She shrugged it off and sucked in enough air to give him an earful of what she thought of him, when Katy pushed past Grady and hugged Allie. “You are home. I heard y’all talking and wanted to thank you, Blake, personally for what you did today for my mother and daughter. We’ve been told to play along with whatever time frame she’s in and I’m very glad that you helped us out today.”
“You are very welcome,” Blake said. “I suppose I really should be going before the snow gets worse.”
Snow!
God Bless Blake Dawson’s soul!
It could be her salvation from that slimy Grady.
She hugged her mother and ignored Grady. “Granny switched gears about the time we finished eating and she wanted a nap. She’s resting so it might be best if y’all took your conversation back to the kitchen. I’m going to follow Blake over to the Lucky Penny to unload all the supplies I bought yesterday. They’re under a good strong tarp but if they get wet, it could be disastrous.”
Blake nodded toward Grady and smiled at Katy. “It’s been real nice meeting all y’all. I guess we’d best get going if we’re to get things unloaded before the snow gets any deeper.” He ushered her out of the house with his hand on the small of her back.
Allie could feel Grady’s eyes boring holes into her but she didn’t give a damn. If it wouldn’t have wakened Granny, she would have liked to put a well-placed knee in his crotch when he made that remark about her grandmother. Watching him roll around on the floor holding on to his balls would have brought her so much satisfaction.
“Thank you. If I had to stay in that house I might really do what Granny asked me to,” she said.
“Which is?”
“Kill Mitch. Only if I’m going to jail for a murder, I might as well make it two. When Grady looks at me, my skin crawls like it did…” she stopped.
“Go on,” Blake said.
“Not today. I’m sorry we’ve ruined your whole Sunday and now you’ll have to help me unload wallboard and lumber,” she said.
“Do I make your skin crawl?” he asked.
“Hell, no!” she said quickly.
He chuckled. “Then I don’t need to know any more. I’ll follow your van and trailer to my ranch. That way if anything flies off, I can stop and get it. Don’t look like this is going to slow down any.”
“My van is parked around back. I’ll…well, shit…I’m still wearing my Sunday clothes.”
The north wind had picked up and blew Allie’s hair across her face, snowflakes as big as dimes sticking in it. Blake reached out and tucked the errant strands behind her ear. “And you look mighty lovely in that pretty dress. You drive over to my house and I’ll give Deke a call. We’ll unload the trailer for you if you’ll keep that dress on so I can enjoy the view a little longer.”
“Does that pickup line work for you?” She grinned.
He leaned on the hood of his truck and grinned down at her. “Don’t know. You tell me.” His eyes smoldered. “Is it worth writing down in my pickup line book?”
Allie giggled. “You’ve got a book?”
“That’s classified information. See you at the ranch,” he said with a wink.
As she drove from her place to his, she wondered how many names were in that book and how many pages were devoted to pickup lines. Could he tell by looking at a woman which lines he should use and which ones wouldn’t work? Or did he fly by the seat of his pants, using whatever came to his mind in the moment?
Why did she care anyway? She slapped at the steering wheel, which seemed to be a regular thing these days. But dammit anyway! Blake infuriated her with his flirting. She wanted him to back off, but then she loved the excitement in his eyes, in his touch, and in his kisses. Her breath caught in her chest and her hands went clammy when she thought about that heat in his eyes just minutes before. It was one of those damn conundrums that drove her batshit crazy. She couldn’t have it both ways. Either she had to make him step back or trust him, and how in the hell did she do either one?
Deke was already waiting in the yard when Allie arrived in the van. It took some fast work but everything was in the house before snow changed to big cold rain drops falling from the sky in buckets. He and Blake shucked out of their coats and hung them on the rack. Blake headed for the sofa and Deke headed toward the kitchen. “Anyone besides me want a beer?”
“Well, make yourself right at home,” Allie scolded.
Deke landed a brotherly kiss across her cheek on his way to the kitchen. “Don’t gripe at me like I was your little brother. If I can be called on to help a friend, then I can make myself at home, right, Blake?”
