Home at Chestnut Creek Page 30

  “Thank you all so much,” Blake said. “Please come right in and excuse the mess. I’m not nearly unpacked yet. Can I get you ladies a cup of coffee?”

  Sharlene ran her forefinger down his arm and locked it around his pinky. “I’ve been waiting for your call,” she whispered.

  Mary Jo pushed between Sharlene and Blake to hug him. “Welcome to Dry Creek. We’re a friendly bunch and we hope you do better on this ranch than the other folks have.”

  “I’m Dora June. This is Lucy.” The woman with three chins made so many introductions so fast that he’d never remember all their names. “And now for the food! You’ll have to freeze some of it, but I reckon you’ll want to have my fried chicken for dinner since it’s still hot.”

  “Why, Miz Dora June, how did you know fried chicken was my favorite food in the whole wide world? My mouth is already watering,” he said.

  “All cowboys like fried chicken,” she beamed.

  In a few minutes his kitchen table was filled with food, his counter space was covered with desserts, and a couple gallon jugs of sweet tea had been set in his near empty refrigerator.

  “I see my slow cooker in the ’fridge with leftover chili in it,” Mary Jo whispered while the other women talked nonstop about how good it was to have someone living on the ranch. “All you have to do is call me when it’s empty and I’ll come get it, night or day.”

  Sharlene waited until Mary Jo moved to the side and looped her arm in Blake’s. “And you’ve eaten my casserole already. I’ll bring another one right over any ole time of the day…or night.” She gave his right butt cheek a squeeze. “We might build up an appetite and then we could share it. I brought my pot roast today and if you like it better, give me a day’s notice.”

  Blake had fallen into a wild cowboy’s paradise. Hell, he didn’t even have to go bar hopping on the weekend. All he had to do was make a phone call, but…

  Dammit! Why did there always have to be a but?

  But, the voice in his head said loud and clear, what if these women are looking for more than a one-night stand or a weekend romp in the sheets? What if they want a long-term relationship? Then you’ll be up shit creek without any sign of a paddle because the whole town will turn against you for hurting their feelings.

  Lucy clapped her hands. “Okay, ladies. This man has work to do if he’s going to get this place whipped into shape. Let’s go on now. We will see you in church on Sunday, won’t we, Mr. Dawson?”

  “You are all such sweethearts to take care of me like this and yes, ma’am, I will be in church Sunday. I might be twenty pounds heavier after eating all this good cookin’, but I’ll be there,” he promised.

  Lucy nodded. “You’ve got an open invitation to go home with me and my husband, Herman, for Sunday dinner anytime, honey. You might get lonely and Herman can talk the legs off a kitchen table when it comes to ranchin’ and cows.”

  “Thank you again for everything.” Blake followed the parade back through the living room.

  “You don’t need to come out to the porch, cold as it is,” Ruby said. “Just get on in there and open up that fried chicken and my potato casserole. They go right well together. And I do believe that Nadine sent her famous apple pie.”

  “I can’t thank y’all enough for making me welcome,” Blake said.

  “Honey, I’d like to show you just how welcome you are,” Sharlene said softly just before she followed the rest of the crowd outside.

  Blake was still shaking his head, wondering how in the hell he was ever going to deal with so much temptation on every corner, when Deke pushed into the back door.

  “We’re at a stopping place. Mind if we come in and get warm. Holy shit! What is all this? I saw them bringing in stuff but man, this looks like a buffet for an army.”

  “Take off your coats and get comfortable. Make yourselves at home. Most of this will go in the freezer. Thank goodness it is only half full and will hold everything, but I reckon we won’t have to cook much for a few weeks around here. I understand that the fried chicken is still warm and there is a potato casserole somewhere,” Blake answered.

  Deke headed for the living room. “Sounds like heaven to me.”

  Allie pulled off her gloves, tucked them in her coat pocket, and then hung it on the back of a chair. “Okay if I wash up at the kitchen sink? The hot water will warm up my cold hands. And then I’ll help you find the chicken and potatoes and after we eat, I could help you put the other stuff in the freezer.”

