Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(88)

“Me, too, what?” His lips were like fire on hers.

“I love you, Toby Dawson,” she managed to get out in a whoosh before she lost her nerve.

“I’ve thought about a dozen scenarios for this moment, but I cannot hold it in another minute.” Toby moved a few inches closer.

That old song came to her mind and she hummed it without thinking.

“I remember ‘Would You Lay With Me?’ and the answer is yes, I would walk a thousand miles through the burning sand if you’ll give yourself to me.”

“And I would lay with you in a field of stone,” she whispered.

The moment was corny, but it was their time as the sun shimmered over the tops of the mesquite trees. It was so sweet that it made her heart swell with love. She got lost in his blue eyes, forgetting that he had been talking about scenarios when she’d started humming Tanya Tucker’s old song.

“Will you marry me?” Toby drawled.

Lizzy blinked a dozen times. Had she heard him right? Did he just propose to her? Sweet Jesus in heaven! Now what in the hell did she do?

“No,” she whispered.



Toby had envisioned all kinds of answers when he thought about proposing to Lizzy, but downright refusal wasn’t even in the top one thousand. His heart tumbled out onto the green grass and rolled into the creek to drown.

“I cannot marry you until you hear me out,” she said.

He grabbed his heart and shoved it back into his chest. The no wasn’t final; there was a glimmer of hope.

She removed her hands from his and scooted back until they weren’t touching anymore. “I did something on impulse, but now it feels right and you should be the first one to hear. Then I’ll tell Mama, Allie, and Fiona.”

“Is it Mitch after all?” Toby could feel and hear the pain in his voice.

“No,” she said quickly. “God, no!”

“Okay, anything else we can work through. At least I know I haven’t lost you to him,” Toby said.

“You Dawsons have a lot of pride and…” She paused and sucked in a lungful of air. “I bought Deke’s ranch and…”

“That’s why you said no?” Toby asked incredulously.

She nodded.

“You thought I’d let pride get in the way of love?”

Another brief nod. “Fear of losing you, Toby. I want to incorporate Deke’s place into the Lucky Penny. I want to live in that ugly house with you. I want Allie to remodel it a little at a time. But…”

Toby’s mouth turned up in a grin. “I was thinking that we’d have to live in that travel trailer until we could get a house built, and that could be five years.”

“Then…” she mumbled. “You are okay with it?”

“If that’s the only thing standing in our way, then I’m going to ask you the question one more time, Lizzy. I’m amazed that we can add Deke’s property to the Lucky Penny, grateful that you bought it, and I love you for doing that for us. I don’t have a ring today but will you marry me?”

“Yes!” she squealed, and landed in his lap, knocking him backward and covering his face with kisses.

Toby wanted to hang on to the love he felt right then forever, never letting it out of his reach. Not for a single second, now that he’d found it.

She pushed away from him but kept her hands on his chest. “Are you sure you want to marry me? I will keep working at the feed store and I’m not a neat person.”

“I reckon we can put up a baby bed in the office and, darlin’, you do the cookin’ and I’ll make sure the house is semi-clean,” he said.

“Deke’s house isn’t a mansion but it’s all paid for, lock, stock, and barrel,” she said.

Toby gasped. “You paid cash?”

“The feed store does well and I had a little inheritance from my grandpa. You aren’t going to have a problem with me helping with finances are you?”

Toby shook his head. “I love you, not your bank account. But I’m not arguing if you want to buy a pound of bacon. Having Deke’s land is going to put us ahead by three years.”

“I reckon we can stop calling it Deke’s place as of right now. It’s all part of the Lucky Penny, so it makes it our place.” Her lips found his in a tender kiss that said volumes. His Lizzy could be wild and hot or she could be vulnerable and soft. He loved all her many moods and ways and hoped there were even more to discover in the next sixty or more years they’d have together.

“Well, now that the shock of being told no has worn off and finding out that the Lucky Penny has grown by about thirty percent, let’s go take a look at our new house,” Toby said.

Walking hand-in-hand, they were halfway to the house when Lizzy’s cell phone rang. She let go of his hand, worked it up out of the hip pocket of her skinny jeans, and answered it.



Lizzy did not recognize the phone number but she answered it. When she heard nothing but weeping on the other end, the mesquite trees started to spin around her and the ground was coming up to meet her face when suddenly strong arms circled around her waist.

“Lizzy, are you all right? Look at me?” His voice was husky with concern.

“Allie, are you all right? Is it the baby?” she whispered.