Hot Cowboy Nights (8 page)

Lizzy eased to a sitting position without opening her eyes. “God, my head hurts. What is this hangover cure? I’m never doin’ this again.”

“First, a tablespoon of honey. Then Mama is bringing up two scrambled eggs and a piece of toast. After that you get a cup of hot black coffee, followed by a banana and a shower,” Allie said. “Open your mouth. Honey is coming your way.”

“I hate honey and I feel like I licked the bottom of an ash tray,” she said.

The spoon touched her lips and instinctively her mouth opened. “I’m never getting drunk again. One shot or one beer and then it will be club soda or plain water. I can’t eat eggs, Allie. I can’t. I’m not going to church, either. Tell Mama that I’m sick.”

“Mama knows you’ve got a hangover and you are definitely going to church. Are you going to let Dora June get ahead of you and are you going to let Lucy down? You will eat the eggs. Believe me, sister, it’s not as tough as the banana to get down.”

“Who died and made you a damn doctor?” Lizzy fussed.

“Blake taught me that this works. And I declared I’d never get drunk again, too. Remember when I wrecked my truck and spent the night over at the Lucky Penny because I was so damn drunk on whiskey and tequila? Us Logan girls were not made for hangovers. At least you are waking up fully dressed.” Allie sat down on the edge of the bed.

Lizzy’s hand covered her mouth. “Don’t wiggle the bed. I’ll upchuck the honey if you do. Did you really wake up naked?”

“I don’t kiss and tell.” Allie laughed. “But darlin’, everything those old hens tossed me out of the ladies’ club for doing? Well, I did them and enjoyed the hell out of every minute.”

“Eggs and toast,” Katy said from the doorway. “What were you drinkin’?”

“Jack on the rocks. Deke said I couldn’t hold my liquor and I was showing him that I could. How’d you know to bring over this remedy stuff, Allie?” Lizzy asked. “And Allie, has Deke been in love with me forever?”

“Hell, no! What made you ask that stupid question? We are like sisters to him.” Allie patted her on the shoulder. “Toby left a note on the counter telling me you would need the hangover cure.”

“If it works, then God bless Toby. If it doesn’t and I puke I may need a sharpened shovel to bury him.” Lizzy snarled at the plate of eggs and toast. “Do I have to?”

“I can feed you,” Allie said.

Lizzy picked up the fork and forced the eggs and toast down, bite by bite. “What’s next? Greasy sausage gravy?”

“Hot coffee.” Katy put the cup in her hand and sat down on the other side of the bed. “At least you are dressed and in bed alone. That’s a good sign.”

It was on the tip of Lizzy’s tongue to say that it wasn’t her idea to come home fully dressed, but she filled her mouth with hot coffee so she’d keep quiet. She and Toby were friends, not lovers, not anymore.

Blake, Allie, Deke, and Toby were lined up on the pew when Katy and Lizzy arrived at church that morning. Toby moved out into the aisle and Katy settled in beside Deke. Lizzy sat down beside her mother and Toby took the end of the pew. The moment he sat down, he reached for her hand, holding it on his thigh.

“You might want to take off the sunglasses.” He knew exactly how she felt because he’d been there many times on Sunday morning. His grandpa used to say that he sowed his wild oats on Saturday night and attended church on Sunday morning to pray for a crop failure. Grandpa might have been making a joke, but in Toby’s case, it was the absolute gospel truth.

She whipped off the glasses and dropped them in her purse. Even with her eyes still glazed slightly, she was so damn cute that he wanted to kiss her right there on the back pew of the church. Settling down might not be in his future, but he did enjoy having a pretty woman beside him.

“Did the cure work?” he whispered.

“It’s much better. Sharlene is shooting dirty looks across the aisle at me, though,” Lizzy whispered.

“By the time services are over, you’ll feel almost normal, and darlin’, Sharlene Tucker can’t hold a candle to you when it comes to determination or beauty,” he said.

“I appreciate that but her looks would fry the wings off an angel. And is that business about a hangover the voice of experience?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” He squeezed her hand gently.

The music director said the congregation would sing “I’ll Fly Away.” She tensed when the lady at the piano hit the keys for the prelude. Then tears started to flow and drip off her cheeks to spot the light brown shirt she wore with a pretty knee-length floral skirt.

