Filthy Doctor(311)

Cody huffed a heavy sigh and flattened his palms on the table like he was bracing himself against a stiff wind. He said, “I’m gonna tell you something, Shelby, and I know you’re gonna be pissed, but you need to know the truth.”

“What truth?” I asked, dreading his answer, though I didn’t know why.

“He was gonna go with you,” Cody said quietly. “He came to me and said he was gonna forget about riding bulls so he could go to College Station with you.”

I blinked at him through the tears. “He was?”

“Yes, he was.”

I took a deep breath. I didn’t know why, but my hands were starting to shake. I wrapped my fingers around the tea glass to keep them still. “What did you tell him?”

Cody looked me in the eye. “I told him he was a goddamn fool if he was gonna put his dreams on hold to help you chase yours.”

My jaw fell open. “You what?”

“I told him that if he went with you to College Station, he would be miserable. And he would have made you miserable. I told him the best thing he could do was to pack up his shit and hit the circuit and let you go to college.”

“What… how dare you…”

“I knew y’all loved each other, but your dreams were set too far apart. You were chasing different stars, Shelby, in different parts of the sky. And it wasn’t fair for you to expect him to put his dreams on hold just because you didn’t want to be alone.”

“Oh my god…” I said, putting my hands to my cheeks. “What gave you the right? How dare you interfere in my life?”

“I told you that you were gonna be pissed,” Cody said with a shrug. He popped the last bite of sandwich into his mouth and chewed for a moment, then drained the tea glass to wash it down. He got up from the table to set his dishes in the sink.

“Don’t you leave,” I said, seething at him. My face must have been red as a beet because I could feel the blood pumping through my brain. “I’m not done talking to you yet.”

“Well, I’m done talking to you,” Cody said. He dug two fingers into the pocket of his shirt and brought out a slip of paper and handed it to me.

“What is this?” I asked, opening the paper which had a name and phone number on it.

“That guy called yesterday,” Cody said. “About a job you applied for before you came home.”

“Oh my god,” I muttered, recognizing the name as the corporate recruiter from Monsanto I’d met with a few months before. Monsanto was the largest producer of seeds in the country. Working in their research lab was my dream job. The job was in Houston, three hours away.

“Don’t do it again, Shelby,” Cody said as he plucked his dusty hat off the rack by the back door and set it on his head. “Don’t try to make him choose your dream over his. This time, you might not get him back.”



Shelby

I waited until Cody was out the door and headed toward the barn before getting up to find my cell phone. I was so mad at him I could have chewed nails, but I’d have to deal with him later. Right now, my attention was on the slip of paper in my hand.

I found my cell phone in my purse by the front door and took into Daddy’s study, which was what he called the small room off the foyer that held a worn red leather chair older than me, a side table with his pipe, tobacco pouch, and silver lighter in the shape of a western pistol, and a big glass ashtray that always seemed to need emptying.

There was a brass floor lamp with a dusty shade and a wall of shelves that held a couple thousand western novels by Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Larry McMurtry, and other authors I’d never heard of.

I closed the door, sat on the edge of the chair, and punched in the number. I cleared my throat a dozen times as the phone rang. A receptionist answered and I asked for Ted Pruitt.

“Hi, Mr. Pruitt, this is Shelby Cates. I had a message that you had called yesterday.” I listened for a moment, almost hoping that he was just calling to tell me that there was no place for me at Monsanto. I’d just gotten Luke back in my life. It was too soon to let life tear us apart again.

“Yes, sir, that’s wonderful news, of course I accept. Yes, please email me the offer letter and I’ll sign it and send it back immediately. Yes, sir, a week from Monday sounds fine. Thank you, sir. Thank you.”

I hung up the phone and put a hand over my heart.

It felt like it was gonna beat right out of my chest.

Shit. I mean, yay!

My dream job had just become a reality.

Today was Friday.

A week from Monday I’d start my career as a research scientist at Monsanto’s Houston labs, doing research and development on new seed hybrids.

I couldn’t wait to tell Luke.