  “Help yourself and thank you,” Blake said.

  “Ahhh,” she said as the water went from cold to warm and then hot. “I need to do inside jobs in the winter.”

  “Speaking of that. Do you have anything lined up right now? I could sure use some help on the ceilings where the roof leaked through. Any advice you can give would be appreciated,” he said.

  She turned off the water and looked around for a towel. “Well, it should just take some drywall and a paint job. Probably not too expensive.”

  Blake picked up the hand towel from the cabinet and held it out toward her. “Would you be able to do the job? I’d be glad to help.”

  She turned around quickly and ran right into his chest. “Oh, s-sorry,” she stammered.

  He ran the back of his hand down her cheek and looked deeply into those brown eyes. He tipped her chin up with his knuckles and slowly bent to brush a soft kiss across her lips.

  Never had a first brief kiss affected him like that, not in all the years he’d perfected his wild ways with women. The feeling was so new that he wasn’t sure what to do with it. Did he apologize for kissing her or kiss her again with more intensity?

  She took a step to the side and her hand went to her lips. “I can work for you, Blake Dawson, but you cannot do that again.”

  “Are you seeing someone?” He handed her the towel.

  She dried her hands and threw it over his shoulder. “No, and I’m not looking to be either. I was married at one time and I loved that man with my whole heart. When the marriage ended, my nerves were shot. It’s a long story and it’s sure nothing to do with you but…”

  “Guess I got mixed signals. Can we at least be friends?”

  “I don’t know, but I…”

  Two buts in less than a minute. Two women chasing him, ready and waiting for his call and the one that had buts at the end of every sentence was the one who turned him inside out with a simple kiss. God hated him!

  “Hey, it smells good in here.” Deke appeared in the doorway rubbing his hands together. “Blake, why don’t you hire Allie to give this place a facelift while her business is slow?”

  In a couple of long strides, Allie was behind her chair, her hands gripping the back where her coat hung.

  “That’s what we’ve just been talking about,” she said.

  Deke pulled out a chair and sat down. “Well, I’m going to be cutting wood if Blake was serious about the mesquite. I can make more at that than helping you, but I will miss the dinners.”

  “If you are willing to clear mesquite, I will gladly provide dinner. You can eat with me and Allie every day,” Blake said.

  Deke glanced over his shoulder toward Allie. “You okay with that since I’m not going to be helping you?”

  “Yes, of course,” Allie said. “It’s Blake’s house and his food, not mine. Besides, I’ll look forward to seeing you every day.”

  Allie was surprised that her voice sounded completely normal. Every nerve was humming loudly in her body. She pulled out the chair and sat down, glad to be off her weak knees. What in the hell had she done?

  You took another job and Deke won’t be there and you kissed that cowboy just like I knew you would. It was Lizzy’s voice, no doubt about it, fussing at her. Allie hoped that when Lizzy did something stupid that she heard Allie’s voice in her head telling her all about it.

  Suddenly Deke touched her on the shoulder. “Earth to Allie,” he said.

  She was amazed to see that a disposable pan of fried
chicken and one of potato casserole had been set on the table. Both Deke and Blake were looking at her like they expected her to say grace or do something.

  “What?”

  “Blake is going to say the blessing. Bow your head,” Deke said.

  A cowboy who said grace?

  Her chin went down and she peeked out of one eye. Blake’s long lashes rested on his cheekbones and that slow drawl sounded sincere when he said a quick blessing over the food.

  “Now, let’s eat,” he said.

  Allie picked up the potato casserole, helped her plate, and sent it to Deke. “It smells really good. I’m sorry about awhile ago. I was thinking about the ceilings. Do you want drywall, or would you like a framework and panels? That way a panel could be removed and replaced if it got messed up and you wouldn’t have to do the whole ceiling. They make the framework now to look like wood so it’s not so modern looking.” She was talking too fast and talking business when what she really wanted to do was curl up in the rocking chair in her room and think about that kiss.

