“What took you so long?” he asked.
“Was it good?”
Blake frowned. “What?”
“How does kissing a smoker taste? I always thought it would be like licking the bottom of an ashtray,” she said.
Blake’s laughter echoed off the walls.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“You are funny and you are right. I need a glass of sweet tea to get the taste out of my mouth. Want one?”
“No, I’m going to finish up that last corner so we can hang drywall after we eat. Holler when dinner is ready.” She returned to the cold room, shut the door firmly, put her earbuds back in place, and went back to work. When Mr. George started singing “You Can’t Make a Heart Love Somebody,” tears came out of nowhere and streamed down her face. She crawled off the ladder, pulled the mask off, threw it on the floor with the broken wallboard, removed a glove, and brushed the tears away with her bare hand.
The lyrics reminded her of what Riley said when he finally admitted that he was having an affair. He said it was all her fault because she wouldn’t stay at home and be a wife, especially since she couldn’t be a mother. When she hadn’t gotten pregnant in those two years, he said he’d go to the doctor for a checkup. He came home with the news it wasn’t him so she didn’t need to go. And like the lyrics of the song said, she couldn’t make him love her.
She hadn’t cried that day so why were the tears flowing now? She slid down the wall, bowed her head, and listened to the next song—“Today My World Slipped Away.”
The song fit that day when Riley told Allie all about his new love, Greta. Riley said they had looked at each other across the top of that new Ford Mustang he had just sold her and he was smitten. She was the most beautiful, feminine woman in the whole world, and he had found his soul mate. Of course, it did help that she was a trust fund baby and he would be cashing in on that dividend check that came every month.
Why did she have to face off with all those memories that day? She wiped the tears again, leaving streaks of dust and grime on her cheeks like war paint. Her father’s words came back again telling her to finish tearing out the old so she would be ready for the shiny new. Until that moment she hadn’t realized how tightly she’d held on to the past, to the anger and the pain, but it had to go.
She raised her head and stared at the big gaping hole where the ceiling had been. Trusses, the bottom of roof decking, ceiling joists—all visible but the old ugly stuff had been ripped away. It was symbolic of what she had to do to move on with her life.
The old had been torn out of her heart and soul, but suddenly fear gripped her when she thought of taking a step forward. She’d been in limbo for so many years she didn’t know if she could trust her feet to take even a baby step, she was so scared of falling on her face…again.
She looked out the open window at the bright sunshine and then up at the rafters. Instead of an answer to the multitude of questions plaguing her, she heard the back door slam and heavy footsteps coming down the hallway. She swiped a hand across her face to get rid of the last of the tears and stood up.
“Can we open the door?” Deke yelled.
She made her way across the cluttered floor. “It’s a mess. Enter at your own risk.”
The door eased open and warmth flowed in. Deke’s silhouette filled the doorway. Leaning against the doorjamb with one leg slightly bent in those tight jeans, he was almost as dirty as she was. Twigs and leaves stuck to his flannel shirt as well as his hair.
“You got a lot done to be workin’ alone.” His gaze started at the hole where the ceiling used to be, traveled to the open window and carpet, and then slowly inched its way from her work boots to the top of her head. He grinned when he saw all the white dust in her hair. “Holy shit, Allie! You’re going to grow up to look like your granny.”
“Thank you so much for that, Deke! I may look like shit but I got the worst of the job done, and Blake helped me pull nails for more than an hour so that helped a lot.” She smarted off back at him.
“Hey, I’m statin’ facts not startin’ a fight,” he said.
“Good, because I’m sure not in the mood for a fight!” She pushed her way past him. “See y’all in the kitchen after I clean up.”
When she looked in the mirror above the wall-hung sink in the bathroom, sure enough there was Irene Miller staring back at her. The streaks from tears mixing with dirt and dust had created pseudo-wrinkles down her cheeks. Her dark hair had a coating of white dust all the way to her scalp and her eyes were slightly swollen from crying.
