The Judge And The Heiress (A Salvation Texas Novel)

by Cheryl Gorman

  Kinley started laughing again which made his expression turn serious. “You don’t know much about women do you?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I don’t drink in the middle of the day or to excess Mr…?”

  “McCord.”

  “As I said I don’t drink Mr. McCord nor do I use drugs. It’s a hot day and I’d been driving for hours. Thought I’d cool off, that’s all.”

  “In the nude?”

  “Didn’t have a swim suit. I fell asleep and the next thing I knew I was here. You wouldn’t happen to have a towel would you?”

  “’Fraid not.”

  Kinley sighed, lifted her chin and said, “In that case, I’d better start swimming. Have a nice day, Mr. McCord.”

  Linc’s mouth gaped when she scrambled off the inner tube and slid into the water like a slick seal. The crystal clear water came up to her hips but he could see every inch of her from her pert little breasts to the thatch of red hair between her legs. She casually grabbed the tube with one arm, began paddling with the other in long, slow strokes and kicking her feet. The sun gave him a spectacular view of her pretty back, fanny and legs. The ends of her hair fanned out into the water like a copper halo.

  Linc’s pulse bucked in his veins and the ends of his nerves sparked like a downed power line. His eyes stayed glued to her shapely fanny, kicking legs and red hair until she rounded the bend in the river. He leaned over the water in an effort to get one more tantalizing glimpse but she was gone. He shook his head. After all his years on the bench he thought he’d seen everything. But this naked red head was the exception.

  He turned Jax and headed back to the barn. Tomorrow he would meet Kinley Taylor, Maddie Franklin’s niece. She had to be more sensible and level-headed than her good-hearted but eccentric aunt. Linc signaled Jax into an easy canter. He heard laughter in the distance and turned to see his brother, Rafe and Rafe’s new wife, JC heading for a dip in the pool. He’d never seen his brother happier. Rafe’s first wife had made his brother’s life a misery and despite Rafe’s efforts they couldn’t make the marriage work. Then one day after a fierce argument, she sped from the ranch in her tiny sports car and was later killed in a head-on with a semi. Ahead of them ran Rafe’s daughter, Molly. She was eight now and loved JC to pieces as did everyone who met her. Linc knew in his heart he’d like nothing better than to have what his brother had but he liked his life, the steady and predictable flow of the days. A family would change things though and then his life would be anything but steady and predictable.

  He had his feet firmly planted in the community. He was a respected judge, had a wide circle of friends and he couldn’t think of any place on earth he would rather be than in the town of Salvation.

  His brother was the mayor and had met JC when Linc had sentenced her to community service after being cited for reckless driving. She’d helped Rafe spruce up the town and renovate the old Caldwell mansion, now called the Cotton Hills Resort outside of town. The resort had helped the town grow in leaps and bounds and infused the economy with a much-needed influx of cash avoiding bankruptcy. Neighborhoods had sprung up, new businesses, restaurants, a couple of movie theaters and even a recreation center. But new growth brought more strangers to town. Linc hoped that the town didn’t grow much larger. He liked living in a small town where people lived in each other’s pockets but now there were more strange faces than familiar ones. He sighed and signaled Jax into a lope. Progress was a necessary thing he supposed.

  He loved being a Texas man. To him the Lone Star state was a glorified piece of heaven sent from the good Lord himself and he never wanted to live anywhere else. The sky was hazy with summer heat and cicadas sang from the trees. The summers were hot as blazes one minute and the next a storm could blow in with lightening, driving rain or hail and drop the temperature thirty degrees. The winters were generally mild but the state still had its share of ice storms and even the rare blizzard.

  Since he’d stepped down from the bench to help his brother get their new horse breeding operation off the ground, he volunteered some of his time and legal skills with the Department of Children and Youth. Since he began volunteering, he wanted more than anything to give at-risk kids a real chance at a better life rather than just handing down a ruling and sending them off to foster care or juvenile detention. Children needed guidance and protection otherwise they spiraled out of control. He knew that better than anyone.

