Worth the Trouble (23 page)

Wes snorted then grinned.  "You have your work cut out for you then.  Along with alligator skin, she has a
temper that you don't want to meet."

"Trust me, I know...I've met it several times since I
've known her," Ethan replied with a half-smile.  "I'm surprised I haven't met her shotgun too."

"Be careful man, she's very good with that
gun.  I've gone hunting with her before." Wes told him with a chuckle.

So, Wes had gone hunting with her before?
 

Ethan wondered what else the vet had done with her out there alone in the woods.
  He knew what he would do, and this man was no different than him.  A steel fist squeezed his stomach, and he ground his teeth.

"Ya'll go by yourselves?" Ethan asked, because he couldn't stop himself.

Wes hesitated then answered, "Uh, no, Dylan went with us, why?"

"No reason," Ethan replied, then tried to change the topic, "
Does Rocky answer her cell phone when you call?"

"Yeah, she usually does...unless she's working."

"Well, she's not working, so can you call and ask where she is right now and when she's headed this way?"

"Sure," he said then picked up his cell phone from the edge of the desk and dialed.

Ethan flinched when the man drawled, "Rox?  Hey baby, when are you headed down this way?" with a smile in his voice.  "Oh, you're on your way?  Good, I'll see you in a little bit then," he told her meeting Ethan's eyes, before he hung up.

The
pet names the man called Roxanne grated on Ethan's nerves.  He knew it wasn't intentional, the man had no idea that Ethan was half in love with her too, but he hated him for using them. And he hated that the vet had the kind of relationship with her that Ethan wanted. 

Ethan wanted to be the one who had the right to call her baby,
and sugar, the only one.  But he couldn't very well be that man, after telling her it was over last night.

"Wes, I'm probably going to be leaving
Amarillo," Ethan blurted.  He needed to tell the man what he had decided on last night, that he wasn't joining that rescue team.  It would be easier to do that now that he had decided he was leaving the ranch.

"Oh, yeah, how long will you be gone?" he asked.

"Not coming back, I'm going back to Henrietta, or somewhere else where I can find a job," he informed.

"Aren't you working at the R & R?" Wes asked with confusion in his tone.

"I am, and I'll stay as long as Terri needs me, until she can find someone else."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I need to move on," he told the man, thinking about moving on in more ways than one, and the fact that Rocky would probably end up with Wes Jepson.  "And about that class I missed...how much was it? I want to pay you back." 

He had promised Rocky he woul
d and that was what he would do, living up to that promise was one thing he
could
do.

"There's no need, Ethan.  If I had known you were certified to
teach
that class, I wouldn't have bothered registering you for it."

"But I still want to pay you back for the reg--"

"They allowed my team to attend free of charge," Wes interrupted.

Relief poured through
Ethan, because although he had offered, Ethan had no idea where he would find the money to pay the man back, he didn't have a job now. He just knew he was going to do it. 

"
Okay, thanks."

Wes narrowed his eyes and said, "You're leaving the R & R, does that mean you're not going to stay on the team either
?  I'd be damned sad to lose you."

That was a surprise to Ethan, he thought Rocky had to beg
Wes Jepson to let him on the team.  "You would?"

"Yeah, the guys at the class yesterday sang your praises so loudly my ears were ringing by the time we left," Wes told him with a chuckle.  "I think they're in the process of having you sainted."

"I worked with them a long time...they're my friends," Ethan told him.  "But that doesn't mean I can do all that on horseback...that's Rocky's specialty.  I'm lucky to get up on one without breaking my neck."

"I know and that's why
the two of you would make a good team on the trail.  What she doesn't know about rescue, you can tell her.  And visa versa," Wes told him.

"You planned on partnering us up?" Ethan asked incredulously.
  The vet must just not see how Ethan felt about Roxanne, he had thought it was written all over his face.

"Yeah, I did...but if you're going to quit
the team too, I'll find someone else experienced to put her with.  I want to make sure she's safe."

Ethan did too, that's
one of the reasons why he considered joining the team in the first place.  After he got to know her better though, he quickly figured out Roxanne Baker could more than take care of herself.  That still didn't mean he wanted her traipsing off into the woods with someone he wasn't sure knew what they were doing.

Wes's cell phone rang, and he picked it up.
  After listening for a minute or so, his eyebrows lifted and he said, "No, kidding...already?  Wow, Clay, um I don't know, man, I haven't even had an organizational meeting yet."

Ethan listened intently to the call, trying not to look like he was listening.

Evidently,  the call was from Clayburn from the Task Force, Ethan's friend and the Ranger they had been in class with yesterday.  He was asking for Wes's help in finding a lost kid in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. 

Ethan knew that park, he
had been there rock climbing and mountain biking with his buddies.  It was huge, the second largest canyon in the United States, just behind the Grand Canyon in size.  Finding a lost kid there would be like finding a needle in a haystack. 

No wonder the Task Force was calling on equine help. 

Getting through all the scrub and vines off trail would be hard, climbing rock walls on an ATV nearly impossible.

They better find the kid soon, because not only was the terrain treacherous, the weather at this time of year was unpredictable. 
In Mid-March, one minute it could be seventy-five and the next below freezing, especially at night, not to mention the spring storms that blew in unexpectedly. 

He wondered how long the child had been missing.
 

Fear for
her gripped him, but adrenaline and excitement shot through him too.  This would be fun, damned fun, and challenging, he thought. 

Wes disconnected the call and
Ethan immediately told him, "I'm in."

"In as in staying on the team, or in as in you're going to help this time then leave?" Wes asked slowly.

"In, as you need my help on this one, and I want to help.  I'll figure the other stuff out once we find that kid."

"Fair enough," Wes told him.  "I've got some calls to make to round up horses and men.  I have supplies out in the shed behind this building.  Can you drive my truck back there and start loading?  Get Rocky to help once she gets here?"

"If you hear a gunshot..." Ethan replied with a chuckle.

"I'll come running, and call 911," he assured as he threw his truck keys to Ethan.

By the time Ethan got back to the truck and inside his reserves of energy were gone.  Loading anything right now wasn't going to happen.  He needed a power nap, and he needed one now, if he was going to be any use to anyone in this search. 

Just an hour would recharge him, he
knew.  He'd been a fireman for too many years, not to be able to grab sleep when he could, and make it last when he managed to do that.  After he stopped the truck in front of the shed behind the office, Ethan laid across the bench seat and closed his eyes.  Almost immediately he fell asleep.

Rocky pulled up in front of Wes's office two hours after she'd talked to him on the phone and killed the truck.  All outward traces of her flight from the R & R this morning were gone, thanks to her sister knowing all the tricks to make that happen.

Even though she had told Wes on the phone earlier that she was on her way
to the office, she made an hour detour, instead.  She had gone to the trailer where her sister was staying, Dylan's love shack, because there was no way in hell she was going to face Wes looking like she knew she must look. 

There would be too many questions that she wasn't going to answer. 

Crying was not a common occurrence for her, so even though her sister was shocked when she got to the tiny trailer, Leigh Ann took full advantage of being able to help
her
for a change.

Who knew cold cucumbers calmed puffy eyes?  Certainly not Rocky.
  Witch hazel on a cool rag had erased the redness in her face too, and Leigh Ann added a little concealer under her eyes to perform a miracle. 

N
obody but she and Leigh Ann would ever know that she had ever been bawling.

Pushing open the door, she got out of the truck and walked up the steps then tried the office door.  It was locked, so she shaded her eyes and tried to see through the glass that could use a good cleaning. 

She put that on her to-do list for her new job here. 

Sadness welled up in her chest, and she swallowed
it back.  There wasn't time for that crap, she reminded herself.  She was doing what she had to do to distance herself from more drama and the source of that drama, Ethan Cassidy.  Besides. Wes needed her help and she needed this job now that she had quit the R & R.

Roc
ky wondered where Wes had gone.  She figured he must've gotten an emergency farm call.  Walking back down the steps, she headed for her truck, but stopped halfway there when Silas, Wes's dog, came bounding off the front steps of his house, followed closely by his son Trey.

"Miss Rocky!" he yelled, his gap-toothed smile spread ear to ear.

"Hiya, sport!" she said and bent down so he could launch himself into her arms for a hug that almost cut off her airway.

He pushed back and asked, "You here to see my daddy too?"

"Yeah, is he in the house?"  If Trey was here alone, Wes was here too.  He was a great parent, and would never leave his ten-year-old unattended.  Since Trey was usually in school at this time, she figured he must be on a break from school or something.  "Or is your grandma here?"

"Nah,
Nana isn't here...he's behind his office," he told her having problems with the F's with his missing front teeth.

She smiled remembering those days from her childhood.  "Heard any good jokes lately?" she asked him.

His eyes lit up and his grin reappeared.  "Knock, knock..."

"Who's there?" she played along.

"Orange..." he replied with laughter in his voice.

"
Orange who?"

"
Orange you gonna stop playing knock, knock with me and go find my dad?"

She threw back her head and laughed then pulled him in for a quick hug.  "You made that one up, squirt."

"Yeah, you like it?" he asked proudly.

"Yeah, I did.  Want me to help you find daddy?"

"Sure," she told him and took his hand.  "Lead the way."

He walked in front of her, pulling on her hand to drag her around the side of the office.  "He's back here loading the truck," Trey told her.

When they rounded the corner, she saw both Wes's truck and a truck from the R & R Ranch and stopped in her tracks.  It was a real close call for her to decide to go forward instead of running right back to her truck and burning rubber out of here.

Trey tugged on her arm and looked up at her over his shoulder.  "C'mon, Miss Rocky, daddy is in the shed," he told her impatiently.

Wes wasn't the only one in that shed, but she hoped that truck meant it was either Terri or Joel, because if it was Ethan, she would most likely head out of here.

Her feet dragging as she went, she let Trey pull her the rest of the way to the shed.  At the door, she saw
Wes bent over a chest, pulling stuff out and stacking it, but he was alone.  Relief washed through her and she walked into the building. 

"Hey, boss," she said walking up behind him.  "Need some help?"

"Tried calling you," he said and grunted as he lifted out something heavy.  When he turned she saw it was a dusty old saddle.

"Going trail riding?" she asked with a laugh.

"No, he's going to find a lost kid in Palo Duro Canyon," a familiar voice informed from behind her, and Rocky tensed, her fists clenching as tightly as her jaw.

Ethan
stepped closer and his hot breath brushed the back of her neck when he added, "
We're
going to find her.  I was just taking a little siesta, because I didn't get much sleep last night." 

He didn't get much sleep last night
?  If the way he had treated her was how he normally treated women, then it was no wonder.  Sleeping with a guilty conscience wasn't an easy thing to do.