Cathy Gillen - Lone Star Valentine

Harriett smiled and explained, “I wanted to complete the work. It’s a fire statue—half sculpture and half performance art.”

Lily sighed. She wished like heck she had seen this coming. “Well, I wish you would have told someone what you planned ahead of time,” she said, not bothering to hide her exasperation.

A number of spectators nodded in agreement.

Harriett Montgomery shrugged, unaffected by all the negative attention. “I didn’t think you’d let me do it if I did. Local statutes and all.”

Harriett was right about that, Lily thought in consternation. Both the fire and sheriff’s departments had been called to the scene as soon as the flames shot skyward, and the senior officials from both looked mighty unhappy.

Gannon stepped in. He laid a cautioning palm on his mother’s shoulder. “I don’t think you should say anything more, Mom.”

The lawyer in her surfacing, Lily agreed. There was enough reckless behavior here as it was without adding to the liability. “In any case, it’s been quite an event,” she declared with a tight officious smile.

Rex Carter took another long look at the charred ceramic statue. “You haven’t heard the last of this,” he muttered to Lily before he strode away.

Realizing she had just given her prior political opponent ammunition against her, Lily watched as the crowd dispersed. Then, hoping to smooth the waters somehow, she went to see how the official investigation was going. Fire Chief Tom Evans scowled at her as she approached. “She’s lucky she didn’t start a grass fire.”

She should have asked a few more questions instead of giving the artist carte blanche when the town had commissioned the work for the chili festival. Lily rubbed her temples to relieve her growing tension headache. “I know.”

“I’m tempted to press charges, too,” Sheriff Ben Shepherd continued.

Lily lifted a hand. “Please, don’t. I’ll see it never happens again.”

The sheriff scowled. “She will get a warning citation.”

“And a bill from our department for the emergency services,” the fire chief added.

Lily nodded. “That’s fine.” Probably a good idea, too. Since, thus far, Harriett Montgomery still didn’t seem to recognize she had done anything wrong.

No sooner had the sheriff and the fire chief walked away than Sheriff’s Deputy Rio Vasquez came toward her, clipboard in hand. Now what?

“Lily McCabe?” Rio said, although he knew darn well who she was. He handed her an envelope. “You’ve been served.”

* * *

AN HOUR LATER, Lily finally had her family-law attorney, Liz Cartwright-Anderson, on the phone. From her office window in the town hall, Lily could see the commotion surrounding the burned-out statue, where resident after resident was walking up to the cordoned-off area to see the remains of the sculpture. “I’m sorry to disrupt your vacation.” She went on to explain the nature of the emergency.

“It’s okay,” Liz said, as cordial and professional as ever. “Given the fact that you only have twenty days to respond to Bode’s request for a change in the custody agreement, you’re right—we do need to act fast. And what I advise, since I won’t be back in the office until Monday or able to do anything until then, is that I hire Gannon Montgomery to temporarily assist me in representing you.”

Great—just what I wanted to hear, Lily thought in dismay. But she bit her tongue and let her lawyer continue.

“He’s not only helped me out on difficult cases before, but he’s also part of the Dallas and Tarrant County bars. He knows the judges and handles a lot of the high-profile custody and divorce cases there. And he’s in town, to assist his mother, for the next week or so.”

Lily pushed the image of the sexy attorney from her mind. This would be a business request. That was all. “You think he’ll do it?”

“Given how much he likes rescuing damsels in distress?” her attorney scoffed. “Of course he will.”

Lily knew Liz was right.

Not only did she need Gannon—temporarily anyway—he would probably jump at the chance to help her...or any other woman...in dire straits. It didn’t make it any easier to turn to Gannon for help in Liz’s absence, of course. But what choice did she have when her son’s welfare was at stake?

“What I suggest is that the two of you meet at my office,” Liz continued crisply. “Can you do it over lunch?”

Lily had already canceled her lunch date, as well as everything else on her calendar that didn’t absolutely have to be addressed that day. “Yes.”

“In the meantime, I’ll call Gannon and have my paralegal pull all the records so he can start getting up to speed,” Liz promised, professional as ever.

* * *

BY THE TIME Lily got there at noon, Gannon was already set up in the conference room. As she drank him in from head to toe, Lily imagined he wore an elegant business suit and tie, appropriate for a powerful attorney in Fort Worth.

But back here in the west Texas county where he’d grown up, adorned in jeans, boots and a casual wool sport coat, he was all hard-muscled, take-charge cowboy.

And though she’d never say it to his face, she very much preferred this persona.

Of course, right now, when he looked distractedly over her, surrounded by all those legal documents, she knew better than to be fooled by his rugged appearance. He was still very much in full-throttle attorney mode.

Figuring he wouldn’t have had time to eat, either, she set a Ye Olde Sandwich Shop bag on the table. “Thanks for jumping in to help.”

He inclined his head to one side. “Thanks for doing your best to keep my mother out of trouble today.”

Still feeling frazzled and on edge, Lily admitted, “It was some morning.”

He nodded in mute agreement, his own eyes somber.

Lily gave him his choice of turkey and provolone or ham and cheese. He took the latter. Then she pulled out two bottles of sparkling water, two bags of chips and several napkins. She had zero appetite but also knew she had to eat. “So what do you think?” she asked, inclining her head at the thick file.

“Looks like Bode’s attorneys buried you in motions when this all started.”

Lily nodded. The fact she was a lawyer, too, had helped her understand a lot of what was going on—then and now. But she had never practiced family law or become an expert in child custody, and that hurt her ability to deal with any of this strictly on her own.

The empathy in his expression encouraged her to go on.

“His legal team wanted me to just go away. But with Bode assassinating my character in the press and publicly questioning my integrity, I had to do something to protect my reputation.”

Especially since Bode and his legal team had been making veiled threats behind the scenes to not only countersue her in civil court for any and all damages done to Bode’s reputation, but to bring her up on ethics charges before the State Bar of Texas for knowingly bringing a false paternity suit.

They couldn’t have won; they’d all known that. But they could have done untold damage to her career anyway. Luckily, Bode had come to his senses, called his attorneys off at the last minute and consented to the court-ordered paternity test he’d claimed would free him.

Only it hadn’t. At that point, once the indisputable facts were brought to light, it had become all about damage control. And money, of course.

Not that Lily had asked for one red cent from him...

Gannon’s gaze roved over her features. He regarded her for a long careful moment. “And if you hadn’t had so much at stake professionally back then?”

Lily shrugged, not bothering to hide the humiliation and pain she had suffered. “I probably still would have fought him—reluctantly. Not for child support, but for the truth, for Lucas’s sake. Better Lucas know from the get-go who his parents are.” Than always wonder and have his mother called a liar.