Royal Trouble (32 page)

"Danielle?" Leigh Ann repeated dumbly, because she had no idea who her mother was talking about.

"Your new press agent," Trudy Baker told her, then laid her hand on the arm of the dark-haired woman standing beside her.

"I don't need a press agent, mother."  Leigh Ann groaned.  She was running from the press, not courting them, and she wasn't going to let her mother put her on that runaway horse.  That is what got her here in the first place.

"You are famous now, sweetie.  You need someone to put a spin on that terrible event last night to make it work in your favor."

"There's no spin...I made a mistake and just want to forget it ever happened," Leigh Ann told her tiredly and moved past her to the door.

"There are offers, Leigh Ann."

"Offers?"  Leigh Ann pulled on the door and walked out into the hallway, then looked up and down the corridor for Wes.

"The phone at the ranch has been ringing off the hook, since the news broke.  Women from all over the country want you to do makeovers on them.  Terri Rhodes had to take the phone off the hook, before I left."

Leigh Ann staggered, then stopped and spun back to face her mother.  "Really?"

"Yes, Terri wants you to come back to the ranch so she can talk to you.  And we need to talk about holding some press events."

"No events, mother, I need some space to think about this, and to talk to Terri," Leigh Ann told her with her head spinning again. 

Where the hell was Wes
?  Her eyes scanned the hall again, but she still didn't see him.  The only thing she wanted to do right now was get the hell out of this hospital and away from her mother, so she could think.

"Darling, you look white as a sheet," Trudy said and took her arm when she wobbled on her feet.  "I think we need to talk to that doctor and see if they'll keep you overnight for observation."

"I don't want to stay here, mother," Leigh Ann hissed and jerked her arm out of Trudy's grasp, the momentum sending her staggering back into the wall.  "Just leave me the hell alone!" 

Her mother's eyebrow lifted in surprise, then her lips pinched.  Leigh Ann realized she had yelled those words when a hush descended in the corridor.  She glanced down the hallway to see nurses, doctors and patients alike stopped in the hallway to stare at her.  Heat crawled up her neck to her face, and she pushed off the wall then walked with purpose past the admission desk, through the waiting room and out the front door of the hospital feeling eyes burning her back all the way.

This was her life, not her mother's.  The days of Trudy Baker making decisions for her were over.  Leigh Ann was tired of playing nice.  Her mother and that press agent could go straight to hell and sell ice water when they got there, because they sure weren't going to be selling her.  Leigh Ann was not for sale.  Leigh Ann kept walking across the darkened parking lot with no idea where she was going, but as long as it was away from her mother she would be happy.

A truck door slammed behind her, then she heard a voice shout her name.  Leigh Ann didn't stop, she had to get away from here, then find a telephone to call her sister.  Roxanne might not talk to her now, but she was the only one who might.

"Leigh Ann!" the voice shouted louder and she heard heavy hurried footsteps.

When a hand landed on her shoulder anger shot through her.  Leigh Ann's fist clenched, and she rounded ready to do battle.  The fight left her though when she recognized her sister's fiancé, Ethan Cassidy, standing there tall, broad-shouldered and tense with concern in his dark green eyes. 

"What are you doing here?" Leigh Ann asked breathlessly.

"Roxanne is really worried about you, and I came to make sure you were okay."  His tone held a hint of accusation that sent guilt darting through Leigh Ann.  "You need a ride?"

Leigh Ann huffed out a breath, then replied in a shaky voice, "Yeah, but I don't have anywhere to go..."

"You always have somewhere to go, Leigh Ann.  Your sister loves you, and wants to help you, and so do I."  Her sister couldn't love her now, or want her around.  Leigh Ann had put Roxanne in a helluva pickle at the ranch, she was sure.  The last thing she wanted to do was cause her more trouble, by going back there.

"I've caused Rocky nothing but trouble since I showed up here.  The last thing she needs is me going back to the ranch.  And
your
sister is probably beside herself too.  I've created nothing but problems for everyone."

"Terri wants you to come back to the ranch too...she wants to talk to you."