  A few minutes later, he settled Jax back in his stall. He headed for the house turning to look toward the river and couldn’t get the image of that brazen, naked red head out of his mind.

  ***

  Kinley made it back to Laid Back ranch, put her clothes back on and wondered about the tall, handsome, uptight cowboy she’d met and if she’d ever see him again. If the Rocking M was this close to her aunt’s property she was bound to. She hoped so. She had a fierce hankering to see what color his eyes were and get a better look at him up close and personal. Not to mention a chance to loosen the knot he had tied in that stiff neck of his.

  Chapter Two

  The next morning, Linc walked into Calvin Ford’s law office on ninth and Maple, took off his Stetson and nodded to Cal’s secretary, who was busy on the phone. After a moment she hung up and said, “They’re waiting for you in Cal’s office. Just go right in.”

  When Linc stepped inside the attorney’s office, the first thing he saw was a woman with familiar bright copper hair sitting in a chair in front of Cal’s desk. His stomach slid to the toes of his Justin boots and he stopped in his tracks. No, she couldn’t be.

  The woman turned and her leaf green eyes widened. “What are you doing here?”

  Cal glanced at Linc and back to the woman. “You two know each other?”

  “Sort of,” Linc said.

  “We met yesterday. By the river,” the woman said with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

  There was something about that twinkle that made him want to smile but he resisted.

  The red head stood up from her chair fully clothed this time in a t-shirt, jeans and boots. A cute little nose, cheek bones made for cutting glass and a mouth that could tempt a saint finished out the vision before him. Her jeans fit like a second skin and since he’d already seen the first skin underneath he could imagine every inch of her. She stuck out her hand for a shake. “I’m Kinley Taylor.”

  Her fingers were slender, strong and her palms slightly callused. For some insane reason he suddenly wondered what those fingers might feel like touching his body. He shook away the unwelcome thoughts and feelings. So much for Maddie having a sensible niece. Despite her idiosyncrasies and head-in-the-clouds look at life, Maddie Franklin had been a good woman even if she had let the property go. No matter, in a few minutes this would all be over and he could go back to the ranch.

  “Have a seat, Linc,”

  Linc settled in a chair next to Kinley. Her scent of fresh air and wildflowers curled around him like a warm breeze after a cold, spring storm.

  “Ms. Taylor, since you already know your aunt left you the bulk of her estate, I think we can dispense with the formalities and go directly to the terms of the pending sale.”

  “Sale? Someone is interested in buying the property?”

  “Yes, but there are some problems that need to be addressed before the sale can go through. That is if you’re interested in selling. But whether you sell or not these issues have to be taken care of.”

  She glanced at Linc and he couldn’t stop staring. Instead of being fully clothed, the image of her naked and shameless, lounging like a goddess in the inner tube blazed in his mind. Sunlight glistened on her smooth, wet skin and the dusky pink nipples of her pert breasts. Her saucy laughter floated on the wind making him pine for something he couldn’t put his finger on.

  “There is an easement associated with the property.”

  Cal’s voice scattered the vision of female loveliness in his head but it began to form again almost immediately. He grit his te
eth, fit to bite a nail in two against thoughts of her sexy unclothed body and focused on the task at hand.

  “A tract of land lies north east of your aunt’s property and the access road goes directly through. It’s the only access. The owner frequently asked your aunt to repair the road and the llamas have escaped several times from their enclosure and wandered onto his land. The road needs to be repaired but there’s something else. He feels the trailers are an eye sore and he requests that they be renovated and new landscaping installed.”

  “Can he do that? The road I can understand but the trailers?”

  “Yes, he can.” Cal looked at Linc. “Can you help me out here since you handed down the judgment?”

  Kinley looked at him, her green eyes questioning. “What judgment? I thought you were a ranch owner.”

