Hot Cowboy Nights

by Carolyn Brown

  “Hell, no! I wouldn’t put that hussy next to my worst enemy. She’s just like her mama and they’d both be stickin’ their noses in where it don’t belong over here on the Lucky Penny,” Deke said tersely. “It’s damn sure not for sale to them.”

  “Bring your flyer into the store tomorrow and we’ll see what happens,” she said.

  “Okay.” He sighed.

  There was something about a pouting friend, be it male or female, that put Lizzy into her fix-it mode. Middle children were doomed to be blessed with that problem and it couldn’t be helped.

  “It’ll sell,” she said.

  “From your lips to a buyer’s ears.”

  “Trouble is that no one wants to buy something right next to the Lucky Penny, right?” Toby asked.

  “There is that and the fact that Dry Creek might have a café and a school and there’s a possibility of a day care place and a beauty shop, but there’s not much more here to draw new folks. Thanks for supper. What time do Allie and Blake get home?”

  “Probably in the next thirty minutes. He texted me a little while ago,” Toby answered.

  Well, crap! She’d worn those damn uncomfortable silk underpants that kept crawling up her butt all evening for nothing. Allie would want to talk about the trip. Blake would drag Toby off to discuss cows and hay and clearing more land for the cows he’d seen in Muenster. And there would be no makeup sex.

  Unless you do some manipulating in a hurry. Surely to God you picked up a few lessons from Mitch in that area.

  “I’ve got to get home. I should be there when Mama arrives so she can talk about her trip,” Lizzy said.

  “I’m going to wait over at the house for Blake and Allie,” Deke said. “Maybe Blake has a friend down in Muenster who’s interested in starting small and building up.”

  “I don’t think so, but you can wait. I’ll take Lizzy home and be back after a while,” Toby said.

  Like a gentleman, Toby walked her to the door.

  Like a descendent of a hooker, Lizzy took his hand after the good night kiss and led him straight up the stairs.

  “I thought your mother was coming home soon,” he whispered.

  “I didn’t say that. I said I should be here when she arrives, but their flight doesn’t get in until after eleven tonight and then it will be another couple of hours before they get home. I won’t see her until breakfast.” She smiled over her shoulder at him. “But I will listen to her talk about her trip then, and all day tomorrow she will pop in and out of the store and tell me tidbits.”

  “You are a player,” he said, and grinned.

  She swung open her bedroom door and led him inside. “I do not pretend that I’m a neat person, but this room is probably at its best right now.”

  “I’m not here to pass judgment on your housekeeping.” He turned her slowly and placed her arms around his neck. “I’ve heard that makeup sex is pretty awesome.”

  “I wouldn’t know from experience but I’ve heard the same thing.” She tiptoed and kissed him. Sparks flashed around the room, bouncing off the walls and landing on the floor, reminding her of Fourth of July fireworks. When she broke the kiss she was already breathless.

  “Really, no makeup sex in your history book?” He backed her up several feet, sat down in the rocking chair, and pulled her onto his lap.

  The next kiss was even hotter. Maybe it was because he ran his hands up under her tank top. Skin on skin. Blistering steam. Melting hormones whining for more. Mind-blowing kisses.

  “No makeup sex in my history book,” she muttered. “Yours?”

  He bent his head to nuzzle the inside of her neck. “Not a single time. If you don’t get involved, you don’t break up.”

  Lord, why had no one ever kissed her on that sensitive part of her neck before? Every nerve in her body was singing in anticipation. Every hormone was gearing up for one hot cowboy night.

  “How is it that you never fought with Mitch?” he asked.

  She didn’t want to talk about Mitch, think about him, or hear his name. Not when Toby had unfastened her bra and now had one of her breasts cupped in his hand.

  “We never fought. I let him have his way every time,” she groaned. “God, Toby, I don’t want to talk about him when every inch of my body is crying your name.”

  “Want to talk about Laney or Lisa or the girl at the café?” he asked.

  “Hush!” She pulled his T-shirt up over his head and ran her fingers through the soft hair on his chest. “I could sleep on this every night for the rest of my life.”

