared up to take it like a man. This time she
talked about the kids all the time she washed me, so it weren’t so bad. I
didn’t even have to think about Abo’s feet. Then she helped me into some clean
clothes, and asked if there was anything else she could do for me while she was
there.

“Yeah, sweetheart. Do you think you could
get Russ back in here to help me in the bathroom? My bladder’s about to bust
again.”

“Would you like me to help you? It’s not
like I haven’t seen it before, now,” she giggled, and then blushed.

“Aw, sweetheart, that probly wouldn’t be
too bad, but I don’t think you could handle my weight.”

“I handle it okay for your baths,” she
joked.

“Ha ha, but you know what I meant.” It
was
kinda funny, if she was talkin’ about the same
‘
it’, but I knew my face
was bright red.

“Yeah, I do. I’ll go find Russ.”

“Thanks, baby.”

Russ came in a few minutes later, and said,
“Let’s go ahead and get this done. Then I’ve got some of the boys ready to fix
you up a contraption so you won’t need any more help.”

That sounded good to me. I tried not to
think about him seein’ my dick again, and it was gettin’ easier since he’d quit
jokin’ about it. But it would be better when there was no need. When I was back
in bed, he opened the door and said, “Okay, let’s fix him up.”

Two or three of the hands come in, nodded
at me or said hi, and went to work. When they was done, there was a thing like
a little trapeze hangin’ within arm’s reach over my head, and a rail stood up
on cross-braces leadin’ all the way from the middle of the bed on the left side
into the bathroom, where another trapeze thing hung above the toilet. Russ had
me try it, and sure enough, I could swing myself out of bed, hop along the
rail, and swing onto the toilet just fine. I could also stand, holdin’ myself
up by leanin’ on the rail, to piss like a man. It was perfect.

“Boss, I cain’t thank you enough for all
you’re doin’ for me,” I said. I was holdin’ it together, though, wasn’t gonna
cry like no baby.

“Cody, no thanks are needed. You’re part of
my family, and family takes care of each other.” That was about the nicest
thing anyone could have said to me. For five years, the only family I had left
was Hank as far as I knew. Now, it felt like the boss, his wife, all of
Annalee’s sisters and their kids, and all the hands was my family. It was
almost worth gettin’ busted up.

I asked him then if he thought I could
borrow some tack for the rodeo. Of course, I had what I used for work, but it
wasn’t the lighter, fancier saddle that I wanted for the rodeo, and I thought I
might’ve seen somethin’ like that in the tack room.

“Oh, Cody, I’d be glad to let you borrow
it, but it might not be the right size. It belonged to Denise.” I musta showed
my surprise, because he explained more. “You wouldn’t remember, because it was
way before your time on the ranch. In fact, it was before she married me.
Denise was a barrel racer when she was a kid.”

“I’ll be damned,” I said, kinda automatic.
I was really thinkin’ that it wouldn’t do at all, even if it was the right
size, and it wouldn’t be. Wrong kinda saddle, all right. I wondered out loud
why she didn’t take it with her when she left.

“Just forgot about it, I guess,” he said.
“Or figured she’d have no need for it. All she got was the clothes on her back,
because everything else either I bought her or she didn’t want. Except that
saddle, that was hers from before. But, Cody, you’re welcome to borrow any
equipment you need. I just hope you’re recovered enough to use it.”

