In a few minutes the chain dropped smack into the bed of the truck and Lizzy got a hold with both hands. He motioned with his arm and she started up, digging her toes into the bank for traction and praying that she didn’t wet her pants.
Blake held up a fist toward his truck moving very slowly down the road and extended her his other hand as soon as she cleared the top. “I got you. Go on and get in the truck with Allie and I’ll get my brother up out of there. What happened anyway?”
“Blowout is what Toby thinks.”
As luck would have it the other side of the road was as flat as a pancake with lots of bushes and mesquite trees. If a different tire had blown, they would have plowed down a few trees and cactus but would have probably been able to back the truck out, put on a spare, and limp home.
“You okay?” Allie yelled as she backed the truck up.
“I’m fine but…” Lizzy headed for the nearest place to hide behind a big clump of green broom weed and jerked her jeans down. She was almighty glad for the Dairy Queen napkin from her shirt pocket that she’d squirreled away when she finished her tacos. When she stood and zipped her jeans she took a step backward into a fresh pile of coyote crap. She groaned and trotted through the weeds, past a big cactus and to the truck.
“Feel better?” Allie grinned from the driver’s window.
Lizzy looked down at her stinky boot. “Much better but this is not my lucky day.”
“Move it out,” Blake yelled.
Allie eased the truck down the road at a snail’s pace.
Lizzy waited until the vehicle came to a stop and then carefully pulled off her boots. She tossed them into the bed before she got into the backseat and then she remembered her purse was in Toby’s wrecked truck.
“My purse!” she moaned.
“Will be fine until we can get back. It’s got a moat around it on three sides and a mountain on the other. I don’t think anyone is brave enough to go searching through things. Are you sure you are okay? I see a bruise on your forehead,” Allie said. “How long were you down there? The old guy who called said he had no idea if you’d been there an hour or two days.”
“From about nine last night until right now.”
Allie looked in the rearview mirror. “Without a bathroom?”
Lizzy caught her eye and nodded. “And it was not pleasant. Henrietta came by and wouldn’t even take the number to call you.”
“That’s what happens when you don’t abide by the church ladies’ rules.” Allie started forward a few feet at a time until she could see Toby standing on the road. “Looks like y’all took out a section of guardrail. The guys can call the county yard tomorrow and report the damage. But we might want to send some red bandannas to mark the place so folks will know it’s a dangerous area.”
Lizzy laid her head back on the seat. “It’s going to be a mess.”
“Gossip or fixing Toby’s truck?”
“Both. The radiator most likely is blown. A rock hit the back window and it’s cracked all to hell, and neither of the back doors will open. The front is filled with air bags and no telling what all that water has done to the undercarriage. As old as the truck is I imagine that it is totaled. And the gossip? It’ll be a nightmare.” Lizzy groaned.
“Look on the bright side. Everyone will know that you aren’t wallowing in misery after the Mitch ordeal, and what a story to tell your kids someday,” Allie said. “So now that you’ve slept with Toby, what’s your opinion of him?”
“I didn’t sleep with him,” Lizzy protested.
“Oh, really?” Allie turned around in the seat. “Did you stay awake all night?”
“I mean I didn’t have sex with him.” It wasn’t a lie. She had not had sex with him last night, and they weren’t talking about the previous times.
“Does he snore? Does he wake up in a good mood or all grouchy? Was he nice to you and let you have your share of that red blanket? And where did it come from anyway?” Allie bombarded her with questions.
“No, he does not snore. He woke up in a good mood. The blanket was a gift from his mama that he shoved into the toolbox because his backseat was full,” Lizzy answered.
Allie’s phone flew over the seat and landed in Lizzy’s lap. “Text Mama right now. She needs to know what’s going on before Henrietta and Dora June start spreading the news soon as the benediction is over.”
“Did you see that tower? We don’t have service here,” Lizzy said. “If we’d had any at all, I would have called or texted you last night.”
“Well, keep the phone and as soon as that no service thing shuts off, you get in touch with Mama,” Allie said.
