Free Loving a Lawman by Amy Lillard Page A

you.”
    I’m sure she has.
He set his hat on the table, stowed the melting ice cream in the freezer, then kissed his mother on her proffered cheek. The combined smells of White Shoulders and prized horseflesh greeted Seth like an old friend.
    Five foot four, petite, and blond, Evelyn Duvall Langston looked like a delicately aging rodeo queen instead of a devoted mother and grandmother. Dressed in a red silk blouse and dark-wash jeans, a snake-hide belt with a glittery buckle encircling her trim hips, she could have posed for
Country Living
magazine. But from the tips of her Nacoma boots to the top of her perfectly coiffed hair, she was a horsewoman at heart. There was a power in her that was almost tangible and spoke of more than just her triumph over breast cancer. She was tender and strong, the matriarch of the Diamond and the reigning queen of Page County. She had been before she married JT Langston and she remained so all these years after his death. Neighbors and friends wanted her to run for mayor of Cattle Creek, but Jake joked that the decrease in power would kill her.
    â€œDid Jessie come through here?” Seth asked.
    â€œShe put her bag on the table and then went out back with Wesley. Tore through here like the devil was on her tail.”
    Chicken, Seth thought. Dump forty-three hundred dollars in his lap—literally—and then head out the back way.
    â€œI suppose these are supplies to make her infamous punch?” Evelyn asked, fingering the edge of the brown paper grocery sack that Jessie had abandoned. “Do you think I should look and see what the secret ingredient is?”
    â€œNot if you value your life.”
    â€œThat girl is such a mess.” Evelyn smiled affectionately, taking some of the sting from her words. “I guess she gets that from her daddy. Her mama was a wild one, but she wasn’t so . . . so . . .”
    Prideful? Hardheaded? Beautiful? Sexy?
    â€œFeisty?” he finished.
    â€œMmm-hmm,” his mother murmured as she casually turned her attention back to the final touches of Wesley’s birthday cake. “There’s a rumor going around that you arrested her night before last.” The words held no more weight than the evening weather report. But Seth knew . . .
    He made a great show out of unloading the bag that contained Wesley’s birthday present, hoping he appeared too busy to answer.
    â€œDid you really do that?”
    He took a deep breath and braced his hands on his hips. “She confessed, Mama.” There was no need going into the whole obstruction of justice thing. His mother would definitely not understand that.
    She shook her head. “Well, that’s no reason to go and put her in jail.”
    â€œI’m sure there are several people that would disagree with you. Chase, for one.”
    â€œThat boy.”
    Seth didn’t correct her. At twenty-five years old, Chase would be considered by most to be a man. “Was he still mad when he left?”
    â€œChase doesn’t stay mad long,” she said, then went back to the task of putting candles on the mile-wide birthday cake spread across the big wooden table. “Did she do it?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAnd you still put her in jail?”
    â€œShe confessed, Mama.”
    â€œI thought I raised you better than that. She’s practically your family and the first chance you get, you go and lock her up.”
    He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he played it safe and just kept his mouth shut. After a long silence his mother continued.
    â€œI think she’s expecting you to ask her to the Cattle Days Picnic.”
    He frowned. “Jessie?”
    â€œMillie.”
    â€œAnd why would she think something like that?”
    â€œNow, Seth. You’re not getting any younger. Millie’s a good girl from a good family. If the two of you were married—”
    â€œWhoa, whoa, whoa,” he