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  “I feel sorry for her, trying so hard to get things in order. Poor old girl doesn’t need to be traipsing through the cold. See you tomorrow at noon. Hey, would you know anyone who’d like to have some firewood? I’ll give away all the mesquite wood that anyone wants to haul off. It’s already piled up so they can bring their chainsaws and help themselves.”

  “You could put up a sign in the feed store and Mama’s place. Lots of folks around here use wood in the winter, and mesquite burns really well,” she said.

  “Good idea. Thanks, Allie. And thanks for visitin’ with me. See you tomorrow.”

  “Good night, Blake,” she said softly.

  He hummed all the way to the door to let the dog out one more time that night and decided as he waited for Shooter to water a nearby bush that he didn’t want to talk to Sharlene or to Mary Jo. Maybe he was making progress after all.

  Chapter Six

  A blast of warm air and the familiar smell of a feed store hit Blake square in the face when he opened the door to the Dry Creek Feed and Supply store that cold Wednesday morning. He removed his sunglasses and tucked them into his coat pocket while he took stock of the store. Not too different from the one he and his folks used in Muenster but quite a bit smaller. Shelves of supplies to his right along with a small assortment of tools, three or four round racks of clothing to the left, with a few sacks of feed piled up at the back of the store. Most likely that door at the back led into a warehouse where folks who bought large quantities of feed backed their trucks up to load them.

  “Can I help you?” A lady made her way to the front.

  “I need to place an order for about three hundred steel fence posts, five feet tall should do it, and maybe ten rolls of barbed wire,” he said. “I’m Blake Dawson and I’m new in town.”

  “I know who you are.” She was pretty danged cute in those tight-fitting jeans and chambray shirt tucked in behind a cowgirl belt that cinched up to show off a small waistline.

  “But I don’t know you.” He smiled.

  She smiled. “I’m Lizzy, sister to the woman who is putting a roof on for you. Welcome to Dry Creek.”

  “I’m pleased to meet you, Lizzy,” he said.

  “I have what you need in the warehouse. It’s twenty dollars extra to deliver it unless you spend five hundred dollars, and I can get it there tomorrow.” She circled around behind the cash register and hit several buttons, then looked up and said, “Cash or credit card?”

  “Credit card and I reckon that order mounts up to a lot more than five hundred dollars so I’d appreciate it if you’d deliver it to the Lucky Penny. Tomorrow is fine. You mind if I put a flier up there on your bulletin board with those others?”

  “What are you selling? Surely you’re not already leaving the ranch.” Her dishwater-blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and those light brown eyes had more questions behind them than whether he was leaving Dry Creek before he’d even unpacked.

  Blake headed toward the front of the store. “Not selling anything and, no, I’m determined to make that ranch profitable so I’m not even thinking about leaving. I’m giving away mesquite wood to anyone who wants to come get it. Folks are welcome to cut down however much they want for free.” He used four thumbtacks stuck on the outside of the corkboard to attach the flier he’d made the night before on his computer. “How long have you been in business?” He handed her his business credit card.

  “My whole life.” She pulled it free from his fingers and ran it through the machine, then handed it back, waited a second for the tape to roll out of the cash register, and laid it in front of him. “Sign right there.”

  He scrawled his name on the bottom. “Are you the person I talked to when Irene showed up on my doorstep?”

  She gave him his copy. “Yes, I am. Are you going to be home before noon today? I hear the church ladies are bringing more food.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I will definitely be there. How long have you worked here?” he asked.

  “I own this place,” she said.

  She’d been coolly friendly but she hadn’t flirted with him. Was he losing his touch? What if he was never able to entice a woman into his bed again?

  Then he saw the engagement ring on her left hand and he could breathe again. “When are you getting married?”

  She held up the ring and looked at it as if seeing it for the first time. A bright smile lit up her face. “In March. If you are still here, you are invited to the wedding. It will be held at the church with the reception in the fellowship hall.”