  “I could let you.” He stood up.

  She wrapped her legs around his body and he carried her to the bed, but she wiggled out of his embrace before he could put her head on the pillow. In an instant she’d shimmied out of all her clothes and stood before him wearing nothing but her brightest smile.

  “I liked the white panties better,” he said.

  “Oh?” she asked.

  “They are you. Those aren’t.” He pointed at the bikini underwear on the floor. “Don’t be something you aren’t.”

  “You, either,” she answered.

  He shucked out of his jeans and boots, leaving them in the same pile as her things. “Which means?”

  “You are more than a one-night-stand cowboy.”

  He smiled as he picked up her naked body and fell onto the bed with her in his arms. “You really see that in me?”

  “That and so much more,” she said breathlessly as she pulled his face to hers.

  She could feel the steel hard erection against her belly as his hands explored her body, and his lips scarcely finished a kiss before another began. Every nerve in her body stood at attention, ready to be touched, to be satisfied, to feel his hands touching and exploring. Her fingertips were so sensitive that every part of his body she touched sent shock waves through her own nervous system.

  Did he get the same thing when he touched her? Was that what made his blue eyes go all dreamy and soft?

  The questions faded quickly because she couldn’t think of anything but touching him more, feeling his muscles ripple and then tense at her touch, his erection throb against her bare skin as he ached to be inside her.

  “Please take me,” she begged. “I’m going to explode any minute.”

  She wrapped her legs around him as he kissed her one more time, and then with a firm thrust they began to rock in unison. When they reached the very top of the climax together, she couldn’t even say his name because she had no more breath in her lungs.

  “Oh. My. God,” he murmured as it all ended in a crescendo complete with beautiful sparks and all the bells and whistles of fantastic makeup sex.

  Five full minutes later he propped up on an elbow and kissed the tip of her nose. “Can we fight again tomorrow?”

  She smiled up at him. “I was thinking of starting an argument right now.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Katy breezed into the feed shop, looking happier than Lizzy had seen her in years. Over breakfast, she’d given Lizzy a general play-by-play of her weekend. Then she’d called every half hour all morning as she remembered details.

  “I put a sign on the door and thought you could do the same. Nadine has chicken fried steaks on her blue plate special today,” Katy said.

  “Sounds good to me.” Lizzy picked up a sign with a ragged edge from taping it to the window so often. In her handwriting it said, Gone to Lunch. Be Back at 1:00.

  “Were you bored to tears all weekend or did you and Toby go out?” The wooden sidewalk sounded hollow beneath Katy’s cowboy boots. “I’ve been so wound up in my story and good time, I haven’t let you talk.”

  “We had a nice dinner on Friday.” Lizzy wasn’t ready to share the story of the well and the skunk. “Then on Saturday after work, we went up to Olney to get two donkeys that he bought. Do you remember Melanie Robinson?”

  “Name sounds familiar. Didn’t her parents live here for a little while?” Katy went into Nadine’s with Lizzy right behin
d her. She located an empty table in the back corner and made her way to it.

  “They left when Melanie and I were pretty young. She’s married to Terry Dickson and that’s where we went to get the donkeys. She says she might come over here for the festival.” Lizzy pulled out a chair and sat down.

  “Hey, you two. Y’all want the special?” Sharlene asked.

  “Yes.” Katy nodded. “With two sweet teas.”

  “Right on it. And Katy, any time you need me to run the store, just holler. I enjoyed it a lot.”

  “I’ll remember that and might be calling on you pretty often.”

  Sharlene gave her a thumbs-up sign and headed back to the kitchen to give Nadine the order.

  “And yesterday?” Katy asked.

  “What about yesterday?” Lizzy frowned.

  “What did y’all do yesterday?”

  “Church. Dinner. To see Granny where we had a big fight and I drove Deke’s truck home and then we made up,” Lizzy said.

  “That sounds like real dating, not fake.”

