Hot Cowboy Nights

by Carolyn Brown

  Deke looked around the store to be sure no one was hiding between the shelves or behind a round rack of new summer clothing. “So what did my potential buyer decide?”

  “That they will buy your ranch and give you your asking price,” Lizzy said.

  Had she really, honest-to-God, said those words out loud? She’d decided buying Deke’s place would be a big mistake not two minutes ago, so why in the hell had she changed her mind? But then maybe it wasn’t her mind doing the talking but her heart. If so, how could she possibly argue with that? The heart would have what it wanted or else it was almighty difficult to live with it.

  Deke threw his hat into the air and shouted, scared Stormy, and sent four little kittens scampering for cover. He picked Lizzy up and swung her around in circles, kissed her on the forehead, and told her that he loved her a dozen times before he set her back on her feet.

  “You get the lawyer to draw up the papers and Friday my friend will be there to sign everything and bring you a check. Do you need escrow money right now?” Lizzy panted between words.

  “Hell, no! If you say they are good for the money, then I trust you. I’m going to tell my cousin that he can call the movers.” Deke started for the door and went back to pick up his hat from the floor. “Lizzy, they won’t back out will they? Tell me who they are. I’ve gone over every single person in town and those that we both know, trying to figure out who they are, and it is driving me crazy.”

  “Do you trust me?” Lizzy asked.

  Fefe, the little black kitten, ventured back out and Deke picked her up.

  “With my life.” In seconds Fefe was curled up next to his big, broad chest, her eyes shut.

  “Then please let this be a secret just for a couple more days. I promise this buyer is not going to back out.”

  Deke raked his hands through his dark hair and settled his old straw hat back into place. “Then the movers will be here on Friday, but I can start moving my stuff over to the new place today. Tell the buyers that they can move in any time they want to after the weekend. I’ll start moving out as soon as I can pack. You are my new hero, Lizzy Logan.”

  “You don’t have to rush. The buyer won’t move in for a while,” Lizzy said.

  “But I do because there’s a ton of stuff I want to do at the new place before fall. I’m glad Allie has slowed down taking on new jobs because I won’t have any time to give her until after Christmas.” Deke fairly well danced out of the store on a cloud of air with his feet six inches off the floor.

  “Well, Stormy, we made him happy and cut my bank account into half.” Lizzy sank down into the chair behind the counter and shut her eyes tightly.

  “Hello, beautiful,” Toby said softly.

  At first she thought it was a figment of her imagination, but then she got a whiff of his shaving lotion and her eyes popped open. “I didn’t hear the bell ring.”

  He propped his elbows on the counter and supported his chin in his hands. “I came in through the back to tell you that we need a few more fence posts out on the ranch. Did I hear Deke in here?”

  “You did.”

  “What’d you hear about his ranch? He told me that you had a potential buyer on the hook for him. Did it pan out?”

  Lizzy pushed up out of the chair and brushed a kiss across Toby’s lips. “It did. They’re closing the deal Friday. The buyer has cash so they don’t have to wait on the bank to finance things.”

  “Care to share who my new neighbor might be?” Toby whispered as he traced her lip line with the tip of his finger.

  “I’m sworn to secrecy until the papers are signed,” she said.

  “Please tell me it’s not Truman.” Toby toyed with a strand of her hair, twisting it around his finger and drawing her nearer with it.

  “It’s not Truman. I would never do that to Deke or to you. Besides I don’t think Truman wants land that sets between Herman Hudson and your ranch.” She leaned in for another kiss.

  “Will I like this new buyer? Will they be good neighbors?” He nibbled on her earlobe.

  “I hope you’ll like them, and I guarantee they will be good neighbors.” She shivered. Talking about a ranch, even if it was the one she’d just agreed to buy, wasn’t at all what she wanted to think about right then.

  The cowbell above the door sounded loudly and he stood up straight. “So if you will ring up about ten fence posts, I’ll be on my way.”