The door opened and Toby settled into the seat beside her and fastened his seat belt.
“Don’t reckon there is a place to buy a cup of coffee between here and home is there?” he asked.
“No, but the pot is full and we’ll be home in fifteen minutes,” Blake answered.
“You can drop me off first, right?” Lizzy asked.
“No, you can go home with me,” Allie answered. “I’m making Sunday dinner and Mama will be there soon as church is over.”
“I need a shower.”
“Take one at our place and borrow some of my clothes.”
Toby’s hand covered hers. Words were not needed. He was as relieved as she was to get out of that damn ravine. She looped her little finger over his and squeezed. He smiled but didn’t open his eyes.
Elizabeth Jane Logan had been baptized when she was ten years old. The preacher said that when her head went under the water and he said the words that she would come up a new creature without sin and with a holy spirit. At that age, she expected to rise up with at least a slightly visible halo or maybe the sprouting of some wings, but the only thing different was that her hair was wet. That and the fact that she hadn’t taken time to dry off completely with that hand-size towel they’d given her and her underpants stuck to her butt all during church services that Sunday evening.
She thought of that day as she slid down the back of the claw-foot tub in Allie’s bathroom, getting her hair wet and holding her breath. If she stayed under long enough, would a new improved Lizzy arise when she surfaced?
Pushing against the tub with her feet and pulling on the sides, she brought herself up out of the water and waited. She didn’t expect a halo but it would be nice to have something after that night down there in a ditch. She brushed the water from her eyes and opened them. Peace settled over like she hadn’t known in months.
Lizzy might not have a halo but the very last smidgen of Mitch’s betrayal was gone. In that moment, it wasn’t words but honesty when she said she was finished with that man and the past. The smile that covered her face and the pure joy of no baggage hanging on her heart; well, it damn near made her gravitate to the ceiling. She wanted to hug herself and hang on to the feeling inside as long as possible.
“Hot damn!” she muttered. “I can cuss and I can have a beer and I can do whatever I want. And if I want to have sex I can do that, too. I’m going to love this new Lizzy. If the rest of the world doesn’t, then bring out the fish heads.”
It was one of her granny’s sayings when someone was being a complete jerk. “Screw ’em and feed ’em fish heads,” she’d say. Then after a while she would remark, “Way these fools are acting, I feel a night for boiled fish heads is comin’ on.”
“But not today. Today is not a day for fish heads. It’s a day to rejoice and be glad.” She stood up and shook out two towels. One went around her head, turban-style; the other made a wrap for her body. When she was completely dry, she zipped the worn chenille robe up from the bottom. Her underwear and bra should be in the dryer by now and she could fit into a pair of Allie’s yoga pants and a T-shirt even though she was a couple of inches taller than her sister and a few pounds heavier.
She met Allie coming up the hall with a pair of socks, clean bra, and panties folded on top of an outfit.
“These should make you feel like a brand-ne
w woman,” Allie said. “You already smell better. You can borrow a pair of my rubber boots to wear home. I’m not cleaning the crap off yours for you, not unless you want to clean up the floor or porch when I upchuck. I didn’t have morning sickness that first trimester, but just yesterday scents have started to make my stomach do flips.”
Lizzy took the clothing from her sister. “Please don’t tell me you can’t stand to smell food.”
“Mostly anything spicy like chili and it’s always been my favorite.” Allie sighed.
“Oh, no!” Lizzy hugged her. “Remember when Lucy’s daughter-in-law was pregnant and she couldn’t stand to even smell fish cooking? Granny told her it was because her baby hated fish and sure enough that kid has never liked any kind, not even deep-fried catfish.”
“I don’t care if the baby doesn’t like chili when it gets here, just so long as it doesn’t ruin my love for it. No beer. No chili. This little girl may be an only child.” Allie smiled.
Lizzy gave Allie a quick hug and went back into the bathroom. “I’m going to get dressed and then I’ll help you with dinner. What are we having?”
