Wrangled (6 page)

In no time, Annalee came rushin’ in, her
little girl in her arms.

“Hi there, Tali,” I said. She looked at me
with her big round blue eyes, just like her mom’s, and busted into tears.
“What? Annalee, what’d I do?”

She was bouncin’ Tali and sayin’ “Shh, shh,
it’s okay, it’s just Cody.” To me, she said, “I think seeing you with that
brace on scared her.”

“Aw, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be silly. I should have thought of
it. What did you need, honey?”

Hearin’ her call me honey was just about as
sweet as honey itself. But, I had a powerful need, and it was gettin’ worse.
“Uh, Anna…I mean sweetheart, I’m afraid I’m gonna hafta get some help to get in
the bathroom.”

“Oh! Of course. Wait here, I’ll go get
Russ.”

“Okay. You might wanta tell him to make it
snappy.”

“Sure, Cody. Hang on.”

She was gone in a flash, and in a minute or
two, here come Russ. “I hear you need some help.” He was kinda grinnin’ but
tryin’ not to.

“Rub it in, boss, but I cain’t get outta
this bed by myself, and doc said I wasn’t supposed to put weight on this leg.
I’m not sure I can even see over this neck brace to point my willy right.”

Russ busted up laughin’ at that one. Tell
the truth, I was laughin’ too, but the situation wasn’t really funny. I didn’t
want nobody else’s hand on it but Annalee’s, and not for that.

“Let’s see what we can do,” Russ said. He
helped me sit up and sorta roll off the bed, my right leg stickin’ out in front
all useless, and then he put my right arm around his shoulders and told me to
hop on the other leg while he propped me up on that side. It wasn’t the easiest
way to get someplace, but we managed to get in the bathroom.

“Best suggestion I’ve got is you sit down
to piss,” Russ said.

“Aw, boss, like a girl?” I could see that I
was gonna be completely humiliated by the time this was over, but he was right.
Unless I wanted him to stand there and hold me up, and likely point my dick in
the right direction, too, I was gonna hafta sit down. Even worse, he was gonna
hafta hold me up until I could get my clothes pulled down. I could feel the
burn creepin’ up my neck, but Russ was pretty good about it.

“Hey, you got enough there to entertain any
girl in creation,” he said when I pulled my britches down. I was pretty sure he
was just tryin’ to cheer me up, but trust me, what was there got a lot smaller
when he said it. That violated the unspoken rule that you didn’t look at
another hombre’s dick in the bathroom. If I hadn’t known he was a real man,
because of Miss Charity and little Kitty, I’d have punched him one, needin’
help or not.

He left the room then, sayin’ “I’ll be
right outside when you’re done.”

It took me awhile, knowin’ he was outside waitin’.
This wasn’t gonna work long-term. I had to figure out a different way.

When I finished, Russ helped me back over
to the bed and into it, and said, “I’ll have Annalee bring you some dinner.”

“Boss,” I said, “I’m grateful and all, but
we’ve gotta figure out a better way to do that.”

“I know, Cody,” he said, and I could tell
he was serious. “I’m working on it.”

“And Boss? Would you mind if Uncle Hank
come in to talk to me?”

“No, Cody, I don’t mind. Would you like it
if some of the hands came in and played cards with you or something sometime?”

“That’d be real nice, thanks.”

Hank come in a few minutes later. “The boss
said you wanted to see me?”

“Yessir. I was wonderin’ if you’d mind
givin’ Abogado some exercise now and then, until I can do it. I don’t trust
none of the others to do it right.”

Hank got a pleased look on his face, like
I’d give him a compliment, which, come to think of it, I had. “Sure, son, I can
do that. You got everything you need here?”

“Everything except a way to get to the
bathroom on my own. It was damned humiliatin’ when the boss helped me this
afternoon.”

“You want me to help you now?”

“I guess so. Still humiliatin’ though.”

“Don’t worry, son, sooner or later, you’ll
end up wipin’ my old ass unless I go and get myself killed before I get too old
to do it myself.” That thought cheered me up enough that I didn’t even mind
when he saw I was gonna hafta sit down again. Well, not much anyway.