“What is it?” He brought a snow-white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.

“Granny liked this song. She sang it real loud while we sang something altogether different more than one time,” she explained.

He put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her close to his side. “Why don’t we go up to Wichita Falls this afternoon and see her? Would that help?”

She nodded. “I’d like that.”

“What’s her favorite food? We’ll stop at a grocery store and take her something.”

She dabbed at her eyes. “White powdered doughnuts and cherry pie.”

Toby got that antsy, itchy feeling that said someone was staring at him. Without moving his head, he scanned the room, finally coming to rest on Dora June’s accusatory glare. He shot his sexiest wink all the way across the church at the woman. She whipped around in her seat so fast that she probably had trouble focusing for several minutes.

He didn’t listen to one thing the preacher said but rather sat there and let his thoughts wander. True, he’d never had a good friend like Lizzy. His friends and buddies had been guys. Some were fishing buddies; some were rodeo buddies; and some were party buddies. Maybe the protective feeling he had toward her was the way he would have felt toward a sister.

Whoa there, hoss!
The voice in his head yelled so loud that it startled him.
You don’t kiss your sister or dance with her plastered up to your body. And you damn sure don’t spend three weeks of scorching hot nights with her.

Okay, then. It had to be the friend thing since it definitely was not sister feelings. He’d have to ask Blake if he and Allie started off as friends. No, he couldn’t do that or Blake would know.

Know what?
the voice asked in a soft whisper.

I don’t know,
he argued.
That’s what I’m trying to figure out.

“I’m going to ask Deke to deliver the benediction for us this morning,” the preacher said.

Toby was glad he’d been thinking with his eyes open. Poor old Deke wasn’t sure what was going on when Blake flipped him on the back of the head.

“Benediction,” Blake said in a loud whisper.

Deke hopped up to his feet, bowed his head, and managed to thank God for the day and the church service. Then everyone said, “Amen,” and the quiet disappeared into a buzz of conversation. Most of it, from the way everyone was looking toward the Logan pew, was centered around Lizzy and Toby.

“I’m so glad that you and Lizzy are in a relationship even if it isn’t real,” Blake said out the side of his mouth. “It sure takes the pressure off me and Allie for a while.”

“Glad to be of help. We’re going to Wichita Falls to see her granny. Y’all want to go with us?” Toby asked.

Truman O’Dell pushed through the crowded church and stopped in front of Lizzy. “I heard where you were last night and what you were doing. I guess Mitch was right in finding another woman. You sure ain’t no preacher’s wife and you’ve proven it.”

“That is enough, sir,” Toby said.

“Yes, it is.” Katy laid a hand on Truman’s shoulder. “You have no idea what happened in Lizzy’s life and you won’t judge her. Don’t talk to my girls like that again or you’ll answer to me.”

“I’ve said my piece.” Truman marched out of the church without even shaking the preacher’s hand.

They found Granny sitting in her room watching episodes of
The Golden Girls
. While they waited in the door she fussed at Rose for being so stupid and told Blanche she was too damn old to be flirting with those young men. Then she noticed them and clapped her hands.

“Lizzy, you’ve come to visit and brought a new boyfriend. Thank God! I thought you might moon around and never get over Mitch. What’s in the bag?” Irene asked.

“Granny, this is Toby. Remember meeting him? He’s Blake’s brother,” Lizzy said.

“Well, come on in and drag up a chair. How’s Allie? Is the baby here yet?”

Lizzy situated her chair as close to her grandmother as she could get, and Toby sat across the room. “No, not until fall, Granny.”

“I forget, you know,” she whispered. “What did you bring me?”

“Powdered sugar doughnuts and a couple of those fried cherry pies from the deli in the grocery store. Which one do you want first?” Lizzy pulled them from the brown paper bag. “And a bag of miniature candy bars to put in your drawer.”

“I’ll hide them real good. The people in this prison steal candy,” she whispered.

“Granny, this is not a prison,” Lizzy said.