“Fried chicken, Blake’s favorite,” Allie answered. “Sweet tea is made and coffeepot is full when you get dressed.”
Lizzy left the robe on the hook where she’d found it and smiled when she pulled on her hip-hugging panties because her fanny was fully dry. No sticking to the kitchen chair while she was enjoying her sister’s scrumptious fried chicken.
She had finished brushing her hair when someone knocked on the bathroom door. She slung it open to find Toby standing there, mud covering him from the hips down and splattered all over his shirt. He must’ve taken his boots off at the door because the only clean thing on him was a pair of snow-white socks that looked as out of place as a string of pearls around a sow’s neck.
“I believe I’m next in line,” he said.
“You look like you ought to be,” she agreed.
“Blake’s gone out to the trailer to get me some clean clothes. Don’t suppose you’d want to stay long enough to scrub my back for me, would you?”
Lizzy might have had a wonderful experience when she rose up from the bathwater, but it damn sure hadn’t set her free enough to do what Toby asked. She shook her head and smiled. “This is not a real relationship, darlin’.”
“I’d be willin’ to turn it into a real one for a good woman to give me a bath.” His eyes glittered.
She reached up and traced the scar on his cheek and then patted him on the chest. “I’d be willin’ to change it from fake to real for a few more nights in the back room at Mama’s store, but we agreed not to do that anymore, didn’t we?” She stepped around him, careful not to get too close to all that mud.
“We might change our minds.”
She looked back over her shoulder. “Not today.”
The wonderful smell of hot rolls baking in the oven filled the kitchen. And the sizzle of chicken frying in a big cast-iron skillet made Lizzy’s stomach start to grumble. The tacos she’d had that morning had long since been digested and there was no way a day-old greasy taco could measure up to Allie’s chicken even on a good day.
Lizzy leaned against the doorjamb and smiled. With one hand, Blake was stirring the green beans and the other was massaging Allie’s back. She’d seen him do those little endearing things for her for months now, but Lizzy never got tired of watching them together. It was those things that made a lasting marriage, not a few hot nights of sex, and she yearned for that kind of real, honest to god, relationship in her own life.
Blake laid the spoon to one side and moved over a step so that he was right behind Allie. He slipped his arms around her midsection and splayed his hands out over her rounded belly. When the baby kicked him, they both laughed.
“What can I do to help?” Lizzy asked.
Blake looked back over his shoulder. “I was about to set the table so you can come over here and help Allie. The potatoes are about done so they’ll need to be mashed. And the green beans need about five more minutes.”
It didn’t take Lizzy long to pad across the floor in her bare feet and pick up the wooden spoon. “Lord, that chicken smells good. I can use the same batter mix that you do and mine never comes out as good.”
“It’s all about the temperature of the grease. Too hot cooks the outside and leaves the inside either raw or tough. Not hot enough gives you a soggy crust instead of a crispy one. I talked to Fiona last night, and she said she’d walk up here barefoot and naked for a fried chicken dinner. I promised her one if she’d come home for the reunion thing on the Fourth,” Allie said.
“And is she bringing Paul? I can’t see that preppy guy walking from the bedroom to the bathroom in his bare feet,” Lizzy said.
“No, she said she’d come by herself if she can wrangle the time away at all,” Allie answered, and lowered her voice. “I’m kind of glad. We haven’t been around her husband very often but he makes me nervous.”
“Really? Why?”
“He’s got shifty eyes.”
Allie nodded. “I kinda got those vibes, too. I wonder if he’s faithful?”
“I hope so. Fiona might not live here but she’s got a temper. She’d kill him and the woman without batting an eye.”
“Goes with her red hair,” Lizzy said. “Potatoes are done.”
“Mixer is under the bar. Put a whole stick of real butter in them and use canned milk,” Allie said. “Another reason I want Fiona to come home is that this thing with the church has made Mama sad. I think all her girls together will help.”
“Fiona?” Toby said as he crossed the floor and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Is she definitely coming for the July Fourth homecoming?”
