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  She picked up her phone to check for a sexy text message from Toby, but there was nothing. Nada. Nil. Zilch. Not a single missed message. Finally she wrote one to him: Changed my mind. See you tomorrow at six at Mama’s store.

  With one thumb on the DELETE button and the other on the SEND button, she sat there in the darkness, her body telling her to send the message and her heart telling her that she was in for misery if she didn’t press DELETE.

  Chapter Two

  June was coming in hot with the temperatures already in the eighties that morning. The cowbell hanging on the door of the Dry Creek Feed and Seed store had sounded loud and clear early the next morning, and a blast of hot air swept across the whole store.

  Hot! That word reminded Lizzy of what she’d given up with Toby, and she blushed. She stretched the kinks from her neck and rounded the end of the display case where she’d been moving flower seeds to another part of the store. Thank God she’d not given in to the moment of weakness the night before. It had taken ten minutes before she finally pressed the DELETE button and tossed her phone to the recliner across the room.

  If it was all the way on the other side of the room, she wouldn’t be nearly so tempted to send Toby a message, or God forbid, call him. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to miss the calls, texts, and the sex. Maybe this whole thing with him was like craving alcohol. Too bad there weren’t meetings in town that she could go to, but no one had thought to start up a therapy group for TDA—Toby Dawson Anonymous. Give it six months, though, and there might be enough women in the area to begin one.

  The cowbell above the door into the feed store announced a customer, and Lizzy peeked around the corner of the aisle between two rows of shelves to see Lucy Hudson. At least it wasn’t Toby. This was only day one of her resolution, and she wasn’t ready to be alone with him just yet.

  “Good morning, Lucy. What are you doing in town this morning?”

  Lucy’s jeans hung on her slim frame like a tow sack on a broom handle. Her long gray hair had been twisted up in a bun on top of her hair, but several wispy strands had escaped and stuck to her sweaty neck.

  “I’m here to see if you still got that size small orange hooded jacket. Nadine said you put it on half price last week, and the zipper in mine done broke last week. I can put it up for another year.” Lucy found the jacket and latched on to it. “You take this and put it on the counter so nobody else will come in here while I’m lookin’ around and steal it out from under my nose.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll start a ticket and put it in a sack,” Lizzy said.

  Lucy kept going through the sales rack, one item at a time. “I’m supposed to get Herman a chain saw blade. He said you kept a note of what kind and size up under the counter.”

  Lizzy bagged the jacket and went to the aisle where she kept supplies for chain saws, chose the right blade, and was on her way to the checkout counter when the cowbell rang again. Truman O’Dell brought in a gust of hot air with him along with a sneeze that sounded like it came from a three-hundred-pound trucker rather than a skinny little fellow who wasn’t much taller than Lizzy’s five feet, five inches. He quickly jerked a red bandanna from the hip pocket of his bibbed overalls and held it against his face for the second sneeze. The paisley pattern didn’t do much to muffle the sound, but it did seem to stop the attack.

  “Damned old allergies. Hits me every year at this time,” Truman said. “Mornin’, Lucy. How’s things at your place? Y’all’s garden producin’?”

  “Comin’ right on. We got tomatoes and squash comin’ out our ears. Can’t seem to work fast enough to get everything frozen or canned. Y’all still runnin’ produce down to Throckmorton to the farmers’ market on Saturdays?” Lucy kept going through clothing racks without looking up.

  “Yes, we are.”

  “If you got room, I could send some produce down there with you. You still chargin’ ten percent for the extra stuff you take?”

  Truman propped an elbow on the edge of the clothing rack. “Herman still cuttin’ wood out there at the Lucky Penny?”

  “Yes, he is. Long as Blake is willing to bulldoze it down, he’ll be taking it to the wood yard. Could be we’ll have another hard winter next year and we’re gettin’ a supply for then,” Lucy answered.

  “I don’t agree with him helpin’ them boys,” Truman said.

  “Don’t reckon anybody that size can be called boys,” Lucy answered. “And Herman likes Blake and Toby. Says they are hardworkin’ cowboys who love the land and will take care of it.”