  She poked buttons on the cash register, ran his credit card, and he signed it before she ever looked toward the door. “Hey, Mary Jo, what can I do for you today?”

  “I need some advice. I want to buy a store building to put in a beauty shop and I don’t even know where to start.” Mary Jo pushed her red hair behind her ears and stooped down to pet Stormy and the kittens.

  “Nice seeing you, Mary Jo,” Toby drawled. “See you later, Lizzy. Allie says that you are having supper with us tonight. Deke is coming, too, so don’t be late. You know how cranky he can get when he’s hungry.”

  “I’ll be early but don’t worry about Deke. He’s running on adrenaline today,” Lizzy said.

  “Did he sell his ranch?” Mary Jo asked.

  “Yes, he did, and he’s starting to move things across the road today.” Lizzy smiled.

  “Who’s the buyer? I heard you had a hand in telling someone about it.”

  “I’m sworn to secrecy until the deal is closed. Now about a building for you.” Lizzy quickly changed the subject. “There’s lots of empty places. Which one do you have your eye on?”

  “I wouldn’t mind having the one next door to you on this side of the street, but that won’t happen since Truman owns it. Please tell me that you didn’t help him buy Deke’s place. Allie don’t need that old fart next door to her,” Mary Jo said.

  “It’s not Truman, I swear. Besides like I just told Toby he wouldn’t want to be sandwiched between Herman and the Dawsons. I thought you were looking at one of the two across the street that Mama has for sale.”

  “I am but I’d really like to be on this side of the street.”

  “Good luck with that. Sharlene is looking at the old clothing store, and the old barber shop is right next door to it, so you wouldn’t be the only one over there.”

  “I didn’t think of that,” Mary Jo said, and smiled. “At one time she thought about the old hotel.”

  “She wouldn’t want the old hotel because it’s two stories and the stairs could make the insurance go sky high with little kids around,” Lizzy said. “How many kids do you think she’ll keep and what ages?”

  “She’s already got a couple of women interested in helping her run the place and says she’ll keep the number to whatever the rules say she can keep. She really likes kids and she’s so tired of that job at the bank.”

  Store buildings. Ranches. Lizzy would rather talk about Toby but that wasn’t possible. “I think that would be a great place. Lots of parking since there’s nothing else over there right now, and even if Sharlene does put in her day care center, not that many women at one time will be parking out front.”

  “I really want to do this. I’m so tired of driving to Wichita Falls every day and I have saved a little since I first started to work,” Mary Jo said.

  “Mama would be glad to rent, sell, or even give you a deal like she gave Nadine with the café, and you can lease to own,” Lizzy answered.

  Mary Jo pumped her fist in the air. “You’ve talked me into it. I’m off to talk to Katy.”

  Lizzy waved as Mary Jo hurried from the building.

  Everyone had thought the Logans were downright stupid to buy the buildings as they came up for sale, but few realized that Katy owned all of them except for the one Truman held the deed to. Lizzy’s mother and father had bought them one by one with hopes that someday Dry Creek would be more than a ghost town. Maybe that dream would become a reality even yet.

  Thinking of owning land and buildings brought Lizzy back to the situation she’d just gotten herself into that morning. On Friday
she would own six hundred and forty acres of land complete with a crop of hay in the field, a couple of barns, two ponds, and an old house that had a decent roof but needed lots of repair. What had she been thinking when she let her heart do the talking instead of her mind?

  Supper plans changed for the evening. Allie took a pot of soup and a pan of cornbread to Deke’s place and the guys moved tractors, four-wheelers, and cattle across the road all evening. Allie, Katy, and Lizzy sat on the porch after supper, swatted at the flies, and drank a half-gallon jug of iced sweet tea.

  Katy slapped the red plastic swatter on the table and two flies were eliminated from the Sullivan ranch forever, amen. “I’m ahead of y’all. That makes forty-three for me.”

  “Mama is the superwoman fly killer in the whole state of Texas.” Allie laughed.

  “Yes, I am, and next week I expect a cape for all my efforts. Lizzy, you could whisper the name of the new owner real quiet and we promise we won’t tell,” Katy said.