“Don’t know,” Lizzy said. “But we’re hoping so.”
“Hoping what?” Katy came through the kitchen door.
“That Fiona comes home for the hoop-la,” Allie said.
“I’m going to send her a plane ticket that is non-refundable or changeable,” Katy said. “It’s guilting her, but I really don’t care. I want to see her.”
With all three women working together and Blake setting the table, it wasn’t but a few minutes until they had sat down to eat. Lizzy noticed that Blake reached under the table and held Allie’s hand while he said grace and then leaned over and kissed her on the cheek when he finished. The ache in Lizzy’s soul deepened—surely there was a man somewhere out there that would love her like that, and after the festival she intended to start looking.
“So what’s the news on the war front about your daughter getting stuck in a gully with one of these Dawson cowboys?” Allie asked as she passed the platter of chicken to her mother.
“It’s not good.” Katy smiled. “Truman thinks I should shoot both Blake and Toby. Dora June is convinced that she’s made the right decision about the ladies’ club. But I don’t give a damn what any of them think. It’s not a bit of their business.”
“Hear! Hear!” Toby raised his tea glass.
“And how did your evening go, Mama?” Lizzy asked.
“Absolutely wonderful. We ate at this amazing little Italian place, went back to Trudy’s for coffee, and wound up talking until after midnight. The three of us have a friendship that endures time, separation, and life. We’ve been apart for years and years, but when we are together, it’s like we just saw each other yesterday. And to make the whole evening even better, I went by and saw Mama, and she was lucid,” Katy said. “Pass me those green beans. I sent them on without putting any on my plate.”
Lizzy picked up a chicken leg and bit into it. It was every bit as good as always, but as wonderful as it tasted, it didn’t compare to the fullness in her heart right then with her family around her. This was what she wanted and she was not settling for anything less.
Chapter Twelve
On Monday morning, Toby restacked the feed sacks that had been shoved to the side so the last customer could get at the chicken scratch while he waited on the barbed wire a
nd fence post deliveryman to arrive. It wouldn’t be long until all of these supplies would be moved back to the feed store, but for now, Toby was determined to keep things neat and in order. Blue chased a squirrel out the back door and trotted back with a smile on his face. Shooter glanced over at him as if telling him not to waste his energy on squirrels on a hot day like this.
“Good boy.” Toby patted his head. “I know you and Shooter will take good care of this barn and keep those pesky squirrels away from the feed sacks. I’m glad y’all are good friends. Dogs and cowboys, they need friends in this world.”
His phone buzzed and he fished it out of his shirt pocket. The text, from Lizzy, said that two different customers were on the way to pick up merchandise. The first one had paid for three rolls of barbed wire and twenty fence posts. The second one would be picking up chicken feed. She sent over copies of the sales so he would know exactly how much and what to let them have.
Three trucks rolled up at the same time and Blue scrambled to his feet to go welcome them. Something about the way he ambled outside, eager to make new friends, gave Toby an idea. Later, he would wonder what circular path had taken him from the dog going out to meet the visitors to the end of the road that put the smile on his face.
“There is more than one way to diffuse a bomb,” Toby said.
“Hey, Toby,” Wallace Jones said, waving. “I’m here for three bags of chicken scratch. Lizzy said she’d send you a message. I heard y’all got stuck in a ditch and had to spend the night out there.”
“It’s all the women in Dry Creek have talked about,” Lester Wilson said. “I swear they’ve talked it damn near to death. I heard that you had a devil of a time haulin’ your truck up out of the ditch. Is it going to be fixable?”
“It’s totaled for sure. The insurance company will come out and make the final decision but I’m not holding out a bit of hope,” Toby said. “I’ll help you load up the bags, Wallace, and then we’ll get to the barbed wire and posts, Lester. Looks like you’re going to have to wait until the delivery guy unloads to get your full order. Lots of folks puttin’ in new fence this time of year and stock got down low this week, but give this feller a few minutes and we’ll get you fixed right up.”
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