Wild Cowboy Ways (Lucky Penny Ranch #1)(48)

She felt totally naked even though she was covered from head to toe. The woman in the mirror with no makeup and wet hair wore white cotton underpants and a white bra and Blake would know it by now. There wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it so she took the first step toward the kitchen.

“Come on in, Allie. I’m putting the food on the table,” Blake called out.

She opened the door and sniffed the air. “Smells good.”

Everything was normal when she got to the kitchen. Supper was on the table in disposable aluminum foil pans. A washer was running in the background and the coffee pot gurgled out the last bit of water. It was merely another meal at Blake’s place but without Deke there and Allie wearing nothing but a robe—well that changed things a hell of a lot.

“Beer or sweet tea? I made a fresh pot of coffee for after with dessert, which is peach cobbler that came with the church ladies.”

“Sweet tea,” she answered. She didn’t want a damn thing that Sharlene had brought into the house. “I love peach cobbler. I bet it’s Ruby’s recipe. That’s what she always brings to church suppers.”

“You look downright adorable in my robe and I bet you feel a hell of a lot better with all that insulation washed off you,” Blake said. “After your things get washed and dried let’s go outside and build a moon snowman.”

“A what?”

“A snowman by the light of the moon.”

She smiled. “That sounds like fun. It’s wet enough to pack good and solid and there’s enough to make a good snowman.”

“You look beautiful,” he said abruptly.

“I got to admit, I feel more than a little vulnerable, so you might want to keep your wild ways under wraps,” she said honestly.

How did the conversation go from snowmen to her so quickly? She felt a blush coming on but she wasn’t the only one with high color in her cheeks. Grown men did not get flustered, but Blake did. Then he laughed. “And what makes you think I’ve got an ounce of wild in me? I’m only a rough old cowboy trying to turn a ranch around and get the town of Dry Creek to accept me.”

Allie sat down. “Oma Lynn. You ever heard of her?”

Blake’s heavy dark brows drew together until they became one long line. “You mean the sweet lady who works at my bank in Muenster? Why are you asking about her?”

Allie dipped into the pot and filled up her bowl with pulled pork. “She grew up right here in Dry Creek. Sharlene, Mary Jo, and Nadine have gotten the scoop on you from her. She spilled the beans about you being the wild Dawson, your brother being the hot one, and your cousin being the lucky one.”

Blake raked his hand down over his face. “Well, hell! I guess a man can’t outrun his past, can he?”

“Just how wild were you?”

“Just how married were you?” he fired right back.

“Touché,” she said with the briefest of nods.

“Guess we’re both lookin’ to make changes in our lives and forget the past,” he said.

Did Allie hear him right? Did he say he wanted to make a change in his life? Could that possibly mean that Sharlene or Mary Jo weren’t in his sights for a one-night stand or even more?

“Yes, sir. Would you please pass the cheese?”

He handed her the plate. “Anything for a beautiful lady. Thanks for having supper with me, Allie. The evenings get long if you and Deke aren’t around.”

Every time, without fail, that he called her beautiful her pulse raced and her heart threw in an extra beat. She took a deep breath before she spoke so he wouldn’t know what crazy things he did to her nerves. “I know exactly what you mean about getting lonesome. Lizzy is so involved with wedding plans and the evenings are tough for Granny. If she does have a lucid moment it won’t be after dark. And Mama gets dragged into the wedding business so even though there’s four of us over at our place, I still get lonely.”

He gave her one of those brilliant grins that electrified the whole room. “Well, darlin’, you are welcome here anytime of the night or day.” He stood, walked over to move Allie’s clothes from the washer to the dryer, then came back to the table.

She drew his robe even tighter around her chest, glad that the plush material covered up the effect he had on her aching breasts. She was flirting with the devil, but he was so damn enticing that even a glance drew her to him like a wayward saint to the warmth of hell’s blaze. Allie had sure never been any kind of saint, but she really should slow down and quit taking such giant steps toward the fire.

“You’ve got that faraway look on your face again. Is Lizzy arguing with you?” Blake asked.

“No, she’s been quiet this evening. It was me fighting with me,” she said honestly.

“About what?”

Blake picked up a pickle and bit into it. “Want to talk about it?”

“No, I’m tired of analyzing everything to death.”

Blake handed her the rest of the pickle. “It’s dill and I thought it was a sweet pickle. You finish it. You like dill.”

Without even thinking about it, she popped the rest of the pickle into her mouth. Was that something that friends did? She didn’t share her food with Deke and they’d been friends for more than a decade.

She was still chewing when the front door burst open and Irene stomped in wearing a pair of bright red rubber boots, a cowboy hat, and a long denim duster, all covered with snow.