Surely, he’d want to come with me.



Luke

The day we got back to the ranch I slept almost fifteen hours straight. Cody said Shelby was so worried that she kept coming in to check on me to make sure I was still breathing.

When I finally managed to pry my eyes open and my ass out of bed, she wrapped plastic wrap around my waist and over my bandages so I could take a shower. I felt like a damned convenience store burrito. It was all I could do to resist pulling her into the shower with me. I would have loved to have soaped up her big titties and fucked her from behind as the hot water sprayed down on us. Sadly, that would be a fantasy we’d have to play out another day, when her Daddy and his shotgun weren’t around.

It was kind of nice showering alone, though. Taking my time, letting the hot water jets beat against my sore shoulders and neck. Fuck, just getting a week’s worth of hospital grime and sex goo off me made me feel a hundred times better.

I spent the next few days in bed most of the time, but slowly started moving around the house. Shelby refused to let me do much other than move from bed to kitchen chair to porch swing to bed. She fed me like a damn horse, insisting that I eat every bite of food she put in front of me.

Finally, I felt good enough to get out of bed for most of the day. I borrowed some of Cody’s clothes and underwear and socks. I’d lost a considerable amount of weight, so Cody’s clothes hung on me like a set of bad drapes. Shelby had to help me pull on my boots, but other than that I managed on my own.

The scar was healing well and the pain was subsiding, although I still had to be careful because sometimes the pain would hit out of nowhere and hitch me over double for a minute or two. I recalled the doc telling me that anytime they worked on your insides, it could take months, if not years, to completely heal. Screw that. I didn’t have years to lay on my ass. I wasn’t getting no younger.

I didn’t mention it to Shelby, but I planned to be back on a bull soon as the rodeo season started again in a few months.

I didn’t mention it because I knew she would go through the roof.

She kept making these little comments about how dangerous bull riding was, and how I wasn’t getting no younger, and how I ought’a be thinking about my long-term future.

I let the comments go, partially because I didn’t have the strength yet to argue with her and partially because I knew she was right.

Bull riding was dangerous and I wasn’t getting no younger.

And I rarely thought past my next ride.

But goddammit, I wasn’t ready to just roll over and die.

At least not yet.



I was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee when the screen door opened and Alvin Lee came in, wiping sweat off his face with the sleeve of his shirt. A cloud of dust followed him in. He hung his hat on the rack by the door and gave me the eye.

“How you feeling, boy?” he asked. He went to the sink and washed his hands, then opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. He twisted off the cap and took the chair next to me.

“I’m better every day,” I said with my hand on my side. “I’ll be out there riding and roping with you and Cody before you know it.”

“Don’t rush it,” he said, shaking his head with the bottle at his lips. He wiped his bushy mustache with his fingers. “Worse thing you can do is get back on a horse or a bull too soon and have your guts pop out in the middle of the arena.”

“Yes, sir, that’s the truth.” I smiled and gave him little a nod. I held my coffee cup between my hands and stared into it. I didn’t want to look him in the eye because I had the fear that he would see guilt all over my face. I had done nasty things to his little girl and I knew that he would see that in my eyes. I could tell he was watching me. I could feel his steel blue eyes burning into my face like a hot branding iron.

“So, Luke, what’s you plan?” he asked, sitting back with the water resting on his chest.

I glanced up and shrugged. “Reckon I’ll heal up and get back on the road.”

“No, son, I mean what’s your plan regarding Shelby?”

I glanced up again and my eyes locked on his. I tried not to blink. “Sir?

“I asked what’s your plan regarding Shelby.”

“Um, well, I’m not sure I understand the question.”

He huffed and shook his head at me. “Son, do you think I’m stupid?”

“No, sir,” I said quickly. “You’re probably the smartest man I know.”

He chucked and rubbed a knuckle under his nose. “Son, if that’s the case you need to greatly widen your social circle.” He grinned at me for a moment, then put his elbows on the table and leaned in over them. “I know about you and Shelby. I always have.”