He wiped his brow and then remembered that he really wanted to leave the wild cowboy ways behind him. Get thee behind me, Lucifer! You are not going to make this change in my life easy are you? Already you’re throwing up temptations that are pretty damn hard to avoid.
When they’d unloaded the food on the kitchen cabinet he followed her back out to the porch. That was the polite thing to do. After all, she’d brought enough chili to last until spring thaw, a chocolate meringue pie, and that sure enough looked like jalapeño cornbread in the box with the pie.
When they reached the yard gate, he stuck out his hand and said, “Thank you again, Mary Jo. That was real sweet of you to welcome me to Dry Creek.”
She bypassed the hand, ran her hands up under his jacket, and pressed her body close to his. She rolled up slightly on her toes and kissed him on the chin. “Put that hand away, Blake. I believe in hugs to welcome a person, not a handshake. And the second time I see you, I’ll expect a hug and a real kiss.”
He didn’t even hear the truck coming up the driveway until it stopped beside her van, and there was Allie staring right at him from the passenger window. Mary Jo winked at Allie and hugged Blake one more time.
The window of the truck rolled down slowly. “Didn’t take you long to find a girlfriend.”
Blake propped one forearm over the other against the truck, his face only a few inches from Allie’s. “Just met her ten minutes ago. Don’t think we’ve got far enough to call it a relationship.”
“Hello.” A big man reached across Allie with an open hand. “I’m Deke and I’ll be helping Allie put a roof on your house.”
Blake’s arm grazed Allie’s shoulder when he stuck his hand through the window. He blamed the sparks on the cold weather and a little static electricity.
Deke had a firm handshake and a friendly smile, but it was too cold to stand outside and talk when a warm fire and a pot of chili waited in the house.
“Let’s take this conversation inside,” he said.
Deke nodded.
Blake was careful not to touch Allie again as he pulled his hand back and then jogged to the house. The second the door was open, Shooter raced inside and curled up in front of the fireplace on a worn rug. Blake laid a couple of logs on the embers and the old dog sighed.
He went to the kitchen and lifted the lid from the slow cooker. The spicy aroma of chili filled the whole room. He’d be eating it for a week or else divvying it up into plastic containers and freezing it. The crunch of tires pulling the trailer around back filtered through the kitchen window, but it wasn’t until someone knocked on the back door that Shooter’s head popped up.
Blake slung the door open and Deke, taller than Blake’s six feet by at least four inches, stood behind Allie. He had curly brown hair that covered his ears and poked out around a well-worn cowboy hat. His hazel eyes studied Blake like he was a bug under a microscope. Allie’s husband, maybe? He couldn’t help the twinge that ran through him at the thought.
“Come in.” Blake motioned them out of the cold weather. “I put a couple of logs on the fire so it’s getting nice and warm in here.”
Allie handed him a bill. “This is for the total job. Gray shingles were on sale this week so I got a little better deal than we talked about on the phone. It’s five hundred less than the estimate I gave you. You can pay half now and half when the job is done or pay all now.”
Deke sniffed the air. “Is that chili? Don’t mind Allie’s rudeness. She’s worried about this bad weather and she wants to get this roof done before it hits. And she talks too much when she’s nervous.”
“I was not being rude,” Allie countered with a shove to the tall man.
“Yes, you were,” Deke said. “You didn’t even say hello before you threw that bill on the counter. That’s rude. Loosen up, woman. We’ll get the job done.”
“Sorry if I was rude,” she said. “I’ll start all over. Hello, Blake. How are you today? Can we talk about this bill, now? How do you want to pay?”
Blake glanced at the bill and reached for the checkbook on the top of the refrigerator. “Might as well take care of it all right now. Glad that y’all could take care of it for me this quick. Y’all want to have dinner with me? Mary Jo brought enough chili to feed an army.”
“I love Mary Jo’s chili. Got dessert?” Deke asked.
“Talk about rude,” Allie said.
“Well, I’ve got a sweet tooth that will not be denied,” Deke admitted.
