Royal Trouble (2 page)

She staggered behind Roxanne as her sister flung open the front door of the bunkhouse and dragged her inside.  When they passed the kitchen door, a truck-sized man wearing a stained apron yelled at them without looking up from the sink. "Dinner won't be ready for another couple hours." He slammed a pot in the sink angrily and Leigh Ann flinched.

The man hadn't been here a few minutes ago when she left the bunkhouse.  Leigh Ann wondered who the surly man was, but was afraid to ask.  His attitude kind of matched her sister's right now.

"It's just me, Jarvis," Roxanne grumbled, before leading her down the hall toward the bedroom she had used last night.  As they entered the room, her sister dropped her arm to stomp to the bed and lug her suitcase off the bed.  It thumped on the floor, then Roxanne dragged it toward the door, as if it weighed nothing.  Leigh Ann squeezed into the room past her and grabbed her other two cases.

"What the hell are ya'll doing in here?" Jarvis demanded when he looked up from the sink as they passed back by the kitchen. 

"Just moving my sister up to the big house.  Nothing to worry about," Rocky told him and grunting as she swung Leigh Ann's big suitcase around in front of her.

"Hell, girl, I didn't even know you had a sister," he replied as he walked toward them wiping his hands on the apron to add even more color to it.  His blue eyes gave Leigh Ann a casual once over, and her sister huffed out a frustrated breath but stopped.

"Jarvis this is my sister, Leigh Ann.  Leigh Ann, Jarvis our cook."

He didn't speak, just gave her another look then tilted his bearded chin at her and grunted.  The man grunted at her.  How was she supposed to respond to that?  Grunt back?  Leigh Ann stifled a laugh thinking of what her mother's reaction to
that
would be.

Following her sister's lead, Leigh Ann grabbed the two cases she was carrying and ignored it then followed her toward the door.

Before they walked through the door, Roxanne told him, "We won't get in your way, I'm taking her up front.  I'll be back for dinner."

She stopped to put the big suitcase down by a rocker on the porch, then ordered, "Go get your car." Leigh Ann jumped at her tone, but didn't move. 

Before she left here, she had hoped to have time to talk to her sister.  Leigh Ann needed her advice.  But it looked like Roxanne didn't want to talk to her.  She was probably still mad at her for the scene the last time she had seen her two years ago.  She couldn't blame her, but emotion built up inside of her to burn her eyes.  She knew Roxanne wouldn't appreciate her tears, so she held them back.  Roxanne shoved her shoulder when she didn't move, and Leigh Ann stumbled. 

"Hurry up, I've got stuff to do."

Her lips trembled as she replied, "I'm sorry, I just thought we'd have time to talk."

"Well, shit," Rocky said as she sat in a rocker and waved Leigh Ann to the chair beside her and started it moving impatiently.  "Talk."

Relief washed through her and Leigh Ann smiled broadly.  Dropping her two cases beside the big one, she leaned in to hug Roxanne's neck.  When her sister's arms closed around her, Leigh Ann felt even better.  Maybe she had forgiven her after all, and was just impatient because she was busy. 

That thought quickly fled though, when Roxanne pulled away to say, "Hurry up, before I get fired here too." Her sister hadn't forgotten, or forgiven her.

"I'm sorry about that last time..." Leigh Ann told her sitting in the rocker next to the one Rocky occupied.  That incident had been mostly their mother's fault, but Leigh Ann acknowledged her fault too.  Roxanne's sleazy boss had hit on her, and instead of telling her sister, she had kept it to herself, and the man's wife had caught him at it.  Their mother trying to pawn her off on the man's father after that hadn't helped.

Rocky waved her hand. "Wasn't your fault." Even though they both knew better, it was nice of Roxanne to say that.

"Mama is trying to make me marry  Lester Fallon, you know of Fallon Oil.  He's old and his breath stinks, but he's rich as Midas and mama has dollar signs in her eyes again."

"Honey, she can't make you do anything you don't want to do." Those were the same words Roxanne had said to her time and again.  Almost a canned response now that she had heard them four times.  She knew what was coming next, and wasn't disappointed when her sister continued, "You're twenty-six-years old, Leigh Ann, you should have cut those apron strings years ago."

