Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(32)

Why would he ever even think about asking Lizzy to change their relationship status from fake to real? He chalked it up to simple adrenaline from the tornado. Thank God, Allie and Blake had shown up when they did or he’d be doing some fancy back-stepping.

He tapped out the beat of an old Conway Twitty song playing on the classic radio station. The lyrics talked about the games people play when they broke each other’s hearts.

“We’re playing a game like he’s talking about, aren’t we?” Lizzy asked.

“And doing a fine job, but there won’t be broken hearts at the end of our game, will there?” he answered.

She shook her head. “We knew going into this, both with the fling and with the relationship we’re in, what we were doing.”

“And now we’ve got a request for another Conway song today,” the radio announcer said.

Lizzy moved her shoulders to the beat of the music.

“What are you thinkin’ about?” Toby figured she was thinking about the night they’d gone to the bar. It had been the first date he could remember actually relaxing and enjoying himself instead of worrying about what lines it would take to get a woman into bed. Not that he’d ever had to work too hard at that.

“Tight-fittin’ jeans, just like Conway is singing about. I was remembering all the beer that we went through at the bar that night…well, maybe not beer for me but shots of Jack Daniel’s. I didn’t marry money like he’s singing about, but I almost married a preacher, which is just as bad. I loved the feeling in that bar, Toby. I liked the noise and the dancing.”

“And the hangover?” Even when she was drunk off her ass he didn’t feel like a seductive player just waiting to get all hot and dirty between the sheets.

“Taught me a hell of a lesson that I won’t need to repeat,” she said with a smile.

“And now you are back in your world and I’m in mine, like Conway says, but I won’t forget the fun we had that night, Lizzy.” The feel of her in his arms. The joy of making her laugh. Despite their differences, it was so easy to just let go and enjoy himself around her. Yes, he’d remember that night for a long time.

“Me, either,” she said.

Toby had to force himself back to the reality that she was looking for a lot more than he was willing to give, no matter how much fun they had together. Lizzy was a good woman and he hoped all her dreams came true, but the very thought of settling down, of being a father—well, bring on his usual pickup lines and morning-after breakfasts for nameless women.



Lizzy bailed out of her truck before Toby had time to come around and open the door for her. She caught the keys when he tossed them over the hood toward her and opened up the store and flipped on the lights. That was the moment that the whole experience hit her full force. She’d been so grateful to be alive that the logistics didn’t surface until she saw the trash can sitting in the middle of the store and remembered the destruction in the back room.

Where was she going to put her feed and barbed wire when the new order came in? There were lots of empty stores in town. Katy owned four of them but she’d already leased the café to Nadine and had promised two of the others to Sharlene and Mary Jo. The last one was the old hotel across the street and down the block from the feed store.

What Lizzy really needed was the empty store right next to hers. It had been a grocery store at one time and had a big storage room in the back that would be perfect, but Truman O’Dell owned the building. She might as well wish for hell to freeze over or for Toby Dawson to change his type from a leggy blue-eyed Barbie to a dishwater blond with brown eyes and a curvy body. Neither one was likely to happen.

Toby crossed his arms over his chest and studied the situation with her. “Okay, the way I see it for the short term is this, Lizzy. I’ll put the idea out there and you think about it until your orders come in. We’ve got an empty barn on the ranch and whatever you’ve got coming in to restock what blew away can go out there. You can write folks up a ticket here and they can bring it out to the ranch where I’ll make sure they get what they bought all loaded up.”

The first lick of the nail gun snapping down the plastic tarp on the roof above her made her jump and brought her new cat out from the office. Toby picked her up and held her close to his chest.

“Poor mama cat,” he crooned. “Did that mean old storm scare you or were you hiding those babies out there in the back room? I bet that’s the real story. You had those babies back in a corner and brought them inside when we left the door open.”

Lizzy had been shifting the trash can, with a couple of gallons of water in it, to one side, but she stopped long enough to rub the cat’s ears. “You did good, mama cat. Taking those babies to a room in the center of the place was smart. It’s what I would have done with my babies if I couldn’t get down inside a cellar.”

All that talk about babies sent another streak of shivers down Toby’s backbone. He shifted the cat over into Lizzy’s arms and changed the subject. “So what about putting the feed out at the Lucky Penny until you can get your storage room rebuilt?”

“I’d like to have the store right next door, but Truman owns it,” she said.

“That most likely means that you won’t ever get your hands on it. Sounds like Deke is about done up there, so I’ll take this out back and dump it for you.” He picked up the heavy trash can like it weighed nothing.