Wild Cowboy Ways

by Carolyn Brown

“We’d better take care of this first or she’ll be a nightmare the rest of the evening.” Allie led the way to the kitchen. She found a package of two chocolate cupcakes in the pantry, unwrapped them, and put them on a decorative disposable plate before carrying them out to the table where Irene waited.

  “Candles?” She frowned.

  “Right here.” Katy brought them to the table with the container of ice cream.

  Allie poked a candle in each cupcake. “Now blow ’em out, Granny.”

  “Practicin’ for my birthday, right? That means you have to sing to me.”

  “You get them both with one breath and we’ll sing,” Katy said.

  “What’s going on? It’s not Granny’s birthday.” Lizzy carried her damn wedding planning book into the kitchen. It was a thick three-ring binder with everything from pictures of centerpieces to candles to honeymoon places, all arranged neatly with tabbed dividers.

  Allie hated the sight of the thing, hated everything about it from the pictures of the lavender dresses to the tuxedos that Mitch and Grady would wear. The wedding would be held in the Dry Creek church with the reception in the fellowship hall, not in a big city cathedral.

  “I thought we’d talk about the ribbons for our bouquets tonight, but I see you are all crazy.” Lizzy pouted.

  “We are practicin’ and if you don’t like it, go away,” Irene said.

  “Practicin’ what?” Lizzy asked.

  “Granny’s birthday,” Allie answered.

  She blew out both candles and Katy started the birthday song. Lizzy and Allie sang with her all the way to the end.

  Lizzy poked Allie on the arm. “What are you doing in that men’s robe and why does she think it’s her birthday?”

  “It’s a long story. Come on upstairs to my bedroom while she eats and I’ll tell you.” She didn’t want to confide in her sister, but by morning the rumors would have the story blown so far out of proportion that she might as well come clean.

  Lizzy followed Allie to her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. “Well?”

  “I’m going to get dressed first so be patient.” She stepped inside the big closet and shut the door. Like always, she’d held up good under pressure but now that it was over, her hands shook and her stomach hurt. Her skin turned clammy and tears filled her eyes, but she refused to let them spill. She pulled on a pair of underpants and an oversized nightshirt that stopped midway down her thigh.

  “You going to take all night in there?” Lizzy called out.

  Allie pushed the door open and lay on the bed, curled up in a C with the pillow under her head. “Might as well stretch out here beside me. This might take awhile.”

  Lizzy fell back on the bed. “What have you done? Don’t tell me that was Blake’s robe you were wearing down there. I thought it was one of Daddy’s old ones but it was that cowboy’s, wasn’t it?”

  “It is and there’s a reason I was wearing it but believe me, sister, I will not be wearing it ever again.” She told the story from the time she finished the room, only leaving out the way his robe touching her bare body made her feel.

  “Holy sweet Jesus,” Lizzy exclaimed. “Do you know what the gossip hounds are going to do with that before morning? To get the heat off herself, Nadine will call Sharlene and Mary Jo and they’ll spread the news to everyone else, and by morning you will be having an affair with that cowboy. You might as well have gone on and slept with him.”

  “Well, shit! Now that I have your permission, maybe I should go over there and boot that tall bitch out of his bed and have a turn with him,” Allie said sarcastically.

  “Oh, hush! That hussy actually said that she’d worn that robe?” Lizzy hissed.

  Allie nodded. “She did.”

  Lizzy slid off the bed. “Put on some jeans and some boots. We are going to burn the damn thing out in the backyard right now. I may not agree with you but by damn, you are my sister and no one is treating you like that.”

  “That won’t solve anything. She is part of his past, like Riley is mine.”

  Lizzy went straight to the closet and picked the robe up from the floor. “I don’t give a royal rat’s ass. There’s going to be a robe burnin’. I’ll do it if you don’t want to.” She paused. “Oh. My. God. You have fallen for that cowboy, haven’t you?”

  Allie shrugged. “I like spending time with him but I wouldn’t say I’ve fallen for him. That involves more than wearing his robe while my clothes are in the washing machine. Which reminds me, why wasn’t Granny with you at the Lady’s Circle meeting?”

