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“Yep, great flick,” he repeated distractedly, making Raine wonder if he’d even heard her question or simply, in his own hardheaded way, was choosing to ignore it. “Flannel and silk.” The gray in his eyes deepened as he took another unnervingly long perusal of her tailored white silk blouse. Didn’t the man ever blink? “That’s quite an intriguing contrast.”

Reminding herself of all her late-night resolutions, she slapped his hand away. “Are you hitting on me, again, Sheriff?”

“Hitting on you?” he repeated, as if trying the words out might provide a clue to whatever was happening here. “No. I don’t think so.”

She heard the slight rasp of his thumb against the cloth of her lapel again and reminded herself of the way he’d placed one of his large hands on Gwen’s shoulder yesterday. That gesture hadn’t been the slightest bit seductive, leading her to believe that Jack O’Halloran was merely a toucher. She was not.

“Next time I hit on you, Harvard, you won’t have to ask. You’ll know.” His smile charmed yet again, but his dark, intense eyes made her mouth go dry.

Raine was trying to think of something, anything to say to that provocative challenge when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“What is it?” she ground out as she spun around.

Dan held up both hands. “I just thought we ought to be getting into the courtroom.”

“That’s a grand idea.” She stalked off, causing the rest of the family to nearly run to keep up.

The two men watched her walk away, her high heels contributing to a sexy swing of her hips beneath the gray flannel skirt.

“She may still have the chips on her shoulders,” Dan murmured. “But damn, the woman does have dynamite legs.”

“You won’t get any argument from me on that,” Jack agreed.

Dan slanted a look toward his cousin. “If a man was looking for a woman—”

“Which I’m not.”

“Don’t you think this grieving widower act has gone on long enough?”

“It’s not an act.”

“Hell, I know that.” Dan swiped a frustrated hand through his hair. “But it’s not natural, Jack. Peg’s been gone, what, two years now?”

“Twenty-two months,” Jack said tightly. He’d been sitting beside her hospital bed that morning, holding her slender hand in both of his when she’d finally slipped away from him. “But, since I’ve recently come to the conclusion that you may have a point, you might as well know that I’m thinking of asking Jenny Winger out to dinner.”

“Christ, you can’t be serious. She may be gorgeous, in a big hair, big teeth sort of way, but all Jenny ever talks about is her glorious reign as Miss Teen Olympic County.”

“So?” Jack shrugged. “I’m not looking for conversation.”

“It’s not going to work, you know,” a new voice entered the conversation. Both men glanced over at Cooper Ryan, who’d obviously arrived at the courtroom in time to hear the exchange.

“What’s not going to work?” Jack asked.

“Trying to hide from your feelings for one woman by spending time with another.”

“That’s not what I’m doing.”

“Isn’t it?” both Cooper and Dan said together. They exchanged knowing grins.

“Believe me,” Cooper advised, “I’ve been where you are, Jack, and I can tell you that you’re headed down a rocky road. But it can also be one helluva trip.”

“So why aren’t you taking it with Lilith? Since it was more than a little obvious the other night that you two left a lot unsettled.”

Cooper rubbed his jaw as he watched the covey of females disappear into the courtroom. “True enough. But I have every intention of settling those issues once and for all.”

“Brave man,” Dan murmured. “As charming as the lady is, I imagine she’d be a handful.”

“She can be that,” Cooper agreed. “And more. But the way I figure it, nothing worth having comes easy. You know, though I’d hate to think that looking back is a sign of impending old age, it’s damn true what they say about the things you regret being things you didn’t do. I let youthful pride rule my behavior back when we were kids.”

His square jaw firmed. “As she recently reminded me during that little ruckus up on Hurricane Ridge, I was the first man in Lilith Lindstrom’s life. And it doesn’t matter how many guys she’s known since then, or how many last names she’s acquired. Because I have every intention of being the last.”