  “Bullshit! You weren’t thinking about ceilings at all. Your eyes were all dreamy and soft so you were off in Cinderella land. Did the prince ask you to dance yet?” Deke laughed. “But if that’s your story, I’m sure you’ll stick with it. Besides you are talking too fast and about work too much so I know you aren’t telling the truth. You want a chicken leg or a breast or a thigh?”

  She nodded. “Leg is fine.”

  “Who won?” Deke asked.

  “Won what?” Blake asked before Allie could answer.

  “Allie was fighting with herself again.” Deke forked out a wing and a breast to lay on his plate. “She does that a lot. Lizzy or you? Who won?”

  Allie managed a weak smile. “It was a tie this time.”

  “What were they arguing about?” Blake asked.

  “Friday night.” She answered honestly but kept her eyes on her food.

  Blake passed a container of marinated vegetables to her. “What about Friday night?”

  It didn’t help that his fingertips brushed hers in the transfer. Thank goodness there was food in her mouth, giving her a minute to think before answering.

  “Her sister, Lizzy, the one you met at the feed store, is getting married this spring,” Deke said. “Her boyfriend is Mitch and his cousin Grady is the best man. Lizzy is trying to fix Allie up with him while he’s in town this weekend. Why were you thinking about that Allie? Did you change your mind?”

  She shook her head. “Not in a million years.”

  “Good.” Deke said. “I can get you out of that Sunday dinner real easy. I’ll call and say that we have an emergency plumbing problem on Sunday right after church. Pipes could freeze right here at the Lucky Penny and we wouldn’t have a choice but to fix them. Might take all the way to supper to get the job done. I’ll bring the beer. Besides it could snow and if it does, Mitch might not be able to get down here to go to church with Lizzy.”

  “Don’t even suggest such a thing or it might happen,” Blake said. “And I thought y’all were talking about Friday, not Sunday.”

  “She has to put up with Grady on Sunday at her mama’s house since she won’t go out with him on Friday. I’m her best friend so I’m trying to help her out here,” Deke explained.

  Blake nodded. “So that’s the reason you can’t go get a burger with me?”

  Deke chuckled.

  Allie pointed her fork at him. “It’s not funny.”

  “Yep, it is.”

  “Changing the subject here since my mama says it’s not nice to make a lady blush,” Blake said.

  Allie could have planted a kiss right on those full sexy lips at that moment. She was sick of Lizzy’s wedding plans, and she’d rather talk about busted sewer lines than those ugly orchid taffeta dresses Lizzy wanted her and Fiona to wear.

  “Are you really going to start hauling wood off this place tomorrow?” Blake asked.

  Deke refilled his plate. “Yeah, I am. And I got a feeling there’ll be a lot more folks out there with chainsaws. I bet Herman Hudson is the first one out here with his crew of grandsons. What do you think, Allie? You think that anyone can beat Herman when there’s free wood to be had?” Deke asked.

  Allie took a sip of the tea. Not too sweet but with enough sugar and strength to know she was drinking southern tea and not murdered water. “He’s got a big wood yard and we’ve got a lot of winter left, so he sure won’t pass up a chance to get at this much mesquite for free.”

  She didn’t want to talk about wood or anything else. She wanted to be back on the roof with her nail gun working on the job where she’d have lots of time to think. Maybe even with her earbuds in place and listening to George Strait, who had helped her through the most difficult time of her life with the lyrics to his fifty greatest hits. Back when she first found out that Riley had been cheating on her for years, she’d leaned on country music to get her through those sad, tough times.

  She stole a sideways glance toward Blake and found him staring at her. Their gaze caught above the fried chicken and time stood still.

  * * *

  Those dark eyes mesmerized him and Blake wished that she’d let him in long enough to see into her heart. He knew women, could look into their eyes, see past the glitter and glam, and know what they wanted from him. If it was a good time, he provided it. If it was a relationship, he was gone in a hurry. But this was something different. Could he really be courting a woman for friendship? If so, he was damn sure in virgin territory.

  Deke pushed back his chair, picked up his plate, and carried it to the sink. “I bet that’s Nadine’s apple pie, isn’t it?”