"Mama has done so much to hel--"

Her sister stopped rocking and cut her off.  "Mama is trying to run your life...and you let her.  You'll never be able to do anything for yourself, if you don't get away from her.  You need to go back to school, find a job, model.  Do something other than whine about what you can't do, and let mama tell you what you should do."

"I've tried, Annie, but somehow, I always wind up back with mama and engaged to some rich old fart," Leigh Ann replied sullenly twisting her hands in her lap. 

"Engagements work two ways, you know.  You have to say
yes
to be engaged, so it's your own damned fault."  Rocky said with agitation.  "Listen, I love you and I'm here for you, but I can't keep doing this.  I'll help you when you decide to start helping yourself, Leigh Ann.  Until then, I'm done with this conversation." 

Roxanne pushed against the arms of the rocker to stand, leaving it rocking behind her.  Leigh Ann looked up, way up, because her sister was pretty tall, and swallowed hard when she saw the thunderclouds in her gray eyes.  Her sister did scary very well, and even though Leigh Ann knew she was soft as a marshmallow at heart, she took heed when her Roxanne looked the way she did now. 

"You have two days to get out of the big house, Leigh Ann.  That's all the time I can buy you to hide out this time." 
Hide out
.  Is that what Roxanne thought she was doing?  Hiding out from her mother?  Sticking her head in the sand, hoping her sister would bail her out this time?  It wasn't any wonder her sister thought that.  When Roxanne was in college, Leigh Ann had done that twice, but always went back to live with their mother when things cooled off.  Not this time, Leigh Ann was serious about making a change in her life. 

She just needed a little time to think, plan and figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up.  Since she was a full-grown woman now, it was a little late for her to do that, but before now she had been denied that freedom.  She hadn't claimed that freedom from their mother like her sister had done years ago.  But the fact that her independent sister didn't believe she would succeed had those tears she had banked resurfacing again.

"Well, shit," Rocky said again leaning over to hug her.  "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't mean to make you cry, but you have got to find your backbone, and soon.  You are entirely too old to still be living with your mama and letting her control you."

Leigh sniffled softly.  "I don't know how to do anything, Rocky.  I'm not good with anything, and I know it's my fault.  I shouldn't have quit school." 

The endorsements will come once you win Miss USA, you will be too busy to finish college.
Her
mother's famous last words.  The words that put her in the position she was now.  Trying to get a job as a low-paid secretary, when she could have been so much more.

"Maybe your interview will work out tomorrow," Rocky mumbled into her hair.  "What's it for anyway?"

"Legal Assistant...and I have no idea why I applied for the job, I don't have any experience."  There wasn't much else she could do.  Finding that job, one whose only requirement was answering the phone and manning the front desk of a legal office with light typing in the local newspaper had been a godsend.

"Because you're well spoken, you can think on your feet, and you present a professional image at a front desk, that's why.  Do you know how to type?"

"Hunt and peck," Leigh Ann admitted with another sniffle.

"Who are you interviewing with a man or a woman?" Rocky asked.

"Robert Mullins is the attorney's name.  It's a small firm in downtown Amarillo.  I found out where you were working from Grandma and wanted to be close to you.  That's why I came up this way." 

Grandma Nell had heard about what happened at the other ranch with their mother, and hadn't wanted to tell her where her sister was working and living.  Leigh Ann had begged, so she had finally told her, but made her swear not to tell their mother before she gave up the information.  Grandma Nell hated their mother.

"Okay, let's get you up to the house.  What time is your appointment tomorrow?"

"Three o'clock," Leigh Ann replied, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket to dab at her eyes.  "I figured I'd spend the night in town after the interview."  She didn't have a dime, so that night would be spent in her car.  If she didn't get the job, her nights spent in the car would be limited too, because it would be repossessed.

"Can you afford that?"

"Not really, but I really don't want to impose here." 

Rocky thought for a minute, then smiled slyly.  "I think my friend Dylan has a trailer in town, I'll ask him if you can stay there temporarily, until you can find a place in town."

Excitement shot through Leigh Ann.  Her own place?  Somewhere she could be alone and wouldn't be a bother to her sister or anyone else?  Leigh Ann squealed and threw her arms around her sister.  "Thank you!  It will be my first place by myself!"

