Wild Cowboy Ways (Lucky Penny Ranch #1)(59)

He couldn’t wait for Toby to arrive at the ranch so he could see the progress Blake had made. But most of all he wanted to introduce him to his Allie.

“My Allie,” he muttered. “I only wish she were mine.”



Allie was so busy making lunches from eleven thirty until five minutes before the final bell rang down at the school that she didn’t have time to look up. When the store finally cleared she sat down at a table and propped her legs up on an empty chair.

She wished she was painting walls at Blake’s place rather than running the store, but family helped family, even when they didn’t like it. Too bad Lizzy or her mother didn’t know a hammer from a dishrag so they could return the favor when she needed help.

“Hey,” Deke called out as he and Blake pushed their way into the store. “Looks like we timed it about right. There’s some big black clouds gathering up down in the southwest and I got a text from a friend in Throckmorton who says we’ve got freezing rain on the way by midnight, so we’re in for a blast. Cold wind is coming down from the north and rain from the south. Won’t be no more workin’ outside today.”

Allie’s heart kicked in an extra beat when she saw Blake, and her pulse went from low to high gear in less than five seconds. It was the first time she’d seen him since that horrible night. He stopped a few feet from her and she searched his expression, hoping that they were truly all right and the whole scene wouldn’t be awkward between them.

“Crazy how the weather affects what we do, isn’t it? Take off your coats and hang them on the rack in the back. Dinner is on the stove. Help yourselves.” Her voice sounded normal despite the way her heart was flopping around like a fish out of water inside her chest. She started to get up but Blake shook his head.

“Keep your seat. I’ll bring you a plate. One or two tacos?” He smiled and erased all doubts from her mind.

She held up four fingers. “No beans and extra dirty rice, but I’ll make my own plate and we’ll take them to the back room where it’s a little more private.”

“She’s bored.” Deke laughed. “When she’s bored she eats and she gets cranky and picks fights. When she’s nervous she talks too much. She’s not made to run a store. Hey, neither Blake nor I can’t work outside anymore with this weather comin’ on so how be I run the store for you and you go on home with Blake and do some paintin’. It might keep you from goin’ plumb batshit crazy.”

Allie jogged over to Deke, put her arms around his neck, and hugged him like a brother. “I love you, love you, love you! You are my very best friend and I owe you one.”

“I guess I could tear out some hallway ceiling while you paint.” Blake removed three beers from the pockets of his work coat and set them on the table. A twinge of jealousy reared its ugly head when she told Deke that she loved him and said that he was her best friend. Blake wanted that spot even if he wasn’t going to admit it out loud.

“That sounds wonderful. Now let’s eat so we can get out of here and go to work,” she said.

Blake nodded toward the doughnuts. “Can we have them for dessert?”

“No!” Deke called out from the back of the store. “You’ll want ice cream to chase the picante sauce that we’re going to put on these tacos. Katy makes it from her own special recipe and believe me, you will want ice cream. We’ll each pick a pint of our favorite flavor from the freezer.”

Blake removed his coat and hung it on the back of a chair and headed for the back room with Allie right behind him. In a few minutes she and Blake were sitting on one side of the table with Deke at the end. Blake’s leg was jammed tightly against hers and electricity, that had nothing to do with the thunder and lightning outside, rattled through her body jump-starting her pulse into racing again just when it had slowed down to normal.

“Damn fine tacos,” Deke said between bites. “Herman and his boys are practically carrying off ever’ bit of the mesquite that Blake is clearing out. I’ve made a hell of a good livin’ sellin’ my wood to him this week, but this damn weather will slow us down for the rest of the week for sure. Freezing rain on top of snow makes a big mess.”

Blake finished his first taco and sipped his beer. “Once things thaw out, it’s going to be easy to turn the land the way they’re cleaning it up. I might even have eighty acres in alfalfa when Toby brings in the first round of cattle. We can put them on forty to graze and make hay from the rest. Then come fall when Jud gets here, we’ll have more land ready. It’s going better than I thought it might. These are good tacos. What’s your secret, Allie?”

Allie picked up her second one and turned to look at Blake. “Not my secret but Mama’s. She makes her own seasonings for the meat, but there’s a possibility that she won’t be cooking much longer here in the store.”

Deke frowned, drawing his forehead down to turn his hazel eyes into slits. “I don’t want to hear that. What are we going to do for a place to have coffee or to grab food at noon if Blake ain’t cookin’?”

“Nadine is opening up the old café. Hopefully by the end of the month. It all happened really quick. She’s leased it from Mama and if things go well after the first year, she’s going to buy the building,” Allie said. “And she’s trying to talk Mary Jo into putting in a barber and beauty shop across the street.”