  Linc stared at her. He could feel control slipping through his fingers. He liked to make all the decisions concerning his life and how it was run, but he had a terrible feeling that was about to change. “I am a ranch owner. I also happen to be a judge at least at the time of the ruling. Your Aunt Maddie was in financial trouble. She didn’t have two sticks to rub together to make a fire when she passed and a man was interested in purchasing her property.”

  “Was it for sale?” Kinley asked.

  There was something about sitting there looking into those eyes of hers with her red hair in cork screw curls all around her head, brushing her fine shoulders. Her mouth was pursed waiting for his answer, and all he could think about was what she had looked like without her clothes on. “Maddie didn’t want to sell but the tenants had moved out of the trailer park and she couldn’t rent any of the other trailers because of their dilapidated state. It came down to her trailer and the llamas. If she sold, I had agreed to keep the llamas and her horse on the Rocking M until she could get settled somewhere. Due to the condition of the road I told her she had to fix the problem with the road for safety reasons and she had to repair the enclosure for the llamas to keep them contained in the meantime.”

  She bit her bottom lip and let it slide out from between her teeth leaving it slick and infinitely kissable. Linc shifted his hat over his lap so neither she nor Cal could see the tent in his jeans.

  “I see. So whether I keep the property or sell it, the road has to be repaired.”

  Linc sat up straighter in his chair. Now he felt his feet on more solid ground. He was a judge first and a man second. “That’s right and you need to understand your obligation if you accept the inheritance.”

  “You mean I could refuse it?”

  He nodded. “Yes, then after taxes the land would revert back to the bank and the property would be sold.”

  ***

  Kinley walked to the window of the attorney’s office and looked out at the town. Salvation was quaint but prospering. She had been on the circuit for so long. She had loved barrel racing because of the constant change and excitement. She was challenged every single time she entered an event. But when she heard she had inherited her aunt’s ranch she was excited and craved the change. It meant a new chapter in her life, a new challenge. She looked at the traffic flowing past. She could make a home here. But she would need help with the ranch. Feeling her excitement grow again, she turned. She loved taking risks and accepting the ranch would be a big one, but she had never been able to resist a challenge. Besides, her money was running low, and she needed a place for herself and Bear to live at least for a while. A frown creased Linc’s forehead and for some inexplicable reason she wanted to smooth it away with the tips of her fingers. “I accept the inheritance. Bear and I are due for a change.”

  “Bear?” Linc asked.

  “My horse.”

  “So you’re staying.”

  “Yes, Salvation will be our new home.” She sat down and looked at Linc’s startling blue eyes. They were shrewd, compassionate and sexy all rolled into one. “I’m going to need some help though. I’ve never owned land and certainly never owned llamas or trailers for that matter.” She paused. “Will you help me?”

  Linc felt the ground wobble beneath his feet again. What was he going to do?

  He had to regain some measure of control. He liked his life and the way his days ebbed and flowed. He knew if he agreed to help her, Kinley Taylor was going to turn his life upside down and inside out.

  But how could he refuse? Maddie had asked him when she’d had her will drawn up if he would keep an eye on Kinley and help her out if she needed him. He had readily agreed certain that her niece would have more sense and be easier to deal with but that certainty had been blown to hell and gone when he’d seen her floating down the river in the nude on an inner tube. But dammit once he gave his word he never went back on it. As a local judge he could be counted on in and out of the court room. “Okay, I’ll help you. But you need to follow my instructions and take my advice or you could end up in an even bigger mess.”

  She plopped her hat on her head and said. “I promise to listen to your advice but I have some ideas of my own.”

  That’s what he was afraid of. The woman was walking, breathing chaos and he’d just stepped right in the middle of it.

  ***

  Linc walked into the conference room at Children and Family Legal Services and took a seat at the table. He studied the fourteen year old boy sitting across the table from him.