  Lizzy shook her head. Her sister and mother would both fall off the porch if she told them that she’d bought the ranch. Hell’s bells! They might even have her committed or put into the same room with Granny at that place in Wichita Falls.

  The decision to buy the property had not been impulsive. When Deke first mentioned selling it, the thought had gone through her head that she should buy the place to help him out, and then she could sell it and make a slim profit maybe. Then she remembered telling Toby about her dreams of having her own place someday. Maybe if she wasn’t living at Audrey’s, then Fiona would come home permanently. She’d written out pros and cons in a notebook, and even if Fiona never came back to Dry Creek, the pros outweighed the cons. She wanted her own house close to her mother and sister, and the land was an added bonus because it could be leased out.

  “Well, they’ve got a job cut out for them.” Allie picked up her glass of tea. “The ranch is in good condition. Hay ready for a second cutting and barns in great repair. But the house. Great God almighty! It needs a hell of a lot of work. As you can see, kitchen hasn’t been updated in decades, with those avocado green appliances, and don’t even get me started on that Pepto-pink bathroom. I’m surprised that Deke even brought women home with him.”

  Lizzy swallowed hard. She hadn’t thought about that ugly pink bathroom and the green kitchen. It was going to take the rest of her life savings to remodel the place, but everything did work even if it was butt ugly, so maybe she wouldn’t start spending money right away. However, that hay in the field would have to be cut in the next two weeks, so that meant telling someone what she’d done before then.

  She owned her bed, dresser, chest of drawers, and an old beat-up rocking chair that would look right at home in her new place. But she didn’t have dishes, cookware, or even a single towel to call her own since she’d lived in her mother’s house her whole life.

  There was still a chance to back out. She could always be an anonymous buyer and put the ranch up on the market through a real estate agent out of Wichita Falls, and no one would even know she’d bought it.

  No, that would never work.

  Sitting there on the porch with her sister and mother, she already felt like she belonged on the ranch, so selling it would not be an option. She thought she’d found peace with Mitch. Peace in knowing who she would spend the rest of her life with. Peace in submitting to her station in life as a preacher’s wife. But that was only her mind talking. As she sipped her tea on the porch of an old house that needed so much work something settled into her heart, and she recognized it as true harmony with heart, mind, soul, and the world. No, sir, this place would not go on the market again.

  Telling her mother that she now owned a ranch and would be moving onto it would not be easy. Not that long ago she’d planned to move completely away from Dry Creek, and this was only a mile, as the crow flies, from Audrey’s Place. The nice thing was that she didn’t have to tell anyone until Friday and then she could swear Deke to secrecy for at least a couple of weeks.

  Katy set her red plastic cup on the porch. “Mosquitoes are tryin’ to carry me off and it’s getting late, so I’m going home. Y’all want a ride? I don’t reckon these guys will keep after it much longer tonight.”

  Allie stood up. “I’ll go with you. When Deke gets ready to pack up the stuff in the house we’ll be a lot more help. Whoever bought this place got a fine chunk of property. I hope they like ranchin’ and that they’re good neighbors.”

  Lizzy smiled up at her sister. “I’m still not sayin’ a word.”

  “You are wicked and evil and I will find a way to get even. I should know before all the gossipmongers in town, and believe me, they will find out even if they have to go to the courthouse on Monday and look at the books,” Allie said.

  “They wouldn’t do that,” Lizzy gasped.

  “They will if they don’t have a snitch in the courthouse that will do it for them. Dora June probably has the whole staff on standby. By Friday night the news of the new buyer will be bigger than Mitch coming to the festival on Saturday.” Allie wiped beads of sweat from her forehead with the tail of her shirt.

  “Hot, ain’t it?” Lizzy smiled.

  “Come on, Mama.” Allie sighed. “She’s not going to give up a damn thing. You could make her sleep on the porch until she tells us.”

