I flash a flirty smirk and waggle my eyebrows at her. “It’s why we need wonderful women like you to keep us in line.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, don’t think you can try to distract me with your flattery!” She takes the towel off her shoulder and whips me in the side with it. “You old bastard, you!”
I laugh and raise both of my hands up in the air again. “C’mon, Jen, you know if that doctor would’ve known what she was really walking into, she would’ve never come out here. And, trust me, Rhett needs this. Just a week ago, Tiny caught him out in the barn saddlin’ Sonny.”
“No, he didn’t.” She tries to refute the idea that her baby boy is a fucking troublemaker.
But I don’t have any problems setting her straight. Even if it means another night on the couch.
“Jenny, I know you think Rhett is a good boy, but I’m tellin’ you, that son of ours is as stubborn as they come. If I didn’t bring someone out here to help him safely get back on his feet from that knee injury, I feared he’d end up losing the fucking leg. All them years of ridin’ broncs has only made him more willing to take unnecessary risks. More willin’ to choose ego over rationality.”
Jen shakes her head and steps closer to the window to peek out the curtains.
I’m not sure if Dr. Leah Levee has managed to get out of the lodge parking lot yet, but with the way my wife huffs out a sigh, I can imagine there’s still a bit of a struggle going on.
“Tex, don’t you think you should at least give her something better to drive?” she requests. “Making a pretty city girl like that drive around in your old hunk of junk just seems downright cruel.”
“I’m plannin’ on switchin’ it out for one of the trucks later.”
“Why later?” she asks, glancing at me over her shoulder.
“Because that ole Jeep of mine is good for one thing and one thing alone—breaking the fuck down. And guess who’s gonna have to come to her rescue?”
She inhales an exasperated breath. “Rhett.”
“Now you’re getting the idea. I’m just encouraging some bonding, is all.” I grin and step forward to stand beside my beautiful wife, and with my arm around her waist, after I give her ass a little squeeze, I watch out the window with her.
Dr. Leah Levee has now managed to get inside the Jeep.
And thankfully, it’s only a few minutes later before the engine roars to life.
The thing sounds like shit, but I’ve had it long enough to know it should get her to her cabin and Rhett’s house before it gives out.
And I have a feeling the timing will be perfect.
No doubt, by then, Rhett will need something to force him to have some fucking patience and help her out. Thereby, hopefully, forcing him to fucking listen to her medical advice.
It might seem like a bit of a long shot, what I’m doing, but I’ve always had a good sense of knowing how certain things will play out. And more than that, I’ve also been blessed with the foresight of knowing when to meddle.
“So…tell me, Tex, what exactly do you think is gonna happen when that beautiful doctor shows up at your son’s house and finds out he’s no teenage boy?”
“Well, honey, that’s where you come in.”
She turns around and meets my eyes. “Me?”
I nod. “A few hours from now, I need you to head on over to Cabin Three and check on her.”
Jenny rolls her pretty eyes. “I should’ve known you’d rope me into this somehow.”
I smirk and press a kiss to her forehead. “You should take it as a compliment. I know I can always count on that kind heart and sweet, soothing voice of yours to smooth things over.”
She sighs. “Tex Jameson, you’re a real asshole, you know that?”
“I do,” I respond without hesitation and with a big ole smirk. “But that’s why I have a perfect woman like you by my side.”
She quirks a brow, and I have no problem obliging her silent question.
“See, sweetheart, when I do asshole shit like let a pretty doctor think our grumpy cowboy son is a teenager and she finds out he’s a stubborn, grown-ass man, I know I can count on you to be the one to reassure her that not everyone on this ranch is an asshole and convince her to stick it out.”
“Why does everything have to be so darned complicated with you?” she questions on a snort. “Why couldn’t you just be a normal person and handle things like normal folk do?”
“Because you wouldn’t have married me forty years ago if I’d have been just a normal guy,” I retort and grab both of her hips. “Both you and I know you were a wild little thing back in the day, and it’s that untamed spirit of yours that helped ensure our son grew up to be a fantastic pain in the ass.”