Hot Cowboy Nights (12 page)

He chuckled. “I’m going to sit right here and watch your cute little butt wiggle its way up that muddy mess.”

They could hear a vehicle approaching for several seconds before it was right overhead and then the squeal of brakes. “Hey, y’all all right down there? Need some help?” a woman’s voice yelled down.

“We’re fine but we don’t have phone service. Would you make a call for us?” Toby cupped his hands over his mouth and hollered.

“Sure I will. Soon as I get to the church over in Dry Creek. They’ve got a phone there. What number do I call?”

“Henrietta, is that you?” Lizzy shouted.

“Yes, it is. Oh, my goodness! Lizzy Logan?” The truck door slammed and Henrietta peered down over the edge. “Is that Toby Dawson with you? How long have you been down there?”

“Yes, it is and we had a blowout last night. We had to spend the night here because we can’t climb up and the ditch is full of nasty water. Please call my sister at the Lucky Penny,” Lizzy said.

“Sorry, darlin’. I cannot call her, or your mama, or Dora June will get really mad at me.” She eyed the red blanket and narrowed her eyes at Lizzy. “Too bad you were keepin’ company with that man or I might have helped you. Don’t suppose you are goin’ to make it to church, are you?”

“Not unless you make a phone call,” Lizzy said.

“Come on, Miz Henrietta. Think of the Good Samaritan in the Bible. Are you going to pass on the other side and leave us down here to die or are you going to have the right spirit about this?” Toby asked.

“You can’t sweet-talk me, Mr. Dawson. Let this be a lesson to you, Lizzy.” Henrietta disappeared. The truck engine started back up and the rattle of tires on a country road faded until nothing but the sounds of a spring morning were heard in the bed of the wrecked truck.

“She won’t help us, but I bet she tells everyone she meets about this,” Lizzy fumed.

“You can bank on that. Reckon your mama is going to bring a shotgun and make me marry you since we’ve slept together now?” he asked.

“I can’t imagine you married to anyone, with or without a shotgun to convince you.” She was amazed at the sad look that flitted across his face before he looked away.

“Your reputation says that you’ve served up lots of morning-after breakfasts. What would you do if someone came up pregnant with your child?”

Toby hesitated a moment. “I don’t know. Are you telling me something or is this hypothetical?”

She put up a hand. “Purely hypothetical. I’m not pregnant and if I was, I wouldn’t marry you.”

“Why?” He looked as if someone had hit him in the head with a hammer.

“Because you would only be marrying me because of the pregnancy. You’ve already stated that you don’t want that lifestyle, so we’d both be miserable. I want a husband who can’t wait to get home to me in the evenings, not one who can’t wait to get away from me. A baby wouldn’t change what you or I either one want.”

“Pretty blunt aren’t you?”

“I tried that submissive crap. It didn’t work for me,” she said.

Another vehicle passed but it didn’t slow down.

“Third time is the charm,” Toby said. “Want to make a bet about how long it takes that third one to get here?”

“Sure. Ten bucks says that Farmer Forgetful remembers to tell his wife about those stupid kids sitting in shit creek, and Blake and Allie are here within thirty minutes,” she said.

“I bet Henrietta gets a dose of guilty conscience and calls them from the church. If you win, we’ll try this date again only at a nicer restaurant and somewhere that does not have a gully like this on the road going there. If you win.” He tapped his chin and grinned.

“I will not go to bed with you if I win,” she said.

“I wasn’t going to suggest that. You have to cook supper for me at Audrey’s Place.”

She stuck out her hand and they shook on it.

Ten minutes later they heard a vehicle on the road. Lizzy held her breath until it stopped and then a voice squealed. She looked up and saw Allie peering down over the edge of the road into the ditch.

“Man, are we glad to see you,” Lizzy said.

Blake’s face appeared next to Allie’s. “Are either of you hurt?”

“We’ve got a couple of seat belt bruises that will be tender for a few days, but no broken bones or blood,” Toby answered.

“That’s good. Allie was about to have a heart attack the whole way here,” Blake said. “I brought chains but there ain’t no way we’re going to get that up out of there without a winch and a tractor. We’ll get y’all out and then we’ll bring back what we need to get the truck home,” Blake said. “Reckon the best way to do this is to throw a chain down and then haul you up with the truck.”