"So mama wasn't lying?" Leigh Ann asked incredulously.  Her mother tended to inflate the truth, or create her own version of the truth when the truth didn't suit her.  Because she had dealt with that all her life, Leigh Ann hadn't believed her.

"If your mama told you the phone is on fire at the ranch, and the women who call are rabid to have you do a makeover on them, then yeah, she wasn't lying."

"Incredible."

Ethan chuckled and squeezed her shoulder.  "That's exactly what Terri said.  Let's get the heck out of here, before your mother finds you."

"Damn good plan," Leigh Ann said and followed his broad back across the parking lot to his truck.

Wes sat at his desk and ran the numbers on his calculator again.  He'd been at this since three in the morning, and he knew he was wasting time, but while he recalculated he was trying to come up with a plan that would include paying his mortgage note that was due in two weeks.  No matter how many times he added though, Wes knew that was never going to happen, unless he sent out someone to crack a few skulls to collect the money owed to him.  But he also knew the only skull that was going to be cracked though was his own, from banging it against his desk.  After the last bang, he rested his forehead on the blotter on the desk fighting the nausea curdling the coffee in his belly.  A full pot since he gave up on sleeping and came out here to get some work done.

It was so late by the time he left the hospital, his mother had kept Trey overnight, which she had been doing entirely too much lately.  Laying in his empty bed in the empty house, all Wes had to focus on was work, since worrying about Leigh Ann Baker had kept him from sleeping.  Even though he had called her family and left her with medical professionals, the feeling that he'd done the wrong thing by leaving her at the hospital alone just wouldn't go away.  Trying to work in this state had just made matters worse.  The status of his finances laid out before him in black and white was definitely an eye-opener. 

At five o'clock in the morning, he'd finally come to the conclusion the only folks benefiting from the free vet services he gave to struggling farmers were those farmers and their animals.  Wes certainly wasn't doing himself any favors. 

From now on, he was going to stop being so damned nice and put himself and his son first.  He had no choice.  If those farmers needed free services from now on, they would just have to trailer their animals and head to the next county to the free clinic staffed by vet students from A & M.  He had to make some money.

If Laura hadn't raped him financially when she left, he wouldn't be in this shape.  Emptying both their personal and his business accounts, she had put him in a black hole financially and emotionally he was afraid he'd never claw his way out of.  Wes might have considered going after her, if she hadn't used Trey to threaten him.  Leave it alone, or she was going for full custody, and he'd pay triple over time.  And she would have his son. 

No fucking way was he going to let that happen.  The flighty woman hadn't been a good mother when she was with him, she would be worse without him to watch out for Trey.  So Wes had bought his son, and thanked God when he saw her back on the way out of town.  At least he had protected them for the future, or thought that was what he had done.  Now, he wasn't so sure.

For seven years he'd been trying to recover, and the proof that he had failed was right in front of him.  He was going to lose his house and business, if he couldn't figure out how to pay the mortgage note in the next two weeks.  And he was alone to figure that out.  Just the way he wanted it.  Roxanne was gone, Leigh Ann was gone.  Handling the books, scheduling appointments and farm calls, was all on him.  And fighting to make sure he and Trey had a roof over their heads in two weeks was all on him too.

Desolation tried to overwhelm him when he added the thought of trying to interview someone to help him.  He didn't have the time or energy.  It would probably take another two weeks to find someone, and another month to train them.  

Too little, too late
. 

For the first time in years, Wes felt like bawling like a baby.  The last time he'd done that was the night that Laura had left him.  Of course that could have had something to do with the fifth of Jack he'd consumed that night too. Regardless, he swore then he would never do that again. 

But this was an exceptional situation...a lot more dire than Laura leaving had been.

Wes folded his arms and rested his head on the desk.  Closing his eyes he sucked in a deep breath, then let it out slowly to corral his emotions.  He could do this, he would figure it out, he had to.  Sitting here pitying himself wasn't going to solve his problems.  A wave of exhaustion floated over him, and he couldn't make himself sit up, instead he let it take him.

