Wild Cowboy Ways (Lucky Penny Ranch #1)(74)

She shrugged it off but not before Blake turned around. The expression on his face said that he was finished with her and that he didn’t even care if she came back to finish remodeling his house. It was over and done with and all that was left was Grady.

Sensible.

Sad heart with no song.

“Y’all are going to have to play without me,” she said around the lump in her throat. “I promised to read to Granny while she falls asleep for her Sunday nap. If she isn’t restless, I’ll check in with you later.”

Grady kissed her on the cheek. “Okay, sweetheart.”

She shivered from disgust instead of desire and wiped it away with the back of her hand as she went to the kitchen. Katy was busy clearing the table. Half of Granny’s pie was done and she had that blank look on her face that said she wasn’t sure where she was.

“Go on, Mama. I’ll do this while I wait on her to finish. You can be halfway to Wichita Falls by the time that happens and I need something to do,” Allie said.

“Have you been crying?” Katy asked.

“Not yet, but I might start when the anger dies down. Blake and I had an argument.”

Katy hung a kitchen towel on the hook. “About what? Are you going to finish the job over there?”

“I told him I didn’t care and…”

“Care about what?”

Allie put a hand on her forehead but it didn’t ease the pain throbbing in her temples. “I’m not sure. It’s complicated.”

Katy handed her the dishtowel. “You’d best uncomplicate it before Grady pushes his way into your life. I pray every night that you don’t let him talk you into a relationship.”

Allie shivered. “You’d rather have Blake than him? And yes, I am going to finish the job. Whether we are friends or not doesn’t mean I can’t work for him.”

“Honey, I’d rather have Lucifer than Grady. He’s got shifty eyes.” Katy cut her eyes toward Irene. “You’ll have to keep a close watch on her.”

“I’m going to read to her and then sit in the rocking chair in her room and reread that LaVyrle Spencer book about Abigail this afternoon,” Allie said.

Katy nodded. “And figure out what you meant by you don’t care, right?”

“I hope so, Mama.”

Granny was asleep before Allie finished reading the first page of The Velveteen Rabbit, which was her new favorite book these days. The roles had been reversed because Allie remembered Granny reading that book to her when she was a child.

When she heard the first soft snore, she put the book aside and picked up Hummingbird by LaVyrle Spencer. After reading five pages and not comprehending a single word that she’d read, she laid it aside and decided to straighten Granny’s closet.

But first she was going to call Blake and try to explain to him what she meant by she didn’t care. It wasn’t that she didn’t care for him, but that she didn’t care who Toby and Deke slept with and that Blake didn’t owe her an explanation for their actions. There, that was easy enough to put into words, now wasn’t it?

And then she was going to confront him about the way he’d introduced her to his brother. He didn’t have to say they’d slept together, but he damn sure could have done better than saying she was the woman who was remodeling the house.

She hit the right number and the call went straight to voice mail. No way was she going to talk to a damn recording about something that important. She waited two minutes and called again. Same thing.

She ended the call before the message even finished and called a third time. That time Blake answered.

“This is not a good time, Allie,” he said gruffly.

“I don’t care.”

“You say that often, don’t you?”

“What?” she asked.

“I don’t care.”

“I meant I don’t care if it’s not a good time. We need to talk, Blake.”

“This time I don’t care to hear the explanation. We need some breathing space before we talk again. That dinner was the most awkward thing I’ve ever had to endure.” The line went dead and she slung the phone on the bed.

“Dammit!” She wanted to scream, but the whisper had to do. Waking Granny always made her cranky.

She slung open the closet doors, sat down on the floor, and started arranging the piles of shoes into some kind of order. She found three bars of soap tucked down in the toes of shoes that Granny hadn’t worn in five years or more. A shoebox held a ziplock bag full of miniature chocolate bars that had long since gone white with age, two washcloths, and a can of root beer.

When she’d first started hoarding things, they’d asked the doctor about it and discovered it was a symptom of the disease. Folks got paranoid and thought people were stealing their possessions so they hid them.

Then she found the full bottle of Jack Daniel’s in one boot and a bottle of Patrón tequila in another boot. Granny must have found them in Fiona’s room because Katy didn’t drink, Lizzy was too self-righteous to even have a beer these days, and Allie damn sure hadn’t brought the bottles home.

She opened the bourbon first and took a long swig and then tried a taste of the tequila. She liked the bourbon better, but it might hurt Mr. Patrón’s feelings if she didn’t share her attention between him and Mr. Jack.