“Window won’t raise up. Doors are locked. It’s fancy, but it’s a prison,” Granny argued. “When are you and this fine-lookin’ young man gettin’ married? Can I wear red to this one? I hated that blue dress you had picked out for me to wear to the last one. I was glad that son of a bitch broke up with you because I didn’t have to wear that dress.” She opened the bag of small doughnuts and stuffed two into her mouth.

“We sang ‘I’ll Fly Away’ in church this morning,” Lizzy said.

Irene swallowed the doughnuts, sucked down part of a glass of water through a straw, and started the old hymn in a high clear soprano voice. Lizzy could have kissed Toby when he joined in with his deep voice. She harmonized with them and Irene smiled through the whole song.

“Now I’ve been to church.” She clapped her hands again. “Who is this young man again?”

“Toby Dawson,” Lizzy said.

“Katy, darlin’, you know you shouldn’t bring him here. You are engaged to someone else.”

Just like that Granny had left the present and was back to that time when Katy was preparing for her wedding to Lizzy’s father. “I won’t tell your daddy, but tell me this is a friend and not that awful boy from the Lucky Penny.”

Lizzy leaned closer to her grandmother and laid her head on her shoulder. “He’s the music director at the church and we thought you might like to sing some songs today so I brought him with me.”

Irene broke out into “I’ll Fly Away” again with Toby and Lizzy singing right along with her for a second time. When they’d finished she brought out three doughnuts and ate them slowly.

“Katy, I’m really getting sleepy. It was fun going to choir practice with you and this young preacher, but it’s time for you to go now so I can take a nap. Maybe later we’ll work on your wedding dress,” she said.

“I’d like that. I’m going to set your doughnuts and pies right here on the bedside table and your candy is in your top drawer,” Lizzy said.

“Good girl.” Irene curled up on her bed.

Lizzy pulled a throw over her, kissed her on the forehead, and nodded at Toby. She’d planned to spend the whole afternoon with her grandmother and almost cried when Irene recognized her. But she’d have to be happy with a few minutes of real time when she could get it.

She made it to the door when Irene called out. “Lizzy, darlin’, I like your boyfriend. Give Allie a kiss for me. And tell Dora June that she can kiss my ass.”

Lizzy started back into the room but before she got to the bed, Irene was snoring.

“How did she know about Dora June?” she wondered aloud as she and Toby made their way back up the hall to the lobby.

“Your mama probably told her when she stopped by to see her and told her everything that had happened,” Toby answered. “It’s a lovely day. Let’s get an ice cream cone and go to the park.”

One of the attendants punched in the code to open the door. “We love Miz Irene in here. She’s a hoot no matter what world she is in.”

“We appreciate y’all taking such good care of her,” Lizzy said as she and Toby stepped outside. “It’s going to rain. I can smell it in the air.”

“Then we’d best get our ice cream and go to the park before it starts. I’m having a double dip of pecans, pralines, and cream. What are you getting?”

“That sounds good.” She smiled. “Thank you for singing with her.”

“My pleasure,” Toby said. “Guess you were right. Here comes the rain.” He slammed the door as the first raindrops hit the windshield with a force usually reserved for sleet or hail. “Ice cream at the drive-through window and a slow ride home? I won’t say a bad word about this rain because we need it so badly.”

“And then maybe a movie with Allie and Blake? Nothing better than cuddling up and watching a movie on a rainy day,” she suggested.

“Sounds like a plan. Those two do love movies,” he said, and chuckled.

“No, they like cuddling on the sofa. The movies are an excuse and gives them something to talk about while they are in each other’s arms,” she told him. “That’s the kind of relationship I want someday.”

“That’s love for sure. Never thought I’d see Blake settle down to one woman or be still and watch movies. He always wanted to be outside or else at a bar chasing women.”

“Never thought I’d see Allie trust any man again after Riley.”

“They got the miracle, didn’t they?” Toby started the engine. “But it would have been nice if they’d left some of the magic for the rest of us.”

“Oh, hush! You’ve already said you aren’t the settling type. You can’t have wings and roots both, cowboy.”

“She can shoot. She speaks her mind. She can dance and she is a prophet. And she is so right. I can’t have it both ways so I’m taking the wings. I can put down roots in Dry Creek, but I don’t ever intend to put them down when it comes to matters of my heart.” He laughed. “Still, you are a remarkable woman, Lizzy Logan.”