  Lizzy could feel her mother’s eyes boring into Lizzy, but she wasn’t about to look up from the menu. Even though she’d already given Sharlene her order, it gave her something to stare at. From youth, she’d figured out that if Katy or Granny ever looked into her eyes, they could see all the way to her soul and knew everything she’d done.

  “So?” Katy pressed.

  “It was a real fight. I wanted to bring Granny home. She had shoved everything she owns into black garbage bags and she thought we were the moving people. She didn’t even know where Dry Creek was but she wanted to move home. She thought she was in jail. Toby said I couldn’t do that and we had words about it.” That much was solid truth so she could glance away from the menu and into her mother’s eyes.

  “Lizzy, we talked about this before we moved her there. The doctor warned us that things like this would happen and we’d have to stay strong,” Katy said.

  “But she was so pitiful, Mama. I wanted to protect her like she did us girls when we were little. It’s not fair that life dealt this to her. She won’t even know Allie’s baby, and the times when she is lucid are getting fewer and farther between.”

  Katy laid a hand on Lizzy’s. “I know that but this is best for her, not us. What if she ran away in the night and couldn’t find her way back to the house? She could die out in the weather, summer or winter. Did you talk things out with Toby?”

  “Yes. He grilled some burgers and hot dogs and we had supper together with Deke who is in the market for a buyer for his ranch. He wants to sell his and buy the place that his cousin owns across the road.” Lizzy gave herself a mental pat on the back for changing the subject.

  “It’s better property, has two good spring-fed ponds on it, and the house is in better repair. Don’t know anyone who wants to buy right now, but he could put up a flyer in my store and in yours, maybe run an ad in the newspaper in Wichita Falls. Trouble is…” Katy paused.

  Lizzy pulled her hand free so Sharlene could set two tea glasses on the table.

  “I’ve given up on taking Toby away from you. Now I’m waiting on Jud. I hear he’s the lucky cowboy, so I’m going to change my techniques and take a lesson from your playbook and Allie’s of course. You have to sneak upon a Dawson cowboy’s blind side and I’m going to come off as the sweet little woman who owns and operates a day care center,” Sharlene whispered.

  “Well, thank you for that. I wouldn’t stand a chance if you were serious about Toby.” Lizzy smiled.

  “No, you would not,” Sharlene said seriously. “Your steaks are nearly done. Nadine don’t cook nothing ahead of time. Might make it easier to throw it in the microwave to reheat, but she says it softens the crispy outside. Y’all hear that Deke is lookin’ for a buyer for his place?”

  “We did. I’m surprised that you haven’t gone after Deke,” Lizzy said.

  Sharlene giggled. “Honey, that boy is fun for a night or two, but it’ll take someone hotter’n me to run him to ground and I’m pretty damn spicy. Far as the ranch goes…” She lowered her voice. “He might as well wish in one hand and spit in the other. Nobody in town can afford to buy a ranch but Truman. He might buy it, and then if the Lucky Penny fails again he could swoop in and get it for a song and have a nice big place. But if the Lucky Penny doesn’t fail, then there he’d be with a section of land in the middle of two places he can’t stand. You know he and Herman Hudson are on the outs, don’t you? I hear the bell, which means your dinner is ready. Be back in a second.”

  “She put it about right,” Lizzy said.

  “Toby and Blake don’t want to make the Lucky Penny another section bigger?” Katy asked.

  Sharlene set the plates in front of them. “I heard Toby would love to have the place, but the Dawsons have tied up all their money in the Lucky Penny. Of course, that’s fodder for the gossip mill. Folks are saying that if they don’t have the capital to keep things going at least five years that they’ll throw up their hands and move within a year. Truman is just waiting for his turn to latch on to it and yell ‘I told you so.’ Oh, crap, there’s Dora June and Ruby. Don’t worry, I’ll head them off at the pass and make them sit somewhere else.”

  “Now tell me more about your trip. I thought you might come home saying that you were sick of Janie and Trudy and you were never going anywhere with them again,” Lizzy said.