  Lizzy glared at the robe now lying on the floor. “No one showed up so we came on back home. We didn’t have a meeting after all.”

  “Nadine said she was there and you told her I was working over at the Lucky Penny.”

  Lizzy’s eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “Before or after Bobby Ray showed up? She was trying to save her own ass and you helped her out, so she owes you big time. And don’t change the subject. Answer me.”

  Allie sighed. “You sound like Granny when your voice goes all high and squeaky. I like Blake. He’s a good person, Lizzy. Tonight wasn’t his fault. It was one of those crazy cluster things that happen all at once.”

  “Depends on the booty call woman, don’t it? I wonder if he sent her packing or if she’s over there right now.” Lizzy’s fists were clenched. “Lord, I’d like to hit her or him or even Nadine. Do you realize what kind of gossip is going to be going through town by morning?”

  “I need to sort it all out. Can you give me a few days to do that before you start bitchin’ about it? Or before you go hittin’ someone? Remember you’re going to be a preacher’s wife.”

  Lizzy set her mouth in a firm line. “Fire starts in ten minutes. That’s how long it will take me to stuff this in the fire pit and douse it with gasoline.”

  “Wait till I get my jeans on. If that hussy had it on her body, then I want to see it burn,” Allie said quickly.

  “That’s my sister. The one I knew before Riley broke her heart.” Lizzy grinned. “And you promise you won’t ever go back over there?”

  Allie left the bed and jerked on a pair of jeans. “Hell, no! I’ve got things to say to him.”

  “Well, shit! You like him more than a little bit if he makes you that mad.”

  Allie pulled her dark hair up in a ponytail. “Maybe so. I’ll have to figure it out but right now we’ve got a robe to burn. Wonder if he’d like to see it or maybe smell the smoke?”

  “Wind is blowing toward the south. Call him once we get it lit and tell him to step out on the porch,” Lizzy said. “He’ll probably tell you to keep your scrawny ass on your side of the fence from now on.”

  They set the robe on fire and despite feeling childish and more than a little bit like a teenager instead of a twenty-eight-year-old woman, Allie did call Blake. He answered on the first ring and she told him what she and Lizzy were doing.

  “Fine by me,” Blake said. “But next time you need to wash some insulation out of your clothes you need to remember that you’ll have to run around naked. I have no problem with that. None whatsoever.”

  “I will always have an extra set of clothing from now on.”

  “Then that means you’re going to finish the job you started?”

  Allie drew in a long breath. “I don’t let tall bitches keep me from doing a job. Just tell her to stay out of my way tomorrow morning.”

  “She’s gone and I don’t expect she’ll ever come back. Deke says to say hello.”

  “Hello, Deke, and good night, Blake.”

  She pushed the END button and bit back the grin so that she wouldn’t have to tell Lizzy what he’d said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Allie called Blake the next morning to tell him that she had to mind the feed store because Lizzy had come down with the flu overnight. That meant Katy took Granny to the convenience store with her and Allie would be on the other end of the block at Lizzy’s store all day. The sun was out again but the temperature was b
elow freezing so there wouldn’t be a lot of melting going on that day.

  She got his voice mail and left a short message.

  She tried again at midmorning but got the same message, and her mind immediately went to the tall blond bombshell who might have returned and sweet-talked her way into Blake’s bed. It was his bed and his life so it wasn’t a damn bit of her business, but it didn’t keep the envy at bay. Besides she’d known Blake less than two weeks so what gave her the right to be jealous.

  Wearing his robe did not give her any rights over him. Lighting it up might have burned any bridges between them anyway. She grabbed up a dusting rag and went to work on the shelves in the Dry Creek Feed and Seed Store. As bad as she hated cleaning, she needed something to do so that the hands of the clock would move. Starting on the side where all the supplies were kept, she straightened, wiped out a month’s worth of dust, and grumbled.

  She shouldn’t worry about killing Mitch. He expected a spotlessly clean house and three meals on the table and Lizzy to wear high heels the whole time she was making that happen. After the first week, she’d kill him. Poor old sumbitch had no idea what he was getting into. Of all three Logan sisters, Lizzy hated cleaning the most.

