Lightning zipped through the sky. Thunder sounded like it was rolling right over the top of Toby’s travel trailer and the heavy rain pounded on the metal roof, drowning out Blue’s whimpering as the old Catahoula dog cowered beside his bed.
Toby laced his hands behind his head and tried to make sense of what he’d gotten himself into. He’d met Lizzy Logan back in the winter when he came to the Lucky Penny Ranch to visit Blake one weekend and wasn’t real impressed with her. But then her fiancé broke up with her on the day of Blake and Allie’s wedding and he’d felt sorry for the woman. So he asked her to dance. One thing had led to another, and by the time spring rolled around and he’d moved out to the Lucky Penny permanently, the two of them had just been waiting to combust. Now he and Lizzy were hot and heavy and out of hand, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.
He was flirting with the devil and feeling the blazes of hell. Sitting beside her at the table that night, pretending to be nothing more than acquaintances and knowing that they’d been between the sheets an hour earlier was downright crazy.
The travel trailer where he was living had a small sitting room and kitchen combination right inside the front door. The sofa made out into a bed that slept two people. A booth-type table could be lowered and cushions readjusted to sleep two more. The kitchen consisted of a single sink, microwave, two-burner cook top and a dorm-sized refrigerator situated underneath part of the cabinets. Beyond that was a bedroom with a double bed that took up nearly all the room and a tiny bathroom with a shower, potty and wall hung sink.
In the beginning when he and his brother, Blake, and cousin, Jud, had pooled their money and bought the Lucky Penny, the plan had been that they would all live in the ranch house until such time as Jud and Toby could build a place of their own. But then Blake got married and that changed everything. There was still a room in the house that Toby could use but newlyweds needed their privacy and truth be told, so did he. Living with Blake would be one thing; living with a new sister-in-law was a whole different ballgame.
Not that he didn’t like Allie. No sir! She was an angel complete with a halo and wings, or maybe since she was a crackerjack carpenter, complete with a hammer and a buzz saw. She’d tamed his brother, who had the reputation for being the wildest cowboy in Texas and that took someone with special powers for sure.
When the storm moved on, his cow dog, Blue, scratched his ear and then headed toward the trap door in the floor beside the sofa and disappeared down under the trailer. The old boy didn’t like being cooped up except when it thundered. He wasn’t a bit afraid of a full-grown Angus bull and between him and Shooter, Blake’s dog, they could herd cattle with the best of the dogs in the state. But when it came to thunder, poor old Blue wanted to lie on the foot of Toby’s bed until it ceased.
Toby heard a noise and thought that Blue had changed his mind and was on his way back inside when suddenly a body appeared in his bedroom door. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he shot into a sitting position and wished to hell that he wasn’t strip stark naked under the covers.
“Toby, are you asleep?” Lizzy whispered.
“Lizzy? Dammit! You scared me,” he said. “I thought we agreed this was too close to the house for us to meet here.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed. “We need to talk.”
“Oh?” He switched on the reading lamp attached to the headboard. If there were four words a man ever dreaded more, he wasn’t sure what they were. “About what?”
Her eyes locked with his, but she immediately blinked and looked away. “Toby, I’m not this person. Before you moved to Dry Creek, I was going to marry a preacher, for God’s sake. I’ve never been a wild woman who fell into bed with a guy she’d just met.”
“I know that you don’t trust men after what Mitch did…”
She held up a palm. “It has nothing to do with trust. Mitch was a rotten apple down at the bottom of a barrel. That doesn’t mean all the other apples have to be rotten. Some of them might taste real good so it wouldn’t be fair to judge them by the rotten one. Trust isn’t an issue.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s just…when Allie…what we’re doing...” Damn, this went a lot better in her head when she practiced on the way over. She took a deep breath. “Toby, we have to stop this. I want kids and maybe someday a place big enough they can have freedom to run and play. You are a player, a damn hot cowboy, but you aren’t interested in settling down and I am. So let’s not waste each other’s time.”
“Blunt, aren’t you?” He gently turned her chin so she was looking into his eyes. “Lizzy, I was well aware this was rebound sex from the first time.” His mouth curved up in a saucy grin. “And I’m still happy to help you practice in the hot sex department until you find your Mr. Wonderful.”
“You aren’t even my type, but I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been fun.”
“And you damn sure aren’t mine,” he said.