L
izzy’s grandfather had started the Dry Creek Feed and Seed in what was now the front part of the store. In those days he kept a supply of cattle and chicken feed on one side of the store and pig food, along with seeds of all kinds and plants in the spring on the other side. The cashier’s counter was always right in the middle so he could see every which way, and a few shelves lined the outer edges. He’d sold a limited supply of do-it-yourself vet supplies and cattle medicines, and since there was a hardware store on the other side of the street, he had not offered things like extension cords, chain saw blades, or nails and screws.

Nowadays the store was a combination of hardware and feed store and the actual feed had moved to the back, a room her father had framed in and covered with corrugated sheet metal. It wasn’t heated or cooled, but the space served its purpose. Sacks of cattle, hog, and chicken feed were stacked neatly on one side of the big barnlike enclosure. The rest of the area was taken up with fence posts and rolls of barbed wire. A big overhead garage door let the ranchers back their trucks up close to load whatever they wanted. The smaller door that opened into the store used to be the outside entrance. And during the evolution of the store, Lizzy had put in a few racks of clothing, mainly jeans, western shirts, and hunting clothes, but these days it took on the look of an old-time general store more than just a feed and seed place.

Lizzy stood in the middle of the back room and took stock of what she needed to order that Tuesday morning. She started humming as she wrote numbers on the order pad.

She was in such a good mood when she finished the job that she did several steps of a line dance to the tune of “Footloose” that was playing on the radio. When the song ended, she called the distributor and put in her order, then two-stepped with a broom all the way to her office to Luke Bryan’s song, “Kick the Dust Up.”

She swirled the broom around once more and stood it in the corner. “Well, by golly, some things never change, do they, Luke?” she said as she listened to the lyrics talking about the life of a rancher working all week and then turning a cornfield into a party.

She sighed as she remembered the concert shirt that Toby wore to the bar. It had been a hell of a lot more fun dancing with Toby than it was with a broom.

The cowbell rang loudly and Toby rushed inside and motioned for her to join him. He looked absolutely frantic so she hurried out into the store, heart pumping double time and hands going clammy. Every single time anyone in the family had a look like that on their face, she immediately worried about Allie’s pregnancy.

“Why aren’t you answering your phone?” he yelled across the store.

She jerked it out of her hip pocket and held it up. “It needs charging.”

“What about the store phone?”

She reached the front desk and picked it up. “It’s not working. It was a few minutes ago. I called in some orders. What’s going on? Is it Allie?”

“No, it’s a tornado. It whipped through Throckmorton a few minutes ago and tore up a couple of barns. It’s still on the ground and coming toward us. Allie was having a fit about you and her mama. I just warned Katy and she said her cellar is full. There were a dozen people in the store and they are already in the cellar.” He talked fast, his eyes darting around the store.

“My cellar door is under a hatch in the back room. Come on.” She jogged to the door with him right behind her. The big overhead doors were open and the view offered that slightly green sky color that preceded a tornado. The eerie still feeling in the air made the hair on her neck stand straight up.

“Where is it, Lizzy?” Toby’s voice sounded as if it was coming from a vacuum.

She kicked a bag of feed to one side and grabbed an iron ring on the floor. One second the wind was stone-cold still, the next it sounded like a freight train in the distance and a roll of barbed wire tumbled across the floor.

“I’ve got to shut the overhead doors, Toby.”

He took the ring from her hand and opened the hatch, shaking his head the whole time. “You don’t have time. Just get down in the cellar.”

“You have to throw the bolt once it’s shut. I haven’t been down here since before Daddy died.” Her hand closed around an old wooden thread spool when she reached up. When she pulled it, a bulb hanging in the middle of the cellar lit the room long enough to let her find the matches to light the oil lamp sitting on a dusty orange crate. Once they had a dim light from that, she pulled the string again, turning the bulb off.

“Why did you do that?” Toby eased his tall frame down into a metal folding chair.

“Because it’s what Daddy told me to do if I had to come down here. I didn’t ask why,” she said.