  “Thank you. I’ll be there for sure because, Miz Lizzy, I will definitely still be around.” He stopped at the door, settled his cowboy hat on his head, and turned around before he opened the door. “You own the store down the block, too?”

  “No, that’s still Mama’s business but she won’t mind if you put up a flyer,” Lizzy answered. “Don’t forget. Eleven o’clock. And act surprised. Don’t tell them I told you. Don’t want them to be disappointed if you weren’t home. They’ve probably been cooking for two days.”

  He gave her the thumbs-up sign and stepped out into the harsh January wind. Oklahoma had its own song about the wind coming swooping down the plains, but they couldn’t hold a candle that day to the Texas wind blowing dead leaves and dirt down the sidewalk between the feed store and the service station–slash–convenience store on the other corner of the block.

  Four empty buildings with either dirty windows or newspaper covering the windows separated the feed store on one corner of the block and the convenience store on the other end. The faded signs said at one time there had been a beauty and barbershop combination, a clothing store, a café, and a bakery in Dry Creek. He glanced across the street at the empty places on that side with windows so dirty that he couldn’t even see what kind of signs might have been written on them in past days.

  He bypassed two gas pumps and crossed a wooden porch into the store that was set back from the rest of the empty buildings. The windows were sparkling clean and the inside of the store was neatly put together. He was met with the rich aroma of breakfast food, maybe sausage gravy and hot biscuits.

  “Hello, what can I help you with?” It was easy to see that this was Allie’s mother. They had the same brown eyes and although her hair had a few gray streaks, it was still mostly dark brown. Katy was taller than Allie by a couple of inches and a few pounds heavier. Crow’s feet around her eyes said that she’d enjoyed life and laughed a lot.

  The store was set up with the cashier’s counter to the right inside the door and shelves of staples lined up neatly to the left with restroom signs in that corner. Tables were back there with chairs pushed up around them, and a meat counter with a stove behind it took up the room beside the counter.

  He removed his cowboy hat. “I’m Blake Dawson and I’d like to put up a flyer to give away mesquite wood. So this is a gas station, convenience store, and a café all combined?” he asked.

  “Not a real café. Since we don’t have a place for folks to grab a bite of lunch on the run I put in a small deli counter and I make one thing at noon. Something simple like chili or soup or maybe tacos.”

  “Beer, bait, and ammo,” he said with a smile.

  “Something like that only it’s gas, cokes, and tacos.” She grinned back at him.

  “Walter! What are you doing here this time of morning?” Irene pushed back a chair from one of the three old tables covered with yellow Formica with mismatched chairs around them. “You moved away and said you’d never come back to Dry Creek.”

  “Miz Irene, look at me closely. I’m Blake Dawson, not Walter,” he said gently.

  “That’s right. You’re that scoundrel who’s trying to get Alora Raine into bed with you. Well, it won’t work. I’ll protect her.” Irene stuck her nose in the air and disappeared behind a curtain separating the front of the store from the back.

  “Sorry about that,” Katy said.

  “It’s all right. If I tell her often enough that I’m not Walte
r maybe she’ll forget about him. So I can run in at noon if I don’t want to cook?”

  “Or in the morning.” She pointed to the chalkboard above the counter.

  He took his gloves off and shoved them into the pockets of his coat. “Breakfast and dinner, both. I’ll have to remember that.”

  “Breakfast is the same every morning. Sausage gravy and biscuits. Dinner is take it or leave it but I’ve got a lot of folks who are willing to take it. I do make deli sandwiches out of the meat market back there.” She nodded toward the display of pork chops, steak, and lunch meats.

  “And I thought this was only a convenience store,” he said.

  Katy handed him a roll of tape. “Go on and put your flyer in the window. But you might get more folks on your ranch than you want though. Mesquite makes for some good hot fire.”

  He laid two packages of chocolate chip cookies and a bag of chips on the counter. “I’d also like two pounds of bologna sliced thick and a pound of ham sliced real thin. My dog, Shooter, likes a piece of bologna every night before bedtime.”