Hank visited a while longer after I was
done, and then the boss and Miss Charity come in to see if I was comfortable.
They’d told a few of my friends that they could come and see me, cheer me up
some, on Friday. I looked forward to that. Finally, everyone left, and I
thought I should probly get some shut-eye, even though I wasn’t sleepy because
of sleepin’ most of the day.

A few minutes later, Annalee came in, this
time totin’ my dinner instead of Tali. I asked her where the kids was.

“It’s past their bedtime,” she said. “I put
them down right after I got Russ for you. Did everything work out okay?” I knew
what she was askin’, but I didn’t feel like talkin’ about it, so I just
shrugged my shoulders, wishin’ I hadn’t when it shifted the neck brace. Damn,
this was gonna take some gettin’ used to.

“Cody,” Annalee said while I tucked into my
dinner, “what are you planning to do about exercising Abo? And have you thought
about whether you’ll go ahead and try to enter any calf-roping events next
spring?”

“I thought I’d ask Hank to keep Abo
exercised.”

“Oh. I wanted to tell you I’d be glad to
ride him for you if you want.”

“That’s real nice, Annalee. But it’s real
easy to let a ropin’ horse get bad habits. If you was a more experienced rider,
that’d be good, but, I’m gonna ask Uncle Hank to keep him rode and exercised.”

“Oh. That’s okay. But I’ll see if Hank wants
me to groom him and all,” she said. I reached for her hand.

“You’re just about the sweetest thing since
wild clover honey,” I said, rubbin’ my finger over the soft spot between her
thumb and finger. That made her happy, I could tell, because her face lit up
with the prettiest smile.

“Do you think it would hurt you if I
climbed up and sat with you awhile?” she said.

“I don’t care if it does, long as you kiss
me awhile, too,” I answered, pushing my empty plate away.

She climbed up in that big ol’ bed with me
and snuggled in under my arm on my good side, and said, “I don’t know how we’re
going to kiss much with that thing on your neck.”

I offered to take it off, but she wouldn’t
hear about it. “No, you’re supposed to keep it on. I’ll figure it out.” Next
thing I knew, she threw one leg over and sat across my hips, leaned on the
headboard with one arm on each side of my head, and started to kiss me like
nobody’s business. I got my arms around her and was gettin’ good and worked up,
when she said, “Oh! What’s that? Cody Wayne, you’re a bad boy,” but she was
gigglin’. With her sittin’ right there, my johnson was gettin’ into the act,
and for once I didn’t have on no tight jeans. I was in some flannel pajama
bottoms that Russ had got for me when he found out I’d be in bed for a while.
Usually I slept in my skivvies, but with people needin’ to come in and see to
my care, he thought pajamas would be a better idea. I couldn’t help what was
happenin’ in my pants…Annalee was a hot armful.

“Sorry,” I said, still kissin’ her every
time she came in range.

She climbed off of me, though, and I was
disappointed, but I didn’t let her know it.

Friday, some of the guys stayed after
dinner to set with me a spell. We couldn’t figure out how we was gonna play
cards, because by the time they brought in three or four more chairs, there
wasn’t no room for a table, even if I coulda sat at it. So, we just jawed
awhile, talkin’ about the horses, mostly. I asked ‘em if any of ‘em had seen
what happened when Abo throwed me.

Miguel said, “I’m not sure, but something
spooked him. He shied, and you shifted with him, and then he just stopped hard,
and you went sailin’ over his head.”

Bill spoke up then and said, “I think it
was a snake went through the corral.”

Miguel said, “Did you see a snake, Bill?”

“Naw, I just think that’s what it was.”

“Then shut your flap and keep your opinion
to yourself. No need gettin’ anybody worked up over snakes in the corrals.”

Truth be told, it wouldn’t be all that
unusual for a snake to try to cut across the corral. Bull snakes, rattlers,
plain ol’ garter snakes, you name it, it was around here close. But they didn’t
usually like to move much in the fall, because it was gettin’ too cool for ‘em.
We’d be more likely to find ‘em out in the pastures somewhere, layin’ on a rock
that was still warm from the sun. No horse liked a snake, so it coulda been.
Even though Miguel made out like it was nothin’, I’d bet that anyone usin’ that
corral from now on would walk a good ways around it checkin’.