The cellar was exactly like she remembered. Two folding chairs and an olive green military cot filled up the six-by-eight-foot space. Even through the thick concrete walls, the noise above them sounded like two semi-trucks had smashed together.

The crashing sound of metal against metal made her jump back as a length of barbed wire dangled down from the air vent. Toby grabbed her, sat down with a thud on one of the chairs, and hugged her tightly against his chest.

“Don’t touch that thing. Lightning might have electrified it,” he said above the din.

“I wasn’t going to,” she gasped. “My store is blowing away, isn’t it?”

The next crash sounded like monsters were beating on the hatch door with hammers. She flipped around and buried her face in his chest. “I’m not going to have a thing left. We’ll be lucky if they get us out from under the rubble.”

“Blake and Deke will rescue us. Don’t worry about that or the store. That’s why you have insurance,” Toby said.

One minute Toby and Lizzy were yelling as loud as they did in the bar. The next everything went so quiet that they could have heard another spider inching its way up the concrete walls. Lizzy shivered and his arms tightened.

“It’s over, isn’t it? Just like that, it’s over,” she whispered.

“I think so. I’ll unbolt the hatch and see if I can push it open.”

She didn’t want to see the damage and she damn sure did not want to leave the security of his lap. “Hold me one more minute, Toby. I don’t want to face what’s out there when we go out.”

He kissed her on the top of her head and then the rain started—hard, driving rain that dripped off the end of the barbed wire hanging through the vent, making a puddle on the floor. Hail followed, beating against the hatch door. The wind roared angrily through Dry Creek as if showing the tornado who was the real boss.

“Sounds like you might have lost the roof to your feed shed,” he said.

“I’ll be grateful if that’s all,” she murmured.

Lizzy hated cellars or any small, enclosed spaces for that matter. Thinking about crawling under a house like Allie did gave her an acute case of hives. But she felt safe and secure in the tiny underground space with Toby’s arms around her. Someday in the distant future she wanted a man like Toby who would…

Whoa, girl!
The voice in her head made a screeching sound like tires leaving twenty feet of rubber on a dry pavement.
You are the one who broke this thing off with him because it was only sex. Now you are letting thoughts of a future with him into your head? There is no future with Toby.

She frowned and argued with the voice.
I said like Toby, not Toby. One with strong arms and who will hold me when I’m afraid and not belittle me.

Why had she ever had that mindless fling with him anyway? It had ruined any chance that they might have of anything beyond friendship or this new fake relationship they’d entered into. She liked him. There, she’d admitted it. She liked Toby Dawson as a man, as a friend, and as a pseudo-boyfriend. And there was a tiny little bit of her heart that really would like for him to be more. But it would never happen, because she’d destroyed any hope with a three-week sex fling.

She stood up and started up the narrow stairs. “I’ll help you. Maybe whatever we heard fall on the hatch blew off and with two of us pushing against the wind, we can open it.”

“You made of salt or sugar, either one?” He grinned.

“Not this old feed store woman.” She smiled back at him.

Together they pushed against the flat door but it did not budge a quarter of an inch. Lizzy took a step back and slapped the concrete. “Aggravating son of a bitch.”

Toby took a deep breath and gave it all he had but nothing, nada, zilch.

“If cussin’ won’t work, do you think sweet-talkin’ might?” she asked, and then groaned. “What if we have to stay down here for hours? No food, no potty.”

He pointed to the vent. “We’ve got water and air and trust me, as soon as Allie and Blake can get here, they will get us out.”

“Oh, no!” The cellar walls started closing in on Lizzy. She sat down and put her head between her knees. “Oh, Toby, I’ve been selfish. I wasn’t thinkin’ of anyone but me. What if Allie and Blake are…” She could barely think the words much less say them out loud.

“Lizzy, Lizzy, are y’all okay? Is Toby with you? Did he make it to the store in time to get underground?” The barbed wire went up as Allie’s voice came down through the vent and filled the room.

“Allie! We’re fine,” Lizzy yelled. “What’s on the hatch door?”

“Half of your back room,” Allie said. “Tell Toby that the tornado didn’t touch down on the Lucky Penny. Looks like your place is all that got hit here in town. Mama and her customers are fine and Audrey’s Place lost a few shingles in the wind but it’s still standing.”

