Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(90)

Allie led the way to the kitchen with Lizzy and Toby behind her and talked the whole way. The heat of Toby’s hand on Lizzy’s back made her wish they were back under the willow tree or even in his tiny trailer. She could think of all kinds of ways that this teamwork could play out.

“Where have you been? I called and it went to voice mail.” Katy looked up from the head of the table. Deke was at the other end. Blake was to her right and Allie’s chair was still pushed out from where she got up to meet them at the door.

Fiona looked up from the chair closest to Deke. “I tried to call you a dozen times.”

“Had to turn off the phone in the hospital,” Toby said.

“Hospital! What happened?” The chair made a loud scraping noise as Katy got to her feet. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. It wasn’t me. It was Myra. I’ll help dip ice cream and tell you what happened.” Lizzy headed for the cabinets and took a stack of bowls from the cabinet. While she and Katy filled the bowls and cut into the double layer chocolate cake, she told them the story of what had happened that evening. “And you all have to swear that Myra’s new residence does not leave this kitchen because she needs to get a hell of a lot stronger before she has to face Mitch or her parents.”

“You are a good woman to do that for her,” Deke said. “But then we always knew there was a heart hiding down inside that stubborn streak. How’d she get away from Mitch anyway?”

Fiona raised her hand. “I helped with that. Poor girl was scared out of her mind and wouldn’t even sit up straight in the seat until I parked in front of her friend’s house. He seemed like a good person and he didn’t ask a bunch of questions. Just took her right into the house and I turned around and came home. And now I’ve got to hurry up and eat ice cream and then get on the road so I don’t miss my flight. Tomorrow it’s going to be back at the work grind.”

Lizzy carried the bowls of ice cream and dessert plates of chocolate cake to the table. “I wish you could stay longer, but I’m so glad for this weekend and I’m really happy that you are here for my two announcements. This evening can be our celebration.”

“Do the roses in your hair have something to do with one of them?” Allie asked.

“The roses came from the barbed wire fence down by that little section of Dry Creek that still has enough water in it to…” She paused and blushed. “To go wading in. It’ll dry up in a couple of weeks. I can’t remember a time when it had water in it this late in the summer.”

“I picked them and wound them into her pretty hair,” Toby said.

“Who bought Deke’s ranch? Mary Jo and Nadine are on pins for me to call them and deliver the news. Money will pass hands on bets that have been made,” Allie said.

“And I’ve got a five-dollar bill on a name, too, with four-to-one odds, so I stand to make twenty bucks if I’m right,” Fiona said.

“I did,” Lizzy said. “Deke and I closed the deal on Friday. What’s left on the ranch belongs to me or rather to the Lucky Penny Ranch because I’m incorporating my land into the ranch.”

Fiona let out a whoop. “I knew it and everyone said I was crazy as hell, but you would have told me if it had been anyone else but you! I’ll make Lucy Hudson send me every bit of that money.”

Allie’s spoon stopped midway between the bowl and her mouth, and she looked at Lizzy as if she’d grown another eye right in the middle of her forehead.

Poor old Blake was so stunned that his eyes wouldn’t blink. And Katy popped the side of her head, as if trying to make her ears work.

The silence was deafening until Deke chuckled. “I told you that you’d be surprised.” He took a bite of his ice cream as if nothing had just happened.

“You are shittin’ me,” Blake whispered.

“No, she’s not,” Toby said. “Shocked the hell out of me, too, brother.”

“Are you going to move into the house?” Allie asked.

“I am,” Lizzy answered.

Blake’s expression testified that he was still in shock. “And you really want to add that to the Lucky Penny?”

“I do.”

“Why?” Allie asked.

“Because I want my own place and I had the money saved up, and Toby’s trailer is too damn small for two people,” she answered.

“We’re engaged,” Toby blurted.

“Bullshit!” Allie said.

Fiona dropped her spoon. “I’ll be damned. You did sneak that one in on me.”

“And this halo of roses is my engagement ring. Isn’t it pretty?”

“Congratulations!” Deke said. “I knew it was going to happen. I just didn’t know when. I’m damn sure glad you bought that house and ranch, Lizzy. Jesus couldn’t live with you in that cramped-up trailer of Toby’s. You might have done a good deed tonight, but there’s still a lot of Logan stubborn hiding in that body of yours.”

Toby drew her close to his side. “I’m a lucky man.”

“Yes, you are,” Katy said. “I’ll add my congratulations to Deke’s, but there’s sadness in my heart because my last baby girl is leaving Audrey’s Place.”

“Maybe someday Fiona will come back to Dry Creek.” Lizzy looked across the room at her sister.