Free Worth the Trouble by Becky McGraw Page A

must have been in bed and Terri and Joel had evidently gone home right after dinner.  The house was dark, and nobody was around. 
    Luckily, he found two cans of juice in the pantry on the bottom shelf.  If the juice had been on a higher shelf, Ethan probably couldn't have reached it, because he was too damned tired to try to stand.   Finally, when he coasted the cart to a stop in front of the bunkhouse again, this time without crashing into the porch, Ethan felt like he'd indeed done those extra reps in the weight room he'd refused to do earlier. 
    That might have been easier , he thought grabbing the walker and unfolding it.
    Reaching back into the cart, he put the loop of the bag with the juice in it over his arm then made slow unsteady steps to the porch with the walker.  Miss Priss was going to have to carry in her own luggage, because he wasn't going to be able to manage that and the walker. 
    Because he had no idea how to navigate the narrow steps on the walker, Ethan put the walker and bag of juice on the porch, then sat down on the top step.  Using the porch post, he pulled himself up then picked up the bag and balanced on the walker again.  When he reached the door, Ethan was pretty damned proud of his ingenuity in working all this out.
    Once inside the door, he yelled, "Leigh!"
    She didn't answer and he cursed under his breath then headed toward the bathroom.  The smell from the skunk musk was overwhelming in the front room.  It burned his eyes and made them water.  Ethan could only imagine how Roxanne's sister must be feeling closed up in the bathroom with the steam enhancing the effect. 
    Roxanne was gonna have a conniption when she got home and smelled it.
    At the door, he knocked.  "Leigh Ann?" he said loudly.
    When she didn't answer, he tried the doorknob hoping she hadn't passed out from the noxious fumes.  It turned and he opened the door, but didn't stick his head inside. 
    "Leigh Ann, are you okay in there?" he asked with concern.
    He heard sniffling and a low pitched sob , so he pushed the door wider.  She was sitting in the bottom of the shower curled up in a ball crying as the water poured over her.  Her head rested on her knees and her hair hung in stringy clumps over her arms.
    Jesus, could it get any worse? 
    Sitting the bag of juice on the counter, he left the walker and used the ledge to make his way over to the shower, where he slid down the wall to sit outside the shower. 
    Reaching up , he grabbed a towel off of the bar and told her, "Leigh, it's okay honey, we'll get the stink off.  Come here," he told her and held out the towel.  She looked up at him and he almost laughed.  Mascara left streaks around her eyes and down her cheeks making her look like a sad raccoon. 
    His lips twitched, but somehow Ethan managed to keep a straight face.  "Let me help you dry off, then we'll do the tomato juice thing," he coaxed and averted his face, so she could get out of the shower modestly.  Not that she'd shown a shred of modesty thus far.  The woman didn't seem to notice she was in the room naked with a man she didn't even know, had undressed in plain view on the front porch in front of him too.
    H e heard her sniffle again, then droplets of water hit his hand, before the towel was pulled out of his hand.
    "Don't cry," he begged with a groan.
    "My life is a mess," she told him sullenly.  "This is just the icing on the cake...stinky as it is," she added with another soft sob.
    From the corner of his eye, Ethan saw her lean back against the wall, then she slid down to sit beside him hugging her knees again.  Her head was bowed and her shoulders shook with her sobs. 
    "Well mine ain't a garden of roses, sweetheart," he told her unsympathetically. 
    Ethan wished his problems were as simple as being sprayed by a skunk.  Tomato juice wasn't going to solve his problems, and he wasn't sitting here crying like a baby...although he wanted to.
    "What's wrong with you?" she asked as if