“The rest of my store?” Lizzy asked.

“Got a hole in the roof but I threw a trash can under it to catch the water. We can fix it soon as the rain stops. Blake and Deke are working on getting the lumber off the door. Sit tight. We’ll have you out soon. I’m going inside out of the rain,” Allie said.

Katy’s voice was the next one that came down the vent. “Allie said you were okay but I have to hear it for myself.”

“We’re fine, Mama,” Lizzy said.

“Good, then I’ll go on inside and help Allie mop up the floor where the roof leaked. Blake is hooking a chain up to his truck to drag part of a ceiling truss off the hatch,” Katy said. “Lord, this rain is cold. I’m going inside now that I know you are okay.”

“Well, shit!” Lizzy murmured.

“Cussin’ again?” Toby sat down on the same chair and patted his lap.

“Yes, I am.” She ignored his lap and sat down on the bottom step. With the adrenaline still rushing through her veins she sure didn’t need to feel his body that close to hers.

“Shhh, what if someone still has an ear to that vent?”

Something rattled across the pipe in the ceiling, and all kinds of splintered wood came down with the rain to splash in the puddle on the floor.

“I shouldn’t be cussin’ or complainin’. At least the feed truck doesn’t come until tomorrow and the back room had very little stock in it,” she said.

Toby grinned. “You are a good, positive woman, Lizzy.”

“I hope so,” she said. But Toby didn’t want a good, positive woman to settle down with. Hell, he didn’t want to settle with any woman, and she wanted what Allie had so that left a gap between them as wide as the Grand-damn-Canyon.

“Lizzy, I’ve been thinking…” He hesitated.

She looked up into his blue eyes. “About?”

The hatch popped open.

Light, rain, and voices filled the whole cellar.

“Come on up out of there and let’s get in out of this miserable rain. It’s trickling down my back and it’s cold as ice,” Deke hollered.

“Don’t forget to blow out the lamp. We’ll put a chunk of wood over the vent pipe so it won’t leak and you can get the cleanup done later,” Blake said.

Thirty more seconds! Why couldn’t they have waited another half a minute to raise the hatch? Then Toby might have finished his sentence. Now Lizzy would never know what he’d been thinking about.

Lizzy wasn’t prepared for the sight before her eyes as they climbed out of the hatch. It looked like a bomb had gone off all around her. Feed sacks must have been sucked up and then tossed back to land in among all the debris, because wet corn and cattle feed crunched her feet as she hurried through the door into the rest of the store.

Allie threw the mop on the floor and raced across the room to hug her sister in a fierce embrace. “I’ve never been so worried about you in my life. I couldn’t get you on your cell phone and then the store phone gave a busy signal. Right after that it went dead, too. None of us have cell service, electricity, or phones right now but we’re lucky to be alive.”

Lizzy returned the hug. “I was afraid you and Blake would be blown away. There’s no cellar on the ranch. We’ve got to put one in, Allie. We can put it right outside the back door and extend the porch roof out over it.”

Blake removed his slicker and hung it on a nail right inside the door. “Next thing on the list, I promise. But we could see the tail of that thing and tell it was going to bypass us and Audrey’s Place.”

“You never know about a tornado. It can turn on a dime.” Deke hung his slicker beside Blake’s and shook the water from his light brown hair. “That feels like winter rain, not summer.”

“It’s comin’ off hail.” Katy picked up Allie’s mop and went to work on the rest of the floor. “Would you look at that?” She pointed to the hole in the ceiling at the bright sunshine pouring in.

“Looks like the rain is over,” Blake said.

“Well, shit!” Deke said. “If we would have waited thirty more minutes we could have rescued you two without having to do it under water.”

“Allie, you’re going to have to let me go. I drank a whole pot of coffee before this thing hit and I’ve got to go to the restroom.” Lizzy pushed away from her sister and practically ran the whole way through her office to the small restroom.

She was just reaching for the toilet paper when something furry touched her foot. She wasn’t sure how she got from a sitting position to standing on the toilet seat with her eyes closed, but she managed it without breaking a leg. Her jeans might still have been around her knees, but her boots were planted as firmly on that toilet as if someone had super-glued them there.