What was more important was if there was
snakes around the yard, the boss needed to warn the girls, so they would watch
their kids real close when they played outside. I’d be sure to tell Annalee
next time I saw her.

Miguel said, “You know, that woulda been
funny if you hadn’t hit your head on the fencepost.”

“Funny, huh,” I said. “It’d be funny if it
was
you
sittin’ helpless in this bed.” I wished I’d left that last part
off. I didn’t want any of my friends to be hurt, not really. It was just hard
layin’ here helpless, that’s all.

It was good to have my friends settin’ with
me, though, tryin’ to keep me laughin’ and tellin’ me what was goin’ on outside
this room. I’d only been here two days, and I could already tell it was gonna
be miserable layin’ in this bed for six weeks. What I’d do if it was longer, I
didn’t know. Shoot myself, probly.

The worst part was, I couldn’t take no
shower or bath for awhile. Instead, Annalee would give me a sponge bath, and
that was about the most awkward thing you ever saw. It was worse than havin’
Russ help me in the bathroom, because he at least didn’t have to handle me. She
was all serious and actin’ like a nurse, but still. When it come time for her
to wash my balls and willy, havin’ her hands there like to have kilt me. I had
to think about stuff like the crud that come out of Abo’s feet to keep from
gettin’ hard. It was bad enough she had to see my privates at all when she
wasn’t ready to have sex yet, and she sure didn’t need to see it jumpin’ up for
her. By Friday, she’d only give me one sponge bath, but that was enough to last
me the rest of my life if I didn’t get to smellin’ like a bull.

I mighta known that sooner or later one of
the boys would ask me about stuff like that.

“Hey, Cody, how is it havin’ your girl take
care of you? Pretty nice, huh?” That was from Stud. We called him that because
he liked to brag about all the girls he’d nailed in school and whenever he went
to town. None of us believed a word of it. He was probly a virgin, truth be
told.

“Sometimes it’s nice, but sometimes it’s
damned uncomfortable, no shit,” I said, thinkin’ about that sponge bath. I was
due for another one tomorrow, and I was dreadin’ it.

“What, you mean when the boss has to carry
you in to do your business?” Bill asked. That got a laugh all around, except
for me. That was no jokin’ matter.

“Yeah, that’s what I mean, and thanks for
bringin’ that up,” I said. No way was I gonna tell ‘em that Annalee give me a
sponge bath. Not only would that make ‘em even worse, but I’d have to find a
way to beat the shit out of any of ‘em that thought it was cute to make a
smart-ass remark about my girl.

~~~

Next mornin’ when Annalee brung my
breakfast, I asked her if she and the others had ever seen any snakes around.

“No, I don’t think so, why?” she asked.

“Aw, Bill thought maybe it was a snake
spooked Abo.”

She got a faraway look in her eyes and
said, real slow, “No, I don’t think we’ve ever seen a snake. And I don’t
remember seeing one that night.”

“It coulda been a little bitty thing. Abo’s
scared of ‘em, most horses are. You might not’ve seen it. But you be sure you
watch good when you’ve got the kids outside. Most of the snakes around here
would just run off, but a rattler might strike.”

She shuddered and said, “I’ll watch out
good, Cody. Thanks. I’m sorry I can’t stay for a minute, but I’m watching the
kids in the playroom with Amber this morning. You go ahead and call me if you
need anything, and I’ll be right in. But I’m afraid your bath is going to have
to wait until afternoon if you don’t mind.”

Naw, I didn’t mind. I didn’t want it at
all, but I reckoned I’d be stinkin’ up the room somethin’ terrible if I didn’t
let her do it. After she left the room, I looked down as much as I could, and
told my dick to behave itself when she come back. Then I watched TV for awhile.

I still hadn’t figured out what I was gonna
do about rodeo fees. I couldn’t ask the boss to pay me while I was laid up,
though he’d told me not to worry about earnin’ my keep or feed for Abo. At
least I was done with payin’ for Abo, and had some money saved up for tack.
Then it hit me, if the boss would loan me some tack, I could use that money for
the first rodeo fee. After that, maybe I’d have some prize money to pay for the
next one and get my own tack. I’d ask him next time he come in to help me.