Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(52)

There wasn’t a person over there in the fork of an old scrub oak tree but in case there was, she moved in closer to Toby to give them a good show. The gossip vines would not wither up and die in Dry Creek that week, for sure.

He stopped humming, bent her backward, and gave her a real Hollywood kiss. When he righted her, she was totally breathless and the stars were spinning blurs in the sky.

“Wow!” she said.

“Did you recognize the song?” he asked.

She leaned on him for support until the world was set upright again. “Granny had it on a vinyl record with Jimmy Newman singing and played it all the time when I was a little girl. She said that it was hers and Grandpa’s song. I remember the singer because I thought Newman was a strange name.”

He smiled down at her. “You are amazing because not many people of our generation even know that song! And that’s not a line, either. I’ll see you tomorrow probably but definitely on Friday. Good night, Lizzy.”

She sat down on the swing until her heart stopped thumping around, threatening to bust the straps on her bra. What kind of date was he thinking about?

She picked up her purse and smiled all the way to her bedroom. This was a real honest-to-God date, and she had several days to be excited about it.





Chapter Fourteen



Elbows on the checkout counter, chin resting in her hands, Lizzy tried to figure out where Toby was taking her on their first real date. Since he’d said jeans would be fine, maybe it was fishing. She loved to sit on the riverbank under the moonlight and fish. If he’d tell her, then she could offer to pack a cooler full of food and beer.

Stormy hopped out of the basket, leaving her four squirmy babies behind to tumble around and fight with each other. Lizzy absentmindedly rubbed Stormy’s fur from nose to tail. Maybe it was a movie he’d picked out to watch in his trailer. Lizzy’s eyes popped wide open. That would mean the bed would be within falling-down distance, and under those circumstances she might start up the old fling again.

The cowbell above the door sounded and she jumped as if she’d been caught strip stark naked in the bed with Toby. In one leap the cat went from the counter to the floor and into the basket to protect her babies.

“Good morning, Dora June. What can I do for you this fine Tuesday?” Lizzy fanned her face with a catalog that had come in the mail that day. “Kinda warm, isn’t it? I forgot to adjust the thermostat this morning.” Anything to explain away the high color burning her cheeks.

“Feels pretty good to me. Wait until August when it really gets hot, then you’ll need that air conditioner for sure. What is that horrible noise out back?”

Lizzy laid the book aside. “Allie and her crew have started putting up the studs.” Crap! The word stud brought up another picture that turned her face crimson again. There in her mind, in living color, was Toby, bare-chested with only a sheet covering his lower half. He was propped up on an elbow and his blue eyes were locked with hers. “For the new back room,” she stammered.

“She has no business doing construction work in her condition,” Dora June hissed. “When I was expecting,” she whispered the word, “we stayed out of the public eye as much as possible and that last six weeks, wild horses couldn’t have even hauled us to church.”

“Times change. What can I do for you today?” Lizzy asked.

“For starters you could stop seeing that man you spent the night with on Saturday night.” Dora June’s nose tilted up so high that if the roof had still been leaking, she might’ve drowned. She was, after all, standing right under the place where the water streamed down. “I was your grandmother’s friend and she is not able in her present state of mind to advise you, so I feel it my God-given duty to help you see things right.”

“And that would be to not see Toby anymore, right?” Lizzy asked.

“I’m glad you see the light.” Dora June nodded several times, all of her chins in agreement.

“Miz Dora June, I am way past needing my granny or you to steer me right in the ways of love, politics, or religion. I have no intentions of breaking up with Toby. And besides, if Granny was in her right mind, she’d fall in love with Toby. She’d tell me to follow my heart and not let anyone tell me it was wrong.” Lizzy picked up the catalog again.

Dora June leaned over the counter and sniffed loudly. “Have you been drinkin’?”

Lizzy dropped the magazine and it landed on the floor beside the basket of cats. “Why would you suggest such a thing?”

“Your face is beet red. You’ve been drinkin’ or else you’ve got unholy thoughts in your head about that wild cowboy, girl. Nothing else could make them cheeks that red. In either case you’d better be careful. If you are drinkin’, then stop right now.” Dora June straightened up. “I don’t smell no liquor.”

“Must be wicked, sexy thoughts about what I’d do with Toby Dawson if I could just peel those jeans off his body and jump his bones, then.” Lizzy leaned forward and whispered. “To tell the truth, I’ve got a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in my office and a couple of red plastic cups. You want to have a little nip with me? That’s why I keep peppermints on the counter in the bowl.” Lizzy winked. “Folks think it’s for the kids but it sure covers up the smell of whiskey on my breath. You couldn’t even detect it, could you?”