Queen of the South - My Season 6: Full Circle

Chapter 19, Cuentas Pendientes VII

Culiacan

Teresa had nothing planned for the afternoon, so she called the hotel spa and after a short conversation told James a massage sounded like what she definitely wanted right now. He raised his shoulders and didn't say anything.

"I am sure your back too won't object to pampering after the two long flights and many more hours behind the wheel... just as mine...it's couples massage, would be fun", she sounded excited to him.

"Whether you are lying on the table next to me or not, isn't going to make the pink lines on my back any less visible", he noted flatly.

"We can ask for a masseur, not a masseuse..." Teresa ventured.

"No, not happening", James said in a disinterested air as she kept looking at him insistently.

"No passara, Teresa!", he said with the specific intonation showing his lack of interest.

"Ok...I will get a facial too...it's going to take more time...I don't care who sees what...maybe even have my nails done", she said with a tease in her voice.

He looked at her sharply: "When have you ever had your nails done? You're starting to sound like Kelly Anne", Teresa had said some time ago that doing one's nails was a waste of time.

"What's wrong with having one's nails done?", she said, and he figured that she was either teasing him or what he had seen in terms of changes recently had not been everything.

"Teresa! ...Whatever!", he emphasized both words. This was the polite way of James telling her to beat it; she recognized it for what it was and stifling a laugh, closed the door behind her.

He looked at his nails, he liked them short and buffed, but he didn't feel like attending to them now as he felt for a beer more than anything. He was sipping it cold on the balcony, staring at the thick green canopy of the park that stretched to the left of the hotel entrance when his cell rang. He looked at the screen and saw it was Kelly Anne.

"Hello, how are you?", he realized he was eager to get news about everyone.

"Hi to you too! Glad to hear your voice. How are you? Fully recovered?", she sounded excited.

"I'm as good as new...what has Tony done now?" he asked as last week they had had the disturbing news that their oldest son was turning to be into pranks, just as his father had been at the same remarkable age of 8 years.

"Oh, nothing," Kelly Anne said fast: "The boys are okay...everyone is okay...I am calling as I need to run something by you and ...ahh...I anticipate I will need help with Pote....", James thought this would be interesting.

"I see," he said and knew she would be able to hear the smirk in his tone: "With what?"

"Well...convincing him that horseback riding is not dangerous..." she said faster as if speed mattered.

"But you know it is..." he had ridden a few times as a boy and had not had this impression himself, but had heard stories of people getting thrown off and injured for life.

"Oh James, come on!" Kelly Anne's voice was imitating indignation: "You are a Texan; we have all ridden a damn horse and loved it...don't tell me you haven't!"

"I have ...twice...my aunt's ex-husband owned a ranch...I liked it but couldn't do much about it living in Dallas...tell me more...what's this about?", he was getting interested.

"See...I used to ride as an amateur all the way until I went to university, never got to competing, but now they run these shows here in Stellenbosch for amateur riders and I have signed up... it's in two months... and I have been practicing at the Equestrian Academy that is on the other side of town...", she sounded very excited by her achievements and James, who liked sitting on moving objects like his ATV, thought horseback riding was not a bad idea.