“Whatever you think,” Lizzy said.

“Okay then. I’ll hook things up and Allie can ease the truck down the road while I help get y’all up over this mess. If you’d been a mile or two down the road, you would have been on flat land.”

In a few minutes the chain dropped smack into the bed of the truck and Lizzy got a hold with both hands. He motioned with his arm and she started up, digging her toes into the bank for traction and praying that she didn’t wet her pants.

Blake held up a fist toward his truck moving very slowly down the road and extended her his other hand as soon as she cleared the top. “I got you. Go on and get in the truck with Allie and I’ll get my brother up out of there. What happened anyway?”

“Blowout is what Toby thinks.”

As luck would have it the other side of the road was as flat as a pancake with lots of bushes and mesquite trees. If a different tire had blown, they would have plowed down a few trees and cactus but would have probably been able to back the truck out, put on a spare, and limp home.

“You okay?” Allie yelled as she backed the truck up.

“I’m fine but…” Lizzy headed for the nearest place to hide behind a big clump of green broom weed and jerked her jeans down. She was almighty glad for the Dairy Queen napkin from her shirt pocket that she’d squirreled away when she finished her tacos. When she stood and zipped her jeans she took a step backward into a fresh pile of coyote crap. She groaned and trotted through the weeds, past a big cactus and to the truck.

“Feel better?” Allie grinned from the driver’s window.

Lizzy looked down at her stinky boot. “Much better but this is not my lucky day.”

“Move it out,” Blake yelled.

Allie eased the truck down the road at a snail’s pace.

Lizzy waited until the vehicle came to a stop and then carefully pulled off her boots. She tossed them into the bed before she got into the backseat and then she remembered her purse was in Toby’s wrecked truck.

“My purse!” she moaned.

“Will be fine until we can get back. It’s got a moat around it on three sides and a mountain on the other. I don’t think anyone is brave enough to go searching through things. Are you sure you are okay? I see a bruise on your forehead,” Allie said. “How long were you down there? The old guy who called said he had no idea if you’d been there an hour or two days.”

“From about nine last night until right now.”

Allie looked in the rearview mirror. “Without a bathroom?”

Lizzy caught her eye and nodded. “And it was not pleasant. Henrietta came by and wouldn’t even take the number to call you.”

“That’s what happens when you don’t abide by the church ladies’ rules.” Allie started forward a few feet at a time until she could see Toby standing on the road. “Looks like y’all took out a section of guardrail. The guys can call the county yard tomorrow and report the damage. But we might want to send some red bandannas to mark the place so folks will know it’s a dangerous area.”

Lizzy laid her head back on the seat. “It’s going to be a mess.”

“Gossip or fixing Toby’s truck?”

“Both. The radiator most likely is blown. A rock hit the back window and it’s cracked all to hell, and neither of the back doors will open. The front is filled with air bags and no telling what all that water has done to the undercarriage. As old as the truck is I imagine that it is totaled. And the gossip? It’ll be a nightmare.” Lizzy groaned.

“Look on the bright side. Everyone will know that you aren’t wallowing in misery after the Mitch ordeal, and what a story to tell your kids someday,” Allie said. “So now that you’ve slept with Toby, what’s your opinion of him?”

“I didn’t sleep with him,” Lizzy protested.

“Oh, really?” Allie turned around in the seat. “Did you stay awake all night?”

“I mean I didn’t have sex with him.” It wasn’t a lie. She had not had sex with him last night, and they weren’t talking about the previous times.

“Does he snore? Does he wake up in a good mood or all grouchy? Was he nice to you and let you have your share of that red blanket? And where did it come from anyway?” Allie bombarded her with questions.

“No, he does not snore. He woke up in a good mood. The blanket was a gift from his mama that he shoved into the toolbox because his backseat was full,” Lizzy answered.

Allie’s phone flew over the seat and landed in Lizzy’s lap. “Text Mama right now. She needs to know what’s going on before Henrietta and Dora June start spreading the news soon as the benediction is over.”

“Did you see that tower? We don’t have service here,” Lizzy said. “If we’d had any at all, I would have called or texted you last night.”

“Well, keep the phone and as soon as that no service thing shuts off, you get in touch with Mama,” Allie said.

