Lily looked at the artist in confusion.
Harriett took the microphone and advised the crowd happily, “Wait for it... Wait for it...”
A second later, a faint charcoal-like smell filled the air.
Lily furrowed her brow in confusion.
Then a wispy gray curl of what certainly looked like smoke appeared at the top of the chili pepper stem. Lily blinked and blinked again.
“Is that...?” Lily turned to Gannon’s mother. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that Gannon seemed as concerned as she suddenly was.
“Keep waiting,” Harriett advised, even more calmly, to the crowd.
So everyone did.
And then, a second later, flames burst out of the six-foot-tall chili pepper. And this time there was absolutely no mistake, Lily noted.
The entire statue was on fire.
The fire department had barely put the flames out when former Laramie mayor Rex Carter stepped up to the dais and took the microphone. “This,” Rex said, with a derisive good old boy snort, “is what you get when you put a woman in a man’s job.”
Several people booed him.
Others listened with seeming agreement while the firefighters stood by, watching the red-hot tower continue to spit embers skyward.
Harriett elbowed Rex aside. “Don’t blame Mayor McCabe,” the artist stated as she stepped up to the microphone. “Lily had no idea what I planned to do. Nor did anyone else.”
While the videographer filmed, the Laramie newspaper reporter called out, “Mrs. Montgomery! Why did you light the statue on fire?”
Harriett smiled and explained, “I wanted to complete the work. It’s a fire statue—half sculpture and half performance art.”
Lily sighed. She wished like heck she had seen this coming. “Well, I wish you would have told someone what you planned ahead of time,” she said, not bothering to hide her exasperation.
A number of spectators nodded in agreement.
Harriett Montgomery shrugged, unaffected by all the negative attention. “I didn’t think you’d let me do it if I did. Local statutes and all.”
Harriett was right about that, Lily thought in consternation. Both the fire and sheriff’s departments had been called to the scene as soon as the flames shot skyward, and the senior officials from both looked mighty unhappy.
Gannon stepped in. He laid a cautioning palm on his mother’s shoulder. “I don’t think you should say anything more, Mom.”
The lawyer in her surfacing, Lily agreed. There was enough reckless behavior here as it was without adding to the liability. “In any case, it’s been quite an event,” she declared with a tight officious smile.
Rex Carter took another long look at the charred ceramic statue. “You haven’t heard the last of this,” he muttered to Lily before he strode away.
Realizing she had just given her prior political opponent ammunition against her, Lily watched as the crowd dispersed. Then, hoping to smooth the waters somehow, she went to see how the official investigation was going. Fire Chief Tom Evans scowled at her as she approached. “She’s lucky she didn’t start a grass fire.”
She should have asked a few more questions instead of giving the artist carte blanche when the town had commissioned the work for the chili festival. Lily rubbed her temples to relieve her growing tension headache. “I know.”
“I’m tempted to press charges, too,” Sheriff Ben Shepherd continued.
Lily lifted a hand. “Please, don’t. I’ll see it never happens again.”
The sheriff scowled. “She will get a warning citation.”
“And a bill from our department for the emergency services,” the fire chief added.
Lily nodded. “That’s fine.” Probably a good idea, too. Since, thus far, Harriett Montgomery still didn’t seem to recognize she had done anything wrong.
No sooner had the sheriff and the fire chief walked away than Sheriff’s Deputy Rio Vasquez came toward her, clipboard in hand. Now what?
“Lily McCabe?” Rio said, although he knew darn well who she was. He handed her an envelope. “You’ve been served.”
* * *
AN HOUR LATER, Lily finally had her family-law attorney, Liz Cartwright-Anderson, on the phone. From her office window in the town hall, Lily could see the commotion surrounding the burned-out statue, where resident after resident was walking up to the cordoned-off area to see the remains of the sculpture. “I’m sorry to disrupt your vacation.” She went on to explain the nature of the emergency.
“It’s okay,” Liz said, as cordial and professional as ever. “Given the fact that you only have twenty days to respond to Bode’s request for a change in the custody agreement, you’re right—we do need to act fast. And what I advise, since I won’t be back in the office until Monday or able to do anything until then, is that I hire Gannon Montgomery to temporarily assist me in representing you.”
Great—just what I wanted to hear, Lily thought in dismay. But she bit her tongue and let her lawyer continue.
“He’s not only helped me out on difficult cases before, but he’s also part of the Dallas and Tarrant County bars. He knows the judges and handles a lot of the high-profile custody and divorce cases there. And he’s in town, to assist his mother, for the next week or so.”
Lily pushed the image of the sexy attorney from her mind. This would be a business request. That was all. “You think he’ll do it?”
“Given how much he likes rescuing damsels in distress?” her attorney scoffed. “Of course he will.”
Lily knew Liz was right.
Not only did she need Gannon—temporarily anyway—he would probably jump at the chance to help her...or any other woman...in dire straits. It didn’t make it any easier to turn to Gannon for help in Liz’s absence, of course. But what choice did she have when her son’s welfare was at stake?
“What I suggest is that the two of you meet at my office,” Liz continued crisply. “Can you do it over lunch?”
Lily had already canceled her lunch date, as well as everything else on her calendar that didn’t absolutely have to be addressed that day. “Yes.”
“In the meantime, I’ll call Gannon and have my paralegal pull all the records so he can start getting up to speed,” Liz promised, professional as ever.
* * *
BY THE TIME Lily got there at noon, Gannon was already set up in the conference room. As she drank him in from head to toe, Lily imagined he wore an elegant business suit and tie, appropriate for a powerful attorney in Fort Worth.
But back here in the west Texas county where he’d grown up, adorned in jeans, boots and a casual wool sport coat, he was all hard-muscled, take-charge cowboy.
And though she’d never say it to his face, she very much preferred this persona.
Of course, right now, when he looked distractedly over her, surrounded by all those legal documents, she knew better than to be fooled by his rugged appearance. He was still very much in full-throttle attorney mode.