Wild Cowboy Ways (Lucky Penny Ranch #1)(60)

Deke held up a finger. “And Sharlene? Is she putting in a brothel? That’s what we need most.”

Allie slapped him on the arm. “No, but Nadine is talking to her about a day care center in the old clothing store. It’s got a lot of room and it wouldn’t take much to convert it and Sharlene is real good with kids. And besides who needs a brothel when it appears that menfolk can get all of that around here that they want for free.”

“Alora Raine!” Deke pretended to be shocked.

Blake glanced out the window. “Wouldn’t it be something if all these empty buildings were filled with businesses?”

Deke chuckled. “You best hope for one miracle at a time. Turning the luck of the Lucky Penny is enough for you to worry about right now.”





Chapter Seventeen



Herman waved from the window of his trailer loaded high with mesquite wood when Allie and Blake passed him on the way to the ranch. Travis Tritt was singing “Love of a Woman” on the classic country radio station and Blake kept time with his thumbs on the steering wheel.

Allie tapped her foot to the beat and was so wrapped up in her relief to get away from the store that she didn’t realize they were at the Lucky Penny until Blake parked the truck and jogged around the front end to open the door for her.

She stepped out in four inches of snow that wasn’t so pretty anymore with tire tracks zigzagging everywhere across it. Shooter bounded off the porch, his tail wagging as if it was a lovely spring day. A rabbit peeked out from behind a fence post and the dog went into instant point, quivering only slightly until the bunny bounded and the race was on.

“I vote that we build a snowman before we go inside to work,” Blake said. “I don’t know about you but the last time I built a snowman I was still a kid.”

She pulled her gloves from her coat pocket. “We’ve had snow and ice and bad weather in this part of the state but the last time my sisters and I built a snowman was the year before I graduated high school. Fiona was still in junior high and I really thought I was too old to play in the snow.”

“And today,” Blake asked.

“You got a carrot for his nose?” She grinned.

“I sure do. Let’s build him in the backyard. That way I can see him from the kitchen windows,” Blake said.

The wet snow packed together beautifully. Soon she had a start the size of a basketball and she started rolling it on the ground. When it was big enough for a base she looked over her shoulder to see that Blake had already positioned the bottom of the snowman in the middle of the yard. From the size of what he’d made, her donation would be the midsection.

Wiggling her shoulders to get the kinks out, she looked for him but he was nowhere. She hadn’t heard the back door open or close so he wasn’t in the house, but then she’d been thinking about burning bridges again. Suddenly two strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind. Shooter came out of nowhere and should’ve stopped quicker because when he threw his paws up on her chest, the momentum took all three of them to the ground.

Shooter popped up on his feet immediately, sent snow flying in an instant mini blizzard when he shook from head to toe, and then bounded off to chase after something else.

When the snow settled, Allie was on her side, pressed against Blake’s long, muscular body, and his arms were tight around her. She reached up and brushed flakes from his thick eyelashes. The vibes between them were so strong that she wished she had fallen into bed with him instead of into a snowdrift up next to the house.

If that had happened would it satisfy the lust? She needed a little taste of what he had to offer to prove that all men were alike when they were stripped down, then she would be over this crazy schoolgirl infatuation that kept making her go all ga-ga when he was close. But Allie Logan had no idea how to initiate a booty call.

Blake pulled her even closer. “It makes for a cold bed but I like the way you fit into my arms.”

“Me, too,” she whispered. “But right now I feel a freezing mist starting to fall. If we’re going to finish this old boy so he can get a coating of ice over him tonight, we’d best get on with it. You’ve got the bottom layer ready. I’ve made the middle. All we have to do is put them together and make him a head. Then it won’t take long to put a hat and scarf on him and give him a face. And I’m talking too much again.”

“Nervous?” He pulled her up with him when he sat up.

“Yes.”

He tipped up her chin with his fist and kissed her. The heat when their lips met came close to melting all the snow in the whole state. His tongue teased its way into her mouth, creating bright sparkly things that floated around them in multi-colors like a fireworks display in July.

When he broke the kiss, she leaned against his shoulder, every nerve ending standing on edge, every hormone begging for more. She didn’t care what common sense said, she wanted him to kiss her again.

“You don’t ever have to be nervous around me, Allie,” he whispered.

Then instantly he was on his feet with his hand extended toward her. She put her glove in his and wasn’t the least bit amazed at the effect even that much of a touch had on her.

“Let’s get this snowman done so we can get inside before this misty freezing rain gets worse,” he said.

The snowman was six feet tall and quite the cowboy with his red plaid scarf and old straw hat. He had a carrot for a nose and blackened wood chips for eyes and mouth, and mesquite limbs for arms. And a coating of freezing rain was already putting a shine on him when Allie and Blake hurried into the warm house.