  Katy picked up her knife and fork, cut into the steak, and popped a bite into her mouth. “Not in the least,” she said when she’d swallowed and taken a drink of her tea. “We’re planning a trip to Florida after Thanksgiving if I can find someone to mind the store. I wish I had the nerve to move to Wichita Falls to be closer to them and your grandmother, both. But as long as I have a store to run, it will have to be a retirement dream.”

  Deke was leaning on the door to the feed store when Lizzy returned. He held up a flyer but his expression didn’t have much hope.

  “Come on in.” Lizzy stuck the key in the lock and gave it a twist. “Let’s talk about this deal before you put up the flyer.”

  Deke flipped on the lights and stopped to pet Stormy when she came to meet them. “Why? Do you have someone who is interested in buying my place?”

  “I do but they need a couple of days to think about it. Think you could hold off that long?” she asked.

  He picked up the cat and held her close to his chest. “Darlin’, Lizzy, you’ve given me some light on a moonless midnight.”

  “Don’t get too excited. They don’t know for sure but they did want a few days to think things through. It’s a big decision.” She picked up the little black kitten from the basket. “Oh, look, Deke, his eyes are open. The other three have all been open for a couple of days.”

  “It’s an omen, Lizzy. His eyes are open so my potential buyers will come at this with an open mind. They won’t care if the ranch is in Dry Creek or right next door to the Lucky Penny.” Deke set Stormy on the floor and hopped up to sit on the counter. “I’ve told everyone I could get to stand still about this, Lizzy. I suppose it’s all right to say that I have a prospect and that I’m holding off for a few days until they make up their minds.”

  “I don’t see why not. That might even help if there are others who are sitting on the fence about it,” she said. “So how quick can you be moved if it does sell?”

  “Three days. My cousin and his wife are champing at the bit to get moved to Dallas. He’s going to be sorry as hell. He might not like the ranch, but the culture shock from going from Dry Creek to Dallas is going to turn his world upside down. He says they are packed and they can be gone in three days when a buyer shows up with the money,” Deke answered.

  “Wow! That’s fast.” She put her black kitten in the basket with Stormy.

  “Three days is how long the moving company said it would take to get a truck in here and get them loaded up and gone. He’s selling the equipment and cattle with his ranch.”

  “And you?”

  “No way. I’m t
aking my stuff with me. All I got to do is move it across the road, and I can do that in the three days they’re waiting to get out of the house,” he answered.

  “But what about paper signing and deeds and all that?”

  “He says they’ll come back up here and take care of the paperwork later. I’m going to Nadine’s for a piece of pie. Want to join me?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Just came from there. Had Nadine’s special for dinner. I don’t need anything else until supper.”

  Lizzy turned up the radio when the DJ said that the next song was “Wild Child.” She tapped her thumb on the steering wheel to the beat. Like the lyrics said, Toby was a wild child and Lizzy wouldn’t ever be the same since he came into her life.

  The song was about a woman, but in her mind Kenny was singing about Toby. He had the same rebel soul that the song talked about.

  She parked her truck in front of Audrey’s Place as the song ended and agreed with the end of the song when it said that he was born to dance to the beat of his own heart. Everything the lady said about staying wild had Lizzy nodding in agreement.

  “He brings out the wild in me and makes me shed all my inhibitions and be me. And that’s why I’m falling in love with him,” she said.

  She could hear cows bawling across the pasture fence over on the Lucky Penny along with a few crickets and other summer noises. But mostly she could hear her heart doing double time.

  “What in the hell did I just say? Did those words really come out of my mouth?” she whispered.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Lizzy worried with the idea of buying Deke’s ranch for two long days and nights. She stared at the ceiling at night, arguing with herself about such a fool notion. She cleaned her room—again. But not even a tidy bedroom brought about a decision. The only one she could talk to about the crazy idea was her cat, Stormy, and somehow purring didn’t bring any satisfaction.

  She opened the feed store that morning and Deke was the first person to come through the doors. It had been seven weeks since Toby moved to Dry Creek. It had been four weeks since they started fake dating and one week since they’d been dating seriously. It was too damn early to be thinking about buying a ranch at this point in the relationship.