Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(77)

Lizzy shook her head. Her sister and mother would both fall off the porch if she told them that she’d bought the ranch. Hell’s bells! They might even have her committed or put into the same room with Granny at that place in Wichita Falls.

The decision to buy the property had not been impulsive. When Deke first mentioned selling it, the thought had gone through her head that she should buy the place to help him out, and then she could sell it and make a slim profit maybe. Then she remembered telling Toby about her dreams of having her own place someday. Maybe if she wasn’t living at Audrey’s, then Fiona would come home permanently. She’d written out pros and cons in a notebook, and even if Fiona never came back to Dry Creek, the pros outweighed the cons. She wanted her own house close to her mother and sister, and the land was an added bonus because it could be leased out.

“Well, they’ve got a job cut out for them.” Allie picked up her glass of tea. “The ranch is in good condition. Hay ready for a second cutting and barns in great repair. But the house. Great God almighty! It needs a hell of a lot of work. As you can see, kitchen hasn’t been updated in decades, with those avocado green appliances, and don’t even get me started on that Pepto-pink bathroom. I’m surprised that Deke even brought women home with him.”

Lizzy swallowed hard. She hadn’t thought about that ugly pink bathroom and the green kitchen. It was going to take the rest of her life savings to remodel the place, but everything did work even if it was butt ugly, so maybe she wouldn’t start spending money right away. However, that hay in the field would have to be cut in the next two weeks, so that meant telling someone what she’d done before then.

She owned her bed, dresser, chest of drawers, and an old beat-up rocking chair that would look right at home in her new place. But she didn’t have dishes, cookware, or even a single towel to call her own since she’d lived in her mother’s house her whole life.

There was still a chance to back out. She could always be an anonymous buyer and put the ranch up on the market through a real estate agent out of Wichita Falls, and no one would even know she’d bought it.

No, that would never work.

Sitting there on the porch with her sister and mother, she already felt like she belonged on the ranch, so selling it would not be an option. She thought she’d found peace with Mitch. Peace in knowing who she would spend the rest of her life with. Peace in submitting to her station in life as a preacher’s wife. But that was only her mind talking. As she sipped her tea on the porch of an old house that needed so much work something settled into her heart, and she recognized it as true harmony with heart, mind, soul, and the world. No, sir, this place would not go on the market again.

Telling her mother that she now owned a ranch and would be moving onto it would not be easy. Not that long ago she’d planned to move completely away from Dry Creek, and this was only a mile, as the crow flies, from Audrey’s Place. The nice thing was that she didn’t have to tell anyone until Friday and then she could swear Deke to secrecy for at least a couple of weeks.

Katy set her red plastic cup on the porch. “Mosquitoes are tryin’ to carry me off and it’s getting late, so I’m going home. Y’all want a ride? I don’t reckon these guys will keep after it much longer tonight.”

Allie stood up. “I’ll go with you. When Deke gets ready to pack up the stuff in the house we’ll be a lot more help. Whoever bought this place got a fine chunk of property. I hope they like ranchin’ and that they’re good neighbors.”

Lizzy smiled up at her sister. “I’m still not sayin’ a word.”

“You are wicked and evil and I will find a way to get even. I should know before all the gossipmongers in town, and believe me, they will find out even if they have to go to the courthouse on Monday and look at the books,” Allie said.

“They wouldn’t do that,” Lizzy gasped.

“They will if they don’t have a snitch in the courthouse that will do it for them. Dora June probably has the whole staff on standby. By Friday night the news of the new buyer will be bigger than Mitch coming to the festival on Saturday.” Allie wiped beads of sweat from her forehead with the tail of her shirt.

“Hot, ain’t it?” Lizzy smiled.

“Come on, Mama.” Allie sighed. “She’s not going to give up a damn thing. You could make her sleep on the porch until she tells us.”

“I could but then I’d have to live with her bitchin’, so I’m not going to.” Katy laughed. “See you at home or at breakfast if you come in after I’m asleep.”

“Good night,” Lizzy said.





Chapter Twenty-Two



Toby eased down on the porch beside Lizzy and laid a hand on her knee. He’d removed his chambray work shirt, and his white undershirt was dirty and sweaty. A line across his forehead gave testimony that he’d only taken his beat-up, old straw hat off a few minutes ago.

She passed him the red plastic cup that she’d been drinking from, and he gulped down the rest of the iced tea. When he handed it back, she refilled it and offered it to him again.

He drank down a third of it before he came up for air. “Thank you. I made a mistake when I didn’t go to the bank and get a loan for this place, Lizzy. But we didn’t want to be in debt while we’re trying to make the Lucky Penny work.”