  “Anybody here?” A voice startled her so badly that she threw the dust rag straight up with a squeal. Gravity brought it back to Lucy’s hands and she held it out to her.

  “Just because I caught the damn thing, don’t mean I’m going to use it.”

  Allie laid the rag on the shelf. “What can I do for you today, Miz Lucy?”

  “I need to buy a chainsaw blade for Herman. He called me when I was elbow deep in makin’ bread for the week to tell me to bring a new saw blade out to the Lucky Penny for him. Thinks he can’t waste a minute coming to town to get it, but it’s okay to interrupt what I’m doin’,” Lucy fussed.

  “Got to cut wood while the sun shines. This is just the middle of January. We could have lots more winter before the robins come around to stay,” Allie said.

  “And it would be a sin if one chunk of mesquite wasn’t in his wood yard.” Lucy winked. “Men! Can’t live with ’em and God says we can’t shoot ’em when we get done with ’em. And while I’m here, I need a new extension cord.”

  “The big orange industrial one or one of these brown and white ones?” Allie pointed to the shelf where they were displayed.

  Lucy glanced back toward her office. “Give me one of them white ones then. And put it on our ticket. Where’s Lizzy?”

  “She’s down with that stomach virus that’s going around, but it only lasts a couple of days so she’ll be back by Friday.” Allie rang up the bill and laid Herman’s copy on the counter.

  Lucy scribbled his name on the bottom of the ticket. “Tell her to get well soon and to keep that shit at Audrey’s Place. Us old folks don’t bounce back like the young do. And I sure hope Irene don’t get a dose of it.”

  Allie filed the ticket in a box under the counter. Lizzy could take care of entering all that into the computer later. It was double work but the old folks in town didn’t trust the new way of doing business, so Lizzy and Katy both still made out handwritten tickets for them.

  Lucy pointed to the radio on the counter. “I’m glad that Lizzy plays old country music in here. I hate going into a store and that new stuff is playing. It makes my ears hurt.”

  “Daddy always had the classic country station playing,” Allie said.

  “I know he did. I liked it then and I still do. It don’t get no better than Conway and Loretta.” Lucy smiled. “You know folks in town say you are on a fool’s mission fixin’ up that house for Blake, don’t you?” Lucy changed the subject abruptly.

  “I’m not surprised. Hey, do you remember someone named Walter who lived on the Lucky Penny maybe thirty years ago?” Allie asked.

  Lucy nodded. “Remember him well. Tall, lanky old boy with dark hair and glasses. Him and his mama bought the ranch and lived there a year, maybe two, and then like all the rest of the folks who’ve lived there, they moved on. Can’t recall his last name but his mama was one of them women that always had something wrong with her. I wanted to wring her neck for pretending to be sick all the time. Woman who could eat as much as she could at a church social, why there wasn’t a damn thing wrong with her. She just had to act like that to keep Walter under her thumb. Tell all the ladies at Audrey’s Place I hope they stay well.”

  Allie plopped down in the lawn chair behind the counter. “So Walter isn’t a total figment of her imagination.”

  “No, Walter was very real,” Lucy answered and waved as she left the store. The business phone rang and Allie reached for the cordless sitting beside the cash register. “Dry Creek Feed and Seed,” she answered.

  “I forgot to tell you that the vet supply guy isn’t coming this month and what’s on the shelf is all we’ve got until he gets here the first of February. If someone needs more than what’s there, I can make a run up to Wichita Falls but it’ll take me a couple of days to get it,” Lizzy said.

  “Drink your hot tea and stop worryin’. I can run this store for a day or two,” Allie said. “Lucy is the only customer that you’ve had and she bought an extension cord and a chain for Herman’s chainsaw.”

  “Mitch was coming into town to see me tonight and now he can’t,” Lizzy moaned.

  “None of the rest of us have caught whatever you have. Maybe it’s not a bug but wedding jitters. Or maybe you’re pregnant,” Allie said with a wicked grin.

  “Alora Raine Logan!” Lizzy yelled into the phone.