“That’s right and so can you, Allie.” He turned around and went back to help her out of her coat.
There it was again when his hands brushed against that soft spot on her neck. An intensified surge of emotions rattling through her body wanting more than a touch, more than a kiss. Then her brain kicked in quite loudly and reminded her that he was wild and wicked and not to be trusted. God Almighty! Which one did she listen to anyway?
“I hate Sunday nights,” Deke said. “They are the most boring hours in the whole week.”
“Why is that?” Allie asked, as breathless as if she’d had an actual argument with someone.
“The rest of the week we need forty hours in a day to get everything done. Friday we celebrate the week ending with a trip to Frankie’s or a good cowboy bar and maybe Saturday night, too. But Sunday night is downright lonesome,” Deke said.
“That’s the gospel truth.” Blake nodded in agreement. “At home at least there was family that stuck around until bedtime.”
“We could make some popcorn and watch a movie and be bored together. It would keep Allie from havin’ to go home.” Deke sighed.
Allie would watch Shooter sleep if it would keep her from having to spend time playing Monopoly or watching the kind of movie Lizzy and Mitch picked out. She wished that Frankie’s was open on Sunday evening. Listening to Etta James and Ray Charles, dancing with Blake, maybe indulging in just one more of those steamy kisses, watching Deke flirt with the women—now that sounded exciting.
“I haven’t got cable yet, but there are a few western movies that I brought along with me and it would be good to have some company,” Blake said. “Y’all want to follow me and we’ll pick one out together.”
“How many did you bring?” Deke asked.
“A boot box full,” Blake answered.
“Y’all choose. I’m going to the restroom,” Allie said. “Meet you back in the living room.”
“Allie is quite a woman,” Blake said. “Beautiful, talented, and smart.”
“Yep.” Deke nodded. “I like this one.” He held up Quigley Down Under starring Tom Selleck.
“That’ll do fine. Between me and you I’d rather be at Frankie’s than doing this.”
“Me, too, but Frankie is religious. He’s closed on Sunday.”
“You’ve got to be kiddin’ me! Moonshine, hookers, and he’s religious?” Blake drawled.
“There’s layers to everyone, my friend. Frankie attends church over there in his community and leads the singin’.”
Blake shook his head all the way up the hall to the kitchen. “So tell me about Allie’s layers.” He found a box of instant hot chocolate in the second place he looked and set three oversized mugs on the counter.
Deke put a bag of popcorn into the microwave. “She is a woman underneath those work clothes. She has a heart as big as Texas. She is a good sister even though she and Lizzy argue all the time. She’s a damn fine granddaughter and the best friend a man could have.”
“I’ve never had a woman for a friend,” Blake said.
“Then start with Allie. She’s the best.”
“Who is the best?” Allie’s big brown eyes looked from one cowboy to the other.
“You are,” Deke said.
“At what?” she asked.
“Being a man’s friend. Hell, you’re even better than my dog, and I real
ly love that dog.” Deke grinned.
She poked him on the arm. “Aww, now ain’t that the sweetest thing a woman can hear. What are we watching?”
“I picked out Quigley Down Under.”
“Never have seen it. Can I help do anything?”
“Not a thing. It’s about ready to take to the living room,” Blake said.
“I call dibs on the end of the couch,” she said.
Deke raised his hand. “I get the recliner for helping unload stuff.”
Allie sat down at the kitchen table and unzipped her knee boots. “I’ve had all of these I can stand for one day.”
Blake took one look at her mismatched socks and chuckled. “Good-lookin’ socks there, darlin’. They make the outfit.”
She held up her feet and wiggled her toes. “I’ve got another pair like them somewhere in the house but I can’t find them. If Lizzy had pushed me toward Grady one more time, I planned to take off my boots in church to embarrass her.”
“You are one wicked lady.” Blake smiled.