  The boy slumped in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest and a look of defiance on his face. He was clad in jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt that said, People Are Idiots. I Hate Them. He never looked Linc in the eye. He glanced about the room with its beige walls, beige floor tiles, beige drop ceiling and a DRUGS HURT poster with a couple standing in a grave yard12 taped to one wall. Sunlight streamed in from the only window and Linc heard the rumble of thunder in the distance. He’d checked on Kinley before he drove into town and found her grooming the llamas. He hoped she would seek shelter if she saw lightning. He figured she had at least that much sense but a woman who floated naked down a river was bound to do anything. He looked at the kid again. “Ethan, I’m Linc McCord, your attorney.”

  Ethan shot him a quick glance and shrugged his shoulders. His hair was coal black like a raven’s wing, so black it was tinged with blue. His chocolate brown eyes fixed on some point across the room.

  “The shelter tells me you were caught with some drugs in your room.”

  He looked at Linc and sneered. “So?”

  “So you aren’t supposed to have any kind of controlled substance in the shelter. It’s against the rules.”

  “I don’t care,” Ethan said.

  “Excuse me?”

  Ethan turned his palms upward. “It was just a little pot. What’s the big deal?”

  “Marijuana is illegal no matter the amount in your possession.”

  Linc had read Ethan’s file. The kid’s parents were unwed teenagers. The father walked away and the mother was unfit and didn’t have family support to take care of the boy so he was put into the system. After a series of failed foster homes, he was placed in the Arrow County Shelter where he had to fend for himself. Nothing like getting your heart busted up, stomped on and left in the dirt. Having grown up in a loving home he could only imagine what life had been like for Ethan up to this point. “I’m sorry none of the foster homes worked out for you. Family is important.”

  Ethan lifted his chin, gave him a smirk and said, “Yeah, whatever.”

  “This is the second time you’ve had problems at the shelter. The first time was for fighting.”

  Ethan gave him a defiant look. “A kid took my coat and wouldn’t give it back.”

  “So you hit him?”

  Ethan leaned forward in his chair and placed his arms on top of the table with his palms flat on the surface. “What would you know about it? Ever been in a shelter?”

  Kid had a point. “No.”

  “In there you have to look out for yourself because nobody else will.”

  Linc saw a world of hurt in his eyes. The kid radiated defi
ance and tried to act tough like he didn’t need anybody but he was scared. He’d been before plenty of judges and other authority figures, people who held his life in their hands and decided his fate with the stroke of a pen. Now Linc had to take Ethan who had never had a real break in his young life before another judge.

  “Ethan, do you understand that you’re in real trouble now? Mr. Lockwood, the shelter director won’t take you back. I made some calls and tried to find one in this county to take you in but none of them have any room. You assaulted a kid and now you’ve gotten into drugs. It’s up to the judge and I don’t expect leniency. ”

  The boy’s head shot up and fear glistened in his eyes. “What’s going to happen to me?” Suddenly the cocky, smart-mouthed kid was just a frightened little boy at the mercy of adults.

  “She’ll probably send you to juvenile detention.”

  “I—I don’t want to go there. Please. I’ll do anything. I swear I’ll be good. Please ask Mr. Lockwood to give me one more chance. Please.”

  “I’ll ask one more time but on one condition.”

  “What condition?”

  “You have to apologize to the boy you punched and give him your jacket to keep.”

  Ethan’s face clouded over and the defiant tough guy re-appeared. “Apologize? Give him my jacket? He stole it. He got what was coming to him.”

  “Ethan, the kid was cold. Mr. Lockwood said he just borrowed it and intended to give it back. But you beat him up before he could.”

  “Nobody borrows anything. They take. Period. And what about me? I need a jacket too.”

  “I’ll make sure you get another one.”

  Ethan frowned. “Lockwood doesn’t like me. He never has. Why should I have to say I’m sorry?”

  “Two reasons. One, because it’s the right thing to do and two because if you don’t you won’t have a chance at getting back into the shelter at least for a while. And one more thing. No more drugs, not more fighting and no more breaking the rules. Otherwise I can’t help you. And I really want to help you, Ethan.”