Now, if she could just find a job to pay for it, her new life could begin.

CHAPTER TWO

At ten until five o'clock on Friday evening the intercom on Leigh Ann Baker's desk buzzed, and she knew she was about to be fired.  Again.  For the fifth time in the same number of weeks.    Leigh Ann knew the signs now, and this was hers.  A blazing neon sign. 

Leigh Ann felt like a bird held captive all its life that was suddenly sent out into the world to fend for itself, without the survival skills it needed to live.  Leigh Ann had the social and interview skills to get jobs, she just didn't have the office skills to keep them.  This job had been easier for her than the rest, and she thought she was doing a good job, so she had no idea why Mr. Templeton was going to fire her.

With every pink slip she received in the last five weeks, the doubt that she had made the right decision leaving Dallas grew.  If she went back there now, she could probably get modeling jobs.  It would be easy, and she was realizing that was about the only thing she was qualified to do.  But taking that route would mean admitting her mother was right, Leigh Ann was useless other than being pretty.  And Trudy Baker would use it to convince her to marry Lester Fallon.

Modeling was a rat race anyway, brutal and unforgiving.  With the extra ten pounds she'd gained in the last few months from comfort eating, the wrinkle she found the other day in the mirror, and the fact she was only five foot four, who was she kidding? 

The intercom buzzed again, this time twice in a row. 

Sucking in a breath she picked up the receiver and pushed the button.  "Yes, Mr. Templeton?"

"Miss Baker, I need to see you in my office, please," he said shortly then disconnected.  She heard the receiver in the man's office slam down in the cradle and flinched.  His door was opened a crack and it was only ten feet from her desk.  This office was small, so the short, bald attorney could just have just yelled for her. 

Another sign.

Leigh Ann pushed back her chair to stand, straightened her suit skirt and jacket, then inhaled deeply, before walking to Mr. Templeton's door to knock.

"Come in," he invited and she pushed open the door to stand in the doorway.

"Yes, sir?" Leigh Ann grimaced hoping he would drop the hammer softly, instead of reaming her out for forgetting to give him the message from the judge this morning.  Leigh Ann would have remembered if her mother hadn't called on her cell phone to distract her.

"Sit down, please," he said softening his tone.  "Shut the door."

Another sign.

Leigh Ann walked inside and shut the door behind her, then sat on the edge of the burgundy leather chair in front of his desk, folding her hands in her lap.  Mr. Templeton's face was ruddy with what looked like a mix of anger and embarrassment.

He leaned forward to tent his hands in front of him on the desk, before saying bluntly, "Leigh Ann...I can't keep you."

Can't keep her
?  That was an odd way to put it.  He made it sound like she was a stray puppy he'd brought home, and his mama told him he had to get rid of it.  It was also a cop out, because he offered no explanation as to why he was firing her.  Leigh Ann needed to know what it was, so she could make sure she didn't do it again at her next job.

She squirmed in the chair, but lifted her chin to ask him, "What do you mean, Mr. Templeton?  If this is about that message this morning, I can explain..."

He held up his hand to shush her, which was a relief, because Leigh Ann didn't have a good explanation, other than her mother called and she forgot.

"You met my wife at lunch?" he said and Leigh Ann's eyes jerked up to meet his.

"Yes, I did.  She's a very nice lady," Leigh Ann complemented sweetly, even though the stocky woman looked like Betty Ballbreaker and had treated her like she was gum on the sole of her ugly low-heeled pump.

"No, Leigh Ann, she is
not
a nice lady," he corrected.  "But she is my wife, and she is a very well connected former judge's daughter..."

"What does that have to do with me, Mr. Templeton?" Leigh Ann asked in confusion.

"She says I can't keep you, so you have to go," he replied flatly. 

How about that?  His mother
had
told him his new puppy had to go.  Leigh Ann racked her brain, but failed to come up with anything she could have done to upset the woman.  It had been tough, but she had been extra nice to the unpleasant woman.  Bless her heart.  There was only one thing she could conclude.  "She didn't like me?"

"Brenda didn't give me a reason, but it probably has something to do with how you look," he told her.