Home at Chestnut Creek

by Laura Drake

  Nadine took a deep breath. “Right now is the perfect time to do this because he won’t tell me no. Not after last night. Thank you, Allie. You might have saved my sanity.”

  Allie looked out the front window at the buildings across the street and imagined all of them with clean windows and prosperous businesses. “Think Sharlene would want to rent one of the buildings? Or maybe Mary Jo? We might turn this town around if all the women who are bored had something to keep them busy.”

  “Lord, honey, Mary Jo can cook, but not like Nadine. But, oh, my gosh, Allie, she might put in a beauty and barbershop combination in the old barbershop. I’m going to talk to her and Sharlene, too.” Nadine clapped her hands like Irene did when she got a chocolate cupcake.

  Allie followed her to the door. “Just remember, you aren’t going to get rich here in Dry Creek but it might make you feel a lot better.”

  The door had barely shut behind her when Allie’s phone rang. She recognized Deke’s number and answered after the second ring.

  “Are you holding a grudge? This isn’t like you, Allie,” Deke said bluntly.

  Riley? Nadine? How did Deke know all that so quickly? “Grudge for what?”

  “Come on. All last night wasn’t Blake’s fault so why didn’t you show up for work this morning? He told you he kicked that ex of his to the curb after you left and I believe him,” Deke said.

  “Well, it damn sure wasn’t my fault!” she shot right back at him.

  “I didn’t say it was. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, so why aren’t you on the job today?” Deke asked.

  Blake yelled in the background. “Hey, Deke, I’ve got five messages from Allie. Her sister is sick and she’s down at the feed store. I left my phone on the kitchen table this morning.”

  “What’s the matter with Lizzy? Did she finally wake up and realize that she’s engaged to a jerk and it made her sick to think about what a fool she’s been?” Deke asked.

  Allie popped up on the counter and crossed her legs Indian-style. “I want to go back to what we were talking about before. Why did you take Blake’s side first? I’ve been your friend a hell of a lot longer than he has.”

  “Yes you have and that’s why I didn’t like it when you were sinking back into that ugly mood you got in after the divorce,” Deke said. “I was afraid you’d lose your mind that first year after Riley left.”

  Allie didn’t want to talk about the past. “So I’m ugly?”

  Deke lowered his voice to a whisper. “I did not say that. I said you were in an ugly mood and you’re not going to twist your way out of this. If you didn’t like Blake and I mean more than a friend, you wouldn’t be carryin’ on like this.”

  “You are acting like a girl.” She laughed.

  “I’m your best friend, so I have to act like a girl for you to listen to me. Just don’t ask me to wear pink taffeta and be your bridesmaid when you get married again. I draw the line at that,” he said.

  “Darlin’, you don’t look good in pink taffeta. I was thinking purple silk, something with a big skirt and a sweetheart neckline,” she teased. “And FYI, I’m not getting married again and if I did it would involve a twenty-minute trip to the courthouse in Throckmorton, not a big wedding. Go eat your dinner and get back to work. With any luck I’ll be back on the job tomorrow morning.”

  Deke lowered his voice to a whisper. “The hussy did not come back last night. And Bobby Ray spent the night at Riley’s place, but he and Nadine made up this morning.”

  “Gossip travels fast,” she said.

  “Nothing speedier in the whole world especially with the help of a cell phone and texting. Got to go.”

  “Bye, Deke, and thanks for the call.”

  “You betcha and Blake is yelling for me to tell you that he will call you back soon as we get done eating dinner.”

  Allie’s coffee had gone lukewarm, but she sipped it anyway. The first tinkling, haunting sounds of the piano announced a song by Conway Twitty started on the radio. She tapped a finger on the counter to the beat in her head. He sang about standing on a bridge that just wouldn’t burn. Allie shut her eyes and pictured an old wooden bridge. Riley stood on the other end with his arms open wide, a smile on his face, beckoning to her to take the first step. In the vision, she took out an imaginary chuck of blazing firewood and set the damn thing on fire.

  “Good-bye, past. Hello, future,” she mumbled.

  Blake was in the dozer with Shooter right beside him when he called Allie. She was out of breath when she said, “Hello.”

  “Busy at the feed store today?” he asked.

  “Quiet except for a little drama this morning and then I had a run this afternoon for feed. I was in the back of the store making tickets for half a dozen ranchers who were loading their trucks when I heard the phone. I’d left it on the counter beside the cash register,” she explained.

  “I can call back,” Blake said.

  “It’s okay. I can talk,” she said. “Everything is taken care of right now. Granny is watching television and eating doughnuts in the office, while Mama has her usual school lunch rush. Hey, guess what? Nadine may open up a café here on Main Street.”

  Blake put the phone on speaker so he could talk and drive at the same time. “I wanted to tell you that Scarlett left right after you did last night. I guess a person can’t run from their past, can they?”

  “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.

  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.”

  Deke held up a finger. “And Sharlene? Is she putting in a brothel? That’s w
hat 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.”