“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.”
Chapter Eight
Allie hummed as she made her way to the kitchen that Friday morning. She was sure she and Deke could finish the roofing that day. Rays of sun poured into the foyer through the window in the door and the aroma of fresh coffee floated from the kitchen. The humming stopped when she saw Lizzy sitting at the table. Their kitchen wasn’t as big as the one over at the Lucky Penny, but their dining room could match it for size. Most of their meals they took in the kitchen unless they had company and then Katy set the table in the dining room.
Allie liked the kitchen better with its bright yellow walls and white woodwork. It brought cheer into the house on the darkest mornings. But the dining room, with its paneled walls and heavy curtains, told a different story. It said to sit up straight and be nice, there was company in the house.
“It’s your morning to make breakfast,” Lizzy said coldly. “I made coffee, but I’m not helping cook, not if you won’t go with me and Mitch and Grady to dinner tonight.”
Allie filled her father’s favorite mug and sipped it, hoping that holding his old cup would give her the strength for yet another fight with her sister.
“Aren’t you going to say a word? You know I’m right. That bad boy next door isn’t for you, isn’t interested in you other than maybe a quick romp in the sheets, so wake up and smell the bacon,” Lizzy said.
“What makes him a bad boy?” Allie asked.
“Sharlene and Mary Jo have been over there already and he’s been flirting with them. I heard he even called Dora June sweetheart and she’s sour as rotten lemons. If she smiled more than twice in a year, she’d probably drop dead. Sharlene says that she intends to bed and wed him by the end of the year and you know how wild that girl is. Only a bad boy would take her eye,” Lizzy answered.
“What I do or do not do with the cowboy next door is my business. I’m old enough to take care of myself.” Allie sipped the steaming-hot coffee. “Besides, who died and made you God?”
“Don’t blaspheme!” Lizzy raised her voice.
Irene shuffled into the room with Katy right behind her. “Don’t yell in the house.”
“Mama, talk some sense to your oldest daughter.” Lizzy rolled her eyes.