“At what?” she asked.
“Being a man’s friend. Hell, you’re even better than my dog, and I really love that dog.” Deke grinned.
She poked him on the arm. “Aww, now ain’t that the sweetest thing a woman can hear. What are we watching?”
“I picked out Quigley Down Under.”
“Never have seen it. Can I help do anything?”
“Not a thing. It’s about ready to take to the living room,” Blake said.
“I call dibs on the end of the couch,” she said.
Deke raised his hand. “I get the recliner for helping unload stuff.”
Allie sat down at the kitchen table and unzipped her knee boots. “I’ve had all of these I can stand for one day.”
Blake took one look at her mismatched socks and chuckled. “Good-lookin’ socks there, darlin’. They make the outfit.”
She held up her feet and wiggled her toes. “I’ve got another pair like them somewhere in the house but I can’t find them. If Lizzy had pushed me toward Grady one more time, I planned to take off my boots in church to embarrass her.”
“You are one wicked lady.” Blake smiled.
“Not me!” Her smile was straight from heaven. “I’m just a carpenter who fixes roofs and does remodel jobs on houses.”
“A beautiful, sexy carpenter who looks right gorgeous with a hammer in her hands,” Blake said.
“Y’all going to jaw all day in there or are we going to watch our movie?” Deke called out.
“We’re on the way and I don’t want to hear a word about my socks,” Allie said as she made her way from kitchen to living room.
Blake kicked off his boots and settled on the other end of the long leather sofa from Allie. Halfway though the movie she pulled her legs up and stretched them out toward him and he did the same, situating his on the outside. He moved his right one slightly so that it touched hers, and she didn’t jerk it away or give him a dirty look.
Progress! By damn! That was progress.
A month ago he would have been telling some woman good-bye that he’d spent the weekend with, maybe saying that he’d call her with no intentions of ever doing so. Or maybe she’d walk him to the door and tell him that it had been fun but one weekend of fun with him was all a woman could handle. Tonight he was almost shouting because Allie hadn’t moved her leg away from his. Toby wouldn’t believe it or understand if he tried to tell him, and forget about saying anything to Jud. He was the loudest of the three about staying a bachelor until his dying breath.
“I’m pausing the show for a bathroom break. I’ll bring in some beers on my way back,” Deke said.
Allie shifted positions and her foot touched his hip. He picked it up and put it in his lap and began to massage it and suddenly, things weren’t boring at all.
“God, that feels good,” she said.
“I’m not God,” Blake said.
“You know what I mean.”
He pulled the other foot over and worked on it. “You are too tense, woman. Loosen up and enjoy life.”
She eased her feet back and tucked them under her, pulling the sweater dress down to cover them.
“He’s right.” Deke set three beers on the coffee table and settled back into the recliner. “You should have more fun.”
“Y’all are ganging up on me,” she said. “Turn the movie back on. I like Crazy Cora more and more as the story plays out. I don’t think she’s nearly as crazy as everyone thinks.”
Layers, Deke had said. Was one of Allie’s layers nothing but a protective coating against men since her husband left her?
Chapter Eleven
On Monday morning five inches of snow had turned the countryside around Dry Creek into a winter wonderland. The wind had died down and there had been a glorious sunrise that morning. The weight of wet snow was heavy on the mesquite and scrub oak tree branches. Cardinals dotted the white landscape like little rose petals dropped from heaven to add color to the new monochromatic picture.
The beauty wouldn’t last long. Cars, trucks, and other vehicles would soon leave their tracks. Animals had to leave behind footprints. Cattle would stir up the snow, and by nightfall, if the sun stayed out, what was left would turn to mud that would freeze by morning. But later didn’t matter as Allie drove slowly from Audrey’s Place to the Lucky Penny. Right then, that moment, when everything looked like a fairy tale, that’s what mattered.