“You and me both, Boss,” I said. “You and
me both.”

~~~

With nothin’ more to figure out or worry
about, my days went just about the same from then on out. Just after
Thanksgivin’ I got to go back to get a checkup on how my leg and neck was
doin’. Russ drove me and Uncle Hank came with, but neither one come in to see
the doctor with me.

The doctor seemed like he was pleased with
my progress. Then he told me that I’d need to start physical therapy.

“Doc, you do realize that I live on a ranch
fifteen miles from here, and I don’t have no ride except my horse, right?”

“Hmm, that is a problem. Could you move
into town for a few months?”

“I maybe could, except I got no money and
don’t know how I’d get none since I can’t work.”

“Well, let me think about it.” He sent me
to x-ray then, to see how my bones was knittin’. When I got back to the
examinin’ room, I had to wait so long I darn near fell asleep on that little
table. Might have, if it hadn’t been so short, but I couldn’t bend my leg to
get it up on there, and it was too uncomfortable to just dangle it off the end.

Before the doctor come back, an ol’ boy
dressed in them pajamas they all seemed to wear come in and removed my cast,
then replaced it with one that had contraptions at the knee that worked like
hinges and it had that velcro stuff on it so I could get it off for a bath. Now
I could bend my leg at the knee, and it sure felt good, though it was a bit
stiff.

Then the doctor come back, and this time he
brung Uncle Hank with him. “Mr. Miller, I understand that Cody here is your
nephew, but that he is of age and responsible for his own bills, is that
right?”

“Yessir, that’s right, but if he needs
somethin’ he cain’t afford, I can pitch in some.”

“Naw, Uncle Hank, you done enough for me…”
I started to say he didn’t have to do more, but he rode over me.

“What is it he needs, doctor?”

The doctor said, “Well, he needs physical
therapy. His insurance will pay for it, but he tells me there’s a difficulty
getting him to the appointments.”

“It is quite a ways from the ranch to here,
especially right now when we’re workin’ sixteen, eighteen hours a day gettin’
ready for winter.”

Just then, come a knock on the door and the
boss stuck his head in. “Are y’all almost finished in here? Forecast says it’s
about to blow real bad, and I’d like to get home before dark.”

Uncle Hank took it on himself to say, “Come
on in boss. We was just tryin’ to figure out how Cody could get his physical
therapy.”

I’ll give this to the boss, he always saw
just what the problem was, and it didn’t never take him too long to figure out
a way around it.

“Does it require special equipment, or just
the knowledge to manipulate the joints?” he asked the doctor.

“Maybe some special equipment, like a bar
on the wall for stability, and a trapeze to help him stay upright. But yes, the
therapist has to be trained.”

“You got any good ones that would like a
working vacation on a ranch, with room and board provided?” Russ said.

“Why, I don’t know. Let me see what I can
find out. Young man,” he said to me, “you can take that neck brace off now, but
no riding until the leg is further along, okay?”

Well, not havin’ that big ol’ brace was a
damn sight better than havin’ it, but I wasn’t happy about the no ridin’
orders. Too bad he had to say it in front of Uncle Hank and the boss, though. I
mighta had a chance at gettin’ around it if they didn’t know about it.

Ridin’ back to the ranch in the SUV, I said
to the boss that I just didn’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t for his takin’
care of everything. The doc had told us he thought he knew of a physical
therapist that would be willin’ to come out to the ranch and stay for a few
weeks. I couldn’t believe the boss would just open up the house again. With all
the girls there, and now me, there was just one guest bedroom left in the house
for the therapist. If Russ had any notion of guests comin’, there wouldn’t be no
place to put ‘em. He said the only one that would be comin’ after this would be
Miss Charity’s mother, but that was a while off, so it would be okay. Nobody
ever had a better boss than Russ, and I’d fight anyone said anything different.

That night when Annalee come in with my
dinner, I asked her could she stay a bit. She was so happy to see that I didn’t
have that brace on, and I guess she knowed what I wanted. After dinner she
hopped up on the bed with me and we kissed for quite a while, until she pulled
away outta my arms and said she had to check on the kids. I told her that the
boss had figured a way for a physical therapist to come and help me get my leg
back workin’ good again.

“Oh, good. Maybe Celeste will like him and
stop going from one hand to another trying to find the right man.”

I’d been hearin’ about that. She’d broke up
with the first hand she was steppin’ out with, and now everyone was fightin’ to
be the next. “Yeah, that’d be good, Annalee. It’s causin’ hard feelin’s in the
bunkhouse.”

“I know. Well, good night, Cody.” With one
more kiss, she was gone, and I was layin’ there thinkin’ about the shovin’ and
hard looks I’d heard tell of, between Celeste’s beaus. That wasn’t a good
situation no way you looked at it. At least she’d be turnin’ eighteen before
too long. I wondered if she’d leave the ranch then, or stay on for awhile like
Annalee.

You coulda knocked me over with a chicken
feather the next day when the boss brought the physical therapist in to meet
me. I expected a big dude that could help me stand up and take my weight while
I put only a little on the leg and started walkin’ on it. Instead, there stood
a little bit of a thing, no bigger than a minute, and it was a she! She was
pretty, too, with red hair like Miss Charity’s and blue eyes, and cute freckles
all across her nose and cheeks. My jaw dropped all the way to my chest when
Russ told me she was my therapist. I could see he was wonderin’ how it was all
gonna go down, too. His eyes were dark, and had this kinda glint in ‘em, that
meant he was havin’ a hard time not sayin’ nothin’. All I could think of was,
how was Annalee gonna take this?

Turned out I was right to worry about it,
too. Annalee took one look at Miss Jenny, the therapist, and turned white. She
was real polite when the boss introduced them, but sparks was flyin’, at least
from Annalee’s eyes to Miss Jenny. Her head was turned away from me though, so
I couldn’t see if she was sendin’ ‘em back at Annalee or not, though there
wasn’t any reason she should; we’d just met. This was gonna get interestin’ and
not in a good way.