The whoosh of the front door of the office, followed by the light-hearted tinkle of the bell above it woke him up.  Heart racing, Wes sat straight up and  fought to get his senses, glancing at the clock to see it was only seven o'clock.  His first appointment wasn't until ten, so he knew it wasn't a patient.

Rubbing his scratchy eyes with his fists, Wes stood then ran a hand over his beard shadowed jaw.  Stiff and sore from sleeping on his desk, it took a minute for him to find his balance to stagger to the door of his office.  When he recognized his visitor, the breath locked up in his chest and his feet stopped moving.

Sitting at the reception desk, fresh and dressed in jeans and a tank top, her shiny blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail was Leigh Ann Baker, looking none the worse for wear after her experience yesterday.  Except for the black eye she couldn't quite conceal with her makeup, it might be just any other day.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in confusion.

Tilting her head, Leigh Ann Baker blinked her penetrating blue eyes twice. "Working of course." Like yesterday hadn't happened.  Like she hadn't walked out of his office a few days ago, leaving him in the lurch. 

"You're fired."  Wes hadn't forgotten.

"I quit, you can't fire me, and I'm back to serve out my two weeks notice," she informed him flatly then shuffled the papers on her desk, before putting them in the corner.

Serve out her notice?  The way her voice sounded, she made it seem like a prison sentence.  It would be for him.  "I'll pay you for the two weeks, just leave," Wes told her gruffly, but he almost hoped she would refuse again. 

Making her leave would be cutting off his nose, he knew it.  He really did need her help until he could find someone else.  Even if she was the most incompetent assistant he'd ever had, she was better than nothing.  At least she might buy him some time to do some collections.

"You need me, and I need to do this."  Leigh Ann leaned forward, her chin lifted a notch, and her lips flattened stubbornly.

"Why?"  He couldn't figure out why she would choose to be here when her public was waiting.  Maybe she was hiding out again, maybe she couldn't handle her notoriety this time, because it wasn't the good kind.  Well, he sure as hell didn't want to be dragged into that circus.

"Because for once in my life, I'm not running.  I'm going to do what's right, and finish out here.  You gave me a chance, and it didn't work out, but I am not going to leave you high and dry.  And I also want to do it to thank you for taking care of me yesterday."

Wes grunted then walked over to the desk and put his hands on his hips.  "What if I don't want you here?"

"Too damned bad, Wesley Jepson, you have me.  I'm the best you're going to do for the next two weeks."  A bright smile, the same one that had stolen his heart weeks ago, only brighter, appeared on her beautiful face.  It was the genuine version, not the fake.

Wes stood there dumbfounded at Leigh Ann's new take charge attitude, and salty language.  That was as many curse words as he'd ever heard pass her sexy lips.  She almost sounded like her rough and ready sister there for a minute. 

"Now, go get your ass cleaned up, you look like hell," she ordered with a wrinkle of her perky little nose, as she pushed the button on the answering machine.  "Better yet, go get yourself a few hours sleep, I've got this."

With a deep sigh, resignation filled him, and Wes came to the conclusion that she
was
the best he was going to do for the next few weeks, so he decided to accept her help.  "If the press shows up here, you're gone."

"They won't show up, my mother and my press agent are handling it."

"You have a fucking press agent?"

"As of yesterday, I do," she told him smugly, glancing up at him.

Wes wondered what the hell she needed a press agent for, in his estimation a body guard would probably serve her better.  Senator Leland Rooks wasn't a man to be messed with, and Leigh Ann had definitely poked that bear by making over the man's wife and parading her around that bar.  Maybe things would just get brushed under the carpet though, like they usually did where that man was concerned. 

"What do you need a press agent for?"  Did Leigh Ann Baker think, because she'd embarrassed a Texas State Senator, she was going to be forever newsworthy?  Yeah, the press was all over it yesterday, but tomorrow he would bet it would be old news, if the good Senator had anything to do with it.

"Well, Danielle is actually the press agent for the R & R Ranch now.  I'm going to be working there as an image consultant.  That makeover I did on Allison Rooks created quite a stir."  A smile quirked the corner of her delicious mouth and her cheeks pinkened.

"More like a cylcone," Wes corrected with a harsh laugh.