  She headed for the back of the store. “And the ham?”

  “That’s for me,” he said.

  “I’ll take care of it. Blake, you do know what they say about the Lucky Penny?”

  “I’m hoping to change that,” he said.

  Allie was sitting on the roof waiting for Deke to bring up another roll of tar paper, when her phone rang. “Hey, Lizzy. Please tell me Granny hasn’t run off again.”

  “Nope. But I did just meet your hot cowboy. No wonder you keep going over there every chance you get.”

  Allie wanted to chew up shingles and spit out bricks. “You’re right, darlin’. I might seduce him soon as I crawl down off this ladder,” she said, her voice laden with sarcasm.

  “Alora Raine!” Lizzy gasped.

  “For the last time, I’m only here to put on his damn roof. Now Deke has the paper ready to roll so we can get this job done. Was there something you needed, or were you just calling to annoy the crap out of me?” Icicles dripped from Allie’s words.

  “Well, for your information,” Lizzy huffed, “Mitch’s cousin Grady is coming for his tux fitting, and we’ve planned a dinner for the four of us in Wichita Falls on Friday night. He sounds really eager to see you again. Play your cards right, and I bet he could make you forget all about your cowboy.”

  Allie came close to dropping the nail gun at the thought. The way Grady looked at her made her skin crawl. “God almighty, Lizzy. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of my own love life, and I’m absolutely not going to dinner with Grady.”

  “Yes, you are. Be ready at seven and that means good jeans or a dress and makeup, too,” Lizzy said.

  “You’d better have a backup plan in your hip pocket because I’m not going,” she said.

  The phone went silent and she looked at it. Sure enough her sister had hung up on her. Deke had barely gotten the tar paper unrolled across the length of the roof, when her phone rang again. She fished it out of her pocket, hoping that it was Lizzy so she could give her a piece of her mind.

  “I know you are busy so I won’t talk but a minute,” her mother said. “I really think you should go with Mitch and Lizzy on Friday night. You will be standing up there with her and he’s the best man. It’s not a date but an evening to discuss wedding plans.”

  “That damn tattletale! What makes you take her side in this? Why would you want me tangled up with Grady? He’s even worse than Riley was,” Allie fumed.

  “She’s your sister and she’s worried about you and frankly so am I. Blake came in here today and the way he looks, he’s got heartbreaker written all over him. Come on, Allie, listen to the voice of experience when it talks to you,” Katy said tersely.

  Allie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m not going to dinner with them.” Allie heard Deke huffing and puffing as he climbed the ladder with a heavy roll of black roofing paper on his shoulder.

  “Okay, then I’ll invite them to Sunday dinner and you can discuss wedding plans then,” Katy said.

  Allie had never wanted to hit something so badly in her life. “Mama!”

  “Friday or Sunday. Your choice?”

  She thought about it a second. “I’m not going Friday.”

  “Then Sunday it is,” Katy said. “Blake bought a few things and put up a flyer to give away mesquite for firewood. And Allie, the church ladies are coming at eleven this morning to welcome him to Dry Creek. You might want to be on the roof working instead of in the house with him. Even if y’all are only talking business, it wouldn’t look good.”

  Allie motioned for Deke to drop the roll of black paper beside her. “Good way for Blake to get to know the people, ain’t it? Give them something for free? And Mama, stop worryin’ about me.”

  “I’m a mother. It’s my job to worry. Men that good lookin’ are out for a good time and all they leave in their wake are tears. Grady is a good man. Youth minister at the church up around Gainesville,” Katy said.

  “Whoopee for him. I’ve got to get to work. Deke is ready for me to start nailing. See you at supper.” Allie pushed the END button.

  “Who’s giving away what for free?” Deke asked.

  Blake poked his head up over the edge of the roof. “I am. News travels fast around here, don’t it? I’m giving away all the mesquite wood anyone wants to cut up for firewood.”

  “You care if we sell it once we take it off your place?” Deke asked.

  Blake chuckled. “You can boil it and make mesquite pie with it for all I care. I want it gone.”