  Allie held it out from her ear. “Are you telling me it’s not possible? Good God, Lizzy. You’ve been dating this man for a year.”

  “We entered into a covenant when we got engaged. We will abstain until our wedding night,” Lizzy said.

  “Well, that explains a lot.” Allie laughed. “Your bitchy mood. And your sharp tongue and that hangdog look on your face all the time. You need to get laid.”

  “I’m abstaining for the Lord,” Lizzy growled. “You are doing without because you…”

  Allie’s jaw set in anger. “Because I’m ugly as a mud fence? Because I have no sex appeal? Because I am a carpenter? Be careful, Lizzy. I’m minding the store for you and I could rearrange everything or maybe I could shuffle all the stuff in the bill box under the counter.”

  “You wouldn’t dare!” Lizzy huffed.

  “Oh, I would and you know it,” Allie said.

  “Mitch is going to be your brother.”

  Allie shook her head emphatically even though no one could see it. “He’s going to be your husband, not my brother, and I will be every bit as nice to him as you were to Riley.”

  “I never did like that bastard,” Lizzy grumbled.

  Allie stood up and carried the phone with her to the first round rack of clothing. “Point proven. I’m going to work on straightening and putting up stock on the clothing side. You need to look around before you order. You’ve got four orange hoodies in a two-X size and only one in a small.”

  “Those will be gone by the end of next week and the small will still be hanging there. I ordered it for Sharlene’s brother and he broke his leg and can’t hunt this year. Thanks for the cleanup. Bye,” Lizzy said in a rush and the phone went silent.

  Allie didn’t need an explanation of the quick end to the call and hoped that she didn’t catch whatever sent Lizzy to the bathroom every fifteen minutes. She looked back through the clothing area of the store. Hunting jackets, hoodies, jeans, and one rack of cute little western shirts for women.

  “I need coffee before I tackle this,” she said.

  After a quick trip to the office/kitchenette, she propped a hip on the tall stool behind the cash register. She had taken the first sip when the door opened, and she looked across the store into the eyes of her ex-husband, Riley. His light brown hair was longer, almost touching his shirt collar, and he’d gained at least twenty pounds, most of it around his midsection right above his belt. All in all he looked l
ike warmed-over shit and that put a big smile on her face.

  “Hello, Allie.” He smiled back at her.

  She wiped the grin off her face instantly. “What brings you to Dry Creek?”

  His soft-soled shoes didn’t make a sound as he crossed the floor. She didn’t recognize that shaving lotion, but it smelled like he’d taken a bath in it and it cost more than a buck ninety-nine at Walmart.

  “I came to talk to you, darlin’,” he said smoothly.

  She recognized his attempt at seduction, but her bullshit radar jacked all the way to the top of the red alert. She crossed her arms over her chest. “That ship sailed a lifetime ago, Riley. I don’t have anything to say to you nor do I want to hear anything you say to me.”

  “But all ships eventually come back home after their adventure.” He placed his palms on the counter and locked gazes with her.

  Riley had been her high school sweetheart. He’d made her feel special. She’d landed the quarterback of the football team and he treated her like a queen. They’d married right before her nineteenth birthday and divorced about the time she was twenty-two.

  “I understand you’ve been flirting with the new owner over at the Lucky Penny and got caught last night after a hot little rendezvous.” His smile was so sarcastic that it chilled the whole store.

  The Riley she married, the one who’d looked into her eyes with such love on their wedding day, was not the man on the other side of the counter. He was the stranger who came home one day and told her he was in love with another woman. There was no way he could ever, ever worm his way into her heart again.

  She sipped her coffee. “I understand you’ve been keeping even later hours with a minor and that your nights are a lot hotter than mine.”

  “She’s of age,” he protested. “And I didn’t come here to talk about Suzanne.”

  “What did you come to talk about?” Allie asked. “Do you need a sack of chicken feed or maybe an extension cord? I can help you with that, but anything else you’ll have to get that from your wife or your newest soul mate.”

  His thin mouth clamped shut until it was nothing more than a slit. Fantastic! Paybacks were a bitch but they could be so sweet.