Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(49)

Suddenly, the line went so quiet that Lizzy held it out to see if she’d lost the connection.

“When did you see a therapist?” Lizzy asked.

“I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine,” Fiona said.

“Deal.”

“I’ve been divorced for over a year and it was a messy one. I’d signed a pre-nup so all he had to give me was ten thousand dollars. Lawyers’ fees for the divorce cut that down considerably and when I went looking for a job, his firm had blackballed me. I’m working in a little coffee shop. Meet your sister, the barista, who is now Fiona Catherine Logan again,” she said in a rush. “God, that feels good to tell you, but you can’t tell Mama or she will worry. I make enough to get by, but I did lose my car. I’ve got an old pickup truck that manages to get me to work and back to my efficiency apartment, so I’m good. Don’t tell Mama, but I’m so tickled to get that plane ticket and the rental car so I can come see y’all. I’ve been so homesick lately.”

“Holy shit!”

Fiona giggled. “Back in the winter you weren’t cussin’. Maybe this Toby is a bad influence on you in more ways than one.”

“Come home, Fiona. You can put in an office here as a tax consultant and accountant with your education. I can’t believe that you got kicked out of the law firm. You were the best damn accountant they had. Most folks even thought you were a lawyer.” Lizzy shook her head to get rid of the image of her perfect sister pouring coffee for folks.

It didn’t work.

Fiona, the smart sister who’d gone to college. Fiona, the neat sister whose room always looked like it came out of a picture book. Fiona, the pretty redhead who had turned the heads of all the cowboys in Dry Creek. The vision of Fiona, wearing an apron and her pretty red hair in a ponytail sticking out the back of a ball cap, wouldn’t go away.

“I’m okay, Lizzy. For real, I’m okay. It will blow over and everyone will forget and a new firm will come to town and I’ll get a good job again. The counseling helped me tremendously. I wish you could go for a few sessions,” she said.

“You be my counselor. What should I do first?” Lizzy asked.

“Face your feelings. Scream. Yell. Cry. Then decide what you want and go get it. I could only afford a few sessions but basically that’s what I got out of it. I wanted to stay here so that’s what I did. I do not ever want to live in Dry Creek again, period, end of story.”

“I’ve already faced my feelings. What happened with Mitch was as much my fault as his,” Lizzy admitted. “I should’ve broken it off with him long before.”

“That’s good. I could see that you were changing yourself to meet his standards. I did the same thing with Paul and when I got tired of being the person he wanted and went back to being myself, he hated the small-town woman he’d married. So he found himself another woman that he should’ve married in the first place,” she answered. “So you really feel like you have closure on the Mitch issue?”

“Definitely,” Lizzy said firmly. “Do you have that yet with Paul?”

“I do. Last week he came into the coffee shop and I realized how much better off I am without his egotistical attitude ruling every day of my life,” she said.

“How long was it until you got to that place?”

“More than a year.”

“You always were a slow learner,” Lizzy teased.

“You are going to see Toby tonight, aren’t you?”

“What makes you ask that question out of the clear blue sky?” Lizzy asked.

“All I can say is be careful, sister. Now pinky-swear that you won’t tattle on me.”

Lizzy held up her smallest finger and crooked it around an imaginary one. “I pinky-swear and cross my heart and all that shit. Love you, Fiona,” Lizzy’s voice squeaked out around the lump in her throat. “And miss you.”

“Right back atcha.”





Chapter Thirteen



Toby popped out an old green webbed lawn chair and sat down with Blue right beside him. He rubbed Blue’s ears with one hand and held a glass of sweating iced tea in the other. His phone rang and he answered it after he’d checked the picture to be sure it wasn’t Sharlene.

“Hello, darlin’,” he said in his sexiest drawl.

“Don’t you ‘hello, darlin’’ me, Toby Dawson. You promised you’d call and it’s been two months. I’ve sent you dozens of texts and went back to the bar where we met every weekend. Where in the hell are you?” Teresa asked.

Thank goodness her name had come on the phone with her picture or he would have had no idea who he was talking to. “Well, sweetheart, it’s like this. I moved out of the area. Bought a little chunk of land and haven’t had time to go back to our favorite bar. But I might come home for a visit in a few weeks, so don’t give up on me.”

“Never.” She giggled. “The sex was that good but so was the breakfast afterwards.”

“Well, I’m right glad that you have such good memories.” He said the right words, but his heart wasn’t in it. He would have rather been bantering with Lizzy. “Got to go, but you keep a watch out for me and we might have another weekend like the last one.”