Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(43)

“I believe I’m next in line,” he said.

“You look like you ought to be,” she agreed.

“Blake’s gone out to the trailer to get me some clean clothes. Don’t suppose you’d want to stay long enough to scrub my back for me, would you?”

Lizzy might have had a wonderful experience when she rose up from the bathwater, but it damn sure hadn’t set her free enough to do what Toby asked. She shook her head and smiled. “This is not a real relationship, darlin’.”

“I’d be willin’ to turn it into a real one for a good woman to give me a bath.” His eyes glittered.

She reached up and traced the scar on his cheek and then patted him on the chest. “I’d be willin’ to change it from fake to real for a few more nights in the back room at Mama’s store, but we agreed not to do that anymore, didn’t we?” She stepped around him, careful not to get too close to all that mud.

“We might change our minds.”

She looked back over her shoulder. “Not today.”

The wonderful smell of hot rolls baking in the oven filled the kitchen. And the sizzle of chicken frying in a big cast-iron skillet made Lizzy’s stomach start to grumble. The tacos she’d had that morning had long since been digested and there was no way a day-old greasy taco could measure up to Allie’s chicken even on a good day.

Lizzy leaned against the doorjamb and smiled. With one hand, Blake was stirring the green beans and the other was massaging Allie’s back. She’d seen him do those little endearing things for her for months now, but Lizzy never got tired of watching them together. It was those things that made a lasting marriage, not a few hot nights of sex, and she yearned for that kind of real, honest to god, relationship in her own life.

Blake laid the spoon to one side and moved over a step so that he was right behind Allie. He slipped his arms around her midsection and splayed his hands out over her rounded belly. When the baby kicked him, they both laughed.

“What can I do to help?” Lizzy asked.

Blake looked back over his shoulder. “I was about to set the table so you can come over here and help Allie. The potatoes are about done so they’ll need to be mashed. And the green beans need about five more minutes.”

It didn’t take Lizzy long to pad across the floor in her bare feet and pick up the wooden spoon. “Lord, that chicken smells good. I can use the same batter mix that you do and mine never comes out as good.”

“It’s all about the temperature of the grease. Too hot cooks the outside and leaves the inside either raw or tough. Not hot enough gives you a soggy crust instead of a crispy one. I talked to Fiona last night, and she said she’d walk up here barefoot and naked for a fried chicken dinner. I promised her one if she’d come home for the reunion thing on the Fourth,” Allie said.

“And is she bringing Paul? I can’t see that preppy guy walking from the bedroom to the bathroom in his bare feet,” Lizzy said.

“No, she said she’d come by herself if she can wrangle the time away at all,” Allie answered, and lowered her voice. “I’m kind of glad. We haven’t been around her husband very often but he makes me nervous.”

“Really? Why?”

“He’s got shifty eyes.”

Allie nodded. “I kinda got those vibes, too. I wonder if he’s faithful?”

“I hope so. Fiona might not live here but she’s got a temper. She’d kill him and the woman without batting an eye.”

“Goes with her red hair,” Lizzy said. “Potatoes are done.”

“Mixer is under the bar. Put a whole stick of real butter in them and use canned milk,” Allie said. “Another reason I want Fiona to come home is that this thing with the church has made Mama sad. I think all her girls together will help.”

“Fiona?” Toby said as he crossed the floor and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Is she definitely coming for the July Fourth homecoming?”

“Don’t know,” Lizzy said. “But we’re hoping so.”

“Hoping what?” Katy came through the kitchen door.

“That Fiona comes home for the hoop-la,” Allie said.

“I’m going to send her a plane ticket that is non-refundable or changeable,” Katy said. “It’s guilting her, but I really don’t care. I want to see her.”

With all three women working together and Blake setting the table, it wasn’t but a few minutes until they had sat down to eat. Lizzy noticed that Blake reached under the table and held Allie’s hand while he said grace and then leaned over and kissed her on the cheek when he finished. The ache in Lizzy’s soul deepened—surely there was a man somewhere out there that would love her like that, and after the festival she intended to start looking.

“So what’s the news on the war front about your daughter getting stuck in a gully with one of these Dawson cowboys?” Allie asked as she passed the platter of chicken to her mother.

“It’s not good.” Katy smiled. “Truman thinks I should shoot both Blake and Toby. Dora June is convinced that she’s made the right decision about the ladies’ club. But I don’t give a damn what any of them think. It’s not a bit of their business.”

“Hear! Hear!” Toby raised his tea glass.