That she looked like shit didn’t bother her half as much as the fact that Sharlene had seen her looking like that. She stripped out of her coveralls and left them lying on the bathroom floor. Her work pants and T-shirt were in good shape since they’d been covered up. However, the insulated underwear was getting pretty warm now that she was out of the chilly room. So she took off everything down to her underpants and bra and picked up a washcloth to work on her face.
One more glance in the mirror and she realized that she’d never brush all that grime from her hair. She found towels on the shelves above the toilet, along with shampoo. She pulled the curtain around the tub and hoped that the drain didn’t clog. She hated doing plumbing work.
“I promise to wear a hat next time I take down drywall.” She stepped into the tub and let the hot water rinse away tears, dirt, and dust from her body and hair.
When she finished, the woman in the mirror smiled at her. “Hello, I haven’t seen you since before you married Riley. I thought I’d lost you forever.”
The grin widened.
She redressed, leaving her work boots sitting on the floor beside her coveralls and long underwear. The phone in her hip pocket rang at the same time she stepped out into the hallway.
“Hello, Mama,” she said.
“I need you to stop what you are doing by one o’clock. I have to take your grandmother to Wichita Falls this afternoon for a doctor’s appointment. I forgot all about it until I looked at the calendar. You’ll need to mind the store.” Katy sounded frantic.
“It’s okay, Mama. I’m at a really good stopping point. I’ve got the ceiling down in the master bedroom.” Allie stopped and leaned against the wall. “Is one early enough? I can come on right now if you want me to.”
“The main roads are clear from here to there but we’re in for more snow tonight. I just want to get up there, get it done, and get home before the roads get slick. I’m not lookin’ forward to driving in it. Are you eating dinner with Blake and Deke?” Katy asked.
“Yes, but I could eat whatever you’ve made in the store. It’s no big deal,” she answered.
“Go on and eat your dinner. One o’clock will be fine. Thank goodness the sun melted some of this already,” Katy said.
Allie ran a hand through her hair and realized she hadn’t taken time to brush it. “Want me to take her?”
“No, I have to be there to sign papers and talk to them about a new medication they want to try. See you in an hour.”
She went back to the bathroom, ran the brush she found on the shelf beside the shampoo through her damp hair, and put it back on the shelf. Then she padded to the kitchen in her socks.
“Cinderella emerges.” Blake set a pot of beans on the table. “I thought I heard the shower pipes rattling. Did you find everything you needed?”
She nodded. “Maybe I should have asked.”
Blake patted her on the shoulder. “Friends make themselves at home. Your timing is great. Food’s on the table. Beans with ham hock, fried okra, and sweet potato casserole.”
Allie pulled out a chair and eased into it. “I’m hungry. You won’t get any fight out of me.”
“I’ll do the honors.” Deke picked up a ladle and filled Allie’s bowl first. “Herman showed up this morning with a crew and I swear he’s cutting and stackin’ wood as fast as Blake and the bulldozer can pile it up.”
“How are you doin’ with the wood busi
ness, Deke?” Allie scooped sweet potatoes onto her plate and added several spoons of okra to the side before passing both off to Blake.
Their fingertips brushed and sparks danced around the room. Life wasn’t fair. Not thirty minutes ago Sharlene had her tongue in his mouth and yet, a simple touch had created enough electricity to jack her pulse up. Her mind wandered and she had to play fast catch-up when it came back to the kitchen and Deke was answering her question.
“I’m selling everything I cut to Herman right in the field. We made a deal. He’s giving me five bucks less a rick than if I hauled it to Wichita Falls, but when you consider the time and the gas, I reckon I’m probably making money rather than losing it.”
She nodded but her thoughts skipped backward to what her father said when they started a new remodeling job. Was Blake the new that she was supposed to be thinking about now that she’d erased the old?
Deke went on. “But it’s going to snow again this afternoon, so when it starts we’ll help you get the mess cleaned up in the bedroom and maybe even put up some ceiling. Chainsaws and snow in our eyes don’t go together.”
