Wild Cowboy Ways (Lucky Penny Ranch #1)(33)

“Alora, let me in.” A soft whisper on the other side of the door startled her. She hopped up and opened the door a crack to find Irene in her red flannel pajamas.

Her grandmother held up a package of chocolate chip cookies in one hand and a soda pop in the other. “I snuck in the kitchen and up the stairs and they didn’t hear me.”

“Who’s down there?” Allie pulled her grandmother inside and flipped the light switch.

Irene crawled up in the middle of the bed and ripped open the cookie package. “Katy and Lizzy and those two men. Lizzy is dumber than a box of rocks.”

Allie didn’t care if her granny left her bed in a mess of crumbs or even if she spilled the can of soda pop. To have Irene there in her right mind might take her mind off Blake Dawson and that despicable Grady at the same time.

“I loved your grandpa. I really did,” Irene said. “But there was a time…”

Allie waited for her granny to fall back into another time.

She finished a cookie and reached for another one. “I forget things, Allie, but I want you to know something while my mind isn’t all jumbled. Your grandpa started it when he had that affair with that woman from Throckmorton. But we got past it and fell in love all over again. We had four wonderful years before he died.”

Allie crawled up on the bed with her grandmother. “It’s okay, Granny. It’s in the past and Grandpa loved you.”

“I know that and I loved him. I never did love Walter like I did him. I was getting even with him.” She handed Allie a cookie. “But we need to talk about Lizzy. She is about to get into a mess. I never have thought that boy loves her like he should. She’s marryin’ just to be married. Leastways that’s what I think, which ain’t worth much these days the way my head is working. I’m afraid she will regret it and I can’t tell her anything so you’re going to have to stop that wedding. You owe me this much because you wouldn’t listen to me when it came to Riley. He was a sorry bastard.”

“I know, Granny.” Allie nibbled on the cookie as she talked. “You were right. Riley thought he could change me and turn me into a little wife who stayed home and had dozens of babies for him. When I didn’t get pregnant in those almost three years we were married he blamed it on the work I do.”

“Stupid bastard. And then he left you. It wasn’t your fault you didn’t have them babies. It was probably his the way he poked his thing into anyone who’d lift their skirt tail for him. Most likely rotted any sperm he had up in there. Here have a drink of this soda pop and get the taste of his name out of your mouth.” Irene passed the soda over to her.

Allie took a sip and handed it back. “Thank you, Granny.”

“I wanted to kill him but I couldn’t figure out a way to do it and not get caught and you needed me then. But now I’m a burden so I want you to kill that sumbitch that Lizzy is about to marry.” Irene dropped cookie crumbs on the bedspread. “I’ll say I did it and they might put me away but it’s okay. I don’t want another of my precious babies to hurt like you did.”

Allie picked up the crumbs and tossed them in the trash can beside her bed. “You are not a burden, Granny. We all love you.”

Irene clamped her bony hand over Allie’s knee. “If you love me and your sister, then put a stop to her marryin’ that man. Promise me you won’t stop short of killin’ him.”

“I’ll do my best, Granny,” Allie said.

Irene’s mouth set in a firm line. “Okay, you’ve given me your word. I’ll be packed and ready to go to the nut house when you get it done. Just tell me how you do it so I don’t flub up the story. I’m going back to my room now and we’ll talk later.”

She slid off the bed and tiptoed to the door, peeked out and gave Allie the thumbs-up sign before she left. Allie threw herself back on the pillows and stared at the ceiling. Granny was worried about Lizzy but the true message from her ten minutes of being lucid seemed to be that Allie needed to put the past behind her…after she killed Mitch, of course.





Chapter Ten



Several people turned around in the church pews that Sunday morning and stared blatantly; some whipped back to whisper behind their hands to the person next to them. Without even turning around, Allie knew exactly who had just walked in. The extra beat in her heart and the way her pulse raced told her it was Blake.

Grady scooted close to her and put his arm around her, his hand resting on her shoulder. Allie gritted her teeth and tried to shrug his arm away, but he was a persistent son of a bitch. When the music director said that the congregation would sing, “Abide with Me,” he held the hymnbook and pulled her even closer.

She didn’t even try to sing. She didn’t want God to abide with her that morning. She wanted him to strike Grady graveyard dead in the pew where he sat or maybe send a bolt of lightning through the roof to turn him into nothing but ashes. She didn’t even mind getting a little bit of scorch on her new pretty sweater dress if God would grant her the desires of her heart.

Her granny sang a different song, loud and clear in her soprano voice. The folks in the church had long accepted that Irene Miller lived in many worlds each day and didn’t pay a bit of attention to her that morning as she sang, “I’ll Fly Away,” while the rest of the congregation sang, “Abide with Me.”