Heartsong. Sara Walter Ellwood

stealing his father’s partnership in Finn Energy, his oil company. Lemont’s ranch was one of the biggest in west central Texas, and his wealth came from a variety of business interests he’d acquired along the way like a person might collect coins. Not to mention, he’d somehow gotten himself elected county judge twenty years back. Despite being out of office, he still held power in the county.

      “Gabe, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

      He took a deep breath and focused on Mary Nelson’s concerned brown eyes and friendly face. With her dyed-blond hair teased high, she reminded him of Dolly Parton, but that’s where the comparison ended. Mary was rail thin. She pulled him into a tight hug.

      “Thanks.” He let her go and glanced over her head to her son and Michaela. “Cash still working at the Lazy M?”

      She smiled and nodded. “When he’s not teaching.” He met her gaze, and she squeezed his upper arm. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”

      “I’m not worried about Lemont Finn,” he lied. He’d be foolish not to be concerned over what the man potentially had planned for Jesse. Lemont was heartless and brutal. While he’d been judge, he swindled his daughters out of their trust funds and doctored evidence to prove Loretta had cheated on him before their divorce; therefore her alimony payments ceased. Not to mention all of the other crooked things he’d done while judge. Even the state attorney general investigated his office. After the AG’s investigator had been found dead in the woods behind the hotel he’d been staying in and the death ruled a suicide, the government never pursued the issue. Lemont walked away without so much as a wrinkle in his Armani suit and a pat on the back by the same Attorney General who’d been gunning for him. Gabe’s father suspected Lemont had something on the state’s top lawyer and had the investigator taken care of.

      She patted his arm. “Micki and Cash are just friends. Oh, my son has been crushing on her since he was a boy, but she doesn’t feel the same.”

      “What?” Her statement caused mental whiplash. She wasn’t talking about Lemont but Cash and Michaela. He didn’t care about what went on between her son and his ex. “I think you’re misreading whatever you think you saw.” The hard edge in his voice surprised him. “Micki and I have a common interest--Jesse.”

      Mary nodded and smiled as if she knew he was talking bullshit, but she didn’t push the issue. “I bought your newest CD. I must say, I think it’s my favorite.”

      He glanced down at the floor. “Thanks. I’m proud of the record.”

      “At the grocery store, I saw you on the cover of Country Music Magazine.” Shaking her head, she snorted. “What were they calling you? The sexiest man in country music. Hard to believe I remember when you were born. Heck, I even changed your diaper a time or two.” She blushed and patted his arm.

      He laughed for the first time in days. “And to think, women now would pay good money to see what you have.”

      “Oh, you devil!” Her blush only got redder as she fanned herself with an old-fashioned lace fan. “So, is the movie actress shown in one of the photos with you--what’s her name? Tiffany Wills--is she your girlfriend?”

      He looked past her shoulder. Cash left Michaela and brought back a Styrofoam cup of steaming coffee and a plate with a slice of chocolate cake on it. He sat beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders again.

      Gabe wanted to be with Michaela. To be the one comforting her and taking care of her, which irritated him to no end. Since when did he want to spend time with Michaela?

      He would have paid for Loretta’s surgery if it helped her, but Michaela wouldn’t want to owe him anything. She’d never acknowledge he’d been right to leave when Andrea Rose offered him the chance of a lifetime after he’d performed at a honky-tonk in Brownwood. If he’d listened to Michaela and stayed in Texas, he wouldn’t have been able to afford the suit on his back.

      Instead, he was a superstar with another set of problems--money being the least of them.

      “No. She’s a friend.” No way was he telling his mother’s friend the actress was nothing more than a fling. The photo was taken as part of the red carpet procession for some Hollywood shindig and used as part of the photo spread he’d recently done for the magazine.

      “Better watch out. If she’s a smart gal, she’ll want to be more than friends.”

      He grinned and shook his head. “She’s enjoying her new single status. I think she views marriage as I do. Once is enough.”

      “Ah, I guess I understand that. Your divorce sounded awful.”

      “It was.” He looked around, wishing he could escape. The last person he wanted to talk about was Andrea. Despite his dislike for his former wife, Andrea had turned him into a sex symbol. She’d transformed country bumpkin Gabe McKenna into a country music bad-boy. As long as he’d kept the reports of womanizing and wild partying on the magazine and tabloid pages and never lived the lie, she was happy. When he’d decided he was tired of her made-up life and wanted to live it, she went all kickass crazy on him and nearly destroyed his career. “But I’m better off without her.”

      Mary grinned again and nodded; then she lost the smile. He followed her line of sight to Lemont speaking with Loretta and Jesse. Loretta openly scowled at her ex-husband and Jesse cowered behind her wheelchair like a scared puppy.

      “That man has gall,” Mary said. “If he feels an ounce of grief over Frankie’s death, he sure hasn’t shown it. I better rescue poor Loretta before he agitates her more than she already is.”

      Michaela got there before he and Mary did. She stood with her feet apart and rested her hands on Jesse’s shoulders. “Leave us alone, Lemont.”

      Lemont frowned as if hurt, but the cold blue eyes bespoke of his true feelings. “Now, is that anyway to speak to your daddy?”

      “Maybe if I considered you my daddy, I’d be more generous.” She moved around Jesse and her mother and glared up at her father. “What are you really doing here? Everyone knows you despised Sam and disowned Frankie long ago--just as you did me. Then you stole the trust funds your father set up for us.”

      He squared his shoulders. “Maybe if you and your sister hadn’t turned your backs on me, I would’ve been a little more generous.” Glancing at Loretta, he smirked before looking at Michaela again. “But you chose your course in life. I won’t let that happen again. You both know you can’t provide for Jesse. I’m his grandfather, and I have every intention of curing the boy of the poison y’all have filled him with.” He stepped around her and smiled at Jesse. “I’m not as terrible as they all make me out to be, son.”

      A peculiar glimmer in Lemont’s eyes as he looked at Jesse sent cold fear through Gabe. He’d do everything possible to keep Jesse out of Lemont’s clutches. Resting his hands on his little brother’s shoulders, Gabe pulled him snug to his side. “Jesse will be taken care of. Now leave before I call in my security.”

      Lemont chuckled and put his hat on his head. As he walked to the door, the other people in the hall stared after him. Jesse looked up at Gabe and shivered.

      * * * *

      Samuel McKenna had been a fool and his wife an idiot.

      Gabe ran both hands through his hair in frustration. The will reading turned out to be a disappointment. Everything Sam owned had been bequeathed to Frankie or to her estate in the event she passed on before him.

      However, Frankie had never written a will, which meant probate court would appoint an executor to handle the estate. Fortunately, Jesse, by the simple fact that he was Frankie’s son, would inherit the funds from her estate. But Jesse was still a child, and now he was thrust into the system, too. How could Gabe’s so-called stepmother be so negligent?

      “What do you mean she never kept the appointments?” Gabe stood by a bookcase full of old, leather-bound law books in the Brownwood law office of his father’s