Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(22)

He chuckled. “Why midnight?”

“Because from then until daylight you can work on the other foot.”

“Equal time, huh?” He started on the left foot.

This time the coolness from holding the beer bottle had disappeared and his hands were warm. It did not take away from the floating sensation one bit.

“Why don’t you give up ranching and do this or have sex for a living? You could make lots more money,” she teased.

“I like sex and I really like having you for a friend, but ranching is my first love. That’s why most women don’t really want to settle with me. They’d always take second place,” he answered. “Besides I don’t reckon that Dry Creek would appreciate a male whorehouse over on the Lucky Penny.”

She giggled, then laughed and then guffawed until tears rolled and she got a case of hiccups. “We’d make a good pair, then, for sure. Me with my hooker genes. You with your magic hands and…” She paused and blushed.

“And?” he asked.

“Your fantastic bedroom skills.” She finished but the crimson in her cheeks deepened.

“Why, Lizzy Logan, you are blushing.”

She took a long gulp of the beer and was happier than she’d ever been that things had not worked out with Mitch. She’d missed having a beer occasionally, and besides Mitch had never rubbed her feet or taken her to the heights that Toby did in the bedroom.

“I should be going,” he said. “Blake is cooking tonight. You want to come over? I’ll tell him to bring an extra one.”

“Thanks but no thanks. I’ll grab something here so I can have more time to get all prettied up for my date with my boyfriend.” She batted her long eyelashes at him.

“Don’t forget to eat something. Drinking on an empty stomach is not a good thing.” He eased out from under her feet, finished off his beer, and set the empty bottle on the table. Then he bent forward at the waist and brushed a kiss across her lips. “That’s for the imaginary guy wearing camouflage up in the tree—the one who spreads the gossip. Good night, Lizzy.”

She downed the rest of the beer, but it didn’t do much in the way of cooling off her steamy hot lips. It was only a sweet kiss, but it brought back memories of blistering hot sex when their bodies were bathed in sweat. When she went into the house, she headed straight for the bathroom and a cold shower.

Half an hour later she emerged with a towel around her body and another one wrapped turban-style around her hair to find her mother sitting on the top step of the staircase with a glass in her hand.

“Mama, is that whiskey?” Lizzy asked.

“Jack Daniel’s to be exact, and I needed it after that crap Dora June and her evil minions pulled today. People kept coming in the store, including the preacher, trying to talk me out of resigning. But it is done and I’m not undoing it. I’d quit the church and go to one in Throckmorton but that would make them too happy. Want a shot?” Katy held up a square bottle with a black label.

“I had a beer with Toby before I came in the house.” Lizzy went on to tell her the details of what had been going on for the past two days.

“I like Toby. I do. I’m glad this isn’t real between y’all, though. Talk about awkward among all the family if you let this build into something and then it ended,” Katy said.

“I know, Mama.” Lizzy sat down beside her mother and took one tiny sip of the whiskey. “That tastes like heaven from a bottle. So did the beer. Are you still angry?” Lizzy asked.

“Not angry. Madder’n hell’s blazes.” Katy took another sip. Her dark hair was frosted these days with wisps of white, but her smooth complexion was something that twenty-year-old women would die for. She’d gone from a size ten back before her husband died to a fourteen, but hey, the tabloids said that curvy women were the in thing these days.

“Want to go dancin’ with me and Toby tomorrow night?” Lizzy treated herself to another small sip right from the bottle. It was silky warmth, not totally unlike the afterglow after sex with Toby.

“Hell, no! I’m going to Wichita Falls to dinner with my old friends, Janie and Trudy. Janie is getting a divorce and we are going to cheer her up,” Katy answered.

“Good grief! Hasn’t she been married a long time? And you haven’t talked about them in years.”

“She’s been married thirty years just like me and your daddy would have been this year if he’d lived. I was her bridesmaid and she was mine. And we kind of lost touch, but Trudy called this evening and I’m going up there to see them.”

Lizzy eyed the whiskey bottle but didn’t touch it. “I thought Trudy moved off somewhere. Didn’t we get Christmas cards from her from Oregon?”

“That’s right. She’s been married three times but she’s been divorced from the last one for six years. We’re going to catch up tomorrow night. Maybe they can spend that reunion weekend with us. I hope Fiona can come home for the festival. Seems like a year since last Christmas when we saw her.”

Lizzy held the towel tightly and stood up. “I’m glad you are reuniting with Janie and Trudy, Mama. Friends are important. And we can gang up on Fiona when we talk to her. I don’t reckon we’ll have to talk too long and hard when we tell her that Mitch will be here. She’s been achin’ to tell him off ever since he broke it off with me.”