  “Summer is just about to get geared up, and I reckon they’ll get tired of hard work when they have to sweat and fight every kind of varmint there is. Ain’t no use in us folks that’s been here all these years helpin’ them clear the land,” Truman said.

  Lucy glared across the clothing at him. “So, are you sayin’ that if my husband cuts wood on the Lucky Penny, wood that Blake and Toby are giving away for free when they clear the land, that you won’t take my extra produce to the market?”

  “That’s what I’m sayin’.” Truman nodded.

  “Why are you being a horse’s rear end about that ranch?” she asked. “It ain’t nothing to you whether they make it work or not.”

  “I just think the folks around here need to be careful who they go openin’ up their arms to is all. Why make a big show of welcomin’ them boys to the community when they ain’t goin’ to stay?” Truman sniffed.

  Lizzy grabbed a dusting rag and worked over every inch of the checkout counter and the cash register while she kept an ear tuned to the argument.

  “That’s a crock of horse crap. Maybe the folks who didn’t stick with it would have if they’d have had some support. And you’re still mad because you wanted to buy that place but you wanted it for nothing,” Lucy said.

  “Well,” Truman huffed. “If they’d have kept their money in their pockets, I could have got that ranch for what I was willin’ to give. I’m not about to support them and I’m not helping anyone who does.”

  “That’s your choice, but I think you are a dang fool.” Lucy carried several more orange jackets to the counter. “Lizzy, put these on my ticket. Herman and our sons will need new ones come fall for huntin’ season, and this is a right good price.”

  “Can I help you with something, Truman?” Lizzy called out.

  “I come to pay my last month’s bill.” He whipped out a roll of bills and removed the rubber band from them. “If there was another place to buy my feed, I wouldn’t do business with you anymore, not since your sister married Blake Dawson.”

  “Truman O’Dell!” Lucy slapped him on the arm hard enough that he flinched. “Listen to your stupid mouth spoutin’ off like that. God almighty, your daddy did business here with Lizzy’s grandpa. Get that bug out of your butt before it eats holes in your gut and kills you graveyard dead.”

  Lizzy seethed inside but kept a sweet smile on her face. At least she hoped it was sweet because it sure felt like more of a grimace. “Let me ring up Lucy’s purchases and then we’ll square up your bill.”

  “That wasn’t nice to hit me,” Truman growled. “If you wasn’t a woman, you wouldn’t get away with that.”

  Lucy popped her veined hands on her skinny hip bones. “Truman O’Dell, if you want to hit me back you go right ahead, but I promise I will mop up Lizzy’s floor with you if you do. I’m strong and I’m mean and Herman don’t even cross me, so you ought to watch your mouth.”

  Lord, please let me grow up to be just like her. Lizzy sent up a silent prayer as she figured up Lucy’s bill and laid out a ticket for her to sign. “I was going to knock those jackets down another twenty-five percent come Monday so I gave you a better price.”

  “Well, bless your heart, darlin’. See there, Truman, that’s why you do business with the folks you know. They won’t cheat you out of your boxer shorts.” Lucy signed the ticket and carried her purchases outside. She headed off to the left instead of getting into her truck, which was parked in
front of the feed and seed store. That meant she was going to Nadine’s for a cup of coffee and to tell anyone who would listen about the argument she had with Truman.

  Lizzy turned to Truman. “Now, let’s see about that bill.”

  “Add a twenty-pound bag of seed potatoes to it. I always plant a later crop so we have potatoes up into the fall,” he said.

  She picked up the shoe box from under the counter, pulled out all his yellow copies, and added them up. The old folks didn’t like the idea of a computerized bill and it made double work for her, but it made them happy. “Looks like you owe six hundred thirty dollars and fifty-five cents. I’ll add in the seed potatoes now.” She poked in several numbers on the cash register, fighting back the urge to charge double for the potatoes after what he said about Allie. “And that brings your total to six hundred forty-eight dollars and ninety cents.”