Blake made out the check and handed it to Allie. “Man’s got to speak his mind and if he’s got a sweet tooth, then he doesn’t just want dessert, he needs it.”
His gaze went from Allie’s work boots, past those luscious curves, to her eyes. That line should have worked on anyone, but her eyes said that he bored her.
“That’s right and I will eat with you. Besides I see a chocolate pie and jalapeño cornbread in that box over there on the counter.” Deke removed his coat and hung it over the back of a kitchen chair. “Where’s the bowls? I’ll get them down. I got a six-pack of beer in the truck I can contribute.”
“Deke!” Allie hissed.
“Hey, it’s a hot meal with dessert in a good warm house. I ain’t turnin’ it down for a bologna and cheese sandwich in a cold truck.” He opened the cabinet door that Blake pointed toward. “You stayin’ with us or goin’ out to the truck?”
“I’ve got my dinner in the truck. I’m not eating here. This is a job, not a social visit,” she said.
“It can just be a meal, not a social visit. You can eat without talking and then leave without even cleaning up,” Blake said.
Her hesitation said that she considered it, but then she shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“Good! That leaves more for me. I can’t believe you are turnin’ down a good bowl of chili when I know for a fact it’s your favorite. Are you sick or have you started getting that shit that your granny has?” Deke asked.
“Hush. I’ll meet you on the roof in thirty minutes.” She marched out the back door, back straight and chin up.
So Allie wasn’t married. She wasn’t afraid of hard work. She liked chili better than anything in the world, and she had a temper to boot. His kind of woman if she’d been tall, blond, and had clear blue eyes.
“I’ve never been in this house. Looks like it needs more than a roof job,” Deke said.
Blake removed a block of cheese from the refrigerator along with a jar of hot dill pickles. “Yes, it does. You reckon you and Allie could do some patch jobs in here to get us through until we can start showing a profit on the ranch? It needs new drywall on the ceiling and maybe some paint on the walls. Don’t want to spend a lot until we start making money, but that shouldn’t make me have to take out a mortgage on the place.”
“If Allie’s got time to do some work for you, I reckon I could help her. But come spring, I’ll be busy with my own place and the rodeo rounds,” Deke answered.
“We don’t need three bowls, Deke. My dog, Shooter, he doesn’t like chili.”
Deke chuckled. “Allie will be back. She don’t turn down chili for nothing.”
And they called the cowboys who bought the Lucky Penny crazy? Hadn’t Deke seen the look on Allie’s face when she marched out of the house?
“How long has it been since a real family lived here?” Blake kept an eye on the door and an ear tuned to the sound of boots on the wooden porch.
“Maybe four years. Last bunch didn’t last a month. Moved in, came to church one time, and left. Guess they took one look at all that mesquite and cactus and threw up their hands in defeat before they even got started. Before that they came and went so fast the folks in Dry Creek didn’t even get a chance to get to know them. Do you really think you can make this work?” Deke asked.
“Hope so,” Blake said. “My brother and cousin and I’ve sunk a lot of money into the place. I was just wondering if the place had gone empty for seventeen years since the calendar on the wall is that old.”
&nbs
p; “Be damned if it ain’t. Guess someone liked that picture of a barn on it,” Deke said.
Allie bit into a cold bologna and cheese sandwich and got madder each time she chewed. Chili—damn fine chili—Mary Jo’s chili, which was the best in the whole county, was in that house. What was wrong with this picture? She took her phone from her coat pocket and called her sister.
“I hope you are happy. Blake and Deke are eating chili and I’m sitting in a cold truck eating a soggy, cold sandwich, because I’m proving to you and Mama that this is just a job,” she blurted out before Lizzy could even answer.
“You get one star in your eternal crown for such a sacrifice,” Lizzy said sarcastically.
“I deserve two diamond stars because it’s my favorite food and Mary Jo made it and it smelled so good.”
“It’s not a social call,” Lizzy smarted off. “Eat your sandwich and do the job and forget about the chili. Folks are already gossiping. I’ll be glad to report to the next one that comes in the store that you didn’t succumb to the devil’s wiles because he offered you chili. Got customers. See you later this evening,” Lizzy said.
