Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(23)

“I hope she listens to you. And darlin’ daughter, you are so right about friends, but they’ll never be as important as family,” Katy said.





Chapter Seven



Lizzy slid a Travis Tritt CD in the player to get her in the mood for the evening. She dressed in a pair of low-slung tight jeans with rhinestones on the hip pockets and a form-fitting western-cut shirt of black lace insets on the back yoke. Then she pulled on her oldest, most comfortable dress boots.

As she brushed her dishwater blond curls out, Travis sang a song about it being a great day to be alive. The lyrics said that there were hard times in the neighborhood and that sometimes it was lonely.

Travis was preaching to the choir if he was singing just for Lizzy. There were definitely hard times in the neighborhood and she did get lonely. But tough times came and went, and that night she had somewhere to go and a handsome cowboy to dance with her. Plus there had been no bitchy women in her store today. So this day, as Mary Jo had said, was a day to celebrate and it was a great day to be alive.

The music continued to play as she left the room and headed down the stairs. One song ended and before another began, the empty house echoed the sound of her boots on the wooden steps. Lizzy had discovered that she didn’t like living in the big house with no sisters. They might fight and argue with each other, but she missed having someone around other than her mother.

She’d been a senior in high school when Allie’s two-year marriage came apart at the seams. Fiona had been a sophomore and suddenly all three girls were back in the house again. Fiona left to go to college two years later, and that left two sisters. But now it was only Lizzy and she had found out pretty quick she wasn’t cut out to be an only child.

Sitting on the bottom step, Lizzy listened wistfully as every other song Travis sang spoke to her heart. The last song was still playing when the doorbell rang. She opened the door and Toby came right inside, took her in his arms, and started a fast swing dance right there in the foyer. All thoughts of Lizzy’s past disappeared as he smoothly twisted her in circles and deftly brought her back to his chest in perfect time with the music.

When the song ended, he kissed her on the forehead. “Darlin’, any woman who can dance like that was not cut out to be a preacher’s wife. And may I say that you are absolutely stunning tonight. Maybe I should go on back to the trailer and get my pistol to keep the other cowboys away from my girlfriend.”

“Don’t bother. There’s a little derringer in my purse and yes, I have a concealed permit and yes, I do know how to shoot the thing,” she said.

“She dances and she knows how to shoot. My kind of woman.” He draped an arm loosely around her shoulders and kept in step with her from house to truck.

“I thought your kind of woman was tall, blond, blue eyed, and ready to fall into bed with no questions asked.” She tossed her purse on the console and fastened her seat belt. Of all things, the radio was playing one of Travis Tritt’s songs right then, too. Was it an omen?

“Well, there is that, but I do like a woman who is light on her feet and who knows her way around a pistol. Plus one who knows how many rolls of barbed wire it takes to fence in forty acres.” He drove to the end of the lane and stopped. “Long way or shortcuts?”

“Back farm roads can get us there quicker.” She pointed to the left.

“And?” He made a left-hand turn.

“The roads aren’t as good as the highway, but it does cut off a few miles,” she answered.

She felt his eyes on her, and like always before it created an antsy feeling deep down inside.

“What?” she asked.

“What what?” he threw back.

“You are looking at me with questions in your eyes. What is it?”

He turned the radio off. “You told me that you want what Allie has with Blake. I was wondering what kind of guy would be so lucky as to have you in his life?”

“I do believe I answered this question the night we decided not to continue with that fling. I don’t want anyone who tries to change me to fit inside his neat little wife mold and who tells me what to do, what to eat, and how to dress. And I will never let another man win at Monopoly, if I ever play that boring game again.” She stopped and took a breath. “Mitch pouted when he lost, so I got real good at losing.”

“Holy shit!” Toby covered her hand with his. “You must’ve really wanted to be married.”

“I’ve had a while to analyze my actions. What I wanted was for folks to see me as a preacher’s wife, not as someone who came from Audrey’s Place. I’ve always hated that,” she said.

He squeezed gently. “Why? I told you before that what your ancestors did or didn’t do doesn’t affect you.”

“But it does,” she whispered. “I was a sophomore in high school when a really popular boy from Throckmorton asked me out on a date. We met at a countywide Future Farmers of America conference. To make a long story short, he’d heard of Audrey’s and when he couldn’t talk or force me into the backseat because of course anyone at an old brothel had to put out, didn’t they…he took me home and spread it around that we’d had sex. So yes, it does affect me.”

“That sorry kid should have been strung up from the nearest scrub oak tree with a length of rusty barbed wire,” Toby said through clenched teeth.