Wild Cowboy Ways (Lucky Penny Ranch #1)(58)

“Riley came in here this morning wanting to give me a second chance. Then that old song by Conway played on the radio. Remember ‘A Bridge That Just Won’t Burn’?”

“No but I can understand the title after last night,” Blake said. “Are we okay, Allie, until we can talk face-to-face?”

“Did you hear what I said? He wants to give me a second chance; not me give him one.” Allie’s tone changed.

Blake chuckled. “Now I understand.”

“I’ll be back at work tomorrow or Friday at the latest. My goal is to have your bedroom done by Saturday evening,” she said. “We can talk then.”

“And then you’ll go out with me for dinner and a movie. Maybe up to Wichita Falls?” he asked.

“Tell you what. I’ll go out with you when I have that room done. It can be our celebration,” she answered.

Blake pumped his fist into the air and Shooter barked. “I could help you so it would be done by Saturday night.”

“How good at painting are you?” she asked.

“I can roll paint just as good as anyone and I’ll be more than glad to help out.”

“And now I have a customer so I’d best get off the phone. Thanks for calling, Blake, and yes, we’re okay for right now.”

It was another rancher needing a pickup load of feed and that didn’t take long. Allie checked on Granny and then went back to her stool. She should have been dancing a jig around the store that Blake had asked her out, but instead she had a rock in her chest.

“It’s because I’m falling right back into the same pattern I had with Riley. He calls the shots and I do the dancing,” she mumbled.

“No, you are not going dancing,” Granny said at her elbow. “You are not going to a bar where they do that hoochy-cooch dancing. Your sister is marryin’ a damn preacher and you’ll ruin her reputation. I’m going back over to your mama’s store. She made pinto beans and ham this morning and I’m hungry for more than doughnuts.”

Allie helped her into her coat and followed her to the door, stepped outside in the bitter cold and watched her until she was safely inside the convenience store, and then went back to her fretting stool. It was only dinner and a movie with a friend; it wasn’t a date. Not even after all those hot kisses, it still wasn’t a date. She’d ask Deke to go with them to prove that it was friendship and not the beginnings of a relationship.





Chapter Sixteen



Blake made sure his phone was fully charged and in his shirt pocket instead of leaving it on the kitchen table. He could hardly believe that it was Friday. In ten days his house had gotten a brand-new roof and his bedroom was getting a fine remodel. Things were falling into place even better than he could have hoped for when he first moved to the Lucky Penny. He had missed seeing Allie the past two days while she worked at the feed store but he hoped she’d be back at the Lucky Penny that day.

He’d barely crawled up in the dozer when the phone rang, and he hurriedly pulled it from his pocket and smiled brightly when he saw that Allie was calling.

He answered before it rang the second time. “We’ve got to stop all this talking on the phone. I miss you, Allie. I miss seeing your gorgeous smile and having you sit beside me at the dinner table. I miss talking to you. It’s not the same around here without you, and Deke is getting depressed. Poor old Shooter misses you, too.”

“I’m at the store today,” Allie said. “Not the feed store but Mama’s place. Lizzy finally felt well enough to go to work, but Granny is lethargic so Mama took her back to the doctor to make sure she’s not coming down with the stomach bug. She was afraid to let it go over the weekend. You and Deke want to come into town for dinner? We’ve got a big pot of taco meat simmering and we’re serving tacos with pinto beans and dirty rice. I’ll treat today. If you wait until the school rush is over, I can even sit down and eat with you guys.”

Blake smiled and nodded to himself. She talked too much when she was nervous. He wanted nothing more than to hug her, to calm her from whatever was creating turmoil in her life, but most of all he wanted to be near her again. Even if he couldn’t kiss her or hold her, he wanted to share space with her, be able to look at her. It seemed like a hundred years since that craziness when Scarlett showed up at his house and even longer since Allie stormed out past him in that damn robe. He was glad she’d burned the thing. He never wanted to see it again.

“What time? Can I bring the beer?” he asked.

“Twelve thirty or after and yes on the beer. I can’t sell it but I could sure drink one with dinner. Looks like our bedroom celebration will have to wait until the first of the week. There’s no way I can get it finished by Saturday,” she said.

“Bedroom celebration, darlin’?” he asked.

“We’re going out to celebrate finishing your bedroom. Did you forget? I thought we’d ask Deke to join us so he won’t feel left out,” she said quickly.

“No, I hadn’t forgotten. I was teasing you and darlin’ I don’t do threesomes,” he said. “I’ll see you at dinner. I’ll be the one with three beers and a lean and hungry look on my face.”

In the middle of the morning he got a text message from Toby, saying that he was leaving Muenster as soon as he could get away that evening and driving up to the Lucky Penny for the weekend.