Jack and Dan wished the older man luck. As they entered the courtroom of his longtime friend, Jack decided that if the sparks he’d witnessed between Cooper Ryan and Lilith Lindstrom the other night were any indication, people in Coldwater Cove weren’t going to have to wait until the Fourth of July for a display of fireworks.

He may have left his ball playing days behind him, but Judge Wallace Cunningham looked like a jock. His face was darkly tanned, his brown hair had been streaked by the sun, and beneath the black robe Raine could tell that his shoulders were nearly as broad as his old teammate’s.

Surprisingly, he also seemed to have a quick legal mind, rapidly cutting through the courtroom legalese to get to the bottom line.

“Well, young woman,” he boomed, looking down at Gwen, who was currently standing before him. Her face was ashen and from her seat behind the railing, Raine watched the girl twisting her hands together behind her back. “While I suspect that you had every intention of leaving the store”—he glanced down at the casework his bailiff had provided—“Linda’s Beads and Baubles, with those earrings, it’s my guess that you also planned to get caught.

“After all, it’s always easier to be the one to cut your losses, rather than wait around and have the rug pulled out from under you. Isn’t it?”

“Yessir,” Gwen said in a low, miserable voice that had Raine reaching out to take her mother’s hand on one side, Ida’s on the other. “Your Honor,” the teenager corrected quickly, obviously recalling Raine’s earlier instruction.

Dan had put forth a sound defense, yet even though she doubted she could have done better, Raine worried it might not be enough. While juvenile criminal law was not her area of expertise, there had been times over the past years when she was required to appear in court to defend the rebellious offspring of one of the firm’s wealthier clients.

It hadn’t taken her long to discover that in big cities, with their overburdened jails, judges tended to overlook lesser juvenile offenses. While small towns, on the other hand, tended to apply the weight of the law more heavily, to send a message to other kids who might be tempted off the straight and narrow.

Raine had been relieved when Jack, looking like an outrageously macho model for a law enforcement recruiting poster in his stiffly starched uniform with the five-sided star pinned to his broad chest, managed to help their case even as he stuck to the facts. While technically Gwen hadn’t been guilty of shoplifting, circumstantial evidence—like those earrings in her pocket—didn’t look good. Especially for a kid who was already on probation for a series of similar charges.

“I played a little ball back when I was younger,” Judge Wally was telling Gwen. “So, I know, just a bit, how it feels to be yanked from place to place. I wasn’t exactly pro-quality,” he confided. “I was a step too slow to make it into the Big Leagues, so I spent most of my less-than-brilliant career being traded throughout the minors—Tacoma, Springfield, Albuquerque.

“It got to be a drag, so I accepted reality and finally threw in the towel after three years when I was about to be traded to Midland, Texas. Of course that’s nothing compared to the instability you’ve experienced.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “As sorry as I am about what you’ve gone through over the years, I don’t think I’d be sending the right message to the other kids in the county if I give you a pass on this.” That earned a soft moan from Gwen and a gasp from Ida. The other girls looked on the verge of bursting into tears.

“However,” Judge Wally continued, “I can’t see how moving you to a juvenile detention facility would be beneficial. So, here’s what we’re going to do.” He leaned back and began swiveling his tall black leather chair. “After your baby’s born, I’m sentencing you to three months community service, the details of which you’ll work out with Ms. Kelly.” He nodded toward Old Fussbudget, who was seated nearby, her rigid spine making it look as if someone had put a steel rod up the back of her navy blue suit jacket. “I’m also requiring weekly counseling sessions during this time. Again, the details to be handled by your probation officer.”

He leaned forward, his friendly expression turning judicially stern. “If you land back here in my courtroom, or any other of my colleague’s courtrooms, I will immediately revoke these conditions and you’ll find yourself down on your knees scrubbing toilets in juvie so fast your head will spin. Is that clear, young lady?”

“Yessir. Your Honor.” Gwen’s frail voice was choked with tears; whether from fear or relief, Raine couldn’t tell.

