Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(89)

“No, it’s Myra,” the woman on the other end sobbed.

Lizzy slid out of Toby’s arms and sat down in the grass. The dizziness did not disappear in a minute, but things slowly stood still and she found her voice. “What’s wrong, Myra?”

“I need you, Lizzy. I don’t have anyone else and Rowdy doesn’t know what to do with me, and please, Lizzy, I caused this because of yesterday and now God is punishing me and…”

“Where are you?”

“At the little hospital in Olney,” she answered between violent sobs.

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes or less. Tell them at the front desk to let me come in,” Lizzy said.

“What’s wrong?” Toby asked.

“I thought it was Allie. Something terrible has happened to Myra and she wants me to come to Olney. I’m so sorry, Toby. This is our engagement day but I feel like I need to go. She sounds horrible and she has no one.”

Toby extended a hand. “Then we’ll go together. Marriage is more than hot nights between the sheets, darlin’. It’s teamwork and from right now on, we are a team. I’ll drive if you’ll tell me where to go.”

“Thank you,” Lizzy said.

Toby was a keeper for sure. A man who would give up his wild women for her, who didn’t bat an eye when it came to helping someone that she damn sure didn’t owe jack shit to, and who loved Lizzy the way she was without a single word about changing anything.

When they reached the hospital, Lizzy headed for the front desk but a scrawny little fellow stepped in front of her. He had a scraggly blond mustache and his thick hair braided in two ropes that hung down his back. He wore cargo shorts, sandals, and a wrinkled plaid shirt over a tank top.

“I’m Rowdy. Are you Lizzy?” His deep voice did not match his size.

Lizzy nodded. “I am and this is…”

Toby extended his hand. “I’m her fiancé as of an hour ago. I’m Toby Dawson.”

“God, I’m glad you are here. I can’t call her parents. They’re so mad at her they’re about to disown her, and she don’t want Mitch to know where she is. The only person she said she’d talk to is you, and she’s blaming herself for losing the baby even after the doctor said it wasn’t anything that she did or didn’t do and…” He stopped to catch his breath. “She’s right down this way. I’ll show you the way.”

Lizzy could hear the weeping before she reached the room, and her heart went out to poor Myra. Toby said they were a team and this was their first job as such, so she laced her fingers in his and pushed open the door into the hospital room.

“Lizzy, thank you,” she whispered. “God hates me.”

Lizzy thought about what her grandmother, her mother, and/or both her sisters would say at that moment and drew on their strength as well as her own. She let go of Toby’s hand and crossed the room to stand beside Myra’s bed.

“God does not hate you. This is not God’s fault or yours. It’s an act of nature that happens sometimes. Don’t take the blame on yourself because you feel guilty about Mitch. He’s not worth it.”

Myra wiped her eyes on the edge of the bedsheet. “Thank you.”

Lizzy patted Myra on the shoulder. “This would have happened no matter where you were. You can grieve but you shouldn’t punish yourself.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling her,” Rowdy said. “She’s got spunk. I saw it in college. And she can live with me as long as she wants. I’ve got a nice little house with two bedrooms.”

“Okay, then. Are we all good here?” Lizzy asked.

Myra nodded. “Thank you. Rowdy is my friend but…”

“I understand.” Lizzy patted her one more time and circled back around the bed to lace her fingers in Toby’s. “I’d like you to meet my fiancé, Toby Dawson.”

“Congratulations. I wondered why you had roses in your hair.”

Lizzy touched them and smiled. “They are pretty, aren’t they? Toby gathered them from the fence and the pasture of our new ranch. And now we’re going home to tell my mama and sister that I’m engaged,” Lizzy said.

“Thank you one more time,” Myra said. “You are an angel.”

Lizzy giggled all the way out of the room.

“What’s so funny?” Toby said when they were well out of hearing distance.

“You know what they say about angels?” she asked.

“That they have wings and a halo?”

“No, that they are just wild women who’ve had the hell screwed out of them,” she said with another giggle.

“Maybe that’s what turned my life around. I got the hell knocked out of me during those hot nights with you,” he said.

“We really are a team, aren’t we?”

“You got it, darlin’.”





Chapter Twenty-Six



Good grief! What are you doing with roses in your hair?” Allie asked when Lizzy and Toby reached the house that evening.

“What are y’all doin’ here? No, don’t answer that. I’m glad you are here because now I won’t have to make two announcements,” Lizzy said.

“Deke is here, too, and he says he ain’t sayin’ a word until you get here. This has been the best-kept secret Dry Creek has ever had. Everyone is sitting beside their phones waiting to hear who bought Deke’s ranch and…” Allie stopped for breath. “And we’re all in the kitchen around the table. Mama made chocolate cake and homemade ice cream, but she won’t let me have any until you tell us.”