The Texas Lawman's Woman. Cathy Thacker Gillen

a few calls. It wasn’t much of a sacrifice. Little Austin was adorable and so well behaved. The boy unearthed Colt’s yearning to have a son and a woman to come home to. It sure beat his lonely house down the street.

      Unfortunately, judging by the demoralized expression on her face, the latter part of Shelley’s morning went no better than the first. “No luck?” Colt asked when she joined them on the front porch, where he and Austin sat on the chain-hung swing.

      “Momma!” Austin said, reaching for her.

      Shelley caught him before he lost his balance and fell off the seat of the swing. Because he still had a hold of Colt, too, she sat down beside them, her baby boy wedging distance between them.

      “None.” Her slender shoulders slumped. “I’ve left messages for Tully everywhere. He hasn’t responded.”

      Colt turned his glance away from the sexy glimpse of soft, silky thigh peeking out from beneath the hem of her khaki skirt. He focused on the pretty contours of her oval face. “Is this typical?”

      She went still for one telling beat. “When it comes to financial matters? Oh, yes. He’s as irresponsible as the day is long.”

      He stared at her, wanting like hell to understand. “And you married him anyway.” When she had to have known...

      Shelley turned and met his searching gaze with a bravado strictly her own. “When I first met him, he was a heck of a lot of fun. I wanted to go everywhere and see everything and break out of the small-town Texas mold. Thanks to Tully’s trust fund, he and I had the means to go just about everywhere. Or so I thought,” she finished darkly.

      “Go on,” he said gruffly, having an unsettling feeling that he knew where this was headed.

      “Turns out he’d blown through much of his money by the time he met me. Credit cards and cash advances were footing a lot of our travels. Until it all caught up with us anyway, on our fifth wedding anniversary. Suddenly—” Shelley drew in a jerky breath “—we not only did not have a dime to our names, we couldn’t charge anything, either. It was then I found out that instead of three credit cards charged to the max, we had twenty-five.”

      Colt blinked. “You’re kidding.”

      “Nope. His entire trust fund was gone. Our debt went well into the six figures.” Her shame and anger was palpable. “His parents bailed us out. That time. They insisted we both get regular jobs and live within our means. And for a time, we did. Or at least I did.”

      Colt braced for the rest, suspecting by the regret in her voice that it had been bad.

      “Unable to live on a budget, Tully secretly got a couple of cards with predatory lenders. You know, ones with thirty percent interest rates. When he maxed those out, the credit card companies sent us to collections.”

      “Which is when you found out.”

      Shelley’s chin took on the stubborn tilt he knew so well. “Tully still didn’t think it was a big deal. But I couldn’t live that way. And coupled with the fact that I was pregnant, well...it was clear we were definitely not meant to be together.”

      “So you ended it?” he asked in a soft voice.

      She nodded. “To my relief, Tully agreed to a divorce. He didn’t like my ‘uptight’ attitude any more than I liked his irresponsibility. My attorney managed to get Tully’s new debts assigned only to him. Rather than see him go to the poorhouse, his parents bailed him out again. And I got the house I had inherited from my folks, free and clear. It’s in the divorce papers. I just verified that much.”

      “But the title to this house wasn’t changed at the time of your divorce,” Colt guessed as Austin climbed out of his arms and off the seat of the swing.

      Shelley sighed. “No. It wasn’t,” she said, watching her son toddle over to get his little red truck. “And it should have been.”

      “So now what?”

      Austin wedged between Colt’s legs and ran the wooden vehicle up and down his jean-clad thigh.

      She cast a worried look at him, wondering if Colt minded his leg being used as a racetrack, complete with a lot of vrooming noises. She spoke above her rowdy son. “We cross our fingers and hope that Liz is able to talk a judge into throwing out the default judgment against me. So I can keep my house.”

      Colt let her know with a slight lift of his hand he didn’t mind her son’s playfulness. “And then?”

      “I’m going to get the title changed and make sure the one hundred and fifty thousand dollar debt Tully incurred with the credit line against my house is assigned only to him. In the meantime—” she reached over and resituated Austin up on her lap, the action pulling the hem of her skirt several inches higher on her thigh “—I’ve got my first set of dance lessons to teach this afternoon, and let’s not forget that the bride and groom are supposed to be in Laramie this evening.”

      Acutely aware her legs were sexier than ever, Colt said, “Ah, yes, the wedding.”

      Looking more sweetly maternal than ever, Shelley ruffled her baby boy’s hair and hugged him close. “Right now, that’s about the only thing, save this little guy, that can make me smile.”

      * * *

      “TURNS OUT I’M GOING TO NEED more help with this wedding than I thought,” Kendall told Shelley over the phone, later that afternoon.

      Shelley walked toward the community center drop-off day care, where her son would stay while she taught dance classes. “I’m maid of honor,” she told her longtime best friend. Although the two of them had lived thousands of miles apart the past few years, they were still like sisters. Sensing this was going to take a minute, Shelley ducked outside and found her way to one of the benches on the property. “That’s my job.”

      Kendall paused. “How are you at tasting and selecting a wedding cake?”

      “Sounds like a fun job.” Shelley rummaged through her bag for her notepad and pen. “No question there. But isn’t that done by the bride and groom?” She got ready to write.

      Kendall inhaled deeply. “It was supposed to be. We have an appointment with the Sugar Love bakery in Laramie at seven this evening. The only problem is, Gerry and I are still in Bethesda.”

      Maryland? Shelley thought in shock, momentarily putting down her pen. “Why? What happened?”

      “Gerry started running a little fever this morning, so we went by the naval hospital to have him checked out by his doc there, and it turns out he has a mild pneumonia.”

      “Oh, no!”

      “The staff treated and released him, but they don’t want him to fly right now. We’re going to have to drive to Texas when he’s given the all clear to travel, and that won’t be for a few days. The good news is—” Kendall’s voice cracked “—the movers hadn’t actually packed up any of our stuff yet, so we still have a place to stay, although there are boxes everywhere.”

      “Oh, hon....”

      “Now, don’t start,” Kendall ordered in a low, quavering voice, “or you really will make me cry.”

      Right. Deep breath. Shelley focused on the practical and asked calmly, “What can I do to help?”

      “Keep my appointment at the bakery and pick out a cake. We’ve been best friends forever. You know what I like.”

      Shelley made a few notes. “Anything with coconut, butter cream frosting and strawberries.”

      “Pretty much. Although Gerry’s favorites are dark chocolate and pecans, so whatever you can come up with that will look wedding-ish and still fit our budget, which the bakery already has, would be great.”

      “Don’t you worry.” Shelley wrote some more. “I’m on it.”

      “You’re sure?