“Not me!” Her smile was straight from heaven. “I’m just a carpenter who fixes roofs and does remodel jobs on houses.”
“A beautiful, sexy carpenter who looks right gorgeous with a hammer in her hands,” Blake said.
“Y’all going to jaw all day in there or are we going to watch our movie?” Deke called out.
“We’re on the way and I don’t want to hear a word about my socks,” Allie said as she made her way from kitchen to living room.
Blake kicked off his boots and settled on the other end of the long leather sofa from Allie. Halfway though the movie she pulled her legs up and stretched them out toward him and he did the same, situating his on the outside. He moved his right one slightly so that it touched hers, and she didn’t jerk it away or give him a dirty look.
Progress! By damn! That was progress.
A month ago he would have been telling some woman good-bye that he’d spent the weekend with, maybe saying that he’d call her with no intentions of ever doing so. Or maybe she’d walk him to the door and tell him that it had been fun but one weekend of fun with him was all a woman could handle. Tonight he was almost shouting because Allie hadn’t moved her leg away from his. Toby wouldn’t believe it or understand if he tried to tell him, and forget about saying anything to Jud. He was the loudest of the three about staying a bachelor until his dying breath.
“I’m pausing the show for a bathroom break. I’ll bring in some beers on my way back,” Deke said.
Allie shifted positions and her foot touched his hip. He picked it up and put it in his lap and began to massage it and suddenly, things weren’t boring at all.
“God, that feels good,” she said.
“I’m not God,” Blake said.
“You know what I mean.”
He pulled the other foot over and worked on it. “You are too tense, woman. Loosen up and enjoy life.”
She eased her feet back and tucked them under her, pulling the sweater dress down to cover them.
“He’s right.” Deke set three beers on the coffee table and settled back into the recliner. “You should have more fun.”
“Y’all are ganging up on me,” she said. “Turn the movie back on. I like Crazy Cora more and more as the story plays out. I don’t think she’s nearly as crazy as everyone thinks.”
Layers, Deke had said. Was one of Allie’s layers nothing but a protective coating against men since her husband left her?
Chapter Eleven
On Monday morning five inches of snow had turned the countryside around Dry Creek into a winter wonderland. The wind had died down and there had been a glorious sunrise that morning. The weight of wet snow was heavy on the mesquite and scrub oak tree branches. Cardinals dotted the white landscape like little rose petals dropped from heaven to add color to the new monochromatic picture.
The beauty wouldn’t last long. Cars, trucks, and other vehicles would soon leave their tracks. Animals had to leave behind footprints. Cattle would stir up the snow, and by nightfall, if the sun stayed out, what was left would turn to mud that would freeze by morning. But later didn’t matter as Allie drove slowly from Audrey’s Place to the Lucky Penny. Right then, that moment, when everything looked like a fairy tale, that’s what mattered.
The Lucky Penny house was empty when she arrived and somehow it looked even worse without Deke and Blake there. Without those two big cowboys to talk to her or at least to each other while she listened, she noticed the ugly paint on the walls, the nasty stains on the ceilings, and the scuffed marks on the woodwork even more.
She sighed when she reached the bedroom and then smiled. It reminded her of Cinderella in her rags, kind of like the muddy mess the snow would make when it melted. But in a week, the room would be the princess in all her glory with its new paint job, pretty new ceiling, shiny hardwood floors, and that big beautiful king-size bed taking center stage. Then it would be as fresh and pretty as the morning with nothing marring the beauty of fresh-fallen snow.
The bare lightbulb would be replaced by the six-blade oak fan with a lovely school-glass light kit. It had been the last one in stock and on a seventy-five percent off sale so she’d bought it on a whim, and now she was having second thoughts. He might have asked what she’d do to the room if she had to sleep in it the rest of her life, but he hadn’t meant she could go off half-cocked and buy something without even asking him about it.
First she had to tear out the nasty old before she could put in the shiny new. She smiled as she thought of her father saying those very words every time they started a new job.
