A Lawman in Her Stocking by Kathie DeNosky Page A

To make a long story short, we started seeing each other and fell in love.” She shook her head. “That’s not right. I thought I was in love and he thought that gave him the right to manipulate and control me.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She sighed heavily. “Over time, he convinced me to dress a certain way, told me how I should wear my hair and when I should go on a diet.” When she laughed, the self-deprecating sound caused Dylan to wince. “I was naive and wanted to please the man I loved, so I went along with the changes. Then after I graduated, he even talked me into helping him financially with his last year of law school.”
    Dylan felt his chest tighten. He had a good idea what was coming next and he didn’t like it one damned bit. “How long before—”
    “Before he dumped me?”
    “I wasn’t going to put it that way,” Dylan said gently. She looked so vulnerable, he pulled her back into his arms.
    “You might as well put it that way,” she said,shrugging. “Because that’s exactly what happened—right after he passed the bar.” She pulled back to look up at him. “I trusted Tom when he said the money I gave him for his schooling was an investment in our future.”
    Dylan’s gut twisted into a tight knot at the pain and humiliation the conniving jerk had caused Brenna. If he could have gotten his hands on this Tom character at that very moment, Dylan would have made the bum sorry he’d ever been born.
    Cupping her face with his hands, Dylan gazed into her pretty blue eyes. “Darlin’, I promise you that’s one thing you’ll never have to worry about with me. I’m not a control freak. I like you just the way you are. And I don’t want anything more from you than the pleasure of your company.”
    She stared up at him for several long seconds before she stepped back, then walked to the front of the room to pack her tote bag. They had more in common than he would have thought. Apparently he wasn’t the only one with a past he’d rather not repeat.
    Walking up behind her, Dylan wrapped his arms around her midriff, then leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Let’s just take this one step at a time and see what happens.”
    “But—”
    “One step at a time, darlin’.” He turned her to face him. “But I think I’d better warn you. I have every intention of asking you to go with me to Luke’s Saturday night.” Smiling, he took a step back to keep her from feeling crowded. “You know, I think I’m going to live dangerously tonight and have a piece of apple pie with my coffee. How about you?”
    She looked thoughtful for a moment before she finally asked, “Do you think Luke would happen to have a slice of chocolate pie in that pie case?”
     
    The first Saturday in December, Brenna waited for the members of the Beautification Society to gather around her on the sidewalk in front of her craft store. Fortunately, winters in southwest Texas were very mild and today was testament to how beautiful the weather could be. The sun was shining brightly, the temperature was in the upper sixties and humidity was almost nonexistent—ideal weather for paint to dry.
    “Okay, ladies, I think it would be best to work in pairs,” she said, checking her list. She glanced up to count the number of women who had shown up for the first phase of the Main Street Project. “Mildred, you have a notation here that one side of Main Street has an extra hydrant.”
    Mildred Bruner stepped forward as she hitched up her patched blue jeans. “That’s right. There’s one on the west side that’s stuck in the middle of the block.” Her cackling laughter broke the early morning silence as she pointed down the street. “Right in front of the Fire Department and Sheriff’s office.”
    Brenna laughed. “I don’t guess it would do for the Fire Department to catch fire.” She glanced at her clipboard again. “We have enough teams to do all of them, except for that one. I suppose I could paint it after I