  He peeled seven hundred-dollar bills from the roll and laid them on the counter. “Your granddaddy would have thrown a fit about Allie marryin’ up with that boy.”

  “My granddaddy has been dead for a long time,” Lizzy said. “And Allie is my sister, so be careful what you say about her.”

  “Are you going to hit me, too?” Truman taunted.

  “No, sir. My mama trained me up right. I wouldn’t hit an elderly gentleman. But if you say too much about my sister, I might have to take the pistol out from under this counter and shoot an old fart in the leg.” She laid his change on the counter. “There’s fifty-one dollars and a dime and, Truman, if you don’t want to do business with me, then don’t.”

  He picked it up and marched out of the store without saying another word. Lizzy went back to her office and started to work on her computer. She’d barely gotten two bills entered when the phone rang, and since it was an old corded phone beside the cash register, she had to hustle to get to it.

  “Hello,” she said, wishing for caller ID.

  “Lizzy Logan, did you threaten to shoot Truman?” Lucy asked.

  “Yes, ma’am, I did. He was saying mean things about my sister,” Lizzy answered. “How do you know that? He just left here five minutes ago.”

  “Bobby Ray is cutting wood out on the Lucky Penny today, so Truman called him and asked to speak to Herman to tattle on me and you both. Herman hates cell phones to begin with and he and Truman are crossways over everything, so he put him straight. Then Bobby Ray called Nadine to tell her and I’m sittin’ right here in Nadine’s café,” Lucy said.

  “It don’t take things long to get around, does it? Maybe I shouldn’t have said I’d shoot him, but I was really mad and he got all cocky and asked if I was going to hit him like you did,” Lizzy said.

  Lucy chuckled. “Hell, honey, only thing you did wrong was in givin’ him a warnin’. Next time shoot first and ask questions later. I’ll help you bury the body where not even the buzzards can find him.”

  The line went dead and Lizzy put the receiver back on the old black base. At first she giggled, then it grew to a side-splitting laughter that echoed off the walls of the feed store so loudly that she didn’t even hear the cowbell ringing. She wasn’t aware of a presence until she looked across the counter into Toby’s steely blue eyes.

  Her first thought was that she wished she’d put off having hot sex with him one more day, because a quickie in the office with the shades all pulled down would have been one sweet way to celebrate the whole morning. She blinked and looked away as the laughter dried up.

  I have gone, she glanced at the clock on the counter, fifteen hours and thirty minutes without sex with Toby Dawson. They say the first twenty-four hours are the hardest, so if I can resist that hot cowboy eight hours and thirty more minutes, the tough part will be behind me.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  “You would have had to been here,” she said. “God bless the women of Dry Creek.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Toby propped a hip on the counter. “I could use a good story this morning.”

  “It all started when this old guy said he wasn’t going to take Lucy’s produce to the farmers’ market.” Lizzy went on to tell the whole tale.

  By the time she finished Toby was laughing even harder than she had.

  “You should take these stories and do a gig as a comedian. You have a way with words and telling things that is a hell of a lot funnier than a lot of stand-up comedians I’ve heard,” he said.

  “Well!” She rolled her eyes and threw open her arms. “Some people can tell a joke and some people can’t.”

  The expression on her face made him laugh even harder.

  “You, darlin’, are a hoot.”

  “Too damn bad I’m not your type.” She smiled.

  “And too damn bad I’m not yours because I do like the way you make me laugh,” Toby said. “But to get on with why I’m here, I need about a hundred fence posts and a couple of rolls of barbed wire delivered out to the Lucky Penny.”

  “Want to start a charge?” she asked.

  One eyebrow slid up slightly. “I thought we had to pay cash if we were from the Lucky Penny.”

  “You did until my sister married your brother. Now if you and Blake want a charge account, I can set it up for you. Payment’s due on the first of every month with a two percent finance charge if it’s not paid by the tenth,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Why the change of heart?”

  “Truman O’Dell made me mad this morning,” she said honestly.

  “Truman?” Toby asked.