As brittle as the old drywall was, it wouldn’t be nice and come down in four-by-eight sheets. It would fall in chunks of every size that would throw white powder and mildew dust everywhere. She shut the door and opened the window.
Sure it would get cold but she’d dressed in thermal underwear, cargo pants, an old cotton western shirt, and insulated coveralls. She put her earbuds in and pushed the button on the tiny little MP3 player tucked into her pocket.
George Strait entertained her as she brought down the ceiling a piece at a time and then went back to remove all the nails from the ceiling joists. It was close to noon when she finished. The room was still filled with a fog of white powder and the old carpet would never be usable again, not with that much white powder ground down into the fibers.
With the music in her ears she didn’t know anyone was in the house until Blake touched her on the ankle. She jerked the earbud out and frowned. “You scared the shit out of me. Don’t sneak up on a woman holding a hammer.”
He grinned. “Sorry about that. I called your name when I came in and a couple more times as I came this way. Want some help? The dozer is bogging down in the snow. Deke and Herman have plenty to keep them busy with what I’ve already got piled up. Crazy, even with the snow it’s not as cold as it was over the weekend.”
“There isn’t any wind. That makes a difference. Got a hammer?”
“Of course.”
She nodded. “Then yes, you can help get these nails out and then we’ll be ready to hang the Sheetrock after we have dinner.”
He was only gone a few minutes before he returned wearing a pair of coveralls like hers and carrying a hammer. “Seems colder in here than it does outside, don’t it?”
“Yep,” she said.
His biceps strained the seams of the camouflage coveralls as he popped one nail after another from the ceiling rafters. Keeping her eyes uplifted and concentrating on her own job was not easy for Allie. More than once, she found herself pausing to stare at the ease with which he reached up with that heavy hammer, hung the claw on a nail head, and pulled it free without so much as a grunt.
Riley had hated quiet. If they had nothing to talk about, then he turned on the television. Even if he didn’t watch it, he wanted noise at all times. Blake seemed perfectly comfortable working in silence with her, and she liked that. The screeching sound of nail after nail coming out of an old r
after was better than music.
That’s when she remembered the tiny player in her coverall’s pocket and pulled it out, turned it off, and was returning it when they heard a loud rapping on the front door.
Blake laid the hammer on the floor. “Be right back. Can’t imagine who is here.”
The claw of the hammer was hung in a nail when Allie heard a familiar raspy giggle. She eased it back down and laid it on the top of the ladder. Two backward steps and her boots hit the floor. Five steps forward and she opened the door a crack and peeked. Yep, she’d been right. It was Sharlene and she was handing off a six-pack of beer to Blake.
She patted his cheek affectionately. “I was up in Wichita Falls over the weekend and thought you might need this. I know you have lots of food but a man cannot live by bread alone, he must have beer.”
“Thank you.” Blake’s smile lit up the whole dingy room. “Bless your heart for thinking of me. And truer words were never spoken. I’ll put this in the refrigerator. Want a cup of coffee to take the chill off?”
“No, darlin’, not today, but I’m still waiting on your call.” Sharlene rolled up slightly on her toes, cupped his face in her hands, and kissed him long, hard, and leaving no doubt tongue was involved. “Although, I might be willing to be late if there was something more than coffee involved.”
Allie had to fight the sudden urge to throw her hammer at Sharlene. She did owe Blake. He had, after all, helped her pull nails for the last hour and a half, so she should help him out of the pickle. But then who’s to say he wanted out of the situation? A streak of hot jealousy shot through her veins as she slammed the door into the bedroom and headed up the hallway.
“Hey Blake, is it time to put in one of those casseroles?” She talked loudly and put on her best innocent face. “Oh, hello, Sharlene. I was in the back room with the door shut and didn’t realize you were here. Blake, is it time to warm up one of those casseroles for dinner?”
“I was just leaving,” Sharlene stammered. “You think about what I said, darlin’.” She winked at Blake and hurried out the front door.
Wild Cowboy Ways Page 12