“I have to stop what I’m doing and go babysit the store this afternoon so Mama can take Granny to Wichita Falls for a doctor’s appointment,” she said.
Blake nodded. “When it starts snowing, we’ll come to the house and do some work here.”
Deke motioned toward her bowl. “We throw it out the window and if Allie will trust us, we can put up the drywall.”
She shook her head. The beans were good, but she couldn’t eat a second bowl. “That would be great, but after that last time don’t you dare touch the bedding and taping.”
Blake raised his eyebrows in question.
“I decided to surprise her once,” Deke explained. “And I had to sand it all off smooth so she could do it right. Some folks have an easy touch with that shit. Some of us flat out can’t do it.”
“You said it’s a two-person job. I’ll help Deke and we won’t touch the bedding and taping. How’s that?” Blake asked.
“That’d be great! I’d have a big jump on tomorrow if y’all could get it up.” She almost choked on the words when she heard them out loud.
“Ain’t never had too much of a problem with that.” Deke laughed.
It was evident that Blake was biting his lip to keep from roaring. Boys! Their mind was always on sex! But then she couldn’t fuss too much after the way she’d let her imagination go into places that would make Lucifer blush.
“Get your mind out of the gutter.”
Then again, maybe she needed to mind her own advice. Blake had said that friends made themselves at home. Did he see her as a friend? Or maybe it was friends with benefits. After all he did have a reputation as being one of the wildest cowboys in Texas with his swagger and womanizing. Was she willing for that kind of friendship?
Well, by damn, she was the product of a whorehouse madam so maybe since she’d gotten rid of the past baggage it was simply her DNA surfacing. She might wind up with a reputation of being every bit as wild as Blake Dawson.
“When are you going to start fencing, Blake?” Deke asked.
“After I get the first eighty acres ready to plow up and plant, then I’ll repair what fence there is around that portion so that Toby can bring in the first of the cattle in the summer. I probably should have waited to buy all those posts and barbed wire but I wasn’t figuring on this kind of weather.”
“They’ll be here when you need them,” Deke said. “That is, if that old ramshackle barn out there don’t fall in where you got them stored.”
“Soon as Toby gets here we’ll need to put up a new barn, but at least it’ll be summer and we won’t have to think about it in rain, sleet, and snow.”
Allie almost said that she could build them a barn, but summer was another five months away and after that episode with Sharlene, she wasn’t committing to anything.
“So partner number two gets here in the summer?” she asked.
Blake nodded. “There will be two of us to begin getting the next couple of pastures ready for Jud to arrive by winter with the next herd. At that time we’ll work on the rest of the ranch. It’ll take a couple or three years to get it in top shape but we’ve got a schedule lined out.”
“Then your brother and cousin will live here in this house with you until they get something else built?” Allie asked.
“Yes, they will. Since I got here first and I’m working alone, this house is going to be mine. They get to live in it until we’re up and running a profit. They’ve already picked out a spot where they want to build when the time is right. Jud wants to put his house over on the other side of Audrey’s Place and Toby wants to build back behind Audrey’s Place. Allie, if y’all ever want to sell your twenty acres, we’d sure like to buy it.”
Allie started shaking her head the moment he said the word sell. “Audrey’s Place will never be for sale. It’s our heritage and we’ll pass it on down to our own kids.”
“So you’re planning on having children?” Blake asked.
“One of us will.” She wasn’t going to discuss that issue at the dinner table.
“Then I don’t suppose Jud and Toby will care what you are doing in the way of remodeling here at the Lucky Penny?” Deke asked.
“I don’t think either of them would care if it was painted bull frog green as long as it was cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and had lots of food in the freezer,” Blake answered.
Allie giggled. “How about pink with purple trim?”
Blake laid a hand on hers. “Now, that darlin’, we might all balk at. Would you leave your van and trailer so we can throw the trash out on it? You can take my truck into town this afternoon.” He removed his hand and refilled his glass with sweet tea.