~~~

Right from the first, that there Jenny was
flirty. She told me not to say Miss Jenny, but just call her Jenny. When she
pulled me up offa the bed to stand and kept her arms around my waist for stability,
it got mighty embarrassin’ sometimes. I had to admire her strength, though. It
isn’t every hundred-pound girl that can hold up a man my size, six-foot three
and pushin’ two hundred pounds. She’d walk backwards, holdin’ me up, until we
got to the rail that Russ had Bill install on the same wall as the door, and
then I’d hold myself up while she pulled my leg out straight and then flexed it
back to get my range of motion back, Jenny said. Other times, she’d have me
just set on the bed, hold out my leg with my foot pointed down and rotate it in
circles or up and down.

Every day, she was there right after
breakfast and for an hour in the afternoon after lunch, to put me through my
trainin’, just like I used to do with Abo. Jenny had somethin’ she called a
resistance band that I had to wrap around my foot and then try to pull my leg
from one side to the other, and she said it wouldn’t be long before I could
ride a stationary bicycle. I told her I didn’t see no use at all in ridin’ a
bike that didn’t go anywhere, but she said if I wanted that leg to work like it
used to, I’d better mind her.

The worst times was when Jenny come in
before Annalee had left. Them gals didn’t like each other, it was plain to see.
I tried askin’ Annalee what was happenin’ where I couldn’t see it or hear it to
get their backs up like a couple of cats fixin’ to fight, but she wouldn’t say.
Funny thing was, the madder Annalee seemed to be about things, the more Jenny
seemed to smile and flirt with me. I couldn’t figure it out. Jenny was pretty
and all, but Annalee was my gal.

I guess havin’ Jenny at the table with the
rest of ‘em was like settin’ a fox in the henhouse. Sometimes, if my door was
open, I’d hear Celeste or one of the others tellin’ tales, their voices all
tight and mad, about what Jenny had said at the last meal, and which of the
hands was makin’ eyes at her. I felt plumb awful to be the cause of such an
upset in the house, and even worse that Annalee was backin’ off. I didn’t blame
her, since the first time Jenny come waltzin’ in the room even though the door
was closed and caught Annalee up in the bed, she put her hands on her hips and
said, “I don’t think that’s appropriate for my patient.”

Annalee looked like she was about to spit
nails, but she didn’t say a word. She just climbed down and stomped out, but I
couldn’t get her to come up in the bed and kiss me no more after that. Come to
think about it, I was pretty steamed about that, too. So there was no reason
Annalee had to be jealous about Jenny, but it looked like she was, anyway.

It was lookin’ to be a troublesome
Christmas with Jenny there, and besides, I couldn’t figure out what I could do
about a special gift for Annalee or her kids. I guess you could say I was
depressed, so I was extra-glad any time one of the hands or Uncle Hank found
time to come and set with me of an evenin’. Even though that was usually my
time with Annalee, it hadn’t been much fun with her sulkin’ and worryin’ that
Jenny would come in and interrupt us.