  “You’ve got a fireplace.” Allie looked up from her nail gun. “Why don’t you use it?”

  His gaze locked with hers, the heat melting the cold all around her. She’d never had a man look at her and create such an intense reaction. One part of her, the emotional side, wanted to dive into those green eyes and see what lay beneath that flirting nature—down deeper than his wild cowboy ways and into the very man. The other side, that sensible side, told her to run from him as fast as she could.

  “I’m going to cut up as much as I can this afternoon and stack it up behind the house. I can probably save enough on my heating bill to pay for the ceiling and the paint that way,” he said.

  She looked down at her nail gun and snapped another shingle in place. “Price of fuel these days you just might.”

  “Thought I’d check on the progress before I take the chainsaw out to the brush pile. This roof is lookin’ really good. I guess you really will get it done by the weekend.” He took a step back down the ladder.

  Allie looked up from the nail gun and nodded. “If the weather holds for us, we will. I told you in the beginning I thought we could get it done by quittin’ time on Friday.”

  Now that her mother and sister kept going on about how sexy Blake was, it was all she could think about as she pulled the trigger on the gun and moved down the roof to the next spot.

  Blake nodded. “See y’all at noon. I’ll be in a little early today. Allie, you want me to heat up the leftover chili?”

  “Yes and thank you,” Allie said.

  “Will do,” Blake said.

  “Now what’s got your panties in a twist?” Deke asked as soon as Blake disappeared.

  “That’s not something a guy friend says.” Allie snapped another nail in place. “You’d best get to unrolling the next length.”

  “Not until you tell me what Lizzy’s done now. Only she can put a look on your face that would melt the North Pole.” Deke expertly rolled a length of paper out and cut the end with a box cutter.

  “Mama and Lizzy are trying to fix me up with Mitch’s cousin Grady.”

  Deke went back to the other end of the roof and started rolling out more paper. “You don’t want to get tangled up with that guy. I know him and believe me when I tell you his hat ain’t coverin’ up a halo but horns.”

  She snapped a couple of nails in the paper to hold it down so the wind wouldn’t whip it off the roo
f before she answered. “Lizzy and Mama think he’s a saint because he’s a youth minister.”

  “Yep, but that don’t make him any less of a devil when it comes to women. I’ve played poker with him and Mitch a few times and he ain’t a bit better than your ex, so steer clear of him,” Deke said.

  “Talk, Deke. I want to know about Mitch.” She flipped the safety on the gun and rolled back on her butt. “Is my sister making a big mistake?”

  Deke positioned half a dozen more shingles, then sat down beside her. “Well, Mitch and Grady were really players, but in the last couple of years they’ve had a come to Jesus experience and now they’re ready to get married. They’ve been bragging about how it’s their biblical right to have someone cook and clean and do everything they say.”

  “Shit!” Allie hissed. “I knew that Mitch was a snake. You should tell Mama.”

  Deke reached for the nail gun. “Hell, no! She wouldn’t believe me, and Lizzy would bury my body back in the mesquite so far that even the coyotes couldn’t find me. I’m not sure where Katy stands where Grady is concerned, so I’m not sayin’ a word. I damn sure don’t want to be on either of their bad sides since I run a bill at both of their stores. But honey, you steer clear of Grady.”

  Chapter Seven

  Blake brought a load of wood to the house just before eleven that morning but didn’t take time to stack it. The steady sound of hammering up on the roof let him know Allie and Deke were hard at work as he hurried into the house. Blake threw a couple of logs on the fire so there would be a welcoming blaze, put on a pot of coffee, and slid the Mexican casserole in the freezer.

  Several vehicles pulled up in front of his house at exactly eleven o’clock, but he waited until someone knocked on the door to open it.

  “Welcome to Dry Creek!” one of the dozen ladies standing on his porch said cheerfully. “We brought food so you’d have something to eat until you can get settled in.”

  Sharlene winked from back behind the woman.

  Mary Jo smiled at him from the sidelines.