Lone Star Valentine. Cathy Gillen Thacker

loves Laramie,” she replied. “I think when it comes right down to it, he won’t want to see the town embarrassed. Especially since his family still has a business here, and could very well stand to profit if the chili cook-off is a success.”

      Gannon paused. “I think you may be naive about him.”

      Anger stabbed her heart, quick and brutal.

      “And I think,” Lily responded just as candidly, rising yet again, “that is something you have said to me before.”

      * * *

      YES, GANNON THOUGHT UNHAPPILY, it was something he had said. And Lily had resented it so much she had ended their friendship. Although in that instance, too, he had turned out to be right.

      A fact that had made her begrudge his innate protectiveness even more...

      As she came around the desk toward him and then moved past him toward the door, he could see not much had changed.

      Lily was still as gorgeous as ever, he noted, as he, too, got to his feet. Still liked to wear heels that made the most of her incredible showgirl legs. Her honey-blond waves tumbled just past her shoulders, with a swoop of long sexy bangs across her forehead. Standing half a foot shorter than him, at five foot nine, she was lithe and graceful, curvy in all the right places. A fact illustrated by the trim navy suit skirt and silky white shirt that adorned her delectable body.

      “I said that with good reason, as it turned out,” Gannon shot back before he could stop himself. Her ex had treated her—and the son she’d eventually had with him—like dirt.

      Lily flushed.

      “That’s a matter of opinion,” she reiterated tightly.

      The phone on her desk buzzed. Once, then again.

      Looking grateful for the interruption, Lily strode back to answer it. “Yes?” She listened, then cast a look at Gannon over her shoulder. Harrumphed loudly. “Did Mr. Montgomery pay you to say that?”

      Say what? Gannon wondered.

      “No, I guess not,” Lily continued, miserably. She rubbed her temples. “And there are how many of them?”

      Then she muttered something beneath her breath he couldn’t quite catch but sensed was very unladylike. “No. For heaven’s sake, don’t have them wait in the lobby! Show them to the conference room down the hall from my office. Yes. Including him. Tell them I’ll be right in. Yes. Yes!”

      Lily hung up the phone.

      Her hand was shaking.

      Her face pale.

      Then red.

      Then pale again.

      Seeing her so distressed, it was all Gannon could do not to wrap his arms around her and make everything okay. “Rex Carter?” he guessed.

      Lily scoffed and ran a hand through her bangs, pushing them off her forehead. “Worse,” she moaned. “My son’s father.”

      “Bode Daniels.” The star quarterback for the Dallas Gladiators football team.

      Lily’s shoulders sagged as she nodded miserably. “And his sports agent, PR rep, publicist and two lawyers.”

      That was quite an entourage. Gannon studied the expression on her face. “And you had no idea they were coming?”

      “None.” Lily paled again as outside in the corridor a collection of convivial voices rose and fell. Their footsteps faded.

      “Do you need a lawyer?” Gannon asked, only half joking.

      “I already have one. Liz Cartwright-Anderson.”

      Who was, Gannon reflected, also a mutual friend.

      Lily reached for her suit jacket and slipped it on. “But Liz is on vacation with her family right now, at Padre Island.” And she was the best Laramie County had to offer.

      Desperation mingled with the worry in her long-lashed turquoise eyes.

      It got to him—big-time.

      With effort, he once again resisted the impulse to take her in his arms and smooth a hand through her hair. Anything to comfort her. “Want me to fill in for her? I’m a family-law attorney, too.”

      Lily looked tempted for a nanosecond, but then she shook her head. “No. I’ve got it.” She paused, as if steeling herself emotionally for the battle ahead. “I trust you can see yourself out...?”

      Gannon sighed. She’d made it clear a long time ago that she didn’t want—or need—him. Probably never would. “Sure,” he said, just as coolly. “And, Lily?”

      Their eyes held. For a moment, something shimmered between them, lingered like a dust mote on the air, then disappeared altogether. “Good luck with that—whatever it is.” He jerked his head in the direction the voices had gone.

      She nodded. Her expression turbulent, she took off toward her meeting.

      Gannon made it as far as the lobby in the town hall before the second thoughts set in. None of this was his problem. Lily’d articulated that numerous times. And yet...she was in trouble. And maybe her son, too. He could feel it in his gut.

      He’d been brought up to never ever leave a lady in distress. That went double when an innocent little kid was involved.

      He wasn’t about to start now.

       Chapter Two

      “I just need you to modify the custody arrangements,” Bode Daniels claimed.

      This was news. Feeling as if she’d just sustained a punch to the gut, Lily sat down opposite him at the conference table. Both surrounded and outnumbered by her ex and his entourage, she worked to contain her shock and dismay. “In what way?” she asked calmly.

      Bode rocked back in his chair and smiled charismatically, while his team of professionals wordlessly urged him on. “Give me custody of Lucas for a while.”

      As if it were just that simple, Lily thought in astonishment. Who the heck does this guy think he’s dealing with? Emboldened by the fact that she had long ago ceased being a woman who could be easily charmed or seduced, she returned, just as easily, “Why?”

      Sensing resistance, Bode tucked his hands into his armpits and set his jaw. “It’s complicated.”

      Lily looked right at him. As her confusion faded, anger took its place. Another beat of silence fell. “I’ve got time.”

      Her ex shoved a hand through his cropped white-blond hair, then adopted the earnest-but-likable look he had perfected for his signature cologne ads and continued, “You know I didn’t exactly have the best season last year.”

      “No kidding,” Gannon Montgomery agreed cheerfully as he walked in unannounced, tray of vending machine coffees in one hand, a flat of pastries he’d commandeered from the break room in the other.

      Lily turned toward him, relieved for the interruption.

      As if reading her mind, Gannon winked.

      “Exactly who are you?” Bode’s sports agent asked, clearly as surprised to see Gannon there as Lily was.

      Bode dismissed Gannon with a glare. “He’s one of Lily’s law school buddies.”

      Or at least Gannon had been, Lily noted silently, until Bode had come into the picture, just as she was getting ready to graduate.

      “Actually,” the senior lawyer on Bode’s team, a distinguished man in his late forties, corrected, “this is Gannon Montgomery—one of the top family-law attorneys in Fort Worth.”

      The other attorney, a young, good-looking woman