  “I could but then I’d have to live with her bitchin’, so I’m not going to.” Katy laughed. “See you at home or at breakfast if you come in after I’m asleep.”

  “Good night,” Lizzy said.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Toby eased down on the porch beside Lizzy and laid a hand on her knee. He’d removed his chambray work shirt, and his white undershirt was dirty and sweaty. A line across his forehead gave testimony that he’d only taken his beat-up, old straw hat off a few minutes ago.

  She passed him the red plastic cup that she’d been drinking from, and he gulped down the rest of the iced tea. When he handed it back, she refilled it and offered it to him again.

  He drank down a third of it before he came up for air. “Thank you. I made a mistake when I didn’t go to the bank and get a loan for this place, Lizzy. But we didn’t want to be in debt while we’re trying to make the Lucky Penny work.”

  Lizzy swallowed hard. “It is peaceful here, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “Reminds me of my grandparents’ place. They raised a pretty good-size family in a little house like this. When things got better, Grandpa offered to build my grandmother a new house but she refused. She said that there were too many memories in her house to leave it behind.”

  “I’m sure that’s one of the reasons that Deke wants the other place. That’s where his grandparents made their home. This one belonged to their daughter, Deke’s mama, but he was back and forth between the two places,” Lizzy said.

  “Good land and already cleared. Someone got a bargain. Maybe in a few years they’ll want to sell and I’ll pick it up then.” Toby drained the rest of the tea. “Can I take you home?”

  She smiled. “I’d rather you took me to the trailer.”

  His blue eyes twinkled. “We’d have to get pretty up close and personal to take a shower together in the trailer.”

  “Who said anything about a shower?” she teased.

  “Darlin’, I’m not going to bed with you without a shower.”

  “Who said anything about a bed?”

  He grabbed her and pulled her toward him, tipped her chin up with his knuckles and kissed her, long and lingering, leaving her whole body limp and begging for more.

  “That answer your question?” he asked.

  “Let’s forget the shower and go skinny-dippin’ in the creek at the back of this place,” she whispered. “It’s not far from the barn where Deke keeps his hay, so we might watch the moon from the hayloft once we cool off.”

  He took her hand in his. “Lead the way.”

  It took twenty minutes, crawling over two fences and shooing a dozen cows out of the way, to get to the c
reek but when they did, Toby moaned. “Now I’m really mad at myself for not buying this place. I had no idea a creek ran through here.”

  “Don’t kick yourself too hard.” She unbuttoned her shirt and tossed it over the top of a low-growing mesquite tree. “This is Dry Creek, and it’s running good right now, but we’ve had an unusual spring and summer. It will be completely dried up by mid-July and there won’t be a drop of water in it until next spring. Sometimes it never has water in it. Won’t be nothing but a gravel and sandpit, and darlin’, the water might be clear but it’s only knee-deep, so callin’ it skinny-dippin’ is for real. It’s sure not skinny-dunkin’.”

  He shucked out of his dirty shirt and jeans, stuffed his socks down into his boots, and waded out into the cool clear water. His back against a rock, the water cut around his naked body, rippling past him, flowing over him. The moonlight defined the angles in his face and lit up his muscles.

  She was so involved in watching him and trying to remember to breathe that she almost took the first step into the water without removing her shorts and sandals. In a few swift movements, the rest of her clothing lay on the grassy bank of the creek and the cool creek water was up to her knees.

  “Would you lay with me in a tiny creek?” Toby opened his arms.

  “I recognize that song, only I think the lyrics said a field of stone, and yes I would.” She curled up in his arms, her head on his chest, a blanket of clear water covering them.

  Hot night air has a scent all of its own. Add that to the smell of the water, the remnants of Toby’s aftershave, mixed with the sweat of hard work and the musty aroma of green grass. Lizzy wished she could bottle it and take it home with her.

  With a wet forefinger, Toby started at her forehead and traced the outline of her face, then went lower, barely touching her neck and arm until he reached her hand. Lacing his fingers in hers he brought her hand to his lips and kissed each dripping knuckle.