The door opened and Toby settled into the seat beside her and fastened his seat belt.

“Don’t reckon there is a place to buy a cup of coffee between here and home is there?” he asked.

“No, but the pot is full and we’ll be home in fifteen minutes,” Blake answered.

“You can drop me off first, right?” Lizzy asked.

“No, you can go home with me,” Allie answered. “I’m making Sunday dinner and Mama will be there soon as church is over.”

“I need a shower.”

“Take one at our place and borrow some of my clothes.”

Toby’s hand covered hers. Words were not needed. He was as relieved as she was to get out of that damn ravine. She looped her little finger over his and squeezed. He smiled but didn’t open his eyes.

Elizabeth Jane Logan had been baptized when she was ten years old. The preacher said that when her head went under the water and he said the words that she would come up a new creature without sin and with a holy spirit. At that age, she expected to rise up with at least a slightly visible halo or maybe the sprouting of some wings, but the only thing different was that her hair was wet. That and the fact that she hadn’t taken time to dry off completely with that hand-size towel they’d given her and her underpants stuck to her butt all during church services that Sunday evening.

She thought of that day as she slid down the back of the claw-foot tub in Allie’s bathroom, getting her hair wet and holding her breath. If she stayed under long enough, would a new improved Lizzy arise when she surfaced?

Pushing against the tub with her feet and pulling on the sides, she brought herself up out of the water and waited. She didn’t expect a halo but it would be nice to have something after that night down there in a ditch. She brushed the water from her eyes and opened them. Peace settled over like she hadn’t known in months.

Lizzy might not have a halo but the very last smidgen of Mitch’s betrayal was gone. In that moment, it wasn’t words but honesty when she said she was finished with that man and the past. The smile that covered her face and the pure joy of no baggage hanging on her heart; well, it damn near made her gravitate to the ceiling. She wanted to hug herself and hang on to the feeling inside as long as possible.

“Hot damn!” she muttered. “I can cuss and I can have a beer and I can do whatever I want. And if I want to have sex I can do that, too. I’m going to love this new Lizzy. If the rest of the world doesn’t, then bring out the fish heads.”

It was one of her granny’s sayings when someone was being a complete jerk. “Screw ’em and feed ’em fish heads,” she’d say. Then after a while she would remark, “Way these fools are acting, I feel a night for boiled fish heads is comin’ on.”

“But not today. Today is not a day for fish heads. It’s a day to rejoice and be glad.” She stood up and shook out two towels. One went around her head, turban-style; the other made a wrap for her body. When she was completely dry, she zipped the worn chenille robe up from the bottom. Her underwear and bra should be in the dryer by now and she could fit into a pair of Allie’s yoga pants and a T-shirt even though she was a couple of inches taller than her sister and a few pounds heavier.

She met Allie coming up the hall with a pair of socks, clean bra, and panties folded on top of an outfit.

“These should make you feel like a brand-new woman,” Allie said. “You already smell better. You can borrow a pair of my rubber boots to wear home. I’m not cleaning the crap off yours for you, not unless you want to clean up the floor or porch when I upchuck. I didn’t have morning sickness that first trimester, but just yesterday scents have started to make my stomach do flips.”

Lizzy took the clothing from her sister. “Please don’t tell me you can’t stand to smell food.”

“Mostly anything spicy like chili and it’s always been my favorite.” Allie sighed.

“Oh, no!” Lizzy hugged her. “Remember when Lucy’s daughter-in-law was pregnant and she couldn’t stand to even smell fish cooking? Granny told her it was because her baby hated fish and sure enough that kid has never liked any kind, not even deep-fried catfish.”

“I don’t care if the baby doesn’t like chili when it gets here, just so long as it doesn’t ruin my love for it. No beer. No chili. This little girl may be an only child.” Allie smiled.

Lizzy gave Allie a quick hug and went back into the bathroom. “I’m going to get dressed and then I’ll help you with dinner. What are we having?”

“Fried chicken, Blake’s favorite,” Allie answered. “Sweet tea is made and coffeepot is full when you get dressed.”

Lizzy left the robe on the hook where she’d found it and smiled when she pulled on her hip-hugging panties because her fanny was fully dry. No sticking to the kitchen chair while she was enjoying her sister’s scrumptious fried chicken.