Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,9
Martha said, her voice far too chipper.
Instant annoyance flashed through Dallas. It seemed entirely unfair that she was off enjoying her life in Florida or Georgia or wherever she was, and he was here, exhausted and hot and trying to figure out how to be a dad all over again by himself.
At the same time, Dallas wanted her back in his life. Nothing made sense. He had no idea how his life had come to this bedroom, on this ranch, on this phone call. He’d felt like this before, because his first night in prison had provided him with the same out-of-body experience as he was having right now.
“Are you there?” she asked.
Dallas let his eyes drift closed as he said, “Yeah, I’m here.”
“What’s going on?”
“Just talk to me,” he said. He’d asked her to do this many times for him in the past. When he’d lost a heart patient—the second child in a family with congenital heart failure—and he’d come home devastated, he’d collapsed on a bed very much like this one. He’d cried and cried, and Martha had simply sat with him and stroked his hair off his forehead until he quieted.
Then she’d asked, “Are you done crying?” in a kind, quiet, patient voice.
He hadn’t answered, and he’d just asked her to talk to him. She’d told him that he had to go back to work, even though he’d said he didn’t want to ever return to a hospital surgical wing again. He had to go back, because he had to help the others coming up behind him. He had knowledge others didn’t have, and they’d have to learn it all over again.
He’d picked himself up, showered and slept, and gone back to work.
“I don’t have anything to say,” Martha said.
“Where are you?” Dallas asked.
“Dallas.” She sighed. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
“I need you,” he whispered, wishing he didn’t. But he did. “I miss you. I—”
“Dallas,” she said again. “Please, don’t do this.”
“Are you seeing someone else?” he asked.
“I’m not doing this,” Martha said. “How are the kids?”
Anger drove out the soft feelings in his heart. He suddenly didn’t miss her at all, and in fact, if he knew where she was, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from driving over there and throttling her.
“I have to go,” he said. He hung up before she could protest, not that she would. And that would only hurt worse than telling her that the two children she abandoned were currently swimming in a pool and wondering where their mother was.
Dallas needed to figure out where he was going to go tomorrow. He needed to find a place to live, because the little money he did have would run out incredibly fast if they had to stay in hotels for long.
His back screamed at him as he stood up, and throbbed as he bent to get his laptop out of his backpack. Brent had given it to him, and gratitude streamed through Dallas. It wasn’t enough to erase the pain his back, and he went out to the kitchen to get some painkillers from that cupboard full of pill bottles.
He’d just swallowed a few pills when someone came in the back door. Dallas really wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, even someone he knew.
Jess came around the corner, and a physical groan actually came out of Dallas’s mouth. He wasn’t ready to apologize yet, and he turned away as she said, “Just the man I was looking for.”
That got him to turn around, because he couldn’t really determine her mood from the tone of her voice. She wore a smile that seemed a little predatory, and Dallas braced himself for something that would surely only add fuel to the fire already simmering in his stomach.
Chapter Four
Jess didn’t like the stance Dallas assumed. One hip slightly cocked, arms folded, that glower in his eyes. Maybe she did like it. She wasn’t sure. He definitely made something flutter somewhere inside her. She couldn’t decide if it was her stomach or her chest.
It had taken a lot of nerve for her to come here and talk to him, but she reminded herself that she’d been asking Ginger for a man like him for months. Humiliation still ran through her, and she could still hear him telling her to stop texting during the wedding.
She had, and she supposed she could see things from his point of view. He simply didn’t know that she’d been texting Emma about a salary for