  Was he an old boyfriend? Or maybe a friend of her ex? Suddenly, Toby’s curiosity was piqued beyond keeping quiet.

  “Truman of the story I just told you,” she answered. “He’s the old guy. Not much taller than me and goes around looking like he kissed the south end of a northbound heifer.”

  Toby chuckled. The woman did have a way with words.

  “Oh, that Truman. I understand now.”

  “So do you want credit or not?” she asked.

  “No, thank you. We like to use our business credit card. Keeps things simpler for our accountant at tax time. You do have our farm tax number, though, don’t you?”

  She nodded. “Blake gave it to me. So a hundred fence posts and two rolls of wire. You aren’t working Allie too hard out there are you?”

  “You kidding? Hard to keep her down. She’s bedding and taping the Sheetrock that Blake and I hung in the kitchen today. But this evening we’re running her out of the house while we paint it because the fumes aren’t good for the baby. So she’ll be over at your place until bedtime. Don’t worry your pretty head about us doing anything that would harm Allie.” He leaned over the counter to flirt and then remembered that the fling was over and straightened up quickly.

  “Forgot there, didn’t you? Once a bad boy, always a bad boy,” Lizzy said.

  The door opened and Sharlene Tucker pushed her way inside. If her skinny jeans had been any tighter they would have burst at the seams. Her blond hair was thrown up in a ratty ponytail, and her cowboy boots were scuffed at the toes.

  Sharlene eyed Toby like a coyote going after a one-legged chicken. “I’m Sharlene Tucker. Got time for a cup of coffee down at Nadine’s?”

  Blake and Deke both had warned him about Sharlene and Mary Jo, but the strongest tip had been about Sharlene. She had been bragging that she would bed and wed Toby Dawson before the year was out since she’d missed out on doing the same thing with his brother, Blake.

  “Thank you, but not today, Miz Sharlene, but it was nice meeting you. Good day, Lizzy. I’ll look for that order sometime this afternoon, right?”

  “Soon as my part-time guy gets here.” She ran the card, rang up the bill, and pushed the receipt across the counter for him to sign.

  Sharlene tilted her head to one side. “How about Sunday dinner? I’ve been out of pocket the last few weekends, but I’ll be in church this week. Nadine makes a mean chicken fried steak on Sundays.”

  He shook his head and took a step back. “Got plans but thanks for th
e offer.”

  “With Deke? You can bring him along.”

  Deke was a lifelong friend of all the Logan women. He was Allie’s right-hand man when it came to construction jobs, and his ranch was right next door to the Lucky Penny. Plus, he’d become Blake’s friend the first week that he’d moved to the Lucky Penny and he was always, always ready for a good time. His taste in tall, loose-legged blondes ran the same as Toby’s.

  “No, not with Deke. Good day, Sharlene.”

  “Maybe another time.” She smiled.

  He tipped his hat toward both ladies and headed for the door.

  “Dammit!” Sharlene slapped the countertop. “I’m not giving up, Lizzy.”

  Before Lizzy could answer, her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her hip pocket, saw Toby’s face on the screen, and answered it in her best business voice. “Yes, sir, did you forget something?”

  “Is that woman still there?”

  “Of course. Here she is.” Lizzy handed the phone off to Sharlene.

  Chapter Three

  I’m still mad at you,” Toby said that Sunday afternoon as he, Blake, Allie, Katy, and Lizzy found seats at Nadine’s. “I cannot believe you’d do that to me after all we had.”

  “Shhh!” Lizzy shushed him. “Someone will hear you. I figured if you had anything to say to Sharlene, you might as well say it to her yourself.”

  “She’s stalking me now. I’ve gotten a dozen text messages and that many calls that I didn’t answer. You gave her my cell phone number, didn’t you?” Toby narrowed his eyes at Lizzy as they sat down in the last two chairs on the back row.

  “You told me exactly what you are interested in, and she fits the bill to a tee,” Lizzy said. “You should be thanking me for my help.”

  “I could wring your neck for your help,” Toby said. “Tell me again why we’re here.”