She swallowed hard and nodded. Damn those sparks! Of all the cowboys to be in her sites when she finally tore out the old, it had to be Blake Dawson.
Chapter Twelve
The aroma of chili met Allie when she entered the convenience store and she groaned. If she hadn’t eaten those beans, she could make herself a chili pie with corn chips, cheese, and mustard, but now she was too full.
Katy picked up her coat and Irene’s from the back of a chair behind the counter. “You are a few minutes early but the lunch run is over and there’s still some left so if latecomers want a chili pie, you could probably still make about half a dozen, and the doughnuts have been there since early this morning so sell what’s left at half price and…”
“Mama, I’ve got this,” Allie butted in. “Go on and don’t worry about anything. And if she’s in a good mood after you leave and it’s not snowing by then, take her somewhere to eat. You could use some downtime, too. You are frazzled.”
“I don’t usually forget these things.” Once she and Irene were buttoned up, Katy led her mother toward the door.
“I can walk on my own,” Irene protested. “Don’t know why we have to keep going to this damn doctor anyway. He don’t give me pills or shots or do a damn thing for me. My hip still hurts and he don’t even check it.”
“It’s not that kind of doctor, Mama,” Katy said.
“A doctor is a doctor and he should treat a person’s illnesses no matter what. Allie, I’ve got a bag of them white doughnuts in the back. You can have one but if you take any more, you are in trouble,” Irene said.
Allie hugged Katy and opened the door for them. “You’ve had so much on your mind, it’s a wonder it hasn’t shut down. Go and don’t drive fast.”
“Thanks, darlin’.” Katy blew a kiss her way.
Katy’s car had barely cleared the parking lot when a bright red SUV pulled up and Allie slapped her forehead. Damn it to hell on a rusty poker! She didn’t want to deal with Sharlene and Mary Jo this afternoon. Not after that morning.
Two women pushed their way into the store and hung their coats on the long line of hooks right inside the door. Sharlene’s slim body looked great in skinny jeans and a tight knit shir
t. Mary Jo, the brunette with blue streaks in her hair, had put on a few pounds since high school but she still had curves that made men turn for a second look.
Allie wanted to hide in the back room because there she was in the very worst pair of cargo pants she owned, a faded red T-shirt, hair that hadn’t been styled, and no makeup. For the first time in years, it mattered to her what she looked like and she didn’t enjoy feeling like the ugly duckling at a pretty white swan convention.
“Nadine is on her way,” Sharlene smiled at Allie. “She’s always late. You look different than you did a couple of hours ago.”
“Amazing what a little soap and water can do. What are y’all doing in Dry Creek on a Monday afternoon?” Allie asked.
“We all called in sick. Don’t tell on us.” Mary Jo laughed.
A second van came to a halt in the parking lot and Nadine hopped out with an orange Texas Longhorns umbrella over her head.
“Alora, darlin’, would you please get us three big cups of coffee and a dozen of those doughnuts on the counter? And come on back here and sit with us? It’s been too long since we’ve all four sat down and had a good old gossip fest.” Nadine set the umbrella by the door and peeled back her yellow slicker to reveal red hair straight from the bottle.
“Make four of those chocolate,” Sharlene yelled. “And Nadine is right. We haven’t talked in forever.”
Forever, her ass! They’d never been friends, not in high school, not since, and the only reason they wanted her to join them was to talk about Blake Dawson and the Lucky Penny. Besides she and Sharlene had seen each other a couple of hours ago.
“And four of them can be maple iced.” Mary Jo said. “The weather man is saying the sun will come out later today and the main roads will be cleared even though I’ll never understand why they go to the trouble when there’s more on the way. I heard that it’s already starting down around Abilene. Supposed to be here by suppertime and give us another four inches.”
Mary Jo giggled. “I want more than four inches if I’m going to be snowed in with a cowboy. Tell me, Allie, what would I get if I got stranded with Blake?”
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