Free Denim & Diamonds by Lori Robinett

world."
    “Even if I could forgive, I could never forget," Beth said, her voice rising.
    "But you are such a good lawyer. The firm needs you. Dan Orwell doesn't want to work with anyone but you."
    "Don't you get it? You're why I had to leave the firm. Everyone there saw the video of you and your secretary doing it on the conference room table." Her voice cracked and she blinked away the tears before they could spill over.
    “So come back and we'll open a new firm, me and you,” Quinn glanced around and smiled at the other patrons. He turned back at her and said, “I want to marry you.”
    Beth laughed, but her eyes narrowed and she glared at him. “No, you don’t. You want to marry my father’s money.”
    Quinn’s eyes opened wide as he sat back in his chair, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Beth. I've never tried to take advantage of you or your family's money.”
    “Maybe not, but you do want my family's connections. You're afraid Dan Orwell will take his business elsewhere if I'm not there.” Beth pushed to her feet, standing up so quickly her chair fell over with a clatter. She tried to pick it up and knocked it over again. She huffed out a breath and said, “It is over between us. Over!”
    She spun and fled, her face burning. She kept her eyes straight ahead to avoid the glances of the other patrons in the restaurant. She hoped none of them were employees of the ranch. Behind her, she heard Quinn shout something, but she kept going, jerked the door open and stormed across the street and into the park. By the time she collapsed on a wooden park bench, hot tears streamed down both cheeks.

She let it go, really let it go, for the first time since she found out about Quinn and the secretary. For the past six weeks, she tried so hard to deal with the whole situation methodically and practically, but she hurt. The man she planned to spend her life with, who seemed like perfect husband material, had turned out to be scum. Lousy, good-for-nothing scum. She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked back and forth, as sobs racked her body. After several minutes, the tears stopped flowing. Her breath dissolved into ragged little hiccups, but she felt better.
    If she was honest with herself, the marriage wouldn’t have worked out anyway. They never did. Her parents were divorced. Everyone she'd ever knew got divorced. So, in a way, he had done her a favor by giving her a way out.
    She sat up straighter on the hard bench, took a deep breath and leaned her head back. The clouds had cleared and the full moon hung just above the tops of the oak trees. Stars dotted the sky, and it reminded Beth of going to the planetarium as a child. She smiled at the memory. She and Ian had held hands when the lights went down. He had squeezed her hand when the “Big Bang” theory was explained – and had nearly broken her eardrum when he screamed at the sudden sound.
    Hard to believe that scared little kid had grown up to be an Army Ranger. Ian had been the strong one when he left for Afghanistan. She had cried for days when they received word that he was gone. That was the last time their parents had been in the same room, over three years ago, at his memorial service. They hadn’t even gotten a body to bury. She hugged herself and looked up, trying to remember as many of the constellations as she could.
    Less than a block away, Beau took a seat at the bar in the Come On Inn. He ordered a Busch longneck and watching a young buck celebrate his 21 st birthday with a ride on the mechanical bull. The head bartender, a giant of a man with a halo of curly black hair and a gold ring through his nose who went by the name Fluffy, started the bull on the easiest setting. Even at that setting, the kid couldn’t stay on more than two seconds.

The kid probably should have ridden the bull before his free shots. Fluffy shook his head, pointed to the kid and jerked his hand, thumb up, to indicate that it was time for the kid to get