  “That’s what the ladies said. Help yourself to all you want. I hate apple pie. Ice cream is in the freezer if you want to top it off,” Blake said.

  Allie pushed back her chair. “I’m too full for dessert, even Nadine’s pie, which I do like. I’m going back up on the roof. See you when you get done. Thanks for dinner, Blake. We’ll discuss the next job after we finish the roof.”

  Blake waited until she was out of the house to ask, “What’s her story?”

  “Lived here in Dry Creek all her life, most of it over at Audrey’s Place. Crazy the way that name has stuck for more than a hundred years.”

  “House is almost a hundred years old?” Blake rinsed dirty dishes and set them aside.

  “Pretty close to that. Before the Depression it was a small hotel but Audrey found out pretty quick that folks didn’t have money for traveling. No one ever called it a brothel but she hired six girls, gave them a room and three meals a day and a big cut of what they made. At least, that’s the story. Who knows what is true and what is rumor around here?”

  Blake poured two cups of coffee and set one in front of Deke. “It looks like it held up good.”

  “Foundation is good and solid. Allie is afraid to knock out walls for fear the ceiling will sag. I told her that she couldn’t knock them out because the studs are petrified by now,” Deke answered.

  Not caring that he was being nosy, he wandered into personal territory that went deeper than mere friendship. “Tell me more about Allie.”

  Deke dug into his pie. “She has two sisters. Lizzy that you met and Fiona who lives down in Houston. Works for some big crackerjack law firm and is married to one of the partners. Allie’s daddy was a carpenter and she learned the trade from him. Married right out of high school. Divorced after two or three years. Can’t remember exactly how long they were together, but he cheated on her. The rest you’ll have to ask her. She’s my best friend and I’m not getting into any more trouble.”

  “Sometimes her eyes look sad,” Blake said.

  Dozens of wrinkles creased Deke’s forehead when he frowned. “Allie? Sad? Not that woman. She’s the happiest woman I know. She likes what she does and she’s the easiest woman in the world to work with and for.”

  “How long has she been a carpenter?”

  Deke polished off his tea and refilled it one more time. �
��She started helping her dad when she was in middle school. I think she was about fifteen when she went on the payroll. She bought the cutest little pickup truck when she was sixteen. She’s still got that truck somewhere over there at their place, but mostly she drives the business van these days.”

  Blake nodded, remembering his first crush on an older girl. “Gloria Anderson.”

  “Who?” Deke asked.

  Blake grinned. “She was my Allie. I was about twelve and she was seventeen and in love with the football quarterback.”

  Deke piled ice cream on top of the apple pie and carried it to the table. “Seems like we all do that, don’t it? When I was sixteen and she was twenty, she hired me to help her put the first roof on a house. It was her first solo job and she was so nervous and—damn you, Blake Dawson, you got more out of me than I should have told. You interested in her or what?”

  “She’s going to be working on my house. I wondered if something about this place makes her sad, like her ex-husband lived here at one time. Or if maybe she used to sneak off and meet him here?”

  “Hell, no! Riley wasn’t…” Deke shook his head. “All I’m sayin’ is that this house does not make her sad and my lips are sealed past that. You want to know more about Allie, you go to talk to her. She’d fire me on the spot for shootin’ off my mouth. Now I’m going to change the subject. Are you going to tear up some more mesquite after dinner or start fixin’ fence?”

  Blake cocked his head to one side. “Why would you ask that?”

  “There’s the feed store truck coming down the lane.” Deke pointed out the window. “I reckon it’s bringin’ all that barbed wire and those fence posts you bought. There are no secrets in Dry Creek, especially when it comes to the Lucky Penny. You might as well live in a glass house.”

  “Why are folks so interested?” Blake’s skin crawled at the idea of people watching him through the windows of a glass house.

  “Because you are the new guy in town and they want to see if you’ll last through the winter. They’ve probably already got bets on how long you’ll stay. The ones who bet for you will be nice and the others, not so much. You’d better get out there and tell them where to unload that stuff or they’ll drop it right in your front yard.”