“Aw, shucks,” she responds, and her lips turn down into a pout. “It’s a shame you don’t have a nurse or somethin’ to help ya out with my daddy’s leg.”
“A nurse?” I question, more than a little curious to understand what she means.
“Yeah,” she answers. “My granny Jenny loves this TV show with lots of doctors, and when I watch it with her, I always see the nurses helpin’ the doctors out. And if you had a nurse here, then the nurse could help my daddy while you went ridin’ with me tomorrow.”
“Oh, I see.” I smile down at her, but then, as I’m staring into her big blue eyes, I get an idea. A brilliant, payback-is-a-bitch of an idea. “Wait…you know what, Joey? I don’t know about tomorrow, but I think I have a plan that might make it possible to go riding with you sometime soon.”
She claps her hands together. “Really?”
“Uh-huh,” I respond and hold out my hand for her to take. “But we have to keep it a secret. Are you good at keeping secrets, Joey?”
“Oh yeah!” She places her tiny hand in mine, and her cute blue eyes go wide with seriousness. “I’m the best at keepin’ secrets!”
“Well, follow me, sweetie. We need to head to Tex’s office real quick to grab a pen and paper to write everything down.”
Since I arrived here, I’ve been struggling with how to get that stubborn cowboy to stick to my medical treatment plan, and unless I want to follow him everywhere, at all hours of the day and night, there are certain things I simply can’t get him to do.
Until now, that is.
Oh, hell yes.
Rhett Jameson might think he’s real clever, but little does he know, I can be real fucking clever, too.
I’ll keep doing my job. I’ll keep on his ass. But it’s safe to say, I’ve also found a way to get some help during the evening and nighttime hours when it’s impossible for me to be there.
Rhett
Damn, what a long day.
Fridays on the ranch are always busy, but today felt extra insane because of a certain doctor who appears content to be up my damn ass.
I slide my boots off my feet and ease myself to the couch. On the way down, a sharp pain hits my knee and I grimace, but once I’m finally sitting, it eases.
And as soon as I loosen the stiff brace around my leg, I breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Fucking finally.
I swear, the day I don’t need this fucking brace is the day I start a big-ass bonfire in my backyard and watch the damn thing go up in flames.
Honestly, if my fucking daddy hadn’t hired a doctor to stalk me all over the ranch, I’d probably try to go a few days without the fucking thing, but Lord Almighty, my ears couldn’t handle the verbal backlash I’d get from Dr. Leah Levee if I did.
Frankly, when she dropped Joey and me off at my house a little while ago, I expected that crazy doctor to try to follow me inside and glue one of her goddamn ice packs to my knee.
But she didn’t.
To my utter surprise, she didn’t bitch at me for telling the ranch guests she’s their on-call doctor during their stay. She didn’t even try to give me medical advice or demand I follow some kind of nightly fucking routine that we both knew I’d ignore.
She didn’t do anything besides offer a simple goodbye before heading back to her cabin for the evening.
I guess I should probably just be grateful that tonight equals a few hours of not having her in my ear, telling me all the shit she thinks I should be doing.
“Daddy! What’re ya doin’?” Joey shouts, popping out of the hallway and startling me out of my thoughts.
I sigh and then, I smile. “Joe, unless you wanna give your daddy a heart attack at the age of thirty-six, use your inside voice, please. It’s just me and you in this house, baby. No need for yellin’.”
“Sorry, but you shouldn’t have your leg like that.”
“What?”
She huffs and puffs and puts a hand to her hip. “Your leg shouldn’t be like that.”
“Then how should it be?”
She rolls her big blue eyes and stomps her tiny cowgirl boots over to the other side of the couch. Once she has a pillow in her hand, she moves toward me and sets the pillow down on the coffee table. “Lift your leg, Daddy,” she instructs, and in the name of keeping the damn peace, I listen. After four long-ass days with Dr. Leah Levee, I certainly don’t need another woman riding my ass about this fucking injury.
Slowly, and with two hands carefully bracing my knee, I lift my leg up and rest it on the pillow Joey is keeping steady.