“Fine.” That matter settled, he turned to his bailiff. “So, what’s the next case, Marian?”

Back in the hallway, hugs were exchanged and more than a few surreptitious tears shed. Apparently swinging on hormones, Gwen was both weeping and laughing.

“Thank you,” Raine said as she shook hands with Dan. “You were terrific.”

“It wasn’t that big a deal.”

“Not to you, perhaps. But to Gwen and my grandmother, it was more important than any Supreme Court case.”

Raine had been surprised at how stressful it had proven to be to be forced to sit and watch and hope. Law school hadn’t taught her the tumultuous range of emotions you suffered through as you watched a virtual stranger fight your battle for you. It was as if Dan had held their entire lives in his hands.

Raine wondered if this was how her clients felt, then decided probably not. Her cases dealt with business law and there was certainly a great deal more to life than business. When that stunning revelation struck like a blow from behind, Raine decided she was really going to have to give the idea more thought. Later, when things settled down.

“Something wrong?”

Still focused on the idea that there may actually be a world outside her legal circles, Raine realized her mind had been drifting again. A dangerous thing for it to be indulging in right before she was due to argue Ida’s guardianship case.

“Not really,” she said, trying to dismiss that sudden flash of insight. “I was just thinking of something.”

“It must have not been all that pleasant.”

“It was just a little…,” she searched for the word, “…surprising.”

“That’s what I love about the law,” Dan said with a winning smile that was a near duplicate of his cousin’s. “It’s chock full of surprises.” He glanced over at the little group who were headed down the hall toward the Pepsi machine, the girls trailing behind Ida like a trio of downy ducklings. “I wish I could stick around for Ida’s case, but this deposition in Forks has been scheduled for a month, and—”

“Don’t worry.” Raine assured herself that after saving Odessa Oil millions of dollars in profits, a simple guardianship argument should be a snap. “I can handle it.”

“I’ve not a single doubt of that.” He flashed her another of those warm and winning grins that unfortunately didn’t strum a single feminine chord. “Take care, Counselor. Maybe we’ll bump into each other in a courtroom one of these days.”

Since she was going to be returning to Manhattan on the red-eye tonight, the possibility of that was slim to none. But Raine politely agreed, thanked him again, then sat down on a bench in the hallway to go over her argument one final time.

Unfortunately, their luck didn’t hold. Raine knew they were in trouble the minute they’d entered the courtroom when Lilith drew in a sharp breath.

“Oh, no.”

“What?” Raine whispered, not wanting to disrupt the proceedings going on at the front of the courtroom.

“I know the judge.”

Raine thought back to the old joke Dan had tossed at her last night about a good lawyer knowing the law, but a great lawyer knowing the judge. Unfortunately, if the bleak expression on her mother’s face was anything to go on, they weren’t going to experience the same advantage they’d enjoyed with Judge Wally.

“And?” she asked, her sharper-than-usual tone inviting elaboration.

“We went to school together. In fact, we used to be best friends.”

“Used to be?”

“Well, it’s a little difficult to explain.”

“Try.” It was more order than request.

“It’s complicated.” Lilith shrugged her silk-clad shoulders. “But Barbara accused me of stealing Jimmy Young away from her.”

Raine assured herself that a thirty-two-year-old teenage dispute over a boyfriend certainly wouldn’t affect their case. Not after all these years. The woman in question had graduated from law school. Not only had she been well-versed in the tenets of justice, she’d achieved the honored black robe of judicial prudence. Besides, from her name—Barbara Patterson-Young—it appeared that the judge and the faithless Jimmy Young had managed to patch things up.

Unfortunately, even as Raine was giving herself that little pep talk, Judge Patterson-Young glanced up. Her gaze unerringly zeroed straight in on Lilith like a heat-seeking missile. The hatred in those hazel eyes was unmistakable.

“Great,” Raine muttered as they sat down on one of the back benches. “This is just great. She hasn’t forgotten you.”