“Somebody’s Knockin’” started playing on the radio and Allie groaned.
She remembered the lyrics so well that said someone was knockin’ and she wondered if she should let him in; that she’d heard about the devil but who would have thought he’d be wearing blue jeans and have blue eyes when he came knocking on her door.
Allie squeezed the sandwich so hard that her fingers went through it. She wanted a bowl of that chili so bad she could taste it. And she was meaner than the devil and one bowl of chili did not mean it was a social call. It was food that would provide warmth for her to work on the roof in the bitter cold all afternoon.
Lizzy could fuss at her later that night, but she was going back into that house and eating chili at a table and maybe even a piece of chocolate pie afterward. Besides, Deke loved Mary Jo’s chili even more than she did and he’d tease her all afternoon about how good it was if she didn’t eat with them.
The house smelled scrumptious when she knocked on the back door and entered without waiting for an invitation. “I changed my mind and I don’t want to hear jack shit from you, Deke Sullivan.”
“I ain’t sayin’ nothing. I was about to walk on back to my ranch if you hadn’t come on back in here,” Deke said.
“Why did you change your mind?” Blake asked.
“Because the day she turns down chili, then I figure she’s gettin’ that stuff that her granny has and I ain’t workin’ with a woman who’s holdin’ a nail gun if her mind ain’t right. Why are you in a bad mood today anyway?” Deke asked.
Allie scowled at him. “I’m not in a mood. Where are the bowls?”
Blake pointed. “There’s a bowl beside the slow cooker. Help yourself.”
She removed her coat and hung it over the back of a chair.
Blake’s eyes caught with hers and sparks flew. “Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad you changed your mind. A dinner table is always nicer with a lovely woman sitting at it.”
Deke pushed back his chair and in a couple of long strides he was beside Allie. “You best not skimp on your helping because I’m having seconds. Mary Jo hasn’t made chili for me in more than a year.”
Allie filled her bowl to the brim and carried it carefully to the table. She sat down and dipped her spoon deep into the chili, keeping her eyes on the food instead of looking at either Deke or Blake. “Mmm. Mary Jo’s chili is the best in the world.”
Deke set his second bowl on the table. “If you hadn’t come back I really was going to give you hell about it.”
Blake pushed back his chair and went to refill his bowl. “Sometime I’ll make a pot of chili and let y’all be the judge if it’s this good. My mama had four old ornery boys and she said that we had to learn our way around the kitchen. So every fourth day one of us had kitchen duty. We hated it but I can make a pretty good pot of chili and I know how to grill a steak. And sharing it with a pretty lady and a friend makes everything better.”
“Allie still hates the kitchen. Only thing she hates worse than cooking is cleaning. She’s pretty good at both but that don’t mean she enjoys it,” Deke said between bites.
“I’m sitting right here,” Allie said bluntly. “You aren’t supposed to talk about me when I’m close enough to smack the shit out of you.” Allie reached for a piece of cheese and then cut it up in cubes on top of her chili. “I’m surprised you didn’t buy this place, Deke.”
“I started to. Went to the bank and asked for a loan and then changed my mind. It’s not what I really want.”
“And that would be?” Blake asked.
One of Deke’s shoulders raised a couple of inches in a shrug. “I want the place my cousin has across the road from mine. He’ll get tired of his bitchin’ city wife within the year and put it up for sale. Besides, this place ain’t nothing but mesquite and cow tongue cactus. Only thing it’s got going for it is those three spring-fed ponds so you don’t have to carry water to the cattle in the hot summertime.”
“Mesquite can be removed right along with cactus, and the ranch was cheap.” Blake changed the subject. “Got a wife and kids, Deke?”
Deke slapped his forehead. “I forgot the beer. Not that this sweet tea isn’t good, but I said I’d contribute the beer to our dinner. Sorry about that.”
“He doesn’t have a wife or kids.” Allie answered the question for him.
