Page 81 of My Cowboy Freedom
“Wait. What?” Doc’s handsome face filled with concern. “Who doesn’t see you as an adult?”
My mind went back to that picnic basket. “I guess Elena might see me as a young adult, maybe? But my parents refuse to see me that way and it’s going to make me crazy.”
“Wait. I’m still not following.” The doc set his tablet aside. “How come?”
“I’m pretty sure they hoped I’d never meet a guy who’d want me, and now I have.”
“You met someone? Really?”
I sagged from the sheer relief of saying that out loud. His surprise wasn’t very flattering.
“Sorry it’s such a shock.”
“Of course it isn’t a shock.” He frowned. “Give me all the details, though. Is he nice? Is he from around here? Do you need instructional materials? I have a pamphlet somewhere calledHow to Bottom Like a Porn Star, and—”
I gasp. “You’re shitting me.”
“Yes, I am.” He folded his arms again. Smug bastard. “Tell me you practice safe sex and we can skip the terrifying dick pictures.”
“Not only do I practice, I’m damn good at it.Jesus.” I covered my eyes with my hands. It felt cool and nice but I decided not to keep them there. “Does everyone think I’m a fucking Muppet?”
Doc’s smile was blindingly white. “Rockne McLean, you potty mouth, you. What is going on at that ranch?”
“We have a new hand.”
“Do you, now?” The doc’s toe dug into the highly polished wooden floor and he spun around and around...
This is why Maisy hates that stool. She glared at me until he came to a stop, but then he circled around the other way in a sweeping move that was part rolling-chair ballet and part horrible accident waiting to happen.
“Watch yourself there, Doc.”
“I’m good. Tell me everything. You have a new hand at the ranch and—”
And he’s a convicted murderer.
And he is not Sirius Black.
“And, what?” I ask.
“We have ways of making you talk,” Declan warned in some horrible phony accent.
“Declan.”I say this like his name is my safeword.
“Oh, all right. It’s all good, because I know all about your tattooed coworker. Rainey over at the Feed and Seed said he’s ‘rough trade’”
Doc actually accompanied his words with finger quotes.
“Rainey said that?”
“Not in so many words, no. It was more implied by the way she said it. I inferred that he was a total and complete badass. Is he what’s got Elena’s panties in a knot?”
“What do you mean?”
“She was more upset than I’d expect her to be about your seizure. I got the feeling there was something else, but I wouldn’t let her talk about you, or at least, I didn’t answer her questions about your treatment. This drives her batshit crazy. But HIPAA forbids it unless you give me permission.”
“Which I do not.” I crossed my legs.
“I know this,” Declan continued. “So spill your guts, mister. I’m solid as a priest and far less judgmental.”
