Get Bucked (The Valentine Boys 4)

Banks stayed stubbornly silent.

“Also, from what I understand, Georgia doesn’t work at the ranch,” I said. “And she still gets dividends. What’s any different with what she’s doing than what Darby’s doing?”

Banks sighed.

“You have a point,” he admitted.

I rolled my eyes.

I knew damn well I had a point.

I also knew that Darby wouldn’t be in the shower much longer.

“I’m going to order pizza,” I said. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”

Candy walked to her husband and wrapped her arms around his middle.

I ordered pizza.

And we all waited for Darby to come out and join us.

He looked like he’d rather pull his hair out than have dinner with his brother.

But he manned up and did it anyway.

Because that’s what adults did.

Did stuff that they didn’t want to do.Chapter 12

I want a chiropractor to crack my entire body like a glowstick.

-Text from Darby to Waylynn

Darby

“Who wants to introduce themselves to the class?” I asked, standing at the front of the classroom with my arms crossed over my chest.

As per Waylynn’s orders, I hadn’t worn my hat.

And, unfortunately, she was right.

I didn’t get near as much attention as I did with it on.

It was Tuesday, four days after my mishap with the bull and a fence, and I was, as you could say, sore.

Sore was actually too mild of a word.

Wrecked was a good one.

I wasn’t limping or anything, but it hurt to breathe. It hurt to stand. It hurt to sit. It hurt to lie down.

Pretty much, it hurt to live.

A woman in the front row raised her hand and smiled prettily.

She was young, a few years younger than me, and looked as if she stripped for a living.

In fact, I was fairly sure that I’d seen her at Judy Bosoms a time or two before when I’d visited during business hours.

“Oh, me!” she cried happily.

I leaned my hips against the desk, tried to hide my grimace, and waited for her to start.

Since I didn’t have any other volunteers, I decided that it was okay for her to do the talking.

Sadly, I should’ve listened to my instincts and pointed at someone else.

“I’m here because I heard that this class was easy,” she chattered on endlessly.

In fact, she chattered so much that by the time that she finished, we only had about ten more minutes of class.

“Next time,” I said when she finally leaned back in her chair. “Everybody else gets to go.”

Everyone in the room around me chuckled.

I handed out an assignment—a collection of soil from their house—and told them to find out everything that they could about the area in which their place was built on.

Dismissing them five minutes early, I was just gathering my things when I heard a feminine voice clear beside me.

I looked over to see the stripper—and yes, I’d found out from her long dialogue about her life that she was, indeed, a stripper—standing there with a smile on her face.

“So I’ve seen you around Judy Bosoms,” she said.

I looked at her with raised eyebrows. “My best friend owns the place.”

“Oh, you know Gibson?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes.

If she’d seen me around the place, she’d seen me talking to Gibson. She’d also seen that we were good friends.

Of course I knew the man.

“Yes,” I answered shortly.

“So that girl that came in with you a few days ago. Was that your girlfriend?” she asked. “She was nothing to write home about. You’re a very sexy man. I would—”

I held my hand up, anger starting to get the best of me.

“Yes, she’s my girlfriend,” I snapped, trying to hold my temper in check and doing a piss-poor job at it. “Now, this is inappropriate for us to be discussing, seeing as I’m your teacher. If you’ll please…”

Her eyes narrowed.

“And it’s not inappropriate to be best friends with a strip club owner?” she asked, voice slightly acidic.

My brows rose.

“Ms…” I waited for her to give me her name.

“Duncan,” she offered.

“Ms. Duncan,” I said. “Please leave before I go visit with administration and get you permanently removed from my class. And all my future classes.” I paused. “I understand that you need this one to graduate, correct? If you don’t get it here, the closest one to offer it is two hours away. That’s a whole lot of driving to do on a single mom’s salary, correct?” I paused again. “Though, saying that, my best friend does OWN the establishment that you work in. I’m fairly sure he’s overlooked a few things that you’ve done, like calling in sick quite a few times because your son was sick. It’d be a shame if he overlooked his good nature and let you go because you were sick at least once a week.”

Ms. Duncan shut her mouth with an audible snap, seeing the error in her ways very quickly.

Without another word, she turned on her heels and marched out of my room, leaving me in blissful silence for all of two seconds before a light clapping began.