“And you, Allie? Got a husband or kids?” Blake asked.
“No.” Her answer was tight and left no room for discussion.
Deke went on. “I got a little spread of about three hundred acres and I run some cattle, grow some hay, and do odd jobs with Allie when she needs a tough cowboy. It butts up to your place on the west side. Other than that, I’m a rodeo junkie. I ride a few bulls and broncs and even play at rodeo clown when they need me. No wife. No kids and ain’t interested in neither one right now.”
“That’s because no sane woman could live with you. He’s so set in his ways that you’d think he was eighty-five rather than twenty-five.” Allie pushed back her chair and took her bowl to the cabinet for a refill. Lizzy could scream that she’d sold her soul but the chili was worth every bit of her sister’s bitching.
When she returned she reached for a piece of cornbread at the same time Blake did, and a shiver ran from her fingers to her gut. Dammit! She was not giving in to her hormones. She had to keep things in perspective.
“You look like you are getting in that mood again,” Deke said.
“She might be fighting with the voices in her head. My brother gets that look on his face when he is doing that,” Blake said. “Most of the time it involves which woman he’s taking home from a bar. You thinkin’ about a fellow, Allie?”
“Hell, no! That’s the last thing on my mind. Do you ever fight with yourself, Blake?” Allie asked.
One of Blake’s shoulders hitched up a few inches. “I do it all the time.”
Deke made circles with his forefinger up next to his ear. “I swear she’ll be loony by the time she’s thirty. Maybe I should leave the beer in the truck. She can’t hold her liquor worth a damn.”
“What are you talkin’ about? Just because you are big and mean and tough don’t mean I can’t drink you under the table,” she protested.
Deke held up a finger and swallowed. “They say that liquor kills brain cells and you’ve been talking to the voices in your head. I rest my case.”
Allie shook her fist at Deke. “Enough. Eat your dinner and stop being a clown. We’ve got to get at least half the shingles kicked off today and new felt put down if there’s not rotting boards.”
“Y’all get in a bind, holler at me. I can leave what I’m doing and help any way I can,” Blake said.
“We might do just that if it starts to get dark. Days don’t last nearly as long in January as they do in July.” Deke polished off the last of his chili. “Is it all right if I get the choco
late pie out and slice it up?”
Blake refilled his glass with sweet tea. “Help yourself to the pie. There’s a Mexican casserole in the refrigerator and lots of leftover chili. Y’all might as well join me at noon while you’re workin’ on the roof. I hate to see good food go to waste.”
Deke said. “Count me in. Is that Sharlene’s Mexican casserole?”
Blake nodded.
“Thanks for the offer, but you don’t have to feed us every day.” Allie met Blake’s steely gaze down the length of the table.
“It’s no problem. The food is already here. We just have to heat it up and I sure like to have someone other than Shooter to talk to while I eat.” He smiled and went back to eating.
Deke reached under the table and squeezed her knee. She jumped like she’d been hit with a stun gun and shifted her gaze to him. He was warning her that he could and would go home before the first shingle was removed if she didn’t agree to Blake’s offer.
“Okay, then,” Allie said. “Thank you. It’s very generous of you to invite us.”
An hour later, Deke had unloaded shingles from the trailer onto a couple of pallets, and had repositioned the trailer to catch the old shingles as they threw them off the roof. The sound of the dozer tearing trees up by the roots could be heard in the distance as Deke set up a boom box on the roof and put in a Conway Twitty CD.
“I’m a pretty damn good judge of bulls, broncs, and cowboys,” Deke said, climbing back down the ladder and then toting two shingle remover tools up to the roof.
“So?” Allie scrambled up the ladder right behind him.
“So Blake Dawson is a good man.”
“And?” Allie picked up one of the bright orange tools with a long handle and slid it under the shingles at the peak of the roof.
Deke started on the next row, sending shingles sliding down the roof to land on the trailer.
“He won’t be our neighbor long. And besides I did my homework on this one.”
Deke’s eyes widened